Donald Trump’s aides are looking for additional White House files after retrieving 15 boxes of official material from the former president’s resort in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of State, which is responsible for maintaining and documenting government records, and NARA (National Archives and Records Administration).
“Representatives of former President Trump have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional presidential files belonging to the National Archives,” the agency said in a statement Monday.
The chase for extra documents and items raises questions about Trump’s compliance with federal law requiring all communications regarding official presidential duties to be maintained.
“The Presidential Registry Act is crucial to our democracy, in which the government is accountable to the people,” said archivist David Ferrier.
The Washington Post reported Monday that when he left the White House, Trump took letters from Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with him, forcing National Archives officials to go to Florida to pick them up. .
At the end of their term of office, presidents are required to send all letters, e-mails and other working documents to the National Archives, which is responsible for their safekeeping. But the Republican billionaire decided to take with him, at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, many boxes, according to the newspaper.
The boxes contained gifts given to him by foreign leaders, a letter left to him by his predecessor, Barack Obama, and many messages written by Kim Jong Un. Trump, the first incumbent US president to meet a member of the Kim dynasty, corresponded with him. “He wrote me nice letters, they are wonderful letters. We are in love “, he said in September 2018, in a speech to his supporters.
But last week, National Archives officials went to Florida to retrieve the boxes with Kim Jong Un’s letters.
Last week, the agency revealed that Trump used to tear up some working papers, a practice that also goes against the rules. Some of the documents received by the National Archives were taped by White House officials, while others were handed over to the service torn.
Trump’s representatives were not immediately available for comment.
Former Trump aides told the Washington Post and the New York Times that the files handed over to NARA were hastily packaged as the former president’s departure.
Many historians have said that the Trump-led violations were unprecedented.
“It is a shocking contempt for the Presidential Records Act,” historian Lindsey Cervinsky told CNN today.
“Presidential documents belong to all of us Americans, not to a former president,” historian Michael Beslos wrote on Twitter yesterday. “It’s crucial now for all Americans to know exactly how many and which presidential documents were illegally confiscated, hidden or destroyed.”
The US House of Representatives has launched an investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by supporters of the Republican billionaire. Trump tried to prevent congressional investigators from retrieving his files, but the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected his request.
Experts point out that it is not clear what the consequences, if any, might be for improper handling of official records.
“There has never been a prosecution under the Presidential Records Act, because no president has ever violated the Act to this extent,” Cervinsky said.
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