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Democratic House committee chairs on Tuesday sent letters to the White House and more than 50 federal agencies demanding they preserve all records now that Joe Biden is projected as president-elect.
“As the Trump administration prepares for the transition of power to the new Biden administration, we are writing to remind you that all employees and officials in the President’s executive office must comply with the record-keeping obligations set out in the law. federal government and preserve information relevant to congressional oversight. The presidents wrote to White House lawyer Pat Cipollone.
The White House and Biden transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
The letters state that the administration must maintain the archives in accordance with the Presidential Archives Act and other federal regulations regarding record keeping.
Democrats demanded that the administration retain “all documents that respond or could respond to any congressional investigation, request, inquiry or subpoena initiated, prosecuted or undertaken during the 116th Congress.”
The documents, Democrats said, include both hard copies, email messages and metadata relating to official government business from official and personal accounts and devices.
“Over the past four years, the administration has obstructed numerous congressional investigations by refusing to provide adequate information,” the presidents wrote. “You are obligated to ensure that any information previously requested by Congress – and any other information whose retention is required by law – is properly safeguarded and archived in a manner that is easily retrievable.”
The Presidential Records Act, passed in 1978, requires the president to keep and possibly make public all records relating to his official duties. Last month, a dozen pro-transparency groups wrote to the National Archives and Records Administration, urging it to explain how it was ensuring these records were preserved.
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