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The public won’t see Donald Trump’s records in the White House for years to come, but there is growing concern that the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of the most tumultuous presidencies in the world. ‘America.
Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring records to be preserved. He has a habit of tearing up documents before throwing them away, forcing White House employees to spend hours gluing them back together.
White House staff quickly learned of Trump’s contempt for the documents upon seeing him tear them up and throw them away. “My manager came up to me and said, ‘You have to record them together,'” said Solomon Lartey, a former White House archives analyst.
The first document he recorded together was a letter from Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, about shutting down the government. “They said [Trump] to stop doing it. He didn’t want to stop.
Lartey said the White House chief of staff’s office told the president the documents were considered presidential records and must be preserved by law. About a dozen recording staff found themselves in scotch tape service, starting with Trump’s early days in the White House at least in mid-2018.
The president also confiscated notes from an interpreter after speaking to Vladimir Putin – a conversation where subjects were believed to have included Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump berated his lawyer at the White House for taking notes during a meeting during Special Advocate Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Senior executive officials had to be reminded not to conduct official business on private email or text messaging systems, and to keep them if they did.
Around Trump’s first indictment and on other sensitive issues, some normal workflow practices were bypassed, a person familiar with the process said. Apparently worried about the leaks, senior White House officials and lawyers have become more involved in the choice of documents cataloged and scanned in White House computer networks.
Trump staff have also engaged in questionable practices using private email and messaging apps. Former White House lawyer Don McGahn sent a memo in February 2017 asking employees not to use unofficial text messaging apps or private email accounts. If they did, he said, they had to take screenshots of the material and copy it to official email accounts, which are kept. He returned the note in September 2017.
At the Trump White House, “not only has record keeping not been a priority, we have many examples of it seeking to cover up or destroy these records,” said Richard Immerman, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
And now, Trump’s baseless allegation of widespread electoral fraud – which postponed recognition of Joe Biden’s presidential victory for weeks – has delayed the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further heightening concerns about integrity of documents.
The lack of a complete file could also hamper investigations of Trump, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal inquiries to investigations in New York state.
Even with demands from lawmakers and lawsuits from government transparency groups, it is accepted that disregarding the presidential records law has little consequence for Trump. In dismissing a lawsuit last year, US Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote that courts cannot “micromanage the president’s day-to-day compliance.”
The law states that a president cannot destroy documents until he has sought the advice of the national archivist and informed Congress. But the law does not oblige him to heed the advice of the archivist. This does not prevent the president from going ahead and destroying records.
Most presidential documents are electronic today. Archives experts believe that automatic backup computer systems capture the vast majority of recordings, but cannot capture recordings that a White House chooses not to create or connect to these systems.
When Trump lost the November election, archive staff were able to transfer the electronic documents and package them on paper for transfer to the National Archives by January 20, as required by law. But Trump’s reluctance to concede has meant they will miss that date. The National Archives said they would still keep it in custody.
The Biden administration can request to see Trump’s files immediately, but the law says the public must wait five years before submitting freedom of information requests. Even so, Trump – like other presidents before him – invokes specific restrictions on public access to his records for a period of up to 12 years.
The National Security Archives, two historical associations, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have taken legal action to prevent Trump’s White House from destroying electronic communications or records sent or received on unofficial accounts, such as personal emails or WhatsApp. They alleged that the White House had probably already destroyed the presidential documents.
The court refused to issue a temporary restraining order after government lawyers told the judge they asked the White House to advise all employees to keep all electronic communications in their original format until the chase is settled.
“I believe we will find that there will be a huge hole in this president’s historical record because I think there has probably been a serious non-compliance with the Presidential Archives Act,” said Anne Weismann , one of the lawyers representing the groups in their lawsuit. .
“I don’t think President Trump cares about his record and what he says. I think he probably cares, however, what that might say about his criminal guilt.
Trump faces several legal challenges when he leaves the White House. New York State has twice investigated whether it misled tax authorities, banks or business partners. In addition, two women alleging that he sexually assaulted them are suing him.
Presidential records were considered the personal property of the President until 1978, when Congress passed the Presidential Records Act out of fear that Richard Nixon would destroy the White House records related to Watergate that led to his resignation.
After that, the presidential documents were considered the property of the American people – if they are preserved. Lawmakers introduced legislation requiring audits of White House record keeping and compliance with the law.
“The American public shouldn’t have to wait for a president to step down to find out about the problems with that president’s archiving practices,” Weismann said.
With the Associated Press
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