The public won’t see Donald Trump’s records at the White House for years, but there is growing concern that the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies.
Trump was arrogant about the law that requires records to be preserved. He has a habit of tearing up documents before throwing them away, forcing White House officials to spend hours pasting them back.
The White House team quickly learned about Trump’s disrespect for the documents by witnessing him tearing them up and discarding them. “My director came up to me and said, ‘You have to record this together,'” said Solomon Lartey, a former White House records analyst.
The first document he pasted again was a letter from Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, about a government shutdown. “They said [Trump] to stop doing that. He didn’t want to stop. “
Lartey said the White House chief of staff’s office told the president that the documents were considered presidential records and needed to be preserved by law. About 10 record label employees ended up working on the Scotch tape, starting with Trump’s early days at the White House until at least mid-2018.
The president also confiscated an interpreter’s notes after speaking to Vladimir Putin – a conversation where topics were suspected to include Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections. Trump scolded his White House lawyer for taking notes at a meeting during the investigation in Russia by special lawyer Robert Mueller. Senior executive branch officials should be reminded not to conduct official business on private e-mail or text messaging systems and to preserve them if they did.
Around Trump’s first impeachment and other sensitive issues, some normal workflow practices have been circumvented, said a person familiar with the process. Apparently concerned about leaks, White House officials and lawyers became more involved in deciding which materials to catalog and digitize on the White House’s computer networks.
Trump’s team has also engaged in questionable practices using private emails and messaging apps. Former White House lawyer Don McGahn in February 2017 sent a memo instructing employees not to use unofficial text messaging apps or private email accounts. If they did, he said, they would have to take screenshots of the material and copy it into official e-mail accounts, which are preserved. He sent the memo back in September 2017.
At Trump’s White House, “not only was record keeping a priority, but we have several examples of this seeking to hide or destroy those records,” said Richard Immerman of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
And now Trump’s baseless claim about widespread electoral fraud – which delayed recognition of Joe Biden’s presidential victory for weeks – has delayed the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further raising concerns about record integrity.
The lack of a complete record can also hamper Trump’s investigations, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal investigations to investigations in New York State.
Even with requests from lawmakers and lawsuits by government transparency groups, there is a recognition that failure to comply with the Presidential Records Act has little consequence for Trump. In opening a case last year, United States circuit judge David Tatel wrote that courts cannot “micromanage the president’s daily obedience.”
The law states that a president cannot destroy documents until he seeks advice from the national archivist and notifies Congress. But the law does not require him to follow the archivist’s advice. It does not prevent the president from going ahead and destroying records.
Most presidential records today are electronic. Registry experts estimate that automatic computer backup systems capture the vast majority of records, but they cannot capture records that the White House chooses not to create or log into those systems.
When Trump lost the November election, the records team was in a position to transfer electronic records and package paper ones to move them to the National Archives by January 20, as required by law. But Trump’s reluctance to compromise means they will miss that date. The National Archives said it will still take custody of them.
The Biden government can ask to see Trump’s records immediately, but the law says the public must wait five years before submitting freedom of information requests. Still, Trump – like other presidents before him – is invoking specific restrictions on public access to his records for up to 12 years.
The National Security Archive, two historic associations and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued to prevent the Trump White House from destroying electronic communications or records sent or received on unofficial accounts, such as personal email or WhatsApp. They claimed that the White House probably already destroyed presidential materials.
The court refused to issue a temporary restraining order after government lawyers told the judge that they instructed the White House to notify all employees to preserve all electronic communications in their original format until the case was resolved.
“I believe that we will find that there will be a huge hole in this president’s historical record, because I think there was probably a serious breach of the Presidential Records Act,” said Anne Weismann, one of the lawyers representing the groups in her process.
“I don’t think President Trump cares about his background and what he says. I think he probably cares, though, about what that might say about his criminal guilt. ”
Trump faces several legal challenges when leaving the White House. There are two investigations in the state of New York as to whether he cheated tax officials, banks or business partners. In addition, two women who claim he sexually abused them are suing him.
Presidential records were considered the president’s personal property until 1978, when Congress passed the Presidential Records Act for fear that Richard Nixon would destroy the White House recordings related to Watergate that led to his resignation.
After that, presidential records were considered the property of the American people – if preserved. Lawmakers introduced legislation to require audits of White House record-keeping and law enforcement audits.
“The American public should not have to wait until a president leaves office to learn about problems with that president’s record-keeping practices,” said Weismann.
With the Associated Press