The investigation into whether Donald Trump broke federal records laws when he took White House documents home after leaving office took another step forward on Friday when a congressional oversight committee requested the materials from the National Archives.
The letter to the archivist, from the House committee on oversight and reform, requests the content of the documents taken by Trump to Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida. They also asked for any records that the former US president attempted to destroy, and communications on the issue by Trump’s White House aides.
They also sought documents “relating to White House employees or contractors finding paper in a toilet in the White House, including the White House residence”.
Last week, the archivist confirmed that classified information was taken by Trump to his Florida home and that some records were torn up and taped back together. Staff in the White House also found pieces of torn-up documents clogging the toilet and believed that Trump had attempted to flush them, according to a new book.
In total, the National Archives recovered 15 boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago that should have been turned over when Trump left the White House.
The boxes include mementos, gifts, letters and other correspondence, including missives from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which Trump once described as “love letters,” and a letter left for Trump by his predecessor Barack Obama, the Washington Post has reported.
The information is needed to “investigate the full extent of this conduct and determine what additional steps, including potential legislative reforms, may be needed to ensure the preservation of presidential records for the American people,” Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat who chairs the oversight committee, wrote in the letter, according to the Associated Press.
Under the Presidential Records Act, all documents and records related to official presidential business must be turned over to the archives. Democrats have accused Trump of repeatedly flouting this law.
The twice-impeached former president has denied any wrongdoing, however, and has said that the National Archives “were given, upon request, presidential records in an ordinary and routine process.”
David Ferriero, the national archivist, has stated that “some White House staff conducted official business using nonofficial electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.” Some of those records are now being sought by the archives.
Trump, who made Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified documents a central theme of his successful 2016 presidential election campaign, refused to concede defeat for a lengthy period after losing to Joe Biden in 2020, leading to a rushed packing process when he finally left the White House.
