The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration on Friday rejected former President Donald Trump's claims that former President Barack Obama took classified documents from the White House.
The big picture: After the FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago home on Monday — finding 11 sets of classified documents — the former president made unsubstantiated claims that Obama also took records.
- "What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House to Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama?" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. "He refused to give them back!"
- Trump reiterated the claims on Friday, accusing Obama of taking classified documents related to nuclear weapons. This came after the Washington Post reported that FBI agents were searching Trump's residence for nuclear documents.
- "President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified," Trump wrote. "How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!"
Driving the news: The National Archives was quick to counter Trump's claims on Friday, noting in a statement that it "assumed exclusive legal and physical custody" of Obama's presidential records after he left office.
- The former president "has no control over where and how" the records are stored, it said.
- The National Archives said it moved about 30 million pages of unclassified records from the Obama administration to a facility that it maintains in Chicago. Classified documents remain in a facility in Washington, D.C.
