Trump scrutinized over records
National Archives request spurs talk of criminal probe
WASHINGTON — The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to examine Donald Trump’s handling of White House records, sparking discussions among federal law enforcement officials about whether they should investigate the former president for a possible crime, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The referral from the National Archives came amid recent revelations that officials recovered 15 boxes of materials from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence that weren’t handed back in to the government as they should have been.
Trump had turned over other White House records that had been torn up. Archives officials suspected Trump had possibly violated laws concerning the handling of government documents — including those that might be considered classified — and reached out to the Justice Department, the people familiar with the matter said.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive request. The two people said the discussions about the matter remained preliminary, and it was not yet clear whether the Justice Department would investigate. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
Trump’s yearslong defiance of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties, has long raised concerns among historians and legal observers.
In a statement Wednesday, Trump said he had engaged in “collaborative and respectful” discussions with the Archives and had arranged for the “transport of boxes that contained Presidential Records in compliance with the Presidential Records Act.”
He said the media had falsely characterized his relationship with the National Archives as hostile and that it was a “great honor” to work with the agency.
“Much of this material will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People,” he said.
The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Archives, said this week that reports about torn and missing White House documents provided “a shocking example of long-standing loopholes that exist in our current federal records laws.”
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said in a statement that “Congress must take action … to ensure that every administration is appropriately handling and preserving important records related to the President’s official duties.” Peters is working on legislation to strengthen records laws and plans to hold hearings on the topic in coming months, a Peters staffer said.
Federal law makes it a crime to destroy government records, but it requires that a person know specifically they are breaking the law when they do so. That could be difficult to do for Trump, who advisers say tore up documents out of habit, leaving staff to retrieve and reassemble piles of torn paper. According to people familiar with the matter, Trump had been counseled by at least two chiefs of staff and the White House counsel to follow the law on preserving documents.
“There was quite a bit of concern about the amount of mixing of personal effects with gifts that had been received during his time in office, which I’m sure in a traditional White House would have immediately been processed and given to the Archives,” one former staffer said. “But in the Trump White House, it was scattered throughout the West Wing, displayed behind glass, in the private dining room, and in the private residence on the second floor.”
The concern now is that many of those gifts and other government documents improperly made their way to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.
This former staffer said, for instance, that after leaving the White House, Trump displayed a mini replica of one of the black border wall slats — with an engraved plaque on top — on his desk in his private office at Mar-a-Lago. Previously, as president, Trump had kept the replica on the credenza in the private dining room just off the Oval Office, next to some challenge coins he had been given.
It also could be a legal problem if significant amounts of classified material were in the materials at Mar-a-Lago, though it is hardly unheard of for former government officials to have such material outside appropriate government storage channels. It was not immediately clear whether classified documents were among those at Mar-a-Lago.
Two Trump advisers said they were aware of no investigation, and that their conversations had been cordial with the archives.
Alex Cannon, a longtime Trump lawyer, has been a point of contact for the archives, two people familiar with the matter said.