Panel: Archives unsure whether Trump gave up all records
WASHINGTON — The National Archives has informed congressional aides that it is unsure whether former President Donald Trump has surrendered all the presidential records he removed from the White House, even after months of negotiations, a subpoena and a search of his Florida property, according to the House Oversight Committee.
The archives staff “recently informed the committee that the agency is not certain whether all presidential records are in its custody,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the committee, wrote in a letter Tuesday to Debra Steidel Wall, the acting national archivist.
In her letter, Maloney requested a formal assessment from the archives of what presidential records, if any, removed from the White House by Trump remained unaccounted for and whether the archives believed they were potentially still in his possession.
The committee is requesting that the agency “conduct an urgent review of presidential records from the Trump administration to identify any presidential records or categories of presidential records, whether textual or electronic, that NARA has reason to believe may still be outside of the agency’s custody and control,” Maloney wrote, referring to the National Archives and Records Administration.
“Please also assess any other limitations on the completeness, accuracy and accessibility of presidential records provided to NARA by the Trump administration,” the letter says.
The letter asked the archives to complete an initial assessment and provide its findings to the committee by Sept. 27.
The federal government tried and failed for more than a year and a half to retrieve classified and sensitive documents from Trump before resorting Aug. 8 to a search of his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, according to government documents and statements by his lawyers.
Two months before the Mar-a-Lago search, one of Trump’s lawyers certified that all documents bearing classified markings had been returned and that no “copy, written notation or reproduction of any kind was retained.”