WASHINGTON—The National Archives and Records Administration recently retrieved 15 boxes of documents from
Florida residence, raising questions about the former president’s compliance with federal law.
The material was retrieved from Mar-a-Lago last month following discussions between Mr. Trump’s team and the National Archives. The Presidential Records Act requires records to be turned over to the Archives at the completion of an administration.
The National Archives said Monday afternoon that it arranged for the transport of the records in mid-January and that talks with Mr. Trump’s representatives began in 2021.
“As required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA), these records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021,” an agency statement read, adding that Mr. Trump’s “representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional presidential records that belong to the National Archives.”
In the same statement, Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero said, “Whether through the creation of adequate and proper documentation, sound records management practices, the preservation of records, or the timely transfer of them to the National Archives at the end of an administration, there should be no question as to need for both diligence and vigilance. Records matter.”
A person familiar with the records said they include a letter former President
Barack Obama
left for his successor and correspondence between Mr. Trump and North Korean leader
The Washington Post earlier reported on the transfer of the documents.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Archives’s statement.
Two people close to Mr. Trump described the discussions on turning over the documents as cordial, and one said the former president at one point directly spoke with National Archives staff about the material he brought to Florida, which also included White House memorabilia.
Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Photo:
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The question over documents comes as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has sought Trump administration records from the Archives. The Supreme Court last month denied Mr. Trump’s emergency request to block the House panel from obtaining White House records related to the attack, which attempted to disrupt Congress from certifying President Biden’s victory.
The committee has requested a range of material from the National Archives, including calendars and schedules documenting meetings or events Mr. Trump attended and logs of White House visitors and calls from Jan. 6.
The National Archives recently confirmed that some Trump presidential records it had received had been torn up.
“As has been reported in the press since 2018, White House records management officials during the Trump Administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records,” the agency said in a statement. “These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House.”
The Presidential Records Act was enacted in 1978 and went into effect in 1981 as President
Ronald Reagan
took office. It mandated official document retention and a process for those records to become public within five years, with extensions granted for some documents. Unless something is strictly personal, a president and supporting staff are required to turn over any papers, correspondence, memos, pictures, maps and recordings, among other things.
The act also applies to electronic records. As of December 2019, according to a Congressional Research Service report, the Archives had received more than 300 million emails from the administration of former President Barack Obama.
Write to Alex Leary at [email protected]
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