IS THE FORMER PRESIDENT IN “DEEP DODO” WITH THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

 

                            …The front of the National Archives in Washington DC

 

The deeper the investigation, the more in trouble, Donald Trump appears to be

 

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee is requesting additional information from the National Archives and Records Administration as a part of the congressional investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of White House records.  This was after it was revealed that 15 boxes of materials were recovered from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

The Chairwoman sent the request for further details ahead of the Feb. 25 deadline set by the Archives for an inventory of the contents of the 15 recovered boxes. The Archives confirmed reporting by The Washington Post that classified materials were found within the boxes and that torn-up records had been transferred to the Archives, but they had not reconstructed by the Trump White House.  They were still in the pieces of torn-up documents.

In the letter sent last Thursday evening to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, Maloney asked for a “detailed description of the contents of the boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago … and identification of any items that are classified and the level of their classification” by March 10.

She also requested a description of any potential reviews conducted by other federal agencies of the contents of the recovered boxes, all presidential records transferred to the Archives that Trump “had torn up, destroyed, mutilated, or attempted to tear up, destroy or mutilate,” and communications between the Trump White House and the Archives related to the Presidential Records Act.

“I am deeply concerned that former president Trump may have violated the law through his intentional efforts to remove and destroy records that belong to the American people,” Maloney wrote. “This Committee plans to get to the bottom of what happened and assess whether further action is needed to prevent the destruction of additional presidential records and recover those records that are still missing.”

The letter suggests that the House committee headed by Maloney was broadening its efforts to probe the breadth of potential records act violations under Trump, who frequently flouted the legal requirements to safeguard documents produced during his presidency and, at times, seemed intent on destroying records instead.

The letter cited revelations from the Archives that the Trump White House failed to capture presidential records on social medial platforms, and is “continuing to search for missing records from the Trump Administration” due to White House staffers who conducted official business “using nonofficial electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded to their official electronic messaging accounts.”

Maloney asked for all documents and communications between Trump White House officials relating to the use of personal accounts for official business, the destruction of presidential records, the discovery of “paper in a toilet” in the White House or White House residence, and communications with Trump about the Presidential Records Act.

Maloney added a request to prioritize from former White House chiefs of staff Mark Meadows, John Kelly and Reince Priebus; former White House counsel Donald McGahn and Mark Meadows; former deputy White House counsel Stefan Passantino; and former aides Nicholas Luna, Derek Lyons, Robert Porter and Madeleine Westerhout.

Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed that the Justice Department has been in touch with the National Archives about the discovery of classified material in boxes taken from Mar-a-Lago earlier this week, but stopped short promising a full investigation.

“As the archivist said in a letter that was sent to the Congress, the National Archives has informed the Justice Department of this and communicated with it. And we will do what we always do under these circumstances, look at the facts and the law and take it from there,” Garland responded when asked whether the department would investigate how the boxes got to Mar-a-Lago.

It is pretty obvious that the former president didn’t want some White House information to get to the National Archives.  There is much concern that the material in the boxes can possibly be used to show that many times the Trump administration did not follow the “letter of the law” regarding the maintenance of White House records and communications.

Copyright G. Ater 2022