The National Archives has told the House Oversight Committee that it has not yet retrieved all the records of Trump administration officials that should have been turned over under the Presidential Records Act.
The Archives will consult with the Department of Justice “about whether to “initiate an action for the recovery of unlawfully removed documents,” as required by the Federal Records Act,” Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter sent to the committee on Friday. Chair, Carolyn B. Maloney (DN.Y.).
Steidel Wall added that the Archives has been unable to obtain federal records related to “unofficial email accounts that were not copied or forwarded to their official email accounts.” Presidential advisers are required by law to forward such messages to their official accounts, he noted.
“While there is no easy way to establish absolute responsibility, we do know that we do not have custody of everything that we should,” Steidel Wall wrote, according to the letter sent to The Washington Post.
Trump and Mar-a-Lago documents: A timeline
Steidel Wall cited the ongoing lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the National Archives against former Trump adviser Peter Navarro for failing to turn over private emails related to official White House business during his time in the administration. trump
Under the Presidential Records Act, the immediate staff of the president, the vice president, and anyone who advises them must retain records and telephone calls related to official duties.
Although the latest letter concerned Trump officials, attention on former President Donald Trump and the documents he kept after leaving the White House has increased since a court-approved search by the FBI at Club Mar-a-Lago on August 8.
The FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year: 184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to investigators in June and 100+ additional documents found in August 8 search.
In September, Maloney had asked the Archives to assess whether Trump had turned over all presidential records or classified materials. In his latest letter, Steidel Wall deferred to the ongoing Justice Department investigation.
Maloney said he found the latest disclosure troubling.
“The National Archives has confirmed to the Oversight Committee that they have not yet received all of the presidential records from the Trump White House,” Maloney said in a statement. “Presidential records are the property of the American people, and it is outrageous that these records remain unaccounted for 20 months after former President Trump left office.”