The National Archives said Friday that records taken from the White House by former President Donald Trump in early 2021 included classified national security material, and that it has informed the Justice Department about the situation.
Items labeled as classified national security information within the boxes that Trump kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, according to the NSA. The National Archives and Records Administration wrote to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, informing her of the situation.
The letter also stated that since NARA discovered classified information in the boxes, NARA personnel has been in discussion with the Department of Justice, according to David S. Ferriero, the national archivist.
Donald Trump Takes Classified Items to Mar-a-Lago
The Archives did not provide any information on its interactions with Justice Department authorities or the nature of the sensitive materials maintained in Florida by Trump, as per USA Today.
Maloney, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, has urged the National Archives and the Justice Department to look into whether Trump broke the Presidential Records Act. When a chief executive leaves office, he or she is required by law to give over all official records.
According to The Washington Post, it's still unknown how many secret documents were found in the 15 boxes of materials, or what the Justice Department will do about it. A spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message.
According to Ferriero, the National Archives was inventorying the contents of the boxes and anticipated to finish by Feb. 25. He also stated that the agency has requested former President Trump's representatives to continue their search for any further Presidential documents that have not been delivered to NARA, as required by the Presidential Records Act.
The National Archives had identified certain social media records that were not captured and preserved by the Trump Administration, according to Ferriero, who also discovered that some White House staffers were conducting official business using non-official messaging accounts and not copying those records to official channels as required.
FBI May Investigate for Leak of Sensitive Materials
Trump's years of defiance of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memoranda, letters, notes, emails, faxes, and other written communications pertaining to a president's official duties, as well as other unorthodox record-keeping methods, have long been a source of controversy. Taking boxes to Mar-a-Lago, on the other hand, may put Trump in legal trouble.
When sensitive materials are leaked into the public domain, the FBI is usually called in to investigate. Prosecutors, on the other hand, have a high legal hurdle in proving criminal charges since they must show that someone purposefully mismanaged the evidence or was extremely negligent in doing so.
As president, Trump would have had unrestricted power to declassify information, perhaps making establishing a case against him even more difficult. During his presidential campaign, Trump raged at Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, for her handling of confidential information, claiming she should be imprisoned.
Clinton was investigated by the FBI for possibly mishandling classified information when she was Secretary of State, but she was never indicted because investigators found they couldn't establish she meant to mishandle sensitive information.
The archivists' letter also noted that the Trump administration failed to capture and preserve some social media information. It was also stated that the CIA discovered the White House officials used unofficial messaging accounts and personal phones to perform official work.
Maloney said in a statement announcing the probe last week that Trump was obliged by law to turn over the records to the National Archives before leaving office and that legislators are interested in knowing more about the contents of the boxes found at Mar-a-Lago. In response to her request for information on the contents of the boxes, the agency cited the records as a barrier to disclosure, SCMP reported.
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