The National Archives claimed it has not yet obtained all the presidential records that should have been handed over at the end of the Trump presidency, and the interim archivist informed Congress via a letter.
In a letter to Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), acting US Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) does "know that we do not have custody of everything we should," as reported by ABC News.
Wall's statement may indicate that former officials have not yet turned over electronic communications of official interaction done on private accounts.
In her letter dated September 13, Rep. Maloney asked for an "immediate assessment" of "whether presidential records remain unaccounted for" and perhaps in the custody of the previous president," to which Wall responded with the letter.
NARA Seeks Justice Department's Advice To Obtain Confidential Materials
Wall stated that NARA would "consult with the Department of Justice" to determine whether to start an initiative to retrieve the illegally discarded documents.
"While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should," the acting archivist noted in the letter.
Trump and the DOJ are in a court battle over documents taken from his Mar-a-Lago resort in early August as part of a probe into his possible misuse of presidential records following his stepping down.
MSN reported that the FBI claimed to have confiscated 11,000 documents, including more than 100 marked as confidential in the court-authorized seizure.
By filing a lawsuit, Trump was able to get a special master appointed to examine the records that had been seized for violations of executive and attorney-client privilege.
The House Oversight Committee has asked the National Archives to find out if Trump keeps any records from his time as president.
In February, Rep. Maloney received word from the archives that several digital files of former Trump White House administrators had vanished.
In the new letter, the archivist wrote that NARA was able to retrieve such records from some ex-officials of the White House and will persist in acquiring similar types of presidential documents from officials that served during Donald Trump's US presidency.
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The letter also stated that the National Archives would speak with the Justice Department about taking any necessary steps to retrieve the stolen Presidential Records Act documents.
To this day, the National Archives has kept mum on whether or not former President Trump has surrendered the entirety of his documents.
Ms. Maloney had written to her last month to inquire if any presidential documents from the Trump administration were missing, and this letter was her response.
Trump's liaisons and former government officials returned cartons and envelopes of records to NARA earlier this year.
Blatant Rule of Law Violations
NARA's discoveries in one of these collections spurred a Justice Department probe into the improper handling of confidential documents and a search of Trump's Florida beach resort.
NARA's letter to Maloney references a case filed by the Justice Department last summer, in which it requested that a judge compel Peter Navarro, a former trade advisor in the Trump White House, to return government data he improperly retained after leaving office.
The complaint claims that the House committee looking into the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak informed the National Archives about Navarro's private account.
Maloney said on Saturday that it was "outrageous" that the documents had not been retrieved since Trump had left the White House 20 months ago, per CNN.
The democratic legislator remarked: "Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires."
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