When former President Donald Trump was in the White House, he reportedly had a habit of tearing up presidential records and throwing them on the ground, leaving staffers to Scotch-tape them back together.
In fact, the National Archives Monday confirmed that the Trump White House turned over records that “included paper records that had been torn up,” by Trump. Some of these records have been provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to The Washington Post.
Per the Presidential Records Act, all presidential records are owned by the public and the president is responsible for managing the records.
An incumbent president is allowed to “dispose of records that no longer have administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value, once the views of the Archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal have been obtained in writing,” according to the Act.
“Destroying them could be a crime under several statutes that make it a crime to destroy government property if that was the intent of the defendant,” said Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor and constitutional scholar. “A president does not own the records generated by his own administration. The definition of presidential records is broad. Trump’s own notes to himself could qualify and destroying them could be the criminal destruction of government property.”
Apart from the National Archives confirmation of the damaged records, three unnamed sources also told The Post that ripped up documents were part of more than 700 pages provided to the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation select committee. According to the Archives, some of the torn documents had not been reconstructed.
“White House records management officials during the Trump Administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records,” said a statement from the National Archives. “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 requires that all records created by presidents be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.”
In 2018, Politico reported that Trump would tear up papers to pieces as small as confetti.
So far, what is on the damaged documents provided to the select committee is not clear. Legal records indicate that the documents over which Trump has sought to assert privilege included presidential diaries, schedules, appointment information, handwritten notes concerning the events of Jan. 6 from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, speeches, remarks and more, said The Post. More documents are expected to be provided in the coming months.
Specific documents Trump has attempted to assert privilege over include over four pages from the records of presidential findings concerning the security of the 2020 election, four pages of a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity, three pages of talking points on alleged election irregularities and two pages of a draft text of a presidential speech for the Jan. 6, 2021, “Save America March.”
The House select committee declined to provide comment on the documents to The Washington Post.
Last month, Trump said he would consider pardoning people who were charged in connection with the Capitol riot if he is elected president again in 2024. More than 700 people have been arrested in relation to the deadly insurrection.
As of Tuesday morning, poll results gathered by Five Thirty Eight showed that President Joe Biden’s approval rating (41.8 percent) was very close to Trump’s favorability rating (41. 2).
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