Former President Donald Trump removed 15 boxes of presidential records to his estate at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and multiple groups are now looking into the matter – including the Justice Department, according to reports.
Another group investigating the record removal and possible violations of the Presidential Records Act is the House Oversight Committee. In a Thursday letter to the Department of Justice, the Oversight Committee said that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) refused to respond to a request for information about the contents of the 15 boxes based on “consultation with the Department of Justice.”
“I write today because the Department of Justice is preventing NARA from cooperating with the Committee’s request, which is interfering with the Committee’s investigation,” said the letter.
According to anonymous “people familiar with the matter” cited by The Washington Post, the Justice Department has also started investigating Trump’s removal of presidential records to Mar-a-Lago. Some of the documents were labeled “top secret,” said the outlet.
Presidential records are governed by the Presidential Records Act of 1978. This act “places a number of recordkeeping requirements and responsibilities on the President and his staff for maintaining, preserving, and disposing of Presidential records.”
NARA describes presidential records as “documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, the President’s immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.”
The House Oversight Committee has jurisdiction over the act, according to the committee letter.
Sources cited by The Washington Post said the Justice Department’s Mar-a-Lago documents probe is in the very early stages.
“It’s not yet clear if Justice Department officials have begun reviewing the materials in the boxes or seeking to interview those who might have seen them or been involved in assembling and moving them,” said the outlet.
However, there is now pressure from the Oversight Committee.
“By blocking NARA from producing the documents requested by the Committee, the Department is obstructing the Committee’s investigation,” said the Thursday letter. While the committee said it does not wish to interfere with a potential Justice Department investigation into the matter, it also said it “has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Committee that relates to compliance with the PRA.”
The Post’s sources said that the Justice Department has been in touch with the Archives about moving its own inquiry forward. A Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesperson told the outlet they could not confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation on behalf of that agency.
Previously, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would “do what we always do under these circumstances – look at the facts and the law and take it from there.”
“It is clear that a normal and routine process is being weaponized by anonymous, politically motivated government sources to peddle Fake News,” Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said in a February statement.
Anonymous sources familiar with the matter also told CNN the Justice Department has begun investigating the handling 15 boxes of White House records taken to Mar-a-Lago.
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