The National Archives still has not recovered all of the presidential records that should have been turned over at the end of the Trump administration, according to a new letter to Congress from the acting archivist.
“We know we don’t have custody of everything we should,” Debra Steidel Wall, acting Archivist of the United States, said in her letter to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., suggesting that d ‘former officials still had not turned on the official business electronic messages made on personal accounts.
Wall’s letter was a response to a Sept. 13 request from Maloney requesting an “urgent review” for “whether presidential records remain untraceable and potentially in the former president’s possession.”
Wall said the National Archives and Records Administration would “consult with the Department of Justice” on whether “to initiate action for the recovery of records unlawfully deleted.”
Former President Donald Trump throws caps to the crowd as he holds a rally September 23, 2022 in Wilmington, North Carolina
Chris Seward/AP, FILE
The revelation comes as Trump and the Justice Department are in a court battle over documents seized from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate by federal agents in early August as part of an investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of presidential records after leaving office.
The FBI said it took 11,000 documents in the court-authorized seizure, including more than 100 documents with classified marks.
Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking the appointment of a special master to review documents seized under attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. The review is ongoing and the Department of Justice is requesting an expedited appeal of the special main decision.
In a statement, Maloney said it was “scandalous that these documents remain untraceable for 20 months after former President Trump’s departure.”
“Former President Trump and his senior executives showed complete disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as required by law,” Maloney said. “I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that all of Trump’s White House presidential records are returned to government custody and that this abuse never happens again.”
The National Archives previously said Trump allegedly had more than 700 pages of classified documents in his possession, which were found in the 15 boxes the Archives recovered from Mar-a-Lago in January.
