>
Donald Trump personally packed the 15 boxes of documents his office returned to the National Archives in January, a new report revealed Monday.
The former president made the return himself, people familiar with the case said The Washington Post in an explosive report that revealed that Trump asked one of his attorneys to tell the National Archives and Records Administration that his team had returned all the records requested.
Alex Cannon, the attorney, declined because he wasn’t sure the statement was true.
It was Cannon who facilitated the transfer of 15 boxes of presidential records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach to the National Archives in Washington DC in January.
It was later revealed that thousands of documents from the Trump presidency, including those marked classified, had been left in Florida.
But in February, Trump was determined to declare that “everything” the records were looking for had been turned over.
Donald Trump personally packed the 15 boxes of documents his office returned to the National Archives in January
By law, former presidents must hand over all presidency documents and records, as they are the property of the United States government.
Trump had asked his team to release a statement he dictated that the former president had returned “everything” the records had asked for. The statement was ultimately not released.
He had also, sources told the Post, told his aides that the documents in the boxes were “newspaper clippings” and not relevant to the archives.
And he complained that the National Archives was “pleasant” about getting the material from Mar-a-Lago.
The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents and the possible concealment, manipulation or destruction of government documents.
The August 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago was part of that investigation. The FBI seized more than 11,000 records, including about 100 documents marked classified, during the court-approved search of Trump’s Florida home.
Trump has denied doing anything wrong and it remains unclear whether he or any of his aides knew there was any more material in Mar-a-Lago after the handover of the 15 boxes in January.
In the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago, the FBI seized more than 11,000 records, including about 100 documents marked classified
Trump attorney Alex Cannon declined Trump’s request to tell that National Archives they handed over all records in January — fearing it wasn’t true
On Monday, the archives released a May 2021 exchange with Trump’s attorneys, stating that the agency believed that about two feather boxes of records from Trump’s presidency were left in Mar-a-Lago.
This was after 15 boxes were returned to the archives in January, but prior to the August raid.
The correspondence also revealed that during the final days of the Trump administration, Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel, advised White House officials that the president’s records should be filed.
“We also understand that about two dozen boxes of original presidential documents have been kept at the White House residence over the course of President Trump’s past year and have not been turned over to NARA, despite a decision by Pat Cipollone in the last days. of the administration they should be,” Gary Stern, the bureau’s chief adviser, wrote in an email to Trump attorneys in May 2021.
Among the documents the records say were missing were Trump’s letters to North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un and the letter outgoing President Barack Obama left for Trump on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
It is customary for an outgoing president to leave a letter to his successor. That document becomes the property of the federal government.
“The original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has not been turned over to us; we understand that in January 2021, just before the end of the administration, the originals were put in a folder for the President, but were never returned to the Office of Records Management for transfer to NARA,” Stern wrote.
Likewise, the letter President Obama left for President Trump on his first day in office has not been transferred; since that letter was received by President Trump after his term began, it is a presidential record — note that all other NARA presidential libraries keep the original copy of similar letters, and it is imperative that it be provided to us as well,” he added.
Stern’s note is another link in the paper trail that shows record officials repeatedly trying to get the Trump records before the court-ordered raid.
Meanwhile, the records told Congress that the agency believes it still lacks the Trump administration it sought.
“The National Archives has confirmed to the Oversight Committee that they still have not received all of the presidential data from the Trump White House,” Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter to the Congressional Committee on Friday.
The National Archives consults with the Ministry of Justice about whether or not to move in order to get them back.
Wall said they were in talks with the DOJ about whether or not to initiate an action to recover illegally deleted data by White House officials.
Further information about what action can be taken remains unclear, but the DoJ’s warning raises the specter of another possible raid on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago country club in West Palm Beach.
The Archives knows that some White House staffers were conducting official business with personal electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded to their official accounts, in violation of the Presidential Records Act, Wall said.
“NARA has been able to obtain such data from a number of former officials and will continue to return similar types of presidential data from former officials,” Wall said.