SECURITY THREAT: National Archives confirms documents from Trump White House are still missing
In an unsurprising revelation, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has announced that it still hasn’t recovered all the presidential records taken from ex-President Trump’s White House. A letter to Congress from Debra Steidel Wall, NARA’s acting archivist, said, “We do know that we do not have custody of everything we should.”
That’s a revelation that’s extremely concerning.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) released a statement saying that it’s “outrageous that these records remain unaccounted for 20 months after former President Trump left office,” per ABC News.
“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,” Maloney said. “I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that all presidential records from the Trump White House are returned to the custody of the government and to make sure these abuses never happen again.”
According to NARA, more than 700 pages of classified materials were among the 15 boxes returned to the National Archives by ex-President Trump’s aides over a year after originally being requested. The new revelation sounds the alarm and heightens the agency and federal government’s attempts to retrieve documents illegally taken.
On August 8th, the FBI executed a legally obtained search warrant at Trump’s Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago resort. The federal law enforcement officials claim that over 100 classified documents were discovered in the 11,000 documents retrieved in the search.
The Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into whether the former President violated both the Presidential Records and Espionage Acts. The ever delusional and litigious Trump is fighting the seizure. Saying he declassified the documents – with his mind – after previously claiming they were planted by the FBI. The National Archives relayed their findings.
Wall said the National Archives and Records Administration “would consult with the Department of Justice” on whether “to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed.”
After special master Raymond Dearie was approved by Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon, the Department of Justice called the ex-president out for his unsubstantiated claims of declassification, asking for proof that Trump’s legal team hasn’t, won’t, didn’t, and can’t provide. Perhaps because mentally declaring top secret government materials declassified isn’t a real thing.
As investigations into the threat to national security ramp up, it’s suspected that this won’t be the last revelation that the insurrection-inciting, twice-impeached, always grifting, gaslighting, and lying, ex-president Trump put himself before the country – and sold the American people out.
Original reporting by Benjamin Seigel at ABC News.
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