Trump · Axios
Trump's DOJ confirms he's not required to turn over official records
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President Trump takes a question from a reporter in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Key facts
- The finding is an indication Trump will be reluctant to give all of his official records to the National Archives at the end of his term, as presidents have done for nearly a half-century
- The When a president leaves office, the Presidential Records Act requires the White House to send all official records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- President Trump takes a question from a reporter in the Oval Office on Tuesday
- President Trump's Justice Department has concluded that a federal law requiring presidential records to be turned over to the government is unconstitutional, a senior White House official tells Axios
Summary
President Trump's Justice Department has concluded that a federal law requiring presidential records to be turned over to the government is unconstitutional, a senior White House official tells Axios. The finding is an indication Trump will be reluctant to give all of his official records to the National Archives at the end of his term, as presidents have done for nearly a half-century under the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The law, passed in the post-Watergate era as a hedge against government corruption, states that every official record regarding a president's decisions or policies belongs to the U.S. government, not the president. When he left office in 2021 after his first term, he kept many official documents — including some classified materials.