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Presidential Records Act

4/30/2023

We Pay the Price for Failing to Treat Ex-Presidents as Ordinary Citizens

by James D. Robenalt

Deferential treatment given to Richard Nixon after his resignation, including not only his pardon but also lenient treatment by the Watergate grand jury, set precedents for impunity that the nation suffers from today.

SOURCE: The Conversation
8/9/2022

The Presidential Records Act Explains How the FBI Knew What to Search For at Mar-a-Lago

"The archivists probably have a really keen idea of what is and what isn’t missing, based upon things that they’ve gotten out of other offices, like the vice president’s office and things that got deposited from the secretary of state, for example."

SOURCE: Washington Post
2/5/2022

"He Never Stopped Ripping Things Up": Trump's Habitual Document Destruction

Donald Trump's personal defiance of the Presidential Records Act appears to have been widespread, purposeful, and illegal.

SOURCE: Washington Post
2/7/2022

National Archive Had to Retrieve White House Records from Mar-a-Lago

In an odd twist that no one could have seen coming, the Trump administration appears to have violated legal requirements for the preservation and security of presidential records.

SOURCE: The New Yorker
11/16/2020

Will Trump Burn the Evidence?

by Jill Lepore

Reckoning with the Trump adminstration's actions and assigning moral or criminal sanction to any misdeeds will probably be compromised by the destruction or failure to maintain presidential records.