Will Donald Trump Be Allowed to Destroy His Records?

"A law passed after Watergate makes Presidential records government property. The Trump Administration has declared it unconstitutional. Donald Trump has long chafed at demands that he preserve Presidential records. During his first term, he had a habit of tearing documents into tiny pieces after he was finished with them; he persisted despite two chiefs of staff and the White House counsel urging him to stop, leaving White House employees with the task of taping them back together for archiving."

"Trump's apparent frustration with government demands for his records erupted after he left office, when he was investigated by the special counsel Jack Smith and charged with improper retention of classified documents. (The charges were eventually dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, on the ground that Smith had been improperly appointed.) Boxes from the White House, some containing classified material, had been found crammed into a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, next to a toilet and below a crystal chandelier."

"The Times reported that, according to several of Trump's advisers, when officials from the National Archives pressed for the return of the records, Trump said, "It's not theirs; it's mine." In his second term, Trump seems determined to operationalize that "mine, mine, mine" world view. His White House counsel, David Warrington, asked the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to review the constitutionality of the Pr"

A law passed after Watergate makes Presidential records government property. During his first term, Donald Trump resisted preserving Presidential records, including tearing documents into tiny pieces and discarding paper in ways that caused plumbing problems. Staff were left to tape torn documents back together for archiving. After leaving office, Trump faced investigation and charges related to improper retention of classified documents, with boxes of records found at Mar-a-Lago. When National Archives officials pressed for return of records, Trump reportedly said the records were his. In his second term, Trump seeks to operationalize that view by asking the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to review the constitutionality of the Presidential records law.

Read at The New Yorker