White House Record Boxes Had to Be Retrieved After Trump Improperly Kept Them at Mar-a-Lago

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had to retrieve White House record boxes, containing important communication records, gifts, and letters from world leaders, from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

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A source who spoke to The Washington Post said that the transfer to Mar-a-Lago was “out of the ordinary … NARA has never had that kind of volume transfer after the fact like this.”

The Washington Post noted that the recovery of materials have “raised new concerns” about adherence to the Presidential Records Act,” legislation governing the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or received after January 20, 1981, and mandating the preservation of all presidential records.

Included in the boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago was correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a letter written by former President Barack Obama to Trump.

Trump’s advisers have denied that there was any “nefarious intent.” The National Archives declined to comment.

This is far from the first time Trump has been criticized for his adherence to the Presidential Records Act.

In 2018, news outlets reported that Trump would frequently and routinely would tear up papers he received, actions that forced government officials to tape them together for archiving purposes. Additionally, Trump came under fire amid reports that he gave his personal mobile phone number to world leaders and had unrecorded conversations with them completely without U.S. officials’ knowledge.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that Trump and his senior advisers were failing to meet their obligations under the Presidential Records Act to create and preserve records of top-level meetings with foreign leaders.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.