The National Archives and Records Administration collected 15 boxes that were improperly kept at former President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago resort in mid-January.
The boxes contained presidential documents and items such as notes from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former President Barack Obama that the agency needed to stay in compliance with the Presidential Records Act, sources told the Washington Post.
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“Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,” the National Archives Public and Media Communications told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “As required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA), these records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021.”
The National Archives pursues presidential records when it discovers they are missing, according to the statement. Trump spent a good deal of time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida during his presidency and has resided there since leaving office.
Trump advisers told the Washington Post there was nothing nefarious about the boxes being kept at Mar-a-Lago, noting the boxes largely contained mementos from his presidency. The report noted that another former president, Bill Clinton, had to return gifts he had taken with him after leaving the White House.
In addition to not turning over all the necessary documents, Trump also ripped up many key documents during his presidency, as Politico reported in 2018. At the time, sources described Trump’s paper ripping as an old habit he struggled to break. Staffers had to follow him and tape the documents back together to comply with the act.
Members of the National Archives recently described Trump’s paper-ripping as “unprecedented,” a source told the Washington Post. Another source said members of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill requested files about Trump’s efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence but discovered the documents they were after had been shredded and no longer existed. Some of the documents from the Trump administration the committee received had been ripped up and put back together again.
The act, which was passed in 1978 and requires key documents about presidential business to be preserved, does not have clear penalties for presidents who violate it.
Trump previously sued to try to stop the NARA from turning over documents from his time in the White House to the Jan. 6 committee, but the Supreme Court ruled against him in January, and the panel has started to receive the records since.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to a spokesperson for Trump but did not receive a response. David Ferriero, archivist of the United States who leads the National Archives, told the Washington Examiner that adhering to the act is important.
“The Presidential Records Act is critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people,” Ferriero said. “Whether through the creation of adequate and proper documentation, sound records management practices, the preservation of records, or the timely transfer of them to the National Archives at the end of an administration, there should be no question as to need for both diligence and vigilance. Records matter.”
