National Archives Reportedly Forced to Retrieve Records From Trump – Who is Known For Shredding Official Documents

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Former President Donald Trump left the White House with several boxes of official documents and records, which the National Archives reportedly had to retrieve from Trump’s Florida resort in January.

Trump, who is infamous for shredding records, legally should have given the records to the Nation Archives upon leaving office under the Presidential Records Act, a law that has no effective enforcement mechanism.

The Washington Post, which first reported Monday on the agency salvaging the documents from Trump, noted, “The items included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as ‘love letters,’ as well as a letter left for his successor by President Barack Obama.”

Past reporting from the Post has detailed Trump’s affinity for shredding documents while in office.

“Trump’s shredding of paper in the White House was far more widespread and indiscriminate than previously known and — despite multiple admonishments — extended throughout his presidency,” read one article from the weekend on the topic.

CNN reported at the end of January that “Some Trump White House documents that have been handed over to the House select committee investigating January 6 had to be taped back together by National Archives staff because they had been ripped up, the agency said in a statement.”

“It is absolutely a violation of the act,” Courtney Chartier, president of the Society of American Archivists told the Post. “There is no ignorance of these laws. There are White House manuals about the maintenance of these records.”

The Post also noted that Trump’s advisers claim the former president’s holding on to the records involved any “nefarious intent,” but his high profile legal battle, including an appeal to the Supreme Court, to stop the Jan. 6 committee from getting records from the Trump White House has raised eyebrows across the country.