Report: Trump Took White House Documents With Him to Mar-a-Lago

When former President Donald Trump retreated to his Mar-a-Lago Club in January 2021, he took with him several boxes of official White House documents and memorabilia that should have been given to the National Archives, the Washington Post reported.

The National Archives recently had to recover the documents from Trump’s Palm Beach estate, three sources told the newspaper.

Among the items recovered included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as “love letters,”and a letter that former President Barack Obama left for his successor in 2017, the newspaper reported.

Taking the items would appear to violate the Presidential Records Act, which requires White House officials to maintain and preserve official documents.

“The Presidential Records Act mandates that all Presidential records must be properly preserved by each Administration so that a complete set of Presidential records is transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Administration,” said David Ferriero, archivist of the United States.

In a statement released by the National Archives Public and Media Communications, the agency said that it arranged for the transport of 15 boxes containing the presidential records from Trump’s Florida property last month “following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021.”

Representatives for Trump informed NARA they are continuing to “search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,” according to the National Archives.

This is the second report on Trump’s White House documents in as many weeks. Last week, the National Archives said that some Trump White House documents that the agency preserved had been ripped up by the former president and had to be taped back together by government officials.

“Some of the Trump presidential records received by the National Archives and Records Administration included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump,” the agency said in a statement.

“As has been reported in the press since 2018, White House records management officials during the Trump administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records.These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House,” the agency said.

Politico reported in 2018 that White House officials had to use scotch tape to reconstruct large piles of shredded documents from Trump.

The National Archives recently turned over hundreds of pages of Trump White House documents to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

 

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