Some members of the Donald Trump administration have not yet returned documents that are legally owned by the state, the US National Archives reported to Congress in a letter made public by US media.
“While there is no easy way to establish absolute traceability, we know we don’t have everything we should,” writes Acting Chief of Records Debra Steidel Wall, in a letter to Democrat-elect Carolyn Maloney, who heads a powerful commission. investigative parliamentary
The letter dated Friday does not specify the names of the White House members involved, but says some of them used private email accounts for official business, without forwarding those messages to the National Archives as required by US law.
A potential claim
Debra Steidel Wall says in the letter that the National Archives, which is responsible for preserving official government records, will consult with the Justice Department about possible legal action “to recover records that have been illegally removed.”
The archivist’s letter was sent in response to a request from Mrs. Maloney to inquire about the latest developments in the case of the entire boxes of documents that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House.
A 1978 law requires all US presidents to send all their emails, letters and other business documents to the National Archives.
A Spectacular Search at Mar-a-Lago
In January, Donald Trump delivered fifteen boxes to the National Archives. After examining them, federal police estimated that he probably had others at Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious residence in Florida. FBI agents went there for the first time in June and became convinced that they had not been given all the documents.
On August 8, they conducted a spectacular search of Mar-a-Lago based on a court order for “withholding classified documents” and “obstructing a federal investigation,” seizing another 30 boxes.
Donald Trump says he is “persecuted” politically and assures that the thousands of seized documents are personal or declassified.
Source: BFM TV
