WASHINGTON. On Friday, a House committee expanded its investigation into the destruction and removal of documents from the White House by former President Donald Trump, demanding more information about classified material found on Trump’s Florida property and reports that aides found documents at the White House. toilet during his stay in the office.
In a letter to the National Archivist, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York State and Chair of the Oversight Committee, said the commission wanted a detailed description of the contents of the 15 boxes seized at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s Palm Beach complex, including their level of classification and any records he “teared, destroyed, mutilated, or attempted to tear, destroy, or mutilate.” She also said the commission needed documents “related to White House employees or contractors who found paper in a White House toilet, including at the White House residence.”
The letter also requested information on the results of any federal investigations into classified material and any communication to Mr. Trump about the Presidential Records Act or the White House’s record-keeping policy.
“The American people deserve to know the extent of what former President Trump did to cover up and destroy federal records and make sure these abuses don’t happen again,” Ms. Maloney said in a statement.
National Archives confirmed in Miss Maloney’s letter last week that she discovered classified information among materials Mr. Trump took with him to his Florida home when he left office last year, and that she consulted with the Justice Department on the matter.
The archives did not describe the classified material found, except that it was “national security classified information.”
The National Archives also reported in his letter that the Trump White House did not hand over the tapes, which included “certain social media posts.”
David S. Ferriero, National Archivist, also wrote that “some White House staff conducted official business using unofficial email accounts that were not copied or forwarded to their official email accounts.” The archives said they are in the process of getting some of these records.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland this week declined to say whether the Justice Department had launched an investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified information.
“As the archivist said in a letter that was sent to Congress, the National Archives has informed and contacted the Justice Department,” Mr. Garland told reporters. “And we will do what we always do in these circumstances — look at the facts and the law and proceed from there.”
Trump’s penchant for breaking presidential records has been exposed in 2018 Politico articlebut over the past few weeks, a series of revelations have raised new questions about the Trump administration’s failure to follow through. federal business laws and his dealings with classified information when Mr Trump left office.
The book, due to be released by a New York Times reporter in October, tells how staff at the White House residence periodically found wads of printed paper clogging the toilet, leading them to believe Mr. Trump was trying to flush them.
In a statement last week, Mr. Trump said the files were turned over to the archives as part of a “usual and routine process” and suggested that Democrats’ attempts to raise questions about his handling of the documents were fraudulent.
“Fake news gives the impression that I, as President of the United States, worked in a filing cabinet,” he said.
In December 2020, Ms. Maloney warned that she believed the Trump administration was not complying with the Presidential Records Act. She wrote letter to mr ferriero voicing what she called “serious concerns” that the outgoing administration “may not properly keep the records and may dispose of them”.
Miss Maloney announced this month that it has launched an investigationafter The Washington Post reported that Mr. Trump was destruction of documents and move the crates to his property in Florida instead of archiving them.