DOJ, rejecting decades-old law, says Trump can keep his presidential records [View all]
Source: ABC News
Donald Trump does not need to turn over his presidential records to the National Archives, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel concluded in an opinion this week.
Rejecting a decades-old law enacted after the Watergate scandal to ensure the preservation of presidential records, Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser stated that the Presidential Records Act was unconstitutional and "untethered from any valid and identifiable legislative purpose."
"The PRA exceeds the oversight power because it serves no identifiable and valid legislative purpose. It exceeds any preservation power because Congress cannot preserve presidential records merely for the sake of posterity," the 52-page opinion said.
Coming one day after Trump unveiled a first look at his planned presidential library, the opinion -- if adopted by the Trump administration -- could upend the established process for ensuring the public ownership of presidential records. After his first term in office, Trump was accused of violating the Presidential Records Act by storing boxes of sensitive presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Read more: https://abcnews.com/US/doj-rejecting-decades-law-trump-presidential-records/story?id=131668575
The justice department (i.e. tRump's personal lawyers) are telling him he doesn't need to follow the law.
= new reply since forum marked as read