Obama and National Archives

[jonstl08]

Trump keeps going on and on about Obama's documents delivered to Chicago for his library. Well the National Archives responded to the orange fooliuos. Said they still have custody of the documents in Chicago used for the library and will continue to have custody of them as per law. At least that was my interpretation of their statement. I am sure Obama is reimbursing them for this service.

If anybody else knows anything different please respond.

[MontanaMama]

1. The National Archives response to TFG

chumming the waters was a definite clap back. They’re not having this nonsense.

[jonstl08]

2. National Archives response to Trump and the GOP

"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA)," the agency said.

"NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area where they are maintained exclusively by NARA. Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area," the agency explained. "As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration."

[Bayard]

3. The key word:

UNCLASSIFIED.

[underpants]

4. Good WaPo article on it

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142954861


But when it comes to the sheer embrace of innuendo and a concerted lack of logical consistency, it’s difficult to top the latest entry.

Over the past 24 hours, conservative media has debuted a new whataboutism defense: What about Obama? Several Fox News shows on Wednesday picked up on a New York Post column that noted Barack Obama at the end of his presidency had 30 million records shipped to Chicago for his presidential library.


But that doesn’t mean it bears any resemblance to what prompted the Trump search. As was reported back in late 2016, the Obama team was transferring the records to Chicago through the National Archives, which legally owns the documents once a president leaves office. Once the documents ultimately reached a warehouse in Chicago, the Obama Foundation was then due to pay the National Archives and Record Administration to digitize the documents. The lengthiness of that process aside, there isn’t the faintest hint of legal violations — nor does the Post’s story suggest as much.

There is actual evidence for a former president doing the latter. With the caveat that we still don’t know much about the evidence presented to obtain the search warrant, that’s the blindingly obvious reason that one ex-president was searched while the other wasn’t.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Statement from FARA

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

6. NARA maintains warehouses in or near cities nationwide

https://www.archives.gov/frc/locations (also this one - https://www.archives.gov/nyc)

ALL federal agencies maintain their archivable records at their local NARA warehouses for some specified length of time, based on their published Records schedule, before they are destroyed if that record's applicable schedule allows that. E.g., some documents might be kept for 5 years, or 20 years, or even in perpetuity (never destroyed).