Clarification. The Presidential Records Act does not apply here or protect Trump re: certain documen

[Grasswire2]

Unrolled twitter thread here:

[link:https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1563935941584101376.html|


Both sides keep implying the documents at MAL were either presidential records or personal records. But documents that are official records of an agency, like a CIA briefing document, are not presidential records. They're federal records. Trump has no say over those at all.

The Presidential Records Act says explicitly that "any documentary materials that are official records of an agency" are not "presidential records" (and obviously not "personal records&quot . They belong to the govt, and the Archivist supervises their management.

Agency heads are required to tell the Archivist if they believe official records have been unlawfully removed. Once the Archivist learns this, s/he is supposed to request that Attorney General initiate an action to recover them. Which seems to describe what's happened w/Trump.

Trump can't keep presidential records, either. But in the PRA, there's some ambiguity about who decides whether a record is "presidential" or "personal." There's no ambiguity about the fact that official agency records are not presidential records and have to be returned.

The FBI affidavit made this distinction, saying it had "probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDI or that are presidential records" were at Mar-a-Lago. In other words, classified defense documents and presidential records are different.

James Suroweiki, New Yorker

[2naSalit]

1. All of them were gov't property...

And he is NOT the president so he has no argument, no valid argument for any of it.

A fellow former federal employee friend and I were just discussing this and the chain of custody protocols. We recalled how we, lowly GS employees, had to have witnessed signatures and even escorts for property and documents of certain classes when changing location/status.

We're both offended beyond description. Even lowly General Schedule employees KNOW how illegal this is and there are millions of us, past and present.

[crickets]

2. Excellent point that cuts through the malarkey.

There's no ambiguity about the fact that official agency records are not presidential records and have to be returned.

👍