MaddowBlog-Team Trump targets post-Watergate reforms, one by one

[LetMyPeopleVote]

One analysis noted Trump has taken aim at Watergate’s ethical checkpoints “as if in a shooting gallery” in his second term. It’s getting worse.

Team Trump targets post-Watergate reforms, one by one

www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Mike Walker (@newnarrative.bsky.social) 2026-04-06T20:29:43.237Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/team-trump-targets-post-watergate-reforms-one-by-one

For proponents of ethical reforms, transparency and good government, the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon’s resignation was an important and productive time. The White House controversy was so systemic, and the political fallout was so dramatic, that policymakers agreed to create all kinds of new limits and guardrails intended to prevent future presidential abuses, while trying to restore public confidence in the wake of a governmental crisis....

It was a step down a familiar path. The New York Times published a memorable analysis on this in January:

From the opening days of his second term, President Trump took aim at Watergate’s ethical checkpoints as if in a shooting gallery. First, he fired 17 inspectors general, a job established in the Watergate era to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in government. He also fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency created by legislation in 1978 to protect government whistle-blowers. Then he fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, created around the same time to guard against financial conflicts of interest by top government officials. And he has used the Justice Department and the F.B.I. as political tools, roles they worked to shed after Watergate.

By this measure, Americans are watching an era come to a rapid and painful end. A half-century ago, policymakers responded to a corrupt, power-hungry Republican president by establishing an ethical framework that proved quite effective, until another corrupt, power-hungry Republican president decided that the framework was getting in the way of his authoritarian-style ambitions, and a GOP-led Congress decided to let him do as he pleases.....

I have no idea what’ll happen in the 2026 and 2028 elections, but it would take comparable Democratic majorities to respond to the Trump era the way Congress responded to Nixon decades ago.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Deadline Legal Blog-Groups warn of risk that Trump 'will keep or destroy' presidential records

The Justice Department’s new legal interpretation, if upheld, could give the president the green light to hoard records.

Groups warn of risk that Trump ‘will keep or destroy’ presidential records
#Donaldtrump

opr.news/2a2629582604...

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— (@chitraraj.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T18:57:38.345Z

https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/groups-warn-of-risk-that-trump-will-keep-or-destroy-presidential-records

“As of this moment, the Administration believes that the President is legally free to destroy records of his official government conduct, or even spirit away the records for his own future personal use.”

That’s what two nonprofit groups told a federal court in Washington on Monday, in a legal complaint seeking a declaration that the Presidential Records Act is constitutional. The complaint was prompted by a bold new claim to the contrary by the Trump Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The American Historical Association and American Oversight said in their complaint that they filed the lawsuit “to stop the unconstitutional actions of the government, ensure the President and his administration abide by the recordkeeping obligations required by federal law, and to preserve the historical record that belongs to the American people, before it is forever lost.”

American Oversight is one of the groups that is separately suing for the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his classified documents case against President Donald Trump. The DOJ dropped Trump’s federal criminal cases due to his 2024 election win, but a Trump-appointed judge has still sought to keep Smith’s report secret. ....

On top of seeking a court declaration that the act is constitutional, the groups also want a ruling that the National Archives and Records Administration must comply with the act and must make relevant records publicly available as the act requires. Also among the groups’ requests is that Trump be barred, after his current term is up, “from retaining, destroying, disposing, or otherwise handling Presidential records in a manner not in accordance with” the act, and to turn over all presidential records in his possession to NARA as required by the act.

The government will have an opportunity to respond in court.

This act was passed to stop Nixon from destroying Presidential records. Like Nixon, trump will destroy all records that are not favorable to him.