Archives asked for records in 2021 after Trump lawyer agreed they should be returned, email says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

About two dozen boxes of presidential records stored in then-president Donald Trump’s White House residence were not returned to the National Archives and Records Administration in the final days of his term even after Archives officials were told by a Trump lawyer that the documents should be returned, according to an email from the top lawyer at the record-keeping agency.

“It is also our understanding that roughly two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept in the Residence of the White House over the course of President Trump’s last year in office and have not been transferred to NARA, despite a determination by Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration that they need to be,” wrote Gary Stern, the agency’s chief counsel, in an email to Trump lawyers in May 2021, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post. Cipollone was the former White House counsel designated by Trump as one of his representatives to the Archives. A spokeswoman for Cipollone declined to comment Wednesday.

The previously unreported email — sent about 100 days after the former president left office with the subject line “Need for Assistance re Presidential Records” — shows just how early Archives officials realized that many documents were missing from the Trump White House. It also illustrates the myriad efforts Archives officials made to have the documents returned over an 18-month period, culminating with an FBI raid earlier this month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Stern, the chief counsel at the Archives, does not say in the email how he determined that the boxes were in Trump’s possession.

He wrote that he also had consulted another Trump lawyer during the final days of Trump’s presidency — without any luck. “I had also raised this concern with Scott in the final weeks,” Stern writes in the email, referring to Trump lawyer Scott Gast, who is also copied on the email. In the email, Stern again asks for the documents from Trump’s residence to be returned. Gast did not respond to a request for comment. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Archives did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/trump-records-archives-2021/

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[PatSeg]

1. This is absolutely insane

I'm afraid that we get used to everything Trump related being outrageous, that sometimes we may forget how serious and potentially dangerous this all is. Just Trump being Trump.

In the meantime, I am concerned that the FBI has not gotten all of the documents and that there could be some at different locations. Also, how do we know that Trump hasn't already shared classified documents with foreign adversaries? So many questions and the answers are truly terrifying.

[japple]

2. He probably has photocopies of everything marked classified, top secret, etc. He probably

had staff just doing nothing but copying everything every single day. It's all stored on someone's keychain after it was shared with the whole fucking world.

[PatSeg]

4. Yes, yes

I've thought the same thing. If he viewed such documents as so valuable, surely he would have made copies of the ones he thought he could use, especially after being visited back in May by the FBI. And that would explain why people were seen coming and going from the "storage room" taking papers out of boxes and moving things around.

I keep hearing Rod Blagojevich, "I've got this thing and it's fucking golden, and I'm just not giving it up for fuckin' nothing. And, and I can always use it." That is the way Trump looks at everything, how he can benefit from it. I'll bet it was interesting in the White House the last couple weeks before he moved.

[Evolve Dammit]

6. Same exact questions I've had. May we actually get some indictments and truth.

[PatSeg]

8. I hope so

What kind of monster does these sort of things? Such behavior goes way beyond lying and cheating.

[PSPS]

3. We all know

[PatSeg]

5. He's so gullible

He thought they were his buddies - didn't realize they were using him.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. Lest we forget. And no U.S. media allowed. Was that a clue, MSM that he might be a f'in traitor??

[OneCrazyDiamond]

9. Why wait for the raid?

They should have eliminated the security threat he was creating a lot sooner then now.

[Pluvious]

10. Can you imagine if Obama... Oh never mind (nt)

[prodigitalson]

11. so

"two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept in the Residence of the White House over the course of President Trump’s last year in office and have not been transferred to NARA, despite a determination by Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration that they need to be,” wrote Gary Stern, the agency’s chief counsel, in an email to Trump lawyers in May 2021,"

So records "kept in the Residence of the White House" ended up in MaL? After Cilpollone told him to send them to the NA? I would like to know the logistics of that as well as the participants.