DOJ 'shattered' the 'presumption of regularity' after giving Trump go-ahead to destroy records 'returned' to Mar-a-Lago
Source: Law & Crime
Apr 14th, 2026, 11:21 am
Days after a Department of Justice memo claimed the "dictates" of a federal records preservation law passed by Congress in the aftermath of Watergate no longer applied to President Donald Trump, a YouTuber with millions of subscribers told a judge that a "preservation order is desperately needed."
National security lawyer Kel McClanahan filed a letter Monday on behalf of LegalEagle — the YouTube account of attorney and legal commentator Devin Stone — asking U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang to agree that the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel's (OLC) opinion from April 1 "shattered" the "presumption of regularity" on the part of the government by declaring that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) unconstitutionally made the president's personal records the property of the United States.
The PRA was enacted in 1978, four years after Richard Nixon lost the Watergate tapes case and resigned in disgrace.
The legislation gave the United States "complete ownership, possession, and control" over presidential records, requiring that the chief executive "adequately" document "activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of the President's constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties" for their submission to the National Archives (NARA).
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/a-preservation-order-is-desperately-needed-doj-shattered-the-presumption-of-regularity-after-giving-trump-go-ahead-to-destroy-records-returned-to-mar-a-lago-lawyer-says/
Full headline: 'A preservation order is desperately needed': DOJ 'shattered' the 'presumption of regularity' after giving Trump go-ahead to 'destroy' records 'returned' to Mar-a-Lago, lawyer says
Link to FILING (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/28040911/nara2.pdf
REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143643249
As a note - the Presidential Records Act DOES parse out "personal" versus everything else and 45 wants it ALL to be considered "personal" and belonging to him (which could conceivably include that $400 million Qatari jet, etc.).
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/presidential-records-act
Home > National Archives News > Special Topics Pages > The Presidential Records Act
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Presidential Records Act (PRA)
In 1978, Congress passed the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which states that any records created or received by the President as part of his constitutional, statutory, or ceremonial duties are the property of the United States government and will be managed by NARA at the end of the administration.
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) changed the legal status of Presidential and Vice Presidential materials. Under the PRA, the official records of the President and his staff are owned by the United States, not by the President.
The Archivist is required to take custody of these records when the President leaves office, and to maintain them in a Federal depository. These records are eligible for access under FOIA five years after the President leaves office.
The President may restrict access to specific kinds of information for up to 12 years after he leaves office, but then records are reviewed for FOIA exemptions only.This legislation took effect on January 20, 1981, and the records of the Reagan administration were the first to be administered under this law.
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Most recent update - H.R.1233 - Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 (summary)
H.R.1233 - Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 (text)
After 45's first term, NARA spent A YEAR trying to get all those documents (including classified docs) BACK from 45. And with just a trickle being returned, ONLY THEN (in early 2022), did NARA REFER TO DOJ AND GARLAND (which lead to the seizure and eventually the appointment of Jack Smith).
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