A group of 15 state AGs is making politics today out of a friendly public reminder to the Trump administration, on its way out the door, to remember to comply with the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act.
In a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, the coalition – which includes Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring – reminds Cipollone that all staff in the Executive Office of the President, including President Trump, must comply with the laws and take all necessary steps to preserve and maintain presidential records, including tweets, notes of private conversations, and emails from private servers improperly used to conduct government work.
“Maintaining presidential records after the end of an administration is something that has been done for almost four decades now,” Herring said. “It’s unfortunate that we have to remind Donald Trump’s administration to comply with the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act, but time and again, they have shown blatant disregard for the law. Regardless of what this administration may think, no president is above the law and my colleagues and I expect them to maintain and preserve all presidential records as required under law.”
Since the beginning of the Reagan administration almost 40 years ago, the Presidential Records Act has dictated the statutory structure under which presidents must manage the records of their administrations.
The law says that the American people “retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records.”
Additionally, since 1950, the Federal Records Act has set guidelines as to how federal departments and agencies preserve and manage archived records.
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