Politico: Biden may have trouble unearthing Trump's national security secrets

[highplainsdem]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/09/biden-trump-national-security-435364

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The Presidential Records Act, which requires a sitting president to preserve and ultimately make public all records relating to the performance of their official duties, was passed 42 years ago in response to President Richard Nixon’s attempts to hide the White House tapes that led to his downfall. The law makes presidential records available to the public via the Freedom of Information Act beginning five years after the end of an administration.

But it has no real enforcement mechanism and relies on the president’s good faith compliance, said Kel McClanahan, the executive director of the law firm National Security Counselors.

“Out of respect for the institution and the separation of powers, when Congress passed the PRA, they gave the White House the right to decide what constitutes a presidential record,” McClanahan said. “They never envisioned a president who would come in and just start shredding stuff.”

There are some guidelines: The National Archives defines presidential records as any documentary materials “created or received” by the president, their immediate staff, or anyone in the Executive Office of the President “whose function is to advise or assist the President” in the course of carrying out official duties. But it is not clear how much has been preserved given Trump’s habit of ripping up documents — the employees once tasked with taping them back together were summarily fired in 2018 — and the White House’s general paranoia about leaks.

“The White House’s strategy seems to be that you can’t make a record public if it doesn't exist in the first place,” said Jordan Libowitz, communications director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “And that’s a scary way to govern.”

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[treestar]

1. I remember some issue about Dotard

throwing away notes.

[Historic NY]

2. Pidd on it....Trump would.

[bdamomma]

3. Stephen Miller

the architect of separating children from their parents never put his signature on anything. POS he is on his way out to prison.

[highplainsdem]

4. Response to this article from CREW's Twitter account:

Link to tweet

[Frustratedlady]

5. We never did see the true transcript of the call to Ukraine, which they hid in a super-secret vault.

If that's gone, we will know others are probably gone, as well. I would be shocked if they maintained much.