The National Archive had to retrieve boxes of White House records Donald Trump illegally had shipped to his private club in Florida in the last days of his administration in an apparent attempt to hide them and keep them out of the hands of the National Archives, the Washington Post reports.
At the end of a term, an administration is legally responsible for preserving paper and electronic records to be archived under the Presidential Records Act. Per media reports, Trump was fond of hand-shredding notes, letters and other records that qualified for preservation under the act.
Among the items Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago were correspondence with North Korea and its dictator Kim Jong Un, with whom Trump said he had a “love affair.” Trump also absconded with a letter his respected predecessor Barack Obama left for him when Trump took office, a tradition among presidents.
The Presidential Records Act demands that communications from the White House be preserved for future generations to examine in the context of history.
“The only way that a president can really be held accountable long term is to preserve a record about who said what, who did what, what policies were encouraged or adopted, and that is such an important part of the long-term scope of accountability — beyond just elections and campaigns,” presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky said.