The National Archives revealed what it discovered after recovering boxes of records from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
National Archivist David Ferriero wrote in the letter to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, “NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes.”
He continued, “Because NARA identified classified information in the boxes, NARA staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.”
Additionally, Ferriero said the archives “identified certain social media records that were not captured and preserved by the Trump Administration.”
He added, “NARA has also learned that some White House staff conducted official business using non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts, as required by section 2209 of the PRA. NARA has already obtained or is in the process of obtaining some of those records.”
Earlier this month, advisers to Trump denied “any nefarious intent” and said the boxes held mementos, gifts, letters from world leaders, and other correspondence with the former president.
One former Trump White House official said they did not think he “did this out of malicious intent to avoid complying with the Presidential Records Act.”
The official continued, “As long as he’s been in business, he’s been very transactional and it was probably his longtime practice and I don’t think his habits changed when he got to the White House.”
Trump also denied reports that he “flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet,” calling it “categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book.”
He explained, “The Democrats are just using this and the Unselect Committee of political hacks as a camoflauge [sic] for how horribly our Country is doing under the Biden Administration.”
