As a committee continues to investigate the events of Jan. 6, 2021, many are left wondering how presidential records are supposed to be kept.
The 1978 law requires the preservation of White House documents as property of the U.S. government.
The law was passed in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, when a collection of secret tapes that President Richard Nixon had considered destroying played a defining role. The tapes revealed that Nixon tried to cover up the bungled burglary of Democratic National Committee headquarters. He chose to resign rather than face impeachment and removal from office.
for violating the Presidential Records Act. The statute by definition depends on the goodwill of presidents and their staff to police their own record keeping. “It does require a certain element of good faith and sort of an honor system, and when that crumbles, you can see the limitations,” Chervinsky said.
Even so, the Jan. 6 committee is investigating the gap as it works to piece together Trump’s communications before and during the insurrection, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying House investigators are looking at whether Trump was communicating during that time through other means, possibly through personal cellphones or some other type of communication — such as a phone passed to him by an aide.In a word, yes.
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