Former President Donald Trump tossed the blame in the ongoing case of his alleged mishandling of classified information back onto the agency that compiles those records.
According to The Washington Times on Saturday, Trump’s legal team said the “overtly political” staff at the National Archives and Records Administration refused to help him pack up his materials as he prepared to leave office in January 2021.
And because of their refusal to help the conservative president, Trump unknowingly took classified materials to his home in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s legal team recently made this argument to lawmakers. The Times noted Congress wants a new law to address the situation that has promoted criminal accusations against Trump for mishandling classified documents — even as classified materials have been found in the home and offices of President Joe Biden.
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One of Trump’s lawyers, Tim Parlatore, wrote to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner that the National Archives “unfortunately has become overtly political and declined to provide archival assistance to President Trump’s transition team.”
Parlatore, according to the Times, added that Trump would have accepted an offer from the National Archives staff to help pack his office, and thus, “there would have been no reason to transfer the documents to Mar-a-Lago.”
Parlatore also argued that the White House has no standard procedures for handling classified materials, therefore a new law is needed. Such a law, said Parlatore, would “prevent the [Justice Department] from continuing to conduct ham-handed criminal investigations of matters that are inherently not criminal.”
Adding to the suggestion that Trump’s case with the records is political, the Times pointed out that Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith, a Democrat, to lead the investigation the day after Trump announced he would seek election in 2024.
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Continuing, the Times noted that Parlatore’s letter essentially claimed that Trump’s aides “simply swept all documents from the President’s desk and other areas into boxes, where they have resided ever since.”
The Times noted that the National Archives disputes Parlatore’s claims about an offer to assist Trump. But the agency apparently did not help determine which materials to pack up as Trump left.
The National Archives’ General Counsel Gary Stern told Congress that the agency provided only “logistical” support to Trump.
An agency spokesperson asserted that the National Archives, in such instances, works at the direction of the White House and National Security Council.
In a statement to the Times, Congressman Turner noted that archivists have testified that every administration since Ronald Reagan has delivered to their boxes with classified and unclassified documents mixed.
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“There’s been mishandling with a history that goes all the way back to the Reagan administration,” said Turner. “We’re looking at how do we change the laws, how do we change the rules, and how do we address this so it doesn’t affect future administrations and it certainly shouldn’t affect these two.”
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