The staff at the “overly political” National Archives refused to help former President Donald Trump pack up his office in the final days of his administration, according to the former president, and their absence caused him to unknowingly take classified material to his home in Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers made the charge in a letter to Congress that seeks a legislative remedy to end the Justice Department’s investigation into the former president’s possession of boxes of documents that the National Archives said belong to them and include some classified material.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer in the case, Timothy B. Parlatore, wrote to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner that the National Archives and Records Administration “unfortunately has become overtly political and declined to provide archival assistance to President Trump’s transition team.”
Had National Archives staff offered to help pack up in Mr. Trump’s final days in office, Mr. Parlatore said, “he would have accepted the offer and there would have been no reason to transfer the documents to Mar-a-Lago.”
Mr. Parlatore wrote that the White House lacks standard procedures for handling classified documents and that a new law is needed “to prevent the [Justice Department] from continuing to conduct ham-handed criminal investigations of matters that are inherently not criminal.”
The classified documents probe is one of several investigations and lawsuits targeting the former president, who is seeking a second term in the White House.
The day after Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign launch last November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith to take over the DOJ’s classified documents probe.
Mr. Smith is also investigating Mr. Trump’s actions leading up to the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And earlier this month, Mr. Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts by liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over hush money he claims that Mr.Trump paid two adult performers and a New York City doorman.
Mr. Trump is also facing civil suits, one of them unfolding in New York City, where accuser E. Jean Carroll is seeking unspecified damages for battery and defamation based on her claim that he raped her in a department store decades ago.
The classified documents investigation may be the trickiest to prosecute. Three months after the FBI conducted an unprecedented raid of Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach home, seizing boxes of documents that were taken from the White House, aides to President Biden announced that he, too, was in possession of classified documents in several unsecured locations that he had removed from Congress and the White House during his time as a senator and vice president.
Former Vice President Mike Pence also discovered classified documents in his home. Critics of the investigation into Mr. Trump’s possession of classified documents also point to the decision by the Justice Department not to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for diverting government emails, including classified material, to a private server.
Mr. Trump has insisted that as president, he had the authority to declassify the documents. In the letter to Mr. Turner, his lawyer does not question the former president’s assertion.
Instead, Mr. Parlatore described the hectic final days of the Trump administration in which aides swept documents into a box, allegedly not knowing that classified material was included.
Mr. Parlatore and his co-counsel, Jim Trusty, reviewed boxes of material that Mr. Trump sent to the National Archives in January 2022, when he was initially working to cooperate with NARA on returning some of the items. The organization of the material, Mr. Trump’s lawyers believe, “indicates that the White House staff simply swept all documents from the President’s desk and other areas into boxes, where they have resided ever since.”
Officials at the National Archives disputed the claims by Mr. Trump’s lawyers that they did not help the Trump administration, but it appears they did not assist in determining which material to pack up at the end of the president’s term.
The National Archives’ general counsel, Gary M. Stern, said he told Congress in February that the organization provided only “logistical” support to Mr. Trump during his final days in office, which is similar to the assistance the agency provided to three previous administrations.
A spokesperson added, “The packing of boxes and transfer of records from the White House to NARA at the end of each administration is always managed and controlled by White House and National Security Council officials. While NARA routinely provides assistance, the NARA staff work under the direction of the White House.”
The Intelligence panel chair, Mr. Turner, said in a statement to The Washington Times that the panel is examining how Congress can address the issue of mishandling of classified documents.
“We had the archivists into our committee to testify, and they actually testified that every administration since Reagan has delivered to them boxes of a mixture of classified and declassified documents – unclassified documents – that were mixed together,” Mr. Turner said. “There’s been mishandling with a history that goes all the way back to the Reagan administration. 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.”
Mr. Trump may escape charges for removing the documents. But Mr. Smith, the special counsel, could pursue a prosecution based on possible obstruction from Mr. Trump’s attempts to hold onto some of the material after the Justice Department subpoenaed him for it.
Former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has authored a book about the threat to civil liberties posed by the numerous investigations into the former president, said Mr. Trump’s defense should focus on the obstruction issue and not the original removal of the documents from the White House.
“He won’t be charged for mere possession of classified material, that’s not going to happen because that doesn’t distinguish the case from Biden, Pence and Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Dershowitz told The Times. “What he has to worry about is what happened afterward. His main concern should be obstruction of justice. And what happened when he left the White House has nothing to do with that.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.