Trump […] has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House workers to spend hours taping them back together.“They told [Trump] to stop doing it. He didn’t want to stop.”The White House chief of staff’s office told the president that the documents were considered presidential records and needed to be preserved by law. About 10 records staff ended up on Scotch tape duty
In the Trump White House “not only has record-keeping not been a priority, but we have multiple examples of it seeking to conceal or destroy that record”, said Richard Immerman, from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.And now Trump’s baseless claim of widespread voter fraud – which postponed for weeks an acknowledgement of Joe Biden’s presidential victory – has delayed the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further heightening concern about the integrity of the records.Lack of a complete record might also hinder investigations of Trump, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal inquiries to investigations in the state of New York
“I believe we will find that there’s going to be a huge hole in the historical record of this president because I think there’s probably been serious noncompliance of the Presidential Records Act,” said Anne Weismann, one of the lawyers representing the groups in their suit.“I don’t think president Trump cares about his record and what it says. I think he probably cares, though, about what it might say about his criminal culpability.”
