Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday, bizarrely claiming that he’s been “open” and “transparent” when it comes to the inquiry involving his removal of government documents — hundreds of them marked classified — to his Mar-a-Lago property upon his exit from office. Trump went on to compare the investigation into his removal of government documents to the investigation into the deletion of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails. In a Truth Social post directed at Garland, Trump asked the attorney general when he would investigate and “invade” Clinton’s home over the emails.…
National Archives
Watchdog Group Sues Secret Service Over Deleted January 6 Texts
A government watchdog group is suing several prominent defense- and security-related federal agencies, including the Secret Service and the Pentagon, over text messages sent by officials regarding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which were deleted after oversight officials requested to see them earlier this year. In a lawsuit filed against the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense, U.S. Army and National Archives on Wednesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) argues that the texts were illegally deleted and that the agencies didn’t do enough to attempt to retrieve them.…
Trump Wanted to Cut Deal With Feds: Mar-a-Lago Docs for Russia Inquiry Materials
In late 2021 — after nearly a year of attempts from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to obtain government records Donald Trump had improperly removed from the White House — the former president told his advisers that he would return the records in exchange for documents relating to the Russia investigation. Trump, “still determined to show he had been wronged by the FBI investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia,” suggested to his aides that they bargain for materials related to the inquiry by offering NARA the White House records he was keeping at his estate, according…
DOJ to Trump’s Lawyers: We Believe He’s Still Hiding White House Docs
A top official in the national security division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has alerted lawyers for former President Donald Trump that the department does not believe it has retrieved all of the documents that Trump improperly removed from the White House in his final days in office. According to The New York Times, this is the “most concrete indication yet” that the department remains skeptical of Trump’s claims that he has cooperated with their inquiry into the missing documents. Jay Bratt, who leads the DOJ’s counterintelligence operations, told Trump’s legal team in recent weeks that he doesn’t believe…
National Archives Probes Potentially Illegal Deletion of Secret Service Texts
The National Archives and Records Administration is probing the U.S. Secret Service over texts exchanged around the January 6 attack on the Capitol that the agency says it has deleted, despite the fact that they could be key to uncovering details about how law enforcement officials reacted to the attack. In a letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, on Tuesday, National Archives Chief Records Officer Laurence Brewer says that National Archives officials are looking into the “potential unauthorized deletion” of the texts. Brewer asks the Secret Service to determine whether or not…