The National Archives announced on Friday that it is still missing some data from the administration of Donald Trump.
The National Archives and Data Administration (NARA) is still lacking Trump administration records it requested after the former president’s tenure ended, according to a letter the agency sent out on Friday.
Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall acknowledged to the Oversight Committee that the National Archives has not yet received all presidential records from the Trump White House.
Wall stated that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be consulted over whether or not to “initiate an action for the recovery of unlawfully removed records” by White House personnel.
She asserted that the Trump administration violated the Presidential Records Act by utilizing “electronic messaging accounts that were not replicated or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.”
Nearly two months have passed since the FBI’s unannounced search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate sparked uproar on the right, with the great majority of Republicans declaring it a political maneuver.
The Justice Department’s continuing investigation into the previous president’s handling of secret data prevented Wall from commenting on whether Trump himself was unlawfully holding on to records.
The Friday letter, obtained by DailyMail.com on Sunday morning, came in response to a request from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee (D-NY).
National Archives officials have verified to the Oversight Committee that they have not yet received all presidential records from the Trump White House. Presidential documents are the property of the American people, and it is absurd that they remain unaccounted for twenty months after former President Trump left office,’ Maloney said in an email statement to DailyMail.com.
The update was in response to a letter from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee
By neglecting to return presidential records as required by law, former President Trump and his senior staff have demonstrated a complete contempt for the rule of law and national security.
She pledged to “continue to do everything in my power to ensure that all presidential records from the Trump White House are returned to government control and to ensure that similar abuses never occur again.”
Regarding the missing communications from Trump advisers, Wall’s letter mentioned the DOJ’s efforts to recover official texts sent by former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro via his “personal email account.”
Navarro is presently on trial for contempt of Congress charges stemming from his January 6 refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by a House select committee.
Wall referred Maloney to the DOJ in response to her inquiry as to whether Trump held any papers.
Almost two months after the FBI’s unannounced search of Mar-a-Lago, the documents are reportedly still missing.
Regarding the second issue of whether former President Trump has turned over all presidential records, the letter reads, “we respectfully recommend you to the Department of Justice in light of its current investigation.”
DailyMail.com has reached out to a representative for Trump for comment.
When agents raided Trump’s Florida club, the FBI reportedly seized approximately four dozen empty folders with classification markings, according to court documents filed by the Department of Justice last month.
The document indicates that 43 of those were in Trump’s own office.
A previous public announcement claimed that the FBI found eleven sets of top secret or classified papers during their raid on August 8.