Groups warn of risk that Trump ‘will keep or destroy’ presidential records

“As of this moment, the Administration believes that the President is legally free to destroy records of his official government conduct, or even spirit away the records for his own future personal use.”

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That’s what two nonprofit groups told a federal court in Washington on Monday, in a legal complaint seeking a declaration that the Presidential Records Act is constitutional. The complaint was prompted by a bold new claim to the contrary by the Trump Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. 

The American Historical Association and American Oversight said in their complaint that they filed the lawsuit “to stop the unconstitutional actions of the government, ensure the President and his administration abide by the recordkeeping obligations required by federal law, and to preserve the historical record that belongs to the American people, before it is forever lost.”

American Oversight is one of the groups that is separately suing for the release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his classified documents case against President Donald Trump. The DOJ dropped Trump’s federal criminal cases due to his 2024 election win, but a Trump-appointed judge has still sought to keep Smith’s report secret. 

Monday’s complaint cites the facts surrounding Trump’s since-dismissed documents case to argue that there’s reason to believe he’ll keep presidential records for himself again after he leaves office. After he took records the first time, the complaint recounted, he claimed the records act authorized him to keep them.