John,

When President Trump leaves the White House in a month, we will still be fighting for accountability for his administration’s wrongdoing and abuses of power.

But if Trump and his staff destroy records on their way out the door, well, that could make it a lot harder for the American people to learn about legal violations, abuses of power and other wrongdoing committed by their government.

That’s why CREW has been working so hard to ensure that the Trump administration follows recordkeeping laws in these final weeks. Here are a few of the actions we’ve taken:

Along with the National Security Archive, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the American Historical Association, we sued over an official White House policy that allows personnel to preserve as presidential records “screenshots” of records sent on non-official messaging platforms. That’s not adequate, based on the law, and could allow valuable information to be lost. Jared Kushner has used non-official platforms like WhatsApp to conduct official White House business outside of government servers, including with foreign leaders.
Given President Trump’s habit of making announcements on Twitter, like the firing of administration officials, it’s crucial that social media platforms preserve complete records of the official accounts of Trump and his administration. We’re investigating whether the National Archives and Records Administration is working with social media companies in order to ensure these records are adequately preserved. Read more about our investigation here.
It’s not just at the White House where we have to worry about records preservation. We recently sent a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration about the CDC’s compliance with the Federal Records Act, after reports surfaced that CDC Director Robert Redfield had ordered the destruction of an email showing political interference by Trump administration appointees in scientific reports about the coronavirus. In this case, there are life or death consequences to accurate recordkeeping and access to scientific information.

The American people deserve to know the truth about political interference in science, Hatch Act violations, conflicts of interest, special treatment of customers of Trump’s businesses, and more. We can only learn the truth—and hold administration officials to account—if we have the records. At CREW, we’ll continue fighting every day for preservation of these critical parts of our history, and accountability for whatever might be found in those records.

Thank you,

Noah Bookbinder
Executive Director, CREW