Historians Warn DOJ Move Would Let Donald Trump 'Destroy' Presidential Records Before Leaving Office

Donald Trump's administration is going full speed ahead in trying to get rid of the Presidential Records Act, meaning the POTUS and future presidents would be able to "destroy" official records or take papers with them when they leave the Oval Office.

The PRA was enacted in 1978.

Earlier this year, Judge John Bates ruled against the Trump administration, but the DOJ appealed, as they argued the "entire Act is facially unconstitutional."

"Defendants would dismantle that system and relegate continuity of government to the whim of each President in power," one of their statements read. "In their view, the President may destroy his Administration's records — including national security records — as he sees fit, or take the records with him for private use after leaving office, and Congress can do nothing about it."

In July, the DOJ claimed the PRA is a "sweeping intrusion on the President's executive function."

"Without any commensurate finding of legislative need, the Act abolishes the historical prerogative of the President to control his own papers and compels the President to throw open all of his nonprivileged files to the world," their message read.

That was countered by historians' attorneys, who responded, "Indeed, despite the Act's 50-year history, Defendants fail to identify even a single real-world example substantiating their claim that the Act interferes with the presidency's functioning."

Their statement also noted that the DOJ was issuing "abstract concerns about chill and administrative burdens, all of which were rejected by the Supreme Court when it upheld the Act's predecessor statute."

The case comes after the POTUS brought boxes of official documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home in 2021 when Joe Biden took over as president.

One year later, the boxes were returned to the National Archives. Since some of these documents contained classified information, the DOJ issued a subpoena for more documents. This eventually led to the FBI obtaining a search warrant of Trump's place.

The raid was part of a criminal investigation into whether there was any obstruction involved in the government records located at the Florida property.

The FBI wound up uncovering more than 100 classified documents.

The situation led to an indictment of Trump for mishandling sensitive records and obstruction, but the case was dismissed when the Republican became president again in the 2024 election.