WASHINGTON — Revelations that Donald Trump took government records with him to Mar-a-Lago are creating a political headache for the former president — and a potential legal one, too.
House lawmakers have opened an investigation and the National Archives and Records Administration has reportedly asked the Justice Department to look into the matter. The Justice Department and the FBI have not yet said what, if anything, they’ll do.
A look at what could lie ahead:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OTHER AGENCIES SEEK A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATION?
The Justice Department routinely receives referrals from Congress and other government agencies when those agencies come upon conduct they think might break the law.
Sometimes those referrals result in investigations and even criminal charges, though in many other instances they do not. The Justice Department is generally not bound to take any action suggested to it by another agency.
There are several issues potentially at play, including the Presidential Records Act, which was enacted in 1978 after former President Richard Nixon wanted to destroy documents related to the Watergate scandal.
The law mandates that presidential records are the property of the U.S. government, rather than belonging to the president himself. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement announcing the investigation that Trump was required under the law to turn over the documents to the National Archives before leaving office, and that lawmakers are seeking information about the contents of the boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
Another statute, punishable by up to three years in prison, makes it a crime to conceal or intentionally destroy government records.
But a potentially more serious issue concerns the handling of classified material. The Post also reported that some of the recovered documents were clearly marked as classified, including at the top secret level.
“I think the obvious legal issue presented is whether the removal of classified information from the White House and its transport and storage at Mar-a-Lago — a place unauthorized to keep classified information — was a violation of law, and if so whether it merits criminal prosecution,” said David Laufman, who as the former head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section was involved in the 2016 investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
