The National Archives alerted former President Donald Trump’s lawyers in May 2021 that Trump’s letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — and two dozen boxes of records — were missing, according to new correspondence the Archives reported. announced this Monday (3).
Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives and Records Administration, wrote to former Trump White House attorneys Patrick Philbin, Mike Purpura and Scott Gast on May 6, 2021, warning them that the letters Trump exchanged Kim and the letter he received from his predecessor, President Barack Obama, was missing, according to correspondence released Monday in response to dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests.
In the email, Stern asked for the lawyers’ help in ensuring the Archives received all presidential records as required by law.
“We also understand that approximately two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept at the White House residence during President Trump’s last year in office and were not transferred to NARA despite a determination by Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration. what they need to be,” Stern wrote.
“I’ve also raised this concern with Scott over the last few weeks.”
THE CNN previously reported that the Archives was working throughout 2021 to obtain Trump’s presidential records.
Correspondence released on Monday provides additional details showing how the Archives engaged with Trump’s team for months before he delivered 15 boxes of materials in January that were housed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
In the May 2021 letter to Trump representatives that was publicly released on Monday, Stern wrote that there were “certain paper/text records that we cannot explain,” citing Trump’s letters with Kim and Obama.
“For example, the original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has not been transferred to us; It is our understanding that in January 2021, shortly before the end of the administration, the originals were placed in a binder for the President, but were never returned to the Office of Records Management for transfer to NARA,” he wrote.
Stern added that Obama’s letter was also missing, noting that the presidential libraries of other Presidents of the Archives keep copies of similar letters. “It is necessary that this be provided for us as well,” he wrote.
The Archives noted that it also sought to obtain electronic records from the Trump administration. On Friday, the Archives said in a letter to the House Oversight Committee that it still did not have all the necessary Trump administration records because officials used personal emails to conduct official government business and failed to deliver them as required by law. .
The documents Trump turned over earlier this year included several classified documents, prompting the Archives to refer the matter to the Justice Department.
But the Archives withheld the vast majority of correspondence from public release — more than 1,000 pages — citing FOIA exemptions, including ongoing Justice Department investigations and the Archives’ own deliberations with Trump representatives.
In a letter to American Oversight, one of the groups seeking records from the Archives, the agency wrote that it had located 309 pages of records related to correspondence with Trump representatives as of March 31, 2022.
The Archives released 11 pages and withheld 298 pages, including 295 pages that the agency said were withheld due to possible interference with law enforcement.
The Archives also identified 1,303 pages of emails between Archives staff and other entities such as Congressional offices. The agency released 54 pages of that cache, including correspondence with the House Oversight Committee, while withholding 1,249 pages citing its own deliberations and 1,073 pages due to law enforcement.
This report has been updated with additional details.
Source: CNN Brasil
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