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The U.S. National Archives is asking former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to review their personal records for classified documents after news that President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence have the documents.
The Archives sent letters Thursday to former presidents and vice presidents returning to Ronald Reagan to ensure compliance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. The Act states that records created or received by the president are the property of the US government and will be maintained by the Archives at the end of the administration.
Archives sent letters to representatives of former presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan, and former vice presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Dan Quayle.
The responsibility to comply with the Presidential Records Act “does not diminish after the end of the administration,” the Archivist wrote in the letter.
“Therefore, we ask you to conduct an assessment of any material outside (Archives) related to the administration you carry out as the designated representative of the PRA, to determine whether the body of material previously considered to be of a private nature. does not knowingly contain any records of the President or the Vice President that are subject to the PRA, whether classified or unclassified.”
Spokesmen for Trump, Obama, Clinton, Pence, Cheney, Gore and Quayle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Freddy Ford, chief of staff for former president George W. Bush responded to the Archive, saying, “Thank you for the records. We know the purpose and remain confident that we do not have such material in our possession.”
Biden’s lawyers discovered classified documents from his time as US vice president in a locked cabinet while packing up his unused office in November.
Since then, subsequent searches by the FBI and Biden’s lawyers have produced more documents. Former vice president Pence, also, this week, found the documents and handed them over after previously saying he didn’t believe he had them.
The special counsel investigating Trump, Biden
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment but a search by Biden’s attorneys and the FBI appeared to be in response to the Archive’s request.
Archive has no comments.
The handling of classified documents has been an issue for decades, from presidents to cabinet members and staff in multiple administrations to Jimmy Carter.
But the issue is more pressing because Trump deliberately withheld classified material at his Florida property, which led to the FBI’s seizure of thousands of pages of records last year.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of the document, as well as Biden.
It is only a crime if it is done intentionally
It appears officials from all levels of government have discovered they have classified materials and turned them over to authorities at least several times a year, according to another person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity. the nature of confidential documents.
Current and former officials involved in the handling of classified information say that while there are clear policies on how such information should be viewed and stored, those policies are sometimes sidelined at the highest levels.
The team of national security officials, secretaries and military aides responsible for guarding the highest-level executives — and the executives themselves — can bend the rules to make them easy, useful, or sometimes obscene.
While much attention has been focused on classified information, the Presidential Records Act has required, since the Reagan administration continued, that all records be transferred to the Archives regardless of classification.
It is against federal law to have classified documents in an unauthorized location, but it is only a felony if it is done intentionally.
Speaking Thursday at an unrelated news conference, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he could not discuss ongoing investigations, “We have had years of investigations gone wrong. and the work of the counterintelligence program.”
He said people should be aware of the laws and regulations governing the handling of confidential information.
“The rules,” he said, “are there for a reason.”
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