Thread by @Monaheart1229

NEW
Per WaPo:
National Archives has asked DOJ to investigate Trump's handling of WH docs
"including those that might be considered classified"
Discussions are still in preliminary stage:
🧵
washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

2/"[NARA] has asked the [DOJ] to examine Trump’s handling of White House records, sparking discussions among fed'l law enforcement officials about whether they should investigate the former president for a possible crime, according to two people familiar with the matter.

3/"The referral from the National Archives came amid recent revelations that officials recovered 15 boxes of materials from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence that weren’t handed back in to the government as they should have been, and that Trump

4/"had turned over other White House records that had been torn up. Archives officials suspected Trump had possibly violated laws concerning the handling of government documents-including those that might be considered classified-and reached out to the Justice Department

5/"The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive request. The two people said the discussions about the matter remained preliminary, and it was not yet clear whether the Justice Department would investigate.

6/"The department also might be interested in merely reclaiming classified materials. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

7/"..Among the materials they recovered included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as “love letters,” as well as a letter left for Trump by President Barack Obama, people familiar with the matter said.

8/"The Archives also retrieved a doctored map of Hurricane Dorian that had been altered with a black Sharpie by Trump in a failed attempt to show he hadn’t been wrong about the storm’s path, according to a person familiar with the contents of the boxes.

9/"The Archives in a statement earlier this week said that Trump representatives are “continuing to search” for additional records.

10/"In a statement Wednesday, Trump said he had engaged in “collaborative and respectful” discussions with the Archives and had arranged for the “transport of boxes that contained Presidential Records in compliance with the Presidential Records Act.”

11/"He said the media had falsely characterized his relationship with NARA as hostile and that it was a “great honor” to work with the agency.

12/"..Last January, in the waning days of the Trump presidency, some administration staff also raised flags that some of the gifts Trump had received as president still remained in the White House, rather than properly turned over to the National Archives,

13/"said one former staffer familiar with the warning, speaking anonymously to share details of a potentially problematic practice.

14/"In the final days of the Trump administration, the packing was rushed and aides were concerned that personal items were being mixed with official items, according to former administration officials.

15/"'There was quite a bit of concern about the amount of mixing of personal effects with gifts that had been received during his time in office, which I’m sure in a traditional White House would have immediately been processed and given to the Archives,' one former staffer said.

16/"“But in the Trump White House, it was scattered throughout the West Wing, displayed behind glass, in the private dining room, and in the private residence on the second floor.”

17/"The concern now is that many of those gifts and other government documents improperly made their way to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla. This former staffer said, for instance, that after leaving the White House

18/"Trump displayed mini replica of one of the black border wall slats-with an engraved plaque on top-on his desk in his private office at Mar-a-Lago. Previously, as president, Trump had kept the replica on the credenza in the private dining room just off the Oval Office

19/"Trump also took with him a model of the Air Force One redesign he had proposed — replacing the Boeing 747’s iconic baby blue with a dark blue belly and a similarly dark red stripe ­— when he left the White House.

20/"As president, Trump proudly displayed the model redesign of Air Force One on a table in the Oval Office; now, it sits in a similar place of honor at his private Florida club, atop a coffee table at the entrance to Mar-a-Lago’s opulent gold-plated lobby room.." ~excerpts WaPo