The National Archives (NARA) has denied responsibility for White House involvement with the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
According to documents obtained from the National Archives by America First Legal, President Joe Biden’s White House was involved in the raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence through a “special access request” to the Archives on behalf of the Department of Justice.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Archives said they only complied with the “special access request” from the White House.
“NARA routinely makes Presidential records in our legal custody available to all three branches of the federal government via the “special access” provision of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 2205(2)),” the agency said. “This provision authorizes Executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Justice, to make requests through the sitting President.”
“By providing records under the PRA, NARA does not consider itself to be involved in the work of, or investigations by, the requestors,” it continued. “This stands true whether the requestor is the President, an Executive branch agency, Congress, or a Court (including via grand jury subpoenas).”
On August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Mar-a-Lago on the grounds of retrieving alleged classified documents from Trump.
While the Biden administration officials said they were “stunned” to hear of the unprecedented action, contradicting the Archives’ documents obtained by America First Legal, the Archives claimed it had “not been involved in the DOJ investigation.”
The Archives also claimed Wednesday it did not mislead Congress as to its involvement in the matter, a point refuted by America First Legal by quoting the subsection of the provision:
NARA has limited authority to make Presidential records in its custody available via the “special access” provision of the PRA (44 U.S.C. § 2205(2)). The plain text of subsection (2)(B) allows the records to be made available “to an incumbent President if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of current business of the incumbent President’s office and that is not otherwise available.” Not whenever DOJ requests them as part of a fishing expedition–only if the records are “needed for the conduct of current business of the incumbent President’s office.” And those records must not be “otherwise available.”
“Recent statements by NARA allege that it has been truthful about its activities. This is not accurate, and if it is, NARA has more significant problems than it realizes,” Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice President and General Counsel said in a statement Thursday.
Seen here is Stephen Miller, president of America First Legal, who served in the West Wing as senior advisor to the president for the entirety of the Trump Administration. (aflegal.org)
“NARA’s allegations belie a misunderstanding of its statutory role in providing access to records under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and indicate a belief that it was not used by the Biden Administration (whether knowingly or unknowingly) as a means to an end,” he added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about its reported involvement in the Mar-a-Lago raid.
RELATED — WATCH: Sen. Rounds on Mar-a-Lago Raid: AG Garland Has ‘Responsibility’ to Share ‘Why They Did This’
p class=”p1″>Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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