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Trump Reportedly looted 15 Boxes of Presidential Files to Mar-a-Lago
The federal government’s official record keeper had to go down to Florida to retrieve 15 boxes of documents and other items from former President Donald Trump — which the agency says should have been handed over at the end of his time in office.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said in a statement on Tuesday that, in January, it “arranged for the transport from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes that contained Presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021.”
A letter from former President Barack Obama left for his successor was among the items that had been packed up in boxes and taken to Florida, according to The Washington Post. Other correspondence with world leaders — including what Trump previously called “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — was also reportedly retrieved.
Reams of news clips printed out for the president, an item of clothing and a map that Trump infamously marked-up with a black Sharpie to show how Hurricane Dorian could hit Alabama in 2019 were also found in the boxes, The New York Times reports.
More items could be discovered, according to the National Archives. “Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,” the agency said in a statement. “As required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA), these records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Demcrat who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said Monday she planned to “fully investigate” the incident.
Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Inset: Donald Trump. | CREDIT: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY. INSET: ZACH GIBSON – POOL/GETTY
“The reporting on former President Trump’s apparent removal of presidential records and his failure to turn the records over to the National Archives for over a year is deeply troubling — but not surprising,” Maloney said in a statement.
“I sounded the alarm in December 2020 about the danger that the former President and senior Trump Administration officials were not properly transferring presidential records to the National Archives and unfortunately, we now know that was the case,” she continued. “I plan to fully investigate this incident to ensure the law is followed and records from the Trump Administration are with the National Archives where they belong, rather than stashed away in Trump’s golf resorts.”
The news that boxes of White House records were found at Mar-a-Lago is the latest in a series of reports about how the former president has apparently been mishandling official documents.
Last week, the National Archives confirmed that some of the files it did receive from the administration “included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump.” Some of those ripped-up and reconstructed documents were reportedly among the more than 700 pages turned over to lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman subsequently said Trump “loved to tear up those documents” and that she once allegedly saw him “chewing” on one of the ripped documents.
That incident “makes me worry that there are a lot of documents that may not be accounted for, that there may be documents that can tell the full story about what happened on the days leading up to January 6th for instance, that we may never see or may never come to light,” she said.
Archivist David S. Ferriero, who leads NARA, spoke about the Presidential Records Act in a statement provided in response to a request for comment on the boxes retrieved from Florida.
“The Presidential Records Act is critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people,” he said. “Whether through the creation of adequate and proper documentation, sound records management practices, the preservation of records, or the timely transfer of them to the National Archives at the end of an Administration, there should be no question as to need for both diligence and vigilance. Records matter.”
A Trump spokeswoman did not respond to PEOPLE’s previous request about his record-keeping.
Culled from the People
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‘I’ll bring my plane… I plan on keeping it for another four years’ – Biden on second debate with Trump
President Biden and former President Trump agreed to hold a second debate Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News.
The two candidates had already accepted an invitation earlier Wednesday to attend a CNN debate on June 27, and both confirmed later in the day on social media that they plan to attend the ABC debate in September.
“I’ve also received and accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday, September 10th,” Biden posted on the social platform X. “Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation. I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”
Biden, of course, is referring to the presidential jet, Air Force One.
“It is my great honor to accept the CNN Debate against Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST PRESIDENT in the History of the United States and a true Threat to Democracy, on June 27th,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Likewise, I accept the ABC News Debate against Crooked Joe on September 10th.”
It marked a whirlwind few hours that started with Biden’s campaign publicly proposing two deabtes in June and September and ended with both candidates agreeing to a date and host.
ABC News had planned to host a GOP primary debate in New Hampshire, but it was canceled after Trump and Nikki Haley said they would not attend. Martha Raddatz of ABC co-moderated one of the 2016 presidential debates; the network did not host a debate in 2020.
The candidates have chosen to go around the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that has arranged the showdowns dating back to 1988.
Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon suggested working with outlets that hosted GOP primary debates in 2016 and Democratic primary debates in 2020 to avoid any perceptions of bias.
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Women Affairs says it is investigating a plan by a lawmaker in central Niger state to marry off some 100 female orphans of unknown ages later this month.
Speaker of the Niger State Assembly Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji announced the mass wedding last week but called off the ceremony following widespread outrage.
Minister of Women Affairs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, condemned the plans.
Kennedy-Ohanenye said she had petitioned the police and filed a lawsuit to stop the marriages pending an investigation to ascertain the age of the orphans and whether they consented to the marriages.
“This is totally unacceptable by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and by the government” of Nigeria, she said.
Last week, Sarkin-Daji announced his support for the mass wedding of the orphans, whose relatives were killed during attacks by armed bandits. He said it was part of his support to his constituents following an appeal for wedding funding by local traditional and religious leaders.
The mass wedding had been scheduled for May 24.
“That support I intend to give for the marriage of those orphans, I’m withdrawing it,” he said. “The parents can have the support [money], if they wish, let them go ahead and marry them off. As it is right now, I’m not threatened by the action of the minister.”
Despite national laws prohibiting it, forced or arranged marriage is a common phenomenon in Nigeria, especially among rural communities in the predominantly Muslim north, where religious and cultural norms such as polygamy favor the practice.
Poor families often use forced marriage to ease financial pressure, and the European Union Agency for Asylum says girls who refuse could face repercussions such as neglect, ostracism, physical assault and rape.
Raquel Kasham Daniel escaped being married off as a teenager when her father died and now runs a nonprofit helping children, especially less-privileged girls, get a formal education for free.
She said the ability of women to avoid forced marriage in Nigeria depends on their income and education.
“I was 16 when I lost my dad and I was almost married off, but then I ran away from home. And that gave me the opportunity to complete my education, and now I have a better life,” Daniel said.
“So, the reason why I prioritize education is to make sure that other girls have access to quality schooling so that it will help them make informed decisions about their lives. Education not only increases our awareness as girls about our rights but also enhances our prospects for higher income earning,” she said.
Thirty percent of girls in Nigeria are married before they turn 18, according to Girls Not Brides, a global network of more than 1,400 civil society groups working to end child marriage.
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