WASHINGTON (AP) – The National Archives has been subpoenaed more than 80 times over the past decade about classified materials found in the records of former members of Congress and other U.S. officials, according to newly released congressional testimony.
This number underscores weaknesses in how the US government tracks and safeguards its most important secrets.
Classified materials found at former President Donald Trump’s properties and in subsequent searches of files held by President Joe Biden before he won the White House and Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence are being investigated.
National Archives officials testified in March before the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating the discovery of those records and considering new legislation. The committee released the testimony Wednesday.
Archives officials said most of the more than 80 calls came from libraries where former members of Congress donated their papers for future research. Edmund Muskie, a former Democratic senator from Maine and later secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, took 98 classified documents that were later found at Bates College, officials said. Muskie died in 1996.
Beginning with former President Ronald Reagan, every administration has been found to have classified and unclassified papers mixed together, said William J. Bosanko, the archives’ chief operating officer. Reagan left office in 1989 and died in 2004.
Government and outside experts have long warned that the US classifies too much information, doesn’t declassify enough and lacks a unified system to track breaches. A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard is accused of posting hundreds of secret and sensitive Pentagon documents for weeks to online chat rooms, a violation that was not discovered until other users began sharing the documents. through the internet.
Bosanko told the committee that the National Archives has stored 555,000 cubic feet of classified national security information, which he estimated to be about the size of 5 1/2 football fields.
Agencies often decide for themselves what to share with archives and when, Bosanko said. In the White House, he said, “Essentially, each individual serves as their own custodian with very limited oversight.”
“To me, it’s a symptom of a bigger problem, which is that document management is usually the last thought,” he said.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, RNY, asked Bosanko why the National Archives contacted Trump officials about missing documents and not Pence or Biden after their vice presidencies.
Bosanko responded that archives staff knew based on public reports that Trump had not returned two examples of highly publicized documents: a letter he received from former President Barack Obama and correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un .
Only when Trump officials sent boxes of files to the archives did staff discover classified information mixed in with other papers, Bosanko said.
“There is no document-level tracking in the executive branch of the White House complex,” he declared. “So anyone’s ability to know that something is gone or lost is very limited.”
Representative Mike Turner, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the US has a “systemic problem”.
“We need a better way for elected officials who leave office, both in the executive and legislative branches, to properly return classified material and protect the integrity of our national security,” Turner said.
Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have introduced legislation targeting the recent breaches. His bills would propose that the National Archives be required to clear any documents a president wants to take as personal papers.
___
Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
