Washington
CNN
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The National Archives has informed former President Donald Trump that it plans to hand over to special counsel Jack Smith 16 records that show Trump and his top advisers were aware of the proper declassification process while he was president, according to multiple sources.
In a May 16 letter obtained by CNN, Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall writes to Trump: “All 16 records in question reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed at you personally, about whether, why and how you should declassify certain classified records”.
The 16 presidential records, which were subpoenaed earlier this year, may provide critical evidence establishing the former president’s awareness of the declassification process, a key part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents .
The records may also provide information about Trump’s intent and whether he willfully ignored what he knew were clearly established protocols, according to a source familiar with recent grand jury testimony by former senior Trump officials.
Trump and his allies have insisted that as president, Trump did not have to follow a specific process to declassify documents. In a CNN town hall last week, Trump repeated the claim that simply by removing classified documents from the White House he had declassified them. “And by the way, they’re automatically declassified when I took them,” Trump said.
According to the letter, Trump sought to block the special counsel’s access to the 16 records by asserting a claim of “constitutionally based privilege.” But in his letter, Wall rejects that claim, saying the special counsel’s office has said it is “prepared to demonstrate with specificity in court why the 16 records are likely to contain evidence that would be important to the grand jury investigation.” .”
The special counsel also told the Archives that the evidence is “virtually not available from another source.”
The letter goes on to say that the records will be released on May 24, 2023 “unless prohibited by an intervening court order.”
A source close to Trump’s legal team told CNN that the former president has received several letters like this one from the Archives throughout the investigation.
The Trump team may challenge that in court, this person said, but asserted that in the past the archives have turned over documents before the Trump team had a chance to challenge the release in court.
Trump’s legal team did not disclose what was in the 16 records, but the source said the former president’s attempt to block access to the special counsel is “more of a strategic fight over constitutional protections and presidential rather than withholding evidence from the special counsel.” ”
The special counsel’s office and the Archives declined to comment.
Jim Trusty, Trump’s lawyer in the classified documents case, told CNN that the former president relied on constitutional authority to bring the documents to Mar-a-Lago.
“At the end of his presidency, he relied on constitutional authority as commander in chief, which is to take documents and bring them to Mar-a-Lago while he was still president as he was at the time, and effectively declassify and declassify . personalize them,” Trusty told CNN’s Sara Sidner about the former president. “He talked about declassifying them, but there was no need.”
Last year, after the FBI seized secret and classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the former president and his allies claimed that Trump had a “standing order” to declassify documents he take from the Oval Office to the White House residence. .
But 18 former senior Trump administration officials said they never heard of any such order issued during their time working for Trump, telling CNN the claim was “ludicrous” “ridiculous” and a “complete fiction”.
NARA’s letter to Trump comes amid a flurry of activity by Smith’s team, including grand jury appearances by former national security officials who testified they told Trump there was a process because a president declassified material, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The 16 records may help federal investigators clear a major hurdle to a possible prosecution of the former president. Although presidents have the ultimate declassification authority, the limits of that authority have not been tested in court.
That means the Justice Department can’t completely reject the various claims by Trump and his allies that he declassified material without going through the standard process.
In his letter, Wall says NARA began searching for relevant records after receiving a subpoena from Smith’s team on Jan. 23, 2023. The archives turned up 104 unclassified documents that matched what prosecutors had requested federal
When notified that NARA intended to provide those documents to the grand jury, Trump’s legal team raised privilege concerns about 81 of those records. The Biden White House was also notified, but told NARA that the acting president would not claim the privilege to block those records from being shared with the grand jury.
The special counsel also had access to other records not contested by the Trump team.
Finally, the special counsel identified the 16 records in question as relevant to the grand jury investigation.
At a CNN town hall last week, Trump misrepresented the Presidential Records Act, falsely claiming he was “allowed” to take documents when he left office.
The Presidential Archives Act actually provides that as soon as a president leaves office, the National Archives becomes the legal custodian of the president’s records, which belong to the public.
“He had every right under the Presidential Records Act,” Trump said when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins why he took documents when he left the White House. “You have the Presidential Records Act. I was there and I took what I took and it’s declassified,” he added.
This story has been updated with additional details.
