Letter to Editor: on Trump & Records!
Should Be All About Integrity!
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Letter to Editor: on Trump & Records!
SUBJECT: DONALD TRUMP AND THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT.
I have heard former President Trump argue many times that his taking of Confidential and Classified records when he left office is supported by the so called PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT – theoretically established in 1978.
But in my review of that act, it is stated: the act “Establishes that Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.”
The “Archivist” of mention is most likely the “National Archives & Records Administration – otherwise known as NARA.
How can anyone claim that provision is supportive of a former president or vice-president taking so called “Presidential records” with him? My guess is that it does not provide any penalty for violating the act. That must be why Donald Trump can flagrantly disobey it and claim it does not apply to him – and, in fact, empowers him to violate it. If there is no penalty for violating a law, then it is a mute law – and therefore, no law at all.
All I want to say to that is if you flagrantly violate a standard to which you agreed to sustain when you took office, then you do not deserve to ever hold that office – or any public office – again. In my mind, it’s called “integrity.” You abide by that to which you agree – or you have no right to claim respect.
Some would argue we can’t hold some to account and not others when those others do the same thing. But the real question should be: are they doing the same thing? Is President Biden and Vice President Pence also guilty of the same thing when both have been found with “Presidential records” in their homes after leaving office?
The question should be: who put them there – and when discovered, did either Biden or Pence resist returning them? We know that Donald Trump knew of what he was taking – and resisted returning them upon request. Time will tell if he not only kept records illegally, but may have also shared them; and such ls clearly against the law. Isn’t it?