Historians having to tape together records that Trump tore up

SilentPanda · Jan 17, 2021

The public will not see Donald Trump's White House records for years, but there is growing concern the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of America's most tumultuous presidencies.

Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House workers to spend hours taping them back together.

White House staff quickly learned about Trump's disregard for documents as they witnessed him tearing them up and discarding them. "My director came up to me and said, 'You have to tape these together,'" said Solomon Lartey, a former White House records analyst.

The president also confiscated an interpreter's notes after speaking with Vladimir Putin – a conversation where topics were suspected to have included Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Top executive branch officials had to be reminded not to conduct official business on private email or text messaging systems, and to preserve it if they did.

The Biden administration can request to see Trump records immediately, but the law says the public must wait five years before submitting freedom of information requests. Even then, Trump – like other presidents before him – is invoking specific restrictions to public access of his records for up to 12 years.

The National Security Archive, two historical associations and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have sued to prevent the Trump White House destroying electronic communications or records sent or received on non-official accounts, such as personal email or WhatsApp. They alleged the White House has already likely destroyed presidential materials.

The court refused to issue a temporary restraining order after government lawyers told the judge they had instructed the White House to notify all employees to preserve all electronic communications in their original format until the suit was settled.

Historians having to tape together records that Trump tore up

Implications for public record and legal proceedings after administration seized or destroyed papers, notes and other information

www.theguardian.com

So..there is a law to preserve, but no consequence if you don't preserve?

Deleted member 4461 · Jan 17, 2021

"We are a nation of laws"

Nation of polite suggestions, more like.

Never realized how much duct tape held together the government until the past 4 years.

onpoint · Jan 17, 2021

I'm hoping we learn a LOT about Presidential consequences over the next few years. Don't let him off the hook.

purplemonkey111 · Jan 17, 2021

working as intended. When you write the rules for yourself, of course there's no consequences.

Bigwombat · Jan 17, 2021

Haha. Like trump ever read any document handed to him. I'm convinced he's read less than 10 books his entire life including his own ghost written books. Dude just sees paper and starts foaming at the mouth.
Just one more reason I hate him

Mivey · Jan 17, 2021

Vermillion said:
"We are a nation of laws"

Nation of polite suggestions, more like.

Never realized how much duct tape held together the government until the past 4 years.

This might be one of the ironic benefits of the Trump administration: showing the need to reform the many powers of POTUS and create better systems of oversight. Of course most of this would need constitutional amendments, so yeah basically no chance of anything getting done, not while half the US still votes Republican.

Oni_J · Jan 17, 2021

~~LAW~~ RIP
and
~~ORDER~~ TEAR

I can totally picture him doing that from his "businesses man" days, frankly surprised he doesn't shread them directly.

Imperfected · Jan 17, 2021

Vermillion said:
"We are a nation of laws"

Nation of polite suggestions, more like.

Never realized how much duct tape held together the government until the past 4 years.

We are a nation of laws for poor people.

Deleted member 24079 · Jan 17, 2021

Vermillion said:
"We are a nation of laws"

Nation of polite suggestions, more like.

Never realized how much duct tape held together the government until the past 4 years.

If anything, I'm inspired to get involved even at the local level.

Deleted member 4461 · Jan 17, 2021

Mivey said:
This might be one of the ironic benefits of the Trump administration: showing the need to reform the many powers of POTUS and create better systems of oversight. Of course most of this would need constitutional amendments, so yeah basically no chance of anything getting done, not while half the US still votes Republican.

I feel like the best chance of getting anything done that limits the President in some way is while Democrats have power. Incidentally, it's also a great time to introduce term limits for the Senate.

Imperfected said:
We are a nation of laws for poor people.

Yup.

GrandmaKnowsBest said:
If anything, I'm inspired to get involved even at the local level.

I wish you the best of luck. May your drive and soul remain intact.

davepoobond · Jan 17, 2021

Law and order. Except these laws

Travo · Jan 17, 2021

Perfect symbol of the Trump administration.

0h-so-Cold · Jan 17, 2021

So much shady crap. A guy who don't want a paper trail was the most powerful person in the world. This guy...

jroc74 · Jan 17, 2021

"Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller."

He knew!!!

McScroggz · Jan 17, 2021

I just wish we lived in a country were the political parties would generally uphold the law and the only real issue was the ideas they supported and where you aligned with them. But no, even something as "trivial" as you can't just destroy official documents as a president is something that there aren't consequences for because it was a Republican president. Ugh.

Bashteee · Jan 17, 2021

Amalthea · Jan 17, 2021

"Sir, our intelligence services have recieved intel about an imminent att..."

Trump rips up the document and throws it in the air, yelling: "Oooh, confetti!"

hateradio · Jan 17, 2021

I'm not surprised by this.

VariantX · Jan 17, 2021

Mivey said:
This might be one of the ironic benefits of the Trump administration: showing the need to reform the many powers of POTUS and create better systems of oversight. Of course most of this would need constitutional amendments, so yeah basically no chance of anything getting done, not while half the US still votes Republican.

Yep. The system of gentleman's agreements needs to end. Shit is held together with duct tape and thread

Chaos2Frozen · Jan 17, 2021

I mean, I feel that the problem is not the gentleman's agreement- but the people who can choose to enforce or not depending if they like the guy.

Even if you make it law what's stopping people from ignoring the law and just "we must heal and move on"

Daphne · Jan 17, 2021

I remember reading about this in his first year. Trump did this for his entire term and everyone knew he was doing it and it was simply another law he constantly broke where nothing happened.

This is clearly one of his mobster habits, likely taught to him by his mentors, like Roy Cohn.

It's so incredibly frustrating to have seen a straight up criminal elected to the Presidency, see him commit literally hundreds of crimes in plain sight, and the law system being totally unable to hold him to account or modify his behaviour. We all had to wait it out for four long soul-crushing years as he corroded the entire system.

Dis · Jan 17, 2021

Daphne said:
I remember reading about this in his first year. Trump did this for his entire term and everyone knew he was doing it and it was simply another law he constantly broke where nothing happened.

This is clearly one of his mobster habits, likely taught to him by his mentors, like Roy Cohn.

It's so incredibly frustrating to have seen a straight up criminal elected to the Presidency, see him commit literally hundreds of crimes in plain sight, and the law system being totally unable to hold him to account or modify his behaviour. We all had to wait it out for four long soul-crushing years as he corroded the entire system.

Yep I remember reading about it back then and had the exact same thought, this dude has been doing this for years those articles said back then and all I could think was "well clearly he has been doing it for years out of a mindset of destroying anything that could be evidence of his wrong doing and illegal behavior."

There is no other reason a grown ass adult would constantly destroy basic paperwork or documents, especially a so called "successful businessman"

thesoapster · Jan 17, 2021

Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

It's like the Stringer notes on a criminal conspiracy moment.

Tokyo_Funk · Jan 17, 2021

"What this?"
"Today's briefing sir"
"Me no read, show pictures! Show puppets!
"Uh, sir you have to read them it's part of..."
****RIIIIIIP****
"No, me no read, UGG UGG! You pick up! Me go watch Fox and Friends!"

Malleymal · Jan 17, 2021

Wasn't this all obvious? I don't have a journalistic bone in my body, but I knew that he was covering up all of the illegal shit. He had private conversations put on a special server outside of the government server. Never allowed people on his team to testify and claimed some fake immunity. None of that is behavior of someone who is innocent.

Strike · Jan 17, 2021

Hopefully there's still enough there to use against him.

Marin-Lune · Jan 17, 2021

"... But his emails?!"

shnurgleton · Jan 17, 2021

thesoapster said:
It's like the Stringer notes on a criminal conspiracy moment.

First thing I thought

cameron · Jan 17, 2021

VG Aficionado · Jan 17, 2021

Vermillion said:
"We are a nation of laws"

Nation of polite suggestions, more like.

Never realized how much duct tape held together the government until the past 4 years.

The older I get, the more I realise that so many people and so many organizations have such lousy standards and then fail so much to follow them anyway. It must be human nature.

entremet · Jan 17, 2021

As Trump showed, without accountability, laws are useless.

Digital Dinosaur · Jan 17, 2021

Human psychology tricks us into feeling like rules and laws are objective forces which bind our actions. They're nothing; it's just words.

If people in the right positions just decide to say "fuck it" there is no law, there are no rules.

Trump and the GOP have provided us with a harsh and terrible lesson in how many of those positions have absolutely no checks or failsafes.

III-V · Jan 17, 2021

entremet · Jan 17, 2021

Digital Dinosaur said:
Human psychology tricks us into feeling like rules and laws are objective forces which bind our actions. They're nothing; it's just words.

If people in the right positions just decide to say "fuck it" there is no law, there are no rules.

Trump and the GOP have provided us with a harsh and terrible lesson in how many of those positions have absolutely no checks or failsafes.

Not just the poliicos, but the judges have given the President a lot of executive immunity too.

nihilence · Jan 17, 2021

Imagine your job is just to tape documents back together.

AlgusUnderdunk · Jan 17, 2021

nihilence said:
Imagine your job is just to tape documents back together.

human5892 · Jan 17, 2021

I'm okay with this. Will only be mad if he was running a private email server.

Annubis · Jan 17, 2021

Marin-Lune said:
"... But his emails?!"

e-ripped them apart.

Montresor · Jan 17, 2021

jroc74 said:
"Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller."

He knew!!!

Stringer Bell: You taking notes on a fucking criminal conspiracy! *swats notebook away*

Historians having to tape together records that Trump tore up

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