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ORLANDO, FL - NOVEMBER 13: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people as he arrives to speak during the Sunshine Summit conference being held at the Rosen Shingle Creek on November 13, 2015 in Orla... ORLANDO, FL - NOVEMBER 13: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people as he arrives to speak during the Sunshine Summit conference being held at the Rosen Shingle Creek on November 13, 2015 in Orlando, Florida. The summit brought Republican presidential candidates in front of the Republican voters. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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February 9, 2022 4:04 p.m.
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Just moments ago the Post reported that the National Archives has asked the Justice Department to investigate ex-President Trump’s handling of White House records and possible violations of the Presidential Records Act. For clarity, the PRA is the post-Watergate statute that makes clear the the work product of the presidency belongs to the American public and not the individual president. As is so often the case, adjudicating Trump’s infractions is paradoxically complicated by their sheer brazenness. I mean, what is there to investigate? The violations have been so open that he seems to be saying with his actions that his actions are okay. Trump for years openly destroyed records covered by the PRA. (His staff reportedly attempted to piece them back together with tape.) Then he absconded with 15 boxes of records that the National Archives had to recover from Mar-a-Lago.

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