WASHINGTON — The House Oversight and Reform Committee is scaling up its investigation into what its chairwoman says could be “the largest-scale violations of the Presidential Records Act since its enactment,” according to a letter being sent to the National Archives on Friday.
“I am deeply concerned that former President Trump may have violated the law through his intentional efforts to remove and destroy records that belong to the American people,” committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., wrote in the letter to Archivist David Ferriero. The Times obtained the letter before it was sent to Ferriero.
The committee is examining what happened to presidential records that were supposed to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump administration and are presumed to be missing or destroyed. It is also looking at 15 boxes of materials recovered last month by the National Archives from Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, including some documents marked classified and some that were torn up. The Archives has asked the Justice Department to determine whether a crime was committed in connection with the documents’ handling.
