It has become clear in recent days that former President Donald Trump mishandled official presidential documents to an astonishing and possibly illegal extent while in office. Multiple sources now indicate that after winning the presidency with a campaign in which he savaged Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of official emails, Trump improperly stored possibly classified material at Mar-a-Lago, tore up other documents that staffers then had to tape back together, and even clogged White House toilets by trying to flush documents — putting an absurdly literal new twist on the old Nixonian phrase “White House plumbers.”
In light of all this (and speaking of Nixon), it’s fair to be deeply suspicious about gaps now being discovered in White House records examined by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Trump’s penchant for tearing up paper to announce he’s done discussing a topic has long been known, but the degree to which he indulged this childish habit is only now becoming clear. When the committee requested documents from the National Archives related to Trump’s presidency, some of the documents had apparently been ripped up and taped back together.
