The National Archives have asked former presidents and vice presidents to double check their records for any classified documents following the bombshell revelations that President Joe Biden had several “top secret” documents himself, along with former President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
In a letter from the agency, they requested former officials to “conduct an assessment of any materials held outside of NARA that relate to the Administration for which you serve as a designated representative under the PRA, to determine whether bodies of materials previously assumed to be personal in nature might inadvertently contain Presidential or Vice Presidential records subject to the PRA, whether classified or unclassified.”
Under the Presidential Records Act, confidential records created or received by the president are the property of the U.S. government and are required to be relinquished by the archives at the end of the administration to preserve for historical purposes.
However, the law lacks any legal teeth to hold on to with no criminal penalty for those who do not comply with the act.
Still, mishandled documents are another conversation.
The letter was sent to representatives of former Presidents Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, and former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, and Dan Quayle.
In addition, national archives general counsel Gary Stern has agreed to sit for a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee regarding Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
Led by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the committee has demanded answers from the Biden Administration as to why the official documents were stashed at both his Delaware home and his D.C. office the president used while serving as vice president.
“President Biden promised to have the most transparent administration in history, but he refuses to be transparent when it matters most," Comer recently said.
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