Justice Department says law requiring president to turn over records at end of administration is unconstitutional

DOJ says presidential records law is unconstitutional, Trump not bound

The Justice Department has concluded that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. It’s a finding that will allow President Donald Trump to ignore a law that has governed presidential records for nearly five decades. The opinion from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel states that Congress lacks the authority to require the president to preserve and turn over official records to the National Archives. The finding, first reported by…

DoJ Claims Presidential Records Act Is 'Unconstitutional'

The Justice Department contends that a federal law requiring the preservation of presidential records is unconstitutional, which could effectively permit White House lawyers to try to set their own voluntary presidential recordkeeping policy and, potentially, upend decades-old legal precedent established in response to Richard M. Nixon’s effort to keep control of records after his resignation. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — w…

Justice Department Says the Presidential Records Act Is Unconstitutional

The Justice Department issued an opinion this week declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. Rahmat Gul/APThe Department of Justice has determined that the decades-old Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional, a decision that could allow the White House to create its own system to choose which records must be retained after President Donald Trump leaves office.The department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a 52-page opinion e…

American Oversight Slams Trump’s Attempted Evasion of Presidential Records Act

In response to the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel claiming the Presidential Records Act (PRA) is unconstitutional and that Donald Trump doesn’t need to follow the law — effectively shielding his administration’s records from public disclosure — American Oversight criticized the Trump White House’s continued efforts to evade transparency obligations, despite repeated claims from the president and his team that he is “the most tra…

DOJ, rejecting decades-old law, says Trump can keep his presidential records

Rejecting a decades-old law, the DOJ has concluded that President Trump does not need to turn over his presidential records to the National Archives.

DOJ concludes presidential records requirement unconstitutional

A nonbinding Justice Department opinion finds the Presidential Records Act of 1978 unconstitutional, exceeding congressional authority.