But former President Donald Trump’s actions go further than previous presidents, amounting to egregious violations of a law that came about in the aftermath of President Richard Nixon’s traumatic Watergate scandal.
This is not the first time that Trump has proven to be extraordinarily effective at eluding mechanisms designed to promote transparency and accountability, and more effective guardrails need to be put in place.
The National Archives is now asking the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. While a vast majority of referrals to the Justice Department do not end up sparking a formal investigation, it’s a remarkable turn of events for Trump, who repeatedly hounded 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while she was secretary of state.
By passing the Presidential Records Act, Congress sought to make it possible for the public to better understand how a presidency unfolded and allow future elected officials the opportunity to access critical information, whether for scholarship, an investigation, national security concerns or more.
For historians, we rely on the records that presidents leave behind as our bread and butter. These documents often provide the best and most accurate record of the those who inhabited the White House. While tourists walk through the display areas of presidential libraries, historians are squirreled away in the reading room looking through boxes of memos, letters, correspondence, internal publications, reports and more.
Trump’s ability to exploit the Presidential Records Act has highlighted a broader problem in the past few years. So much of our government and the system of checks and balances depend on the assumption that elected officials will simply abide by the norms of the office. We count on presidents to respect internal guardrails instead of pursuing political power at all costs. We count on legislators to be driven by a love of country — and not partisanship — to check the executive branch.
When those norms are trampled over, our constitutional system of checks and balances, as well as the post-Watergate reforms meant to curb abusive presidential behavior, is rendered ineffective and insufficient.
In 2022, there are two paths forward to deal with these issues. Congress could push for the reforms that Murphy and Quigley have put forward to diminish the latitude officials have to flout the rules. And voters can consistently support politicians who demonstrate the capacity to respect certain limits.
