Trump's records cover-up is to avoid 'prison time': former US Archivist

Donald Trump is continuing his widely-panned effort to block the release of federal records sought by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Presidents are not kings," the district court judge ruled. Yet Trump is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court after getting "absolutely skewered" by the appeals court.

To shed light on Trump's battle of the National Archives records, The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery interviewed Don W. Wilson and John W. Carlin, who both served as the U.S. archivist.

“Given how frantic they are... there are things in those records that are going to make real trouble. I’m talking about prison time,” Carlin said. “It reinforces the fact that they know they're in real trouble if these things are released—particularly if they’re released soon.”

“Nixon knew that tapes were going to kill him, and so he obviously fought and said they weren’t records. They were, because they were created in the Oval Office,” he explained.

Wilson recalled when the issue of electronic messages first came up during his term as archivist from 1987 to 1993.

“You aren't supposed to conduct personal business on your cell phone. If it is, then it’s an official record. Is this official business? If it is, then it’s technically a presidential record, even if it's on your personal cell phone,” Wilson said. “All of it is supposed to be turned over at the end of the administration.”

Read the full report.