Fresh guidance delivered to White House staffers could make destroying government documents that much easier for President Donald Trump's administration, a report has claimed.
An email from the Executive Office of the President issued new guidance on how staffers would save and log internal information and government documents.
The new records preservation policy is a "significant departure from historical practice," according to White House Counsel David Alan Warrington, who wrote to staffers to inform them of the change.
Trump's administration has been challenged in court by the Office of Legal Counsel for its preservation of documents. The law states that presidents and their staff preserve records related to government activity and that those records be turned over to the National Archives at the end of each administration.
The latest directive found in the memo did not make clear whether the documents would be turned over at the end of Trump's admin, and did not note the specifics of how Trump or Vice President JD Vance would preserve records.
Jason R. Baron, a University of Maryland professor who focuses on the intersection of archives and the law, warned that the latest internal memo is a license to make recordkeeping discretionary rather than mandatory.
Baron told The Washington Post that the memo provides nothing that "prevents the White House from directing the transfer or destruction of White House records, including tens of millions of e-mails, either before or after the end of the president’s second term in office."
The Washington Post reporter Maegan Vazquez added, "Baron pointed to a section of the memo that says EOP components are 'free to retain' previous record-preservation policies, noting that this also means they are free not to. 'While paying lip service to the need to preserve White House records, the memo actually gives EOP staff license to do the exact opposite,' he said.
"The new guidance says such texts must be preserved only 'when they are the sole record of official decision-making, government action, or contain unique information not available elsewhere.'
"Staffers are 'encouraged' to memorialize the information in those exchanges 'in a more accessible format, such as an email or memorandum,' it adds, rather than directly taking a screenshot or otherwise sharing the relevant exchange in its entirety."
