The National Archives dismissed former President Donald Trump‘s assertions that his predecessor Barack Obama took classified White House documents with him at the end of his administration.
“The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA),” the statement read. “NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility where they are maintained exclusively by NARA. Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, D.C., area. As required by PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his administration.”
The response came after Trump accused Obama of keeping in his possession 33 million pages of documents after leaving the White House.
“How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!” he wrote on his Truth Social account.
Trump’s accusations against Obama follow the FBI’s searching of his Mar-a-Lago residence last week. The search warrant, which was made public on Friday, confirmed that Trump is under investigation for possibly violating the Espionage Act. The released inventory list reports that the FBI recovered 11 classified documents in their search.
The National Archives called on the Justice Department in February to open an investigation into whether or not Trump violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires former Presidents to turn in all documents and records from their administration, after locating 15 boxes of classified records at Mar-a-Lago.
