Trump isn't the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around protecting confidential records, but national security experts say recent revelations point to a striking disregard of post-presidency norms set after the Watergate era.
“I cannot think of a historical precedent in which there was even the suspicion that a president or even a high-ranking officer in the administration, with the exception of the Nixon administration, purposely and consciously or even accidentally removing such a sizable volume of papers," said Richard Immerman, who served as assistant deputy director of national intelligence from 2007 to 2009.
That law was enacted after Nixon resigned from office in the midst of the Watergate scandal and sought to destroy hundreds of hours of secretly recorded White House tapes. It established government ownership of presidential records starting with Ronald Reagan.National Archives and Records Administration
Documents have been recovered from Trump’s bedroom, closet, bathroom and storage areas at his Florida resort, which doubles as his home. In June, when Justice Department officials met a Trump lawyer to retrieve records in response to a subpoena, the lawyer handed them documents in a "Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape."
But Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr said, in a separate Fox News interview said that he was “skeptical” of Trump's claim that he declassified everything. "People say this was unprecedented -- well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK,” Barr said.
Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel during the final years of the Obama administration, recalled that Fred Fielding, who held the same position in the George W. Bush administration, advised him as he started his new job to hammer home to staff the requirements set in the records act.
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