US house to investigate whether Trump broke law in handling of documents

The House oversight committee on Thursday opened an investigation into potential violations of the Presidential Records Act by Donald Trump, after he retained and destroyed records relevant to the 6 January insurrection.

The panel asked the National Archives to turn over communications between the former president and the agency about missing and destroyed records, as well as a description of materials in boxes of records retrieved from Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago last month.

According to the New York Times, the boxes contained what the National Archives and Records Administration believed was classified information in some documents.

Staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet – which they believed Trump had flushed, according to journalist Maggie Haberman in her forthcoming book Confidence Man.

“Removing or concealing government records is a criminal offense,” Carolyn Maloney, the chairwoman of the powerful oversight committee, said in a letter to the National Archives. “Trump and his senior advisers must also be held accountable for any violations of the law.”

The National Archives recently discovered that the former president had retained at least 15 boxes of materials at Mar-a-Lago. Among the items that travelled with Trump to his post-presidency home in Florida were “love letters” from Kim Jong-un, a letter left for him by Barack Obama, and a model of Air Force One with the red-white-blue livery he chose for it.