There's 'a real and immediate threat' Trump will 'destroy or sell' documents from his presidency

Source: Law & Crime

Apr 27th, 2026, 11:58 am


The Trump administration's attempt to upend a long-standing legal requirement to preserve presidential records must be "permanently" blocked because there's "a real and immediate threat" President Donald Trump will "destroy or sell" documents, a new lawsuit alleges.

Adding to the growing pile of lawsuits, liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Freedom of the Press Foundation brought their case Friday.

The complaint, naming Trump, Vice President JD Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the National Archives (NARA) and acting Archivist Edward Forst as defendants, asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to declare "unlawful, vacate, and set aside" the administration's stated policy of "non-compliance" with the post-Watergate era "dictates" of the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

"President Nixon used his official authority to illegally target his perceived political foes and then to conceal and attempt to destroy evidence of that wrongdoing," the lawsuit noted. "The PRA was designed to fix failings in the legal regime that enabled these abuses.". Nonetheless, DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser wrote in an April 1 memorandum that Trump's dismissed Mar-a-Lago classified documents case showed why the president's records must be treated as personal, rather than as public property.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/theres-a-real-and-immediate-threat-trump-will-destroy-or-sell-documents-from-his-presidency-after-returning-the-country-to-pre-watergate-status-lawsuit/