washington
CNN
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After the discovery of classified documents in the homes of former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden, the National Archives has formally asked the former president and vice president to re-examine their personal records for any classified documents or other presidential records. boarded the past year.
The Archives sent a letter Thursday to representatives of former presidents and vice presidents covered by the Presidential Records Act (PRA) in the last six presidential administrations — from former President Ronald Reagan’s White House to the present.
CNN reviewed the letter, asking them to examine their files to ensure that material deemed personal did not “inadvertently” include presidential records that were required by law to be turned over to the archives.
“The responsibility to comply with the PRA will not diminish after the administration ends,” the letter said. “We therefore ask that you evaluate any material held outside of NARA relating to the government for which you are the designated representative of the PRA to determine whether material previously considered to be of a personal nature may inadvertently include the President or Vice Presidential records, whether classified or unclassified.”
“While much of the attention in these instances has been on classified information, the PRA requires that all presidential records from each administration beginning with Reagan be transferred to NARA, regardless of classification status,” the letter states.
The Archives sent the letter to former Presidents Trump, Barack Obama, George W Bush, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan as well as former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Argo Delegate and Dan Quayle.
So far, representatives of the four former presidents have told CNN they have no classified records. Representatives for former presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and the late George H.W. Bush all told CNN that all classified records were turned over to the National Archives when they left office.
Former President Jimmy Carter did not hear from the Archives because he is technically not subject to the ACT for Presidential Records. Although Carter signed the PRA, it did not take effect until after he left office.
A source familiar with the archives told CNN they don’t recall Carter finding any stray classified documents.
Quayle confirmed to CNN that everything was turned over to the archives, and sources familiar with Cheney’s records said Cheney turned everything over when he left the White House. A spokesman for Gore said he and his staff handed over everything they had when they left the White House and no classified material has since been found.
In the latest case, Pence turned over about a dozen classified documents to the FBI, as CNN first reported this week, of current or former White House officials in possession of classified material at their homes or offices. third case. Out of an abundance of caution, Pence also provided the National Archives with four boxes of unclassified material to ensure that any other material in his possession is not subject to the Presidential Records Act.
Trump has more than 300 classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, while Biden has ten in his former private office in Washington. More batches of classified documents were subsequently found at Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware.