BREAKING: Trump argued presidents can destroy their own records — a federal judge just shut him down cold.
Let’s be very clear about what the Trump administration actually argued in federal court this year: that the Presidential Records Act — the law passed after Watergate specifically to prevent presidents from destroying or hiding evidence of their conduct — is unconstitutional, and that Donald Trump has the legal authority to destroy his own presidential records or take them for personal use.
A federal judge just said: absolutely not.
U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday blocking the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel memo that had declared Trump “need not further comply” with the 1978 law.
In a 54-page ruling, Bates found the Presidential Records Act is almost certainly constitutional, that the DOJ’s legal opinion relied on a “stark misreading” of Supreme Court precedent, and that White House personnel must continue preserving official records as the law requires.
“Presidential records belong to the American people, not to any one individual,” said Sarah Weicksel of the American Historical Association, one of the groups that sued. American Oversight called it “an important victory for presidential accountability.”
Think about what the administration was actually claiming. That a president — any president — can shred, burn, or pocket records documenting his own decision-making. That the historical record of how the government was run belongs to the man running it, not the public that elected him. That Watergate taught us nothing.
The DOJ didn’t make this argument accidentally. This administration has conducted significant government business on Signal, including accidentally adding a journalist to a chat about imminent military strikes. It dismissed the leaker who shared Trump’s tax returns while simultaneously suing to make sure those returns can never be audited again. It has fired officials for telling the truth to courts and purged career employees who refused to participate in politically motivated prosecutions.
An administration this determined to avoid accountability does not argue it has the right to destroy its own records accidentally.
The judge saw through it. His order takes effect on May 26th.
Trump and Vance were excluded from the injunction because courts generally cannot directly order a sitting president. Make of that what you will, but someone from the National Archives had better check their bags every time they leave the white House. And check the fireplaces too for suspicious ashes, particularly between now and May 26th
Please like and share this everywhere to celebrate this small victory.