Trump meetings with Putin broke the law, groups allege
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A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that President Trump violated the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act by “intentionally failing” to keep written accounts of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and others.
The lawsuit, filed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics in Washington, the National Security Archive and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, mentions five specific meetings between Trump and Putin at which no note takers were allowed to document what the two leaders discussed.
“It is clear that President Trump and White House officials have gone to great lengths to hold high-level meetings with foreign governments and carry out foreign policy objectives while blatantly ignoring record-keeping laws and preventing national security officials and the American people from understanding what they are doing,” Noah Bookbinder, CREW’s executive director, said in a press release. “The absence of records in these circumstances causes real, incalculable harm to our national security and poses a direct threat to transparency for the American public. We’re asking the court to compel White House officials to make and maintain these important records that let the public know what the government is up to and provide a safeguard to our history.”
In January, the Washington Post reported that Trump had confiscated the notes his interpreter had kept during a 2017 meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, in an attempt to conceal what the two leaders discussed.
Trump also held a private meeting with Putin at the G-20 summit held last December in Argentina at which no interpreters were present. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders described the meeting as “informal,” but refused to comment on what was discussed.
Last week, Trump held an hour-long phone conversation with Putin, during which the president said he discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While the Kremlin provided reporters with a readout of the call, the White House did not. Instead, Trump offered a brief summary to reporters gathered in the Oval Office as well as to his followers on Twitter.
Very good call yesterday with President Putin of Russia. Tremendous potential for a good/great relationship with Russia, despite what you read and see in the Fake News Media. Look how they have misled you on “Russia Collusion.” The World can be a better and safer place. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2019
Passed in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the Presidential Records Act of 1978 states that a president must preserve and make public all records relating to the performance of his or her duties. Enacted in 1950, the Federal Records Act established the legal framework for federal records management.
Tom Blanton, director at National Security Archive, noted that his organization has filed similar lawsuits against past presidents.
“The archive went to court to preserve presidential records when President Reagan tried to junk his email backup tapes in 1989. We have sued every president ever since, Democratic and Republican, to make sure the White House obeyed the records laws,” said Blanton. “Today, the problem goes beyond improperly shredding records, to the deliberate failure to create the records in the first place.”
In response to a separate lawsuit filed by CREW and other watchdog groups alleging that the Trump administration’s use of use of encrypted and self-erasing apps violates the law, Justice Department lawyer Steven Myers argued that “courts cannot review the president’s compliance with the Presidential Records Act.”
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