Former President Donald Trump again claimed he had “every right to have these documents, personal belongings, in boxes.” Trump, of course, is facing 37 criminal charges related to his post-presidency handling of sensitive national security information.
Speaking at Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference, Trump told the Christian assembly that he was merely one among many former government officials who kept documents in their possession after leaving office.
Trump claims his document handling was justified under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), a 1978 — Trump says 1977 — act that “established a new statutory structure under which Presidents, and subsequently NARA, must manage the records of their Administrations,” according to the National Archives.
Trump: Under the Presidential Records Act, I had every right to have these documents pic.twitter.com/ZHf1uyk5tY
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 25, 2023
While he had permission, Trump asserts, others didn’t — “Joe Biden didn’t,” Trump says, “even Mike Pence didn’t have that right.” They “weren’t covered by the Presidential Records Act. I was, because I was President.”
[NOTE: Concerning Pence and Biden, who possessed documents from their respective days as Vice President, it may be notable that the Presidential Records Act “requires that Vice-Presidential records be treated in the same way as Presidential records.”]
under the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 — Trump says 1977 — act that “established a new statutory structure under which Presidents, and subsequently NARA, must manage the records of their Administrations,” according to the National Archives.Using a familiar charge, Trump asserts that despite his document treatment being common, “these scoundrels and thugs only come after me.”
“Many, many others” did the same thing, Trump says. “If you look at the Bush family, and if you look at even Jimmy Carter — and I say he’s innocent — I say Jimmy Carter’s innocent.”
Trump knows his audience. Carter, 99 and in hospice, was not a political conservative, but as a self-professed “born-again” Christian, the former President — who incidentally held office during the creation of the Presidential Records Act — remains an important figure in the history of American Christian Evangelicalism.
