Donald Trump, on the eve of stepping down as President of the United States,
retrieves 15 boxes of notes from the White House. It included a "love
letter" from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
According to the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the
documents were taken to Trump's home in South Florida.
Documents and mementos that also include correspondence from former US
President Barack Obama should have been legally handed over at the end of
Trump's presidency but ended up at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
"NARA is pursuing any records that it knows to have been improperly deleted
or have not been properly transferred to an official account," United States
Archives David S. Ferriero told AFP Tuesday.
“Whether through the creation of adequate and appropriate documentation,
good records management practices, preservation of archives, or timely
transfer to the National Archives at the end of an administrative term,
there is no doubt that diligence and prudence are necessary. Records are
important," he said.
The agency told AFP it did not obtain the records until mid-January.
The former president Trump, who spoke rhapsodic about his relationship with
Kim, said at a West Virginia rally in 2018: “We fell in love. No... really.
He wrote me a beautiful letter.”
The comments prompted the media, as well as Trump supporters and opponents,
to dub the unusual correspondence a Trump-Kim "love letter".
The discovery of the boxes has raised questions about Trump's compliance
with presidential records laws enacted after the Watergate scandal of the
1970s that required Oval Office residents to keep records relating to the
administrative activity.
Trump lost his bid last month to stop the archives from releasing diaries,
visitor logs, draft speeches, and other White House documents to a House
committee investigating the 2021 US Capitol riots.
Some of the papers submitted had been torn up by former president Trump and
glued back together. NARA added that it had also received a number of notes
that were still in pieces.
"These are all pure examples of Trump's approach to the Presidency, which is
that great power exists for him and not for the American people, who
actually own this record," former deputy assistant attorney general Harry
Litman said on Twitter.
AFP contacted Trump's office for comment but there was no immediate
response. "Representatives of former president Trump have informed NARA that
they are continuing to seek additional presidential records in the National
Archives' possession," the agency added.
