Source: Politics<\/p>\n
House Democrats are intensifying an investigation into the alleged removal and destruction of sensitive presidential records by former President Donald Trump and his inner circle.<\/p>\n
House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y) is asking the National Archives to provide information about top Trump advisers\u2019 discussions about preserving and storing White House records \u2014 amid growing evidence that they repeatedly ran afoul of record-keeping requirements for documents and social media accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people deserve to know the extent of what former President Trump did to hide and destroy federal records and make sure these abuses do not happen again,\u201d Maloney said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Maloney is asking National Archivist David Ferriero to detail by March 10 the contents of 15 boxes of records recovered by his office last month that had been improperly stored at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort.<\/p>\n
In a five-page letter<\/a> Maloney also asked for White House records on record-keeping and White House records on the destruction of documents by March 17. She specifically asked Ferriero to focus on Trump aides Pat Cipollone, John Kelly, Nicholas Luna, Derek Lyons, Don McGahn, Mark Meadows, Stefan Passantino, Robert Porter, Reince Priebus and Madeleine Westerhout.<\/p>\n Among the requests is an inquiry related to White House employees or contractors finding paper in a White House toilet, a reference to an anecdote in a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. White House staffers reportedly found pieces of paper flushed down White House toilets, leading them to believe Trump was attempting to destroy documents. Trump has denied the allegation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Maloney also asked Ferriero to prioritize the production of documents on the destruction of social media records and messages from top aides Andrew Giuliani, Chad Gilmartin, Ivanka Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Meadows, and Peter Navarro.<\/p>\n Maloney\u2019s letter comes a week after the Archives confirmed in separate letters<\/a> to Maloney that 15 boxes of records recovered from Mar-a-Lago had contained classified information. The Archives flagged other issues with the former president\u2019s storage of social media records and also highlighted White House officials\u2019 use of personal accounts for official business. The agency said it had contacted the Department of Justice about the inappropriate handling of documents.<\/p>\n