(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced that, as of March 31, the National Archives has released only 1,276 pages of over 8,000 records about the unprecedented document dispute and raid on the home of former President Trump. Click here or here to review the records.
The records were released as the result of Judicial Watch’s August 2022 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the National Archives and Records Administration unlawfully failed to respond to a February 2022 FOIA request (Judicial Watch v National Archives and Records Administration (No. 1:22-cv-02535)) for:
- All records regarding the referral from NARA to the Department of Justice regarding the records management procedures of former President Donald Trump. This request includes all related records of communication between any official or employee of NARA and any official or employee of the Department of Justice and/or any other branch, department, agency, or office of the federal government.
- All records regarding the retrieval of records from President Trump or any individual or entity acting on his behalf by the National Archives and Records Administration. This request includes related records of communication between any official or employee of NARA and President Trump and/or any individual or entity acting on his behalf.
The records uncovered by Judicial Watch’s lawsuit include information further confirming how the Biden White House was directly involved in the dispute by initiating “special access request” that spurred an FBI investigation of Trump’s records. Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives wrote to his colleagues on August 23, 2022:
And, this evening the Post just published a new story detailing an April 12, email that I sent to the Trump reps concerning the DOJ special access request for the 15 Trump boxes, along with many other details concerning the DOJ request and the overall issue. [Redacted]
“On April 12, an Archives official emailed Philbin [former White House deputy counsel Pat Philbin] and John Eisenberg, another former deputy White House counsel, to tell them the Justice Department, via the Biden White House, had made the request. The email offered the lawyers the opportunity to view the documents as well, but said the documents were too sensitive to be removed from the agency’s secure facility.”
“The Biden administration’s National Archives is hiding almost every record it has about its manufactured records dispute with President Trump,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Judicial Watch is at the forefront of the court battle for transparency regarding the abusive and unprecedented Biden administration raid on Trump’s home.
In August 2022, Judicial Watch forced the release of the raid affidavit through its court request to unseal the warrant materials used in the unprecedented raid on the home of former President Trump.
In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed lawsuits against the DOJ for its records and the FBI’s records about the Mar-a-Lago raid search warrant application and approval, as well as communications about the warrant between the FBI, Executive Office of the President and the Secret Service.
In October 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications of the U.S. Secret Service internally and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the raid on Trump’s home and for any video or audio recordings made during the raid.
In November 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications between the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the search warrant that precipitated the raid on former Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.
via judicialwatch