On Tuesday, former president Donald Trump claimed that the grand jury in the case should have been made aware of the Presidential Records Act and a different case involving former president Bill Clinton's storage of presidential materials in his sock drawer. Both cases involved the handling of classified materials.
"NEITHER THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE NOR THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, BOTH EXONERATING, WERE TOLD TO THE GRAND JURY!" In preparation for his arraignment on 37 charges of allegedly handling sensitive data improperly later in the day in a federal court in Miami, Trump made a post on Truth Social in all caps.
Last Thursday, the grand jury announced the indictment against Trump, which included more than thirty charges.
According to Trump, the Presidential Records Act protects him, allowing him to continue negotiating with the National Archives about the records he may keep from his tenure in the White House. This assertion is "false," according to the National Archives.
The Clinton sock drawer controversy began when historian Taylor Branch published a book in 2009 disclosing that he and Clinton had recorded hours of audio during Clinton's administration. The White House's sock drawer served as a storage location for the tapes.
Legal watchdog organization Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to force the Archives to take the Clinton tapes through force. Asserting that the Presidential Records Act did not contain a clause enabling the Archives to confiscate items from previous presidents, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed the lawsuit.
However, Jackson's judgment also made several other broad pronouncements that are more directly related to the FBI's choice to take the documents and handwritten notes Trump brought to Mar-a-Lago. The most important is that a president has complete discretion over whether documents are personal vs. official and over whether or not to declassify or delete data.
"NEITHER THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE NOR THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, BOTH EXONERATING, WERE TOLD TO THE GRAND JURY!" In preparation for his arraignment on 37 charges of allegedly handling sensitive data improperly later in the day in a federal court in Miami, Trump made a post on Truth Social in all caps.
Last Thursday, the grand jury announced the indictment against Trump, which included more than thirty charges.
According to Trump, the Presidential Records Act protects him, allowing him to continue negotiating with the National Archives about the records he may keep from his tenure in the White House. This assertion is "false," according to the National Archives.
The Clinton sock drawer controversy began when historian Taylor Branch published a book in 2009 disclosing that he and Clinton had recorded hours of audio during Clinton's administration. The White House's sock drawer served as a storage location for the tapes.
Legal watchdog organization Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to force the Archives to take the Clinton tapes through force. Asserting that the Presidential Records Act did not contain a clause enabling the Archives to confiscate items from previous presidents, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed the lawsuit.
However, Jackson's judgment also made several other broad pronouncements that are more directly related to the FBI's choice to take the documents and handwritten notes Trump brought to Mar-a-Lago. The most important is that a president has complete discretion over whether documents are personal vs. official and over whether or not to declassify or delete data.
