An ethics watchdog organization, Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), is suing the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for failing to release records related to the handling of classified documents by recent presidents and vice presidents.
PPT filed a “transparency lawsuit” against NARA after making a request for documents and communications from the acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall and the White House last August.
However, PPT has yet to receive a response from NARA.
PPT accused the Archives of having double standards by demanding records from the past six administrations, while failing to release their own.
According to the lawsuit, “These documents could shed light on conversations between NARA and the White House during a highly politically fraught period leading up to the unprecedented raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence to obtain presidential records and the discovery of classified material at several locations associated with President Joe Biden.”
Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust, stated, “Apparently it’s too much to ask that the agency requesting everyone else turn over their records live by its own rules when its documents are sought.
“At a time when the public could use some clarity and transparency on highly charged episodes, this appears to be par for the course for an administration proclaiming itself the most transparent in history,” Chamberlain went on to say.
“Yet one more reason why the American public’s trust in its government continues to plummet.”
PPT’s lawsuit was prompted by the discovery of classified documents at the properties of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence.
