A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump's White House staff to preserve presidential records, including text messages, after the administration attempted to dismiss a Watergate-era transparency law as 'unconstitutional'.
Judge's Ruling
US District Judge John Bates granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday requiring White House staff to comply with the 1978 Presidential Records Act, enacted following the wire-tapping scandal that led to Richard Nixon's resignation. The order applies to Trump's top enforcers, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and her deputy Stephen Miller, as well as the National Security Council, Council of Economic Advisers, and officials within the Executive Office of the President.
The decision came after the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel claimed last month that staff did not need to abide by the Records Act because it exceeds Congress' power and is therefore unconstitutional.
Watchdog Lawsuit
Three watchdog groups—the American Historical Association, American Oversight, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation—sued the Justice Department, asking the judge to compel compliance. They warned there was 'strong reason' to believe Trump would try to retain records when his term ends, citing the 15 boxes he kept after his first term, some marked classified, which sparked the FBI's 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid.
Bates opened his 54-page decision with a quote from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: 'Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.' The George W. Bush appointee added that scrapping the act would rob Congress and future presidents of the ability to learn from history, echoing the inscription on the National Archives Building: 'What is past is prologue.'
Rejection of DOJ Argument
Bates rejected the DOJ's claim that the presidency's unique constitutional weight shields it from the act, writing that 'while the presidency is a singularly important institution, that gravity does not free it from modest constraint. Quite the opposite.' He noted that every president since Nixon, including Trump in his first term, had complied with the law 'without complaint' for nearly 50 years. The absence of another Watergate-level scandal since Nixon 'suggests that the sunshine disinfectant of the Records Act is working as intended,' Bates added.
The judge also criticized the White House's new guidance on text messages, which instructs staff to preserve only those that are the 'sole record' of official decision-making. Under that rule, the judge warned, 'almost no texts would ever be preserved.'
Reaction
Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, called it 'an important victory for presidential accountability,' warning the administration had tried to replace decades of settled law with 'a system dependent largely on presidential discretion and public trust.'
The injunction takes effect at 9am on May 26. The Daily Mail has contacted the White House and the Justice Department for comment.
