GOP Reps James Comer and Jim Jordan are probing whether or not the National Archives colluded with Democrats to go after Donald Trump.
In a letter sent to the National Archives, they requested “all documents and communications between or among employees or agents of NARA and DOJ referring to or relating to the Trump administration’s control, transfer, storage, or other handling of documents subject to the Presidential Records Act.”
Two powerful House Republicans demanded Friday that the National Archives and Records Administration disclose whether the history-preserving agency collaborated with Democrats to encourage an FBI investigation into Donald Trump’s presidential records.
Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, request a tranche of documents be turned over to them in a letter to acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall, saying they have suspicions there was collusion between her agency and congressional Democrats in the effort to get the FBI to investigate allegations Trump possessed records with classified markings on them.
“Committee Republicans have learned that NARA’s actions initiated the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal investigation against the former president the same day committee Democrats inquired about whether a referral to DOJ had been made,” the two lawmakers wrote.
The two Republicans demanded access to NARA documents that would help them determine “whether and to what extent Congressional Democrats influenced and coordinated” with the National Archives to prompt the probe, which led to the unprecedented FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
They pointed out that on February 9, Democrat Carolyn Maloney wrote to NARA about records at Mar-a-Lago – that same day NARA sent a referral to the DOJ which started the investigation into Trump.
Comer and Jordan noted the stunning coincidence that, on February 9, Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) wrote to NARA about concerns over 15 boxes of presidential records stored at Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago and if the agency had been in contact with NARA about this.
The same day, NARA sent a “referral” to the Department of Justice that initiated the investigation into Trump.
The two Republicans wrote, “The fact that NARA transmitted to DOJ a referral that launched a criminal investigation of the former president the same day the Democrat Chairwoman of the Committee inquired whether the agency had been in contact with DOJ raises serious concerns about whether NARA made the referral after pressure from Committee Democrats.”
Here is the letter that was sent to the National Archives:
Will the House GOP finally do something important?