Donald Trump flushed files down toilet, book claims, as probe sought on White House records

Documents ripped up, stuffed down the toilet or carted off to Florida – the list of former US leader Donald Trump’s alleged flouting of laws on preserving presidential papers grew longer and more bizarre on Thursday. The details emerged alongside a report that investigators of the January 6 riot have found gaps in official White House telephone logs on the day of the deadly attack on the US Capitol. Trump’s shredding of many previously accepted norms of presidential decorum was part of his populist attraction to Republican supporters. But now the National Archives, which is in charge of preserving presidential records, reportedly wants Trump investigated over, among other things, his habit of literally tearing up White House papers while in office. NEW: Chair @RepMaloney sent a letter to the Archivist of the United States seeking information about the 15 boxes of presidential records that they recently recovered from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence: https://t.co/daAUjIF1nz — Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) February 10, 2022 According to The Washington Post, the Archives requested the Justice Department open a probe into Trump’s practices. This came after the government records office confirmed on Monday that it had recovered 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida estate, taken with him when he left Washington following his re-election defeat. Among the documents were official correspondence with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un – “love letters,” as Trump described them at the time. Similarly included in the Florida stash was a letter outgoing president Barack Obama had left for Trump in the Oval Office. Last week, the Archives confirmed reports that Trump had torn up documents, some of which have since been taped back together. Trump ‘improperly’ took Kim ‘love letters’ from White House to Mar-a-Lago Under the 1978 Presidential Records Act (PRA), which was passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, US presidents are required to transfer all emails, letters and other work documents to the National Archives. Trump denies any wrongdoing. In a statement Thursday, he characterised his dealings with the Archives as “without conflict and on a very friendly basis”. “The media’s characterisation of my relationship with NARA (National Archives) is Fake News. It was exactly the opposite! It was a great honour to work with NARA to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy.” But on Thursday, a new twist developed. A new book on Trump’s time in office claims that a White House toilet would jam after attempts to flush away office papers, Axios reported. The upcoming book Confidence Man, by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, says that “staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet – and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper”, according to an exclusive preview by Axios. The book, based in part on Haberman’s post-presidential interviews with Trump, reports that the Republican has told people he remains in touch with North Korea’s Kim. Trump likewise denied the toilet story. “Also, another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet, is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book,” he wrote. Trump says he’ll pardon January 6 rioters if he wins in 2024 Haberman’s book is set to be published October 4. The veteran Times journalist has been on the Trump beat for a decade and long had unrivalled access among journalists to the property tycoon-turned-politician’s inner circle. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in Congress announced it was opening its own investigation into the wandering records. “I am deeply concerned,” said the panel’s head, congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “I am also concerned by recent reports that while in office, President Trump repeatedly attempted to destroy presidential records, which could constitute additional serious violations.” The controversy is gaining traction in the Democratic-controlled Congress, where a special committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters is struggling to obtain the ex-president’s records. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the panel has found gaps in official White House telephone logs on the day in question, with few records of calls by Trump during the hours investigators know he was making them. Investigators have not uncovered evidence that any official records were tampered with or deleted, the newspaper added, citing two people familiar with the phone records and noting Trump was known to use his personal cellphone or other people’s cellphones. The call log gaps may complicate House investigators’ efforts to get a complete picture of the former Republican president’s actions at the time his supporters stormed the Capitol. Trump, in a statement released before the Times’ report, again decried the panel and called the probe a political attack against him. Additional reporting by Reuters