Jason Leopold, Bloomberg – “Welcome back to another edition of FOIA Files. I thought it was a cruel April Fool’s joke when on April 1, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel publicly released a bombshell 52-page opinion. It said that the Presidential Records Act is “unconstitutional” and that President Donald Trump “need not further comply with its dictates.” Just a few days earlier, I received another set of documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the probe into Trump’s improper retention of presidential and classified records after he left the White House in 2021. Although the legal opinion doesn’t explicitly say the OLC opinion is linked to the fight over the Trump White House records, the timing indicates the two might be directly connected. The OLC opinion now threatens the preservation of history itself…

In December 1974, four months after Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency, Congress passed emergency legislation: the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act. It was swiftly signed into law by President Gerald Ford. The law was enacted to allow the federal government to seize Nixon’s presidential materials in response to concerns that he would destroy records and tape recordings in the wake of Watergate, which forced Nixon’s resignation. The Preservation Act was the precursor to the broader Presidential Records Act, or PRA. Signed into law in 1978, the PRA established that presidential records belong to the public and must be preserved and turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. After a president (and vice president) leaves office, the records are to be eventually made available to the public through the FOIA. For nearly half a century, beginning with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the Presidential Records Act has opened a window into the inner workings of the White House, allowing historians, journalists and the public to better understand how critical decisions were made behind closed doors. But that transparency is now at risk. The OLC opinion, coming from an administration that boasts it is “the most transparent in history,” would keep the public in the dark. In effect it would allow presidents to retain or even destroy their presidential records if they want….”