“President Trump DOJ says he’s not required to turn over official records.” The Justice Department has concluded that a federal law requiring presidential records to be turned over to the government is unconstitutional, a senior White House official tells Axios. The finding is an indication Trump will be reluctant to give all of his official records to the National Archives at the end of his term, as presidents have done for nearly a half-century under the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The law, passed in the post-Watergate era as a hedge against government corruption, states that every official record regarding a president’s decisions or policies belongs to the U.S. government, not the president.

Trump has shown that he disagrees with the law. When he left office in 2021 after his first term, he kept many official documents — including some classified materials.He was indicted by President Biden’s Justice Department for doing so and allegedly trying to hide them from federal investigators. The case was dropped after Trump was reelected in 2024.The Trump Justice Department’s legal counsel concluded that the Presidential Records Act is “exceeds Congress’ powers … at the expense of the constitutional independence and autonomy of the executive branch,” according to the White House official. Congress does not have the power to compel an entire branch of government to create and save every single possible piece of paper,” the official added.”