National Archives calls BS on Trump accusing Obama of mishandling documents

Obama's previous handling of documents was on the up and up, making his situation different from Trump's

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published August 13, 2022 11:54AM (EDT)

Barack Obama and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
Barack Obama and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

In the days following the FBI's raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, the Former President has erupted into a series of misdirections regarding Former President Obama and his own handling of documents during his presidency.

On Friday, Trump kept at it on Truth Social saying "President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!"

Producing evidence proving Trump's accusations to be false, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration show that Obama did no such thing.

 According to the National Archives, after Obama left the White House they "moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area, where they are maintained exclusively by NARA." They also point out that Obama, same as any other president following correct procedure, has "no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration."


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In their own investigation of Trump's claims against Obama The Washington Post doubles down on the National Archives' clarification saying "As was reported back in late 2016, the Obama team was transferring the records to Chicago through the National Archives, which legally owns the documents once a president leaves office . . . "Once the documents ultimately reached a warehouse in Chicago, the Obama Foundation was then due to pay the National Archives and Record Administration to digitize the documents. The lengthiness of that process aside, there isn't the faintest hint of legal violations."

Dan Pfeiffer, co-host of "Pod Save America" and former Obama Senior Advisor chimed in on Trump's skewed chain of events with a humorous timeline on Twitter:

"Can't wait for the televised Obama and Clinton live reading of the Trump Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant," joked another person weighing in on Twitter.


By Kelly McClure

Kelly McClure is Salon's Nights and Weekends Editor covering daily news, politics and culture. Her work has been featured in Vulture, The A.V. Club, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Nylon, Vice, and elsewhere. She is the author of Something is Always Happening Somewhere.

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