ADThree organizations — government watchdog groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) — alleged that the White House was failing to create and save records as required of Trump’s meetings and communications with foreign leaders. They include records of communications with foreign leaders; record-keeping policies and practices; White House or agency investigations into such matters; White House communications about such matters to other executive branch components; related legal instruction or guidance; and efforts to return, “claw back” or “lock down” such records. ADThe suing groups allege that the White House and other executive branch officials have mismanaged records of politically sensitive Trump conversations. They also cited a Trump meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Vietnam with only two interpreters present, where no official record was created. ADThe absence of records threatens “real, incalculable harm” to national security and effective foreign policy by depriving policymakers and historians of a documentary record of actions taken under federal law, the groups argued.

Source: Washington Post October 02, 2019 20:26 UTC