The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has asked the United States (US) Justice Department to investigate former President Donald Trump’s handling of White House records.
The US presidents are legally required by the Presidential Records Act to transfer all of their letters, work documents, and emails to NARA after they leave office.
Trump, however, may have destroyed a large portion of his presidential records.
CBS News reported that some of these documents could be classified government secrets.
The request from NARA came after it was revealed that 15 boxes of presidential records from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida had been torn up.
Trump should have turned these boxes over when he left the White House.
He instead took them home.
Documents include letters between him and the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
It is also believed that Barack Obama's presidential handover letter was there in one of those boxes.
The former president has unsuccessfully sued NARA in the past to prevent the transfer of White House records to the congressional committee looking into the Capitol attack that took place on 6 January 2021.
Trump, however, has maintained that he always cooperated with the NARA.
"The media's characterisation of my relationship with NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] is Fake News. It was exactly the opposite! It was a great honour to work with NARA to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy," he had said in a statement.
(With inputs from the Washington Post, CBS News, and the BBC.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)