A new lawsuit filed by the American Historical Association (AHA) and the watchdog group American Oversight warns that the Trump administration’s reinterpretation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) creates a “substantial likelihood” that President Donald Trump will keep or destroy presidential records instead of turning them over to the National Archives, as the law normally requires. The case is a direct challenge to a recent Justice Department memo that effectively says the PRA is unconstitutional and does not bind Trump.
What the DOJ memo did
- On April 1, 2026, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a memo stating that Trump “need not further comply” with the PRA, calling it “invalid in its entirety” and unconstitutional.
- The memo echoes arguments Trump’s former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, made in the Mar‑a‑Lago documents case, claiming Congress cannot require a president to preserve records “for the sake of posterity” and that such records would traditionally have been under the president’s personal control.
- Blanche, now acting attorney general, has turned that failed defense argument into official DOJ legal doctrine, effectively giving Trump a “permission slip” to stop preserving or handing over his official records.
How the lawsuit responds
The 46‑page complaint argues that:
- The PRA, enacted after Watergate, transfers ownership of presidential records to the U.S. government, not the president personally, and requires the president to document and preserve records of his official duties for the National Archives and the public.
- The current administration’s policy does not require preservation of paper records or messages on apps that auto‑delete, and it allows Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their staff to selectively keep or discard records.
- The plaintiffs say this “nullifies” the PRA, overrides Supreme Court precedent, and lets the executive branch claim presidential records as private property, which the lawsuit calls an unconstitutional power grab.
The groups ask the court to:
- Declare the PRA constitutional and still in force.
- Order acting Archivist Ed Forst to enforce the PRA.
- Require the Trump administration to disclose any known instances where the president has destroyed, converted to personal use, or otherwise failed to preserve presidential records.
Why historians and transparency advocates care
- American Oversight and the AHA stress that, since Watergate, Congress has made clear that presidential records belong to the American people, not to any one president.
- They argue that if the White House can now decide what to hide or destroy, it threatens transparency, accountability, and the integrity of historical research for decades.
- The case has been assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, a Barack Obama appointee, and is expected to become a major test of whether the president can effectively unilaterally cancel a law Congress passed to protect public access to his own records.
