Bernie Cosell <
bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
I was amused reading in the WaPo yet more evidence of Trump trying
to [and probably often successfully] destroy his records, which
are supposed to be preserved by the Presidential Records Act (44
USC 22 if I found the right thing). What led me to check it is
that the WaPo article mentions several times
He left the detritus on his desk in the Oval Office, in the
trash can of his private West Wing study and on the floor
aboard Air Force One, among many other places.
And he did it all in violation of the Presidential Records
Act, despite
being urged by at least two chiefs of staff and the White House
counsel
to follow the law on preserving documents.
“It is absolutely a violation of the act,” said Courtney
Chartier, president of the Society of American Archivists.
“There is no ignorance
of these laws. There are White House manuals about the
maintenance of these records.”
And what I thought "what difference does it make to pass a law
that says that the President "must" or "must not" do one thing or
another. What are they gonna do -- write him a ticket? take him
to court? And that led to see what the PRA actually says and
after all this blather I get to my point:
No place that I could see in the Act does it specify any penalty
for anyone {Pres, VP , archivist, etc] for violating it. What's
the point of an act with zero teeth? Are there other acts like
that?
See 18 U.S. Code § 2071, which says,
"(a)Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates,
obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do
so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper,
document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or
officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office,
or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or
both.
"(b)Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map,
book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully
conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the
same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be
disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used
in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office
held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the
United States."
--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com
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