Associated PressAssociated Press
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, in Conroe, Texas. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The 15 boxes of White House records that were stored at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence contained items marked as classified national security information, the National Archives and Records Administration said Friday. The matter has been referred to the Justice Department.

The National Archives confirmed that Trump took government records with him to Florida after he left office.

The letter from the agency confirms numerous reports about Trump handling sensitive and even classified information while he was president and after he left the White House. The Justice Department and FBI have not indicated they will pursue the revelation, though it could interest federal investigators who are responsible for policing the handling of government secrets.

It is possible that Trump could argue that he was the ultimate declassification authority, since federal law bars the removal of classified documents to unauthorized locations.

It exposes him to charges of hypocrisy because of his relentless attacks on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign for her use of a private email server. The FBI did not recommend charges.

Some social media records were not captured and preserved by the Trump administration. White House staff used unofficial messaging accounts and personal phones to conduct official business.

The Presidential Records Act requires staff to forward official messaging counts. After Trump left the White House, the National Archives learned that additional paper records that had been torn up by the former president had been transferred to the agency.

Some of the torn-up records that were transferred to the White House were not reconstructed by the White House.

The agency cited the records act as holding them back from divulging the contents of the boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago.

The chair of the House Oversight Committee said in a statement Friday that new revelations deepen her concern about former President Trump's disregard for federal records law.

She said she was committed to uncovering the full depth of the Presidential Records Act violations by former President Trump and his top advisors and using those findings to advance critical reforms and prevent future abuses.

The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department was asked to investigate the discovery of 15 boxes of White House records recovered from Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and that the former president had a habit of tearing up records.

The Presidential Records Act was enacted in 1978 after former President Richard Nixon wanted to destroy documents related to the Watergate scandal.

The law states that presidential records are the property of the U.S. government. It's a crime to destroy or conceal government records if you're sentenced to three years in prison.

There is a

Eric Tucker is a writer for the Associated Press.

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