{"id":17151,"date":"2022-02-20T10:33:56","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T15:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=17151"},"modified":"2022-02-20T22:37:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T03:37:12","slug":"usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/20\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Today: Presidential Records Act is a bipartisan scam to hide White House mischief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Edit USA1Brd 02-21-2022 USAEast 1<\/a>USA TODAY, February 20, 2022<\/h3>\n
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The contorted Presidential Records Act is a bipartisan scam to hide White House mischief<\/a><\/h1>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The closing scene of the 1981 movie \u201cIndiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/a>\u201d depicts the newly-discovered\u00a0Biblical Ark of the Covenant<\/a>\u00a0being put in a crate,\u00a0stamped \u201ctop secret,\u201d<\/a> and\u00a0then carted down the aisles of an endless government warehouse where it would presumably be forgotten and lost forever. Unfortunately, that scene from the first Indiana Jones movie exemplifies what happens to the papers of former U.S. presidents \u2013 despite Americans\u2019 right to know how their rulers have wielded power.<\/p>\n

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The Presidential Records Act is in the news because former President Donald Trump allegedly violated that law\u00a0by taking 15 boxes\u00a0of official papers<\/a> with him to Florida when he left the White House early last year. The boxes have been returned to Washington and Trump issued a statement denouncing the hubbub as \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Lawsuits may follow.\u00a0Trump previously made headlines by brazenly tearing up<\/a> official documents which he was legally obliged to preserve.<\/p>\n

Loopholes to real record collection<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe Presidential Records Act<\/a> is\u00a0critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people,\u201d Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero<\/a> declared\u00a0earlier this month. However, both the law and the accountability have become a fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n

The Presidential Records Act of 1978<\/a>\u00a0was enacted after former President Richard Nixon tried to claim that his secret Oval Office tapes and other records<\/a> were his personal property. The 1978 law declared that \u201cthe United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of presidential records.\u201d But this law has more loopholes than a congressional ethics reform bill.<\/p>\n

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Many folks remember that Nixon sought to keep control of the secret tapes but few know that he\u00a0fought ferocious legal battles to control 42 million pages of documents<\/a> from his presidency.\u00a0Historian Bruce Montgomery noted in a 1993\u00a0American Archivist\u00a0article that Nixon\u2019s lawsuits against the National Archives \u201cmanaged\u00a0to block releasing<\/a>\u00a0the majority of his White House records.\u201d Suppressing those records assured that Nixon had a better reputation than he deserved when he died<\/a> the following year.<\/p>\n

The end of the COVID era:<\/strong>From Canadian truckers to European protests, the world is fed up with COVID crackdowns<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Nixon Library did not release the final batch of his\u00a0secret tapes until 2013<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 39 years after Nixon was driven from office \u2013 and continued withholding tapes purportedly with national security concerns.\u00a0The Lyndon B. Johnson Library was even more dilatory, not releasing the final batch of his\u00a0secret tapes\u00a0of presidential conversations<\/a> until 2016 \u2013 43 years after he left office.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the 9\/11 attacks, President George W. Bush issued an executive order that \u201ceffectively rewrote the Presidential Records Act, converting it from a measure\u00a0guaranteeing public access<\/a>\u00a0to one that blocks it,\u201d as law professor Jonathan Turley noted. Although it was partially reversed years later, Bush\u2019s edict required historians and others to prove \u201ca demonstrated, specific need\u201d for documents to overcome any assertion of privilege, however tenuous, by a former president.<\/p>\n

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Under\u00a0Bush\u2019s edict<\/a>, vice presidents, former presidents, or their designated representatives, could\u00a0block public release of records in perpetuity. The current president also gained veto power over any release of documents from former presidents, thus permitting each new president to blockade history.<\/p>\n

History languishing in a warehouse<\/h2>\n

President Barack Obama partially reversed<\/a> Bush\u2019s order in 2009 but retained plenty of veto powers for himself over what Americans could learn. As\u00a0Politico\u00a0reported,\u00a0Obama White House lawyers repeatedly invoked procedures to \u201cdelay the release of thousands\u00a0of pages of records<\/a> from President Bill Clinton\u2019s White House.\u201d Eventually, Congress passed a law in 2014 to curb White House prerogatives, but the system remains rigged in favor of secrecy.<\/p>\n

At the end of the Obama administration, 30 million pages of documents from his presidency were shipped to a vast\u00a0empty furniture store\u00a0near Chicago<\/a> (Shades of \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d!).<\/p>\n

The Obama Foundation, a private nonprofit organization, will control the official records of his time in office, rather than the National Archives and Records Administration, which administers all other presidential libraries going back to Herbert Hoover. Rather than opening the paper files to the public and researchers, the\u00a0Obama Foundation will eventually\u00a0digitize the records<\/a>. A National Archives press release noted that\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0has delayed digitization<\/a> efforts. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Garrow<\/a> warned, \u201cThe absence of a true Obama presidential library will have the effect of discouraging serious and\u00a0potentially critical research\u00a0<\/a>into the Obama presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shredding history:<\/strong>The ‘but Hillary\u2019s emails’ crowd goes silent about Trump\u2019s document destruction<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The de facto long-term secrecy of presidential papers subverts “that right of freely examining public characters and measures\u201d which James Madison, the father of the Constitution, labeled in 1800 as \u201cthe only effectual guardian<\/a>\u00a0of every other right.\u201d \u00a0Instead of safeguarding self-government, the Presidential Records Act has become a propellant for windfall profits for ex-politicians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidential memoirs pure propaganda<\/h2>\n

Former presidents should forfeit any right to confidentiality of their papers on the day they sign a contract to write a memoir.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former presidents Bill Clinton received\u00a0a $15 million advance<\/a>\u00a0for his memoir;\u00a0George W. Bush received a\u00a0$10 million advance;\u00a0<\/a>and Barack Obama and his wife Michelle\u00a0received $60 million<\/a>\u00a0for a two-book memoir deal. Presidents can practically use any information they please to write their memoirs with\u00a0expedited clearance<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0classified information<\/a>. \u00a0By keeping the vast majority of their records secret, former presidents prevent fact checkers from exposing their fabrications and abuses of power. Any presidential memoir that is published while the vast majority of records of that president remain secret should be treated as self-serving propaganda.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidents are hired hands, not quasi-deities with a divine right to keep endless secrets from citizens they supposedly serve.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even Biden\u2019s director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, recently\u00a0lamented<\/a>\u00a0that the current excessive secrecy of federal documents \u201cerodes the basic trust that our citizens have in their government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Presidential Records Act has become a bipartisan scam to prevent Americans from recognizing how badly they have been misgoverned. Instead of a byzantine system that perpetuates cover-ups on shabby pretexts, our democracy needs blanket disclosures of tens of millions of documents which our rulers have no good excuse to continue shrouding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Bovard, author of\u00a0“Attention Deficit Democracy,”<\/a>\u00a0is a member of USA TODAY\u2019s Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter:\u00a0@JimBovard<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USA TODAY, February 20, 2022 The contorted Presidential Records Act is a bipartisan scam to hide White House mischief by James Bovard The closing scene of the 1981 movie \u201cIndiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark\u201d depicts the newly-discovered\u00a0Biblical Ark of the Covenant\u00a0being put in a crate,\u00a0stamped \u201ctop secret,\u201d and\u00a0then carted down the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3173,2124,2844,202,137,441,3188,245,38,3086,55,708,291],"class_list":["post-17151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-avril-haines","tag-biden","tag-cover-up","tag-fraud","tag-george-w-bush","tag-history","tag-indiana-jones","tag-nixon","tag-obama","tag-presidential-records-act","tag-secrecy","tag-trump","tag-watergate"],"yoast_head":"\nUSA Today: Presidential Records Act is a bipartisan scam to hide White House mischief - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Presidents are hired hands, not quasi-deities with a divine right to keep endless secrets from citizens they supposedly serve.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/20\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"USA Today: Presidential Records Act is a bipartisan scam to hide White House mischief - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Presidents are hired hands, not quasi-deities with a divine right to keep endless secrets from citizens they supposedly serve.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/20\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-20T15:33:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-21T03:37:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/USA-Today-logo-300x300.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/20\\\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/20\\\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"USA Today: Presidential Records Act is a bipartisan scam to hide White House mischief\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-20T15:33:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-21T03:37:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/20\\\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1099,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/20\\\/usa-today-presidential-records-act-is-a-bipartisan-scam-to-hide-white-house-mischief\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/USA-Today-logo-300x300.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Avril Haines\",\"Biden\",\"cover-up\",\"fraud\",\"George W. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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