Target: Thomas Elliot Gaiser, Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Counsel
Goal: Do not block preservation and release of presidential records.
The public’s right to know their own elected presidents – and history’s ability to document these leaders – may soon be in jeopardy. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released a memo that, if enacted, would enable presidents to withhold documents traditionally handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration after they leave office. Worse yet, presidents would have the authority to destroy these documents without question.
The Presidential Records Act would essentially be no more. The decades-old Congressional mandate calls for all presidential documents and records to be preserved. The law was born from the Watergate scandal, in which President Richard Nixon allegedly sought destruction of his own records following his resignation. President Trump was once charged with several violations of the law when classified documents from his first term were discovered at his private property. Abolition of the law would enable him – and any future presidents – to commit the same acts, or to go even further and essentially erase the paper trail of his time in office. Currently, over half a billion documents are preserved, and the public enjoys full rights to review these documents once a certain time period has expired. The records are also key sources for historians.
Sign the petition below to demand the DOJ leave this important marker of political transparency alone.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Assistant Attorney General Gaiser,
The Presidential Records Act is not a suggestion or a mere formality. It is a law intended to strengthen the bond of trust that should exist between the president and the people. It is an act of good faith, an overture of transparency, and a vow that scandals of the past will never be repeated. Americans of today and Americans of tomorrow have the right to study, to assess, and to gain a deeper understanding of the critical decisions that impacted their past and their present.
Do not take away the right of the people and of history to know and to bear witness. Do do not make a mockery of your duty to shine a light on truth.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: White House Photographic Collection
