The Daily Fuckup

By Aug. 3, 2022, the Mar-a-Lago records dispute was already well beyond a routine records cleanup. The National Archives and Records Administration had taken custody of 15 boxes from Donald Trump’s Florida property earlier in the year after talks with Trump representatives, and it was still seeking additional presidential records it believed should have been transferred to government custody. NARA’s February statement said the boxes contained presidential records and that the matter remained ongoing. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2022/nr22-001?utm_source=openai))

That much alone showed the basic problem: the archives said records that belonged in federal custody were still being tracked down months after Trump left office. Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be preserved and transferred to the archives at the end of an administration. On Aug. 3, the public record showed an unresolved custody dispute, not a closed case. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2022/nr22-001?utm_source=openai))

A separate May 10 letter from Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall added that the Justice Department had asked for FBI access to the records in question, and that NARA would provide that access beginning as early as May 12. That meant federal review was already underway by the summer, but the later search of Mar-a-Lago and other details that became public in August had not yet happened on Aug. 3. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/wall-letter-to-evan-corcoran-re-trump-boxes-05.10.2022.pdf?utm_source=openai))

So the story on Aug. 3 was narrower than the fuller saga that followed: the archives had recovered one set of boxes, said more records still needed to be returned, and had already agreed to let the FBI review the materials at DOJ’s request. The public still did not have the later August disclosures, but it did have enough to see that the records fight was unresolved and moving toward deeper federal scrutiny. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/wall-letter-to-evan-corcoran-re-trump-boxes-05.10.2022.pdf?utm_source=openai))