{"id":994,"date":"2026-05-20T22:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=994"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:36:37","slug":"federal-judge-orders-white-house-offices-to-comply-with-presidential-records-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=994","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge orders White House offices to comply with Presidential Records Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

The emergency order undermines the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to weaken a decades-old recordkeeping law established after the Watergate scandal. <\/strong><\/p>

Read more Cavaliers shrug off concerns about Harden as they try to even the East finals against the Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n

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Workers load boxes into a truck at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in 2021. (Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A federal judge in Washington on Wednesday ordered White House offices to comply with the Presidential Records Act, pushing back on the Trump administration\u2019s effort to weaken a decades-old recordkeeping law intended to preserve material related to a commander in chief\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n

The order from U.S. District Judge John D. Bates directs the White House Office, the National Security Council, the U.S. DOGE Service and the president\u2019s advisers to fully comply with the PRA. Covered offices and advisers must preserve relevant records under the act and ensure such records are not created or shared using nonofficial electronic message accounts unless <\/b>a <\/b>complete copy is forwarded to official work accounts.<\/p>\n

The battle over the legality of the PRA, which was established in response to Richard M. Nixon\u2019s effort to keep control of records upon his resignation from the Oval Office, began this spring when the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion finding the law impinged on the \u201cindependence and autonomy\u201d of the president and was unconstitutional. Within days of the OLC opinion, White House lawyers issued a new presidential records collection policy <\/a>that experts said weakened safeguards.<\/p>\n

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, American Oversight, the American Historical Association and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued the federal government over the OLC opinion.<\/p>\n

Bates\u2019s order takes effect on May 26 and mandates that the defendants file a notice with the court outlining the steps they have taken to comply with it.<\/p>\n

Notably, the emergency order — a partial grant and partial denial — excludes several individuals and offices: President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Archivist, the Justice Department and the Attorney General.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that a court \u201cgenerally may not enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties.\u201d <\/b>But he also underscored in his opinion that \u201crecords created by the President and transmitted or transferred to [Executive Office of the President] staff would still trigger those staff members\u2019 duties under the Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The preliminary injunction, which does not have an end date, also says offices must <\/b>establish or reestablish record retention policies in full compliance with the PRA and requires the Trump administration to send a copy of the order to those employees.<\/p>\n

The White House indicated that the Trump administration intends to appeal Wednesday\u2019s decision. The rules it had put in place, among other things, relaxed policies preserving text messages. The guidance encouraged staffers to summarize pertinent exchanges in emails or memos.<\/p>

Read more A look at the notable accomplishments of Aaron Rodgers\u2019 career as he enters his final season<\/a><\/p>\n

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump is \u201ccommitted to preserving records from his historic time in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling fundamentally misunderstands the Administration\u2019s position and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail,\u201d Jackson added.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, said in a statement that the case \u201chas always been about something larger than records management.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about whether a president can treat government records as personal property \u2014 deciding for himself what will be preserved, what will be disclosed, and what can simply be destroyed,” Chukwu added.<\/p>\n

Donald Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Wednesday\u2019s ruling found that Trump and his administration \u201cacted illegally as though presidential records are theirs to destroy or hoard at will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association, remarked in a statement that the ruling reaffirms that presidential records \u201cbelong to the American people, not to any one individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s embrace of changes to the PRA came some four years after it was used, in part, as the basis for an FBI raid at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago home, where he had been keeping classified documents from his first administration. The National Archives, which is responsible for preserving records under the PRA, had made several unsuccessful attempts to have the documents returned.<\/p>\n

Since returning to office for his second term, Trump\u2019s campaign of retribution against his perceived enemies has extended to a category of federal employees typically seen as nonpolitical — government recordkeepers.<\/p>\n

After Trump returned to the White House last year, the FBI purged agents<\/a> and the Justice Department removed <\/a>employees tied to the Mar-a-Lago investigation. But beyond prosecutors, Trump fired Colleen Shogan, then the National Archivist of the United States. And shortly after Shogan\u2019s exit, the acting archivist — a career official — and several senior staff members at the National Archives were swiftly forced out of the agency<\/a>.<\/p>

Read more Trump officials say they can build 250-foot arch without Congress\u2019s okay<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The emergency order undermines the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to weaken a decades-old recordkeeping law established after the Watergate scandal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal judge orders White House offices to comply with Presidential Records Act - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=994\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal judge orders White House offices to comply with Presidential Records Act - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The emergency order undermines the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to weaken a decades-old recordkeeping law established after the Watergate scandal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=994\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T22:36:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/553506fc4da3394bc8c5dfba16d2b7e2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1437\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"958\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Federal judge orders White House offices to comply with Presidential Records Act\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T22:36:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994\"},\"wordCount\":869,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/46881845a3623719c204f423b3547eb7.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994\",\"name\":\"Federal judge orders White House offices to comply with Presidential Records Act - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/46881845a3623719c204f423b3547eb7.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T22:36:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=994#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/46881845a3623719c204f423b3547eb7.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/46881845a3623719c204f423b3547eb7.jpg\",\"width\":1437,\"height\":958,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 14: Workers load boxes of newspapers and other items into a truck inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex on Thursday, Jan 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. 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