AHA members Matthew Connelly (Columbia Univ.) and Timothy Naftali (Columbia Univ.) spoke to NPR about the importance of the Presidential Records Act and the lawsuit that the AHA has brought against the Trump administration in an effort to preserve the law, which ensures proper archival practices and accessibility for White House documents. “The papers, the records of the decisions [presidents] make on our behalf, those are our papers, that’s our history,” Connelly said.
“This is about whether we can hold our most powerful leader accountable and I don’t know how you hold them accountable if they can destroy the record of their actions in government,” Naftali added.