Washington, D.C. – Today, American Oversight and the American Historical Association issued the following statements as they challenge the Trump administration’s effort to nullify the Presidential Records Act (PRA) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia:
Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight
“Today’s hearing is about a simple principle: Presidential records belong to the American people, not to any one president. For nearly half a century, no administration of either party has challenged the constitutionality of the Presidential Records Act until now.
“What the Trump administration is attempting now is a dramatic break from well-settled law and history, and an affront to the basic understanding that presidential records belong to the public. By claiming the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional — and that the president alone can decide what to keep, what to hide, and what to destroy — the administration is advancing a sweeping view of presidential power that guts transparency, undermines accountability, and eviscerates the historical record itself.
“This case is about far more than record-keeping. It’s about whether the president can unilaterally place his actions beyond public scrutiny. If records documenting the president’s most consequential decisions, internal deliberations, or abuses of power can be hidden, deleted, or never preserved in the first place, the public loses one of our democracy’s most important safeguards.”
Dr. Sarah Weicksel, Executive Director of the American Historical Association
“The ability of people to know and reflect on their nation’s history is essential to democracy. And that is what is at stake in this case — the preservation and integrity of the historical records of the United States that belong not to any individual or group, but to the American people.
“Since our founding in the 1880s, the American Historical Association has advocated for the preservation of governmental records, an effort that contributed to the establishment of the National Archives. Today, the AHA reiterates our 1910 statement that such records are essential to historical work; that they are the ‘material which historians must use in order to ascertain the truth.’ The OLP ruling jeopardizes the preservation of presidential records and therefore the integrity of our nation’s archives — and history itself.”
Today’s hearing centers on a request for emergency court intervention filed by American Oversight and the American Historical Association last month, seeking the court to block the Trump administration from disregarding the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and to prevent the destruction or loss of presidential records. The motion argues that without urgent court intervention, records documenting presidential decision-making could be “lost to history.”
The request came just days after the groups filed suit challenging a sweeping opinion from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) declaring the PRA unconstitutional and advising that President Donald Trump “need not further comply” with its requirements. That opinion breaks from decades of settled law and Supreme Court precedent, and threatens to upend the system governing the preservation and public access of presidential records.
The motion argues that the Trump administration’s position is clearly unlawful, pointing to binding Supreme Court precedent that has already upheld Congress’s authority to require the preservation and eventual disclosure of presidential records. It emphasizes that the OLC’s opinion relies on virtually no judicial precedent and instead attempts to override settled law by declaring the PRA unconstitutional in its entirety — a conclusion the Supreme Court squarely rejected when it considered the constitutionality of the PRA’s predecessor after Watergate. Because the administration now has OLC’s approval to disregard the PRA, the motion warns that there is an immediate risk that records documenting official actions could be permanently lost.
Additionally, the motion emphasizes that the Trump administration has refused to commit to preserving all presidential records during the course of the litigation, including records created on personal devices or sent or received on encrypted messaging platforms. The administration’s failure to commit to its basic recordkeeping obligations is especially concerning given its position that it is no longer bound by the PRA’s requirements. Without those safeguards, key records documenting government actions could be deleted, destroyed, or never captured in the first place. Because the PRA establishes that these records belong to the United States and must be preserved for eventual public access, the motion argues that any loss would cause irreparable harm that cannot be remedied after the fact.
The filing also underscores that the administration’s position could have sweeping consequences beyond the current presidency, threatening access to records from prior administrations and undermining the ability of historians, journalists, Congress, and the public to understand and evaluate government decision-making. In their motion, American Oversight and the American Historical Association ask the court to order the administration to comply with the PRA, preserve all presidential records, and prevent any destruction or loss of materials while their case proceeds.
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American Oversight: American Oversight is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit ethics watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to expose official misconduct, threats to democracy, and abuses of power at all levels of government. Documents obtained by American Oversight have supported investigative work by journalists, congressional committees, and independent watchdogs, and have been featured in hundreds of news reports across the country. Follow us at @weareoversight and learn more at americanoversight.org.
American Historical Association: Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the American Historical Association provides leadership for the discipline and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life. The association defends academic freedom, develops professional standards, supports innovative scholarship and teaching, and helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians. As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (over 10,000 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions and represents every historical era and geographical area. Learn more at historians.org.