The National Archives and Records Administration issued a statement Friday in an effort to counter false claims about former President Barack Obama’s presidential records after several days of misinformation spread by former President Donald Trump and conservative commentators.
Following the FBI’s search of his Florida home and club this week for classified documents, Trump claimed in social media posts that Obama “kept 33 million pages of documents, much of it classified” and that they were “taken to Chicago by President Obama. “
In its statement, NARA said it was given “exclusive legal and physical custody” of Obama’s records when he left office in 2017. It said about 30 million pages of unclassified records were transferred to a NARA facility in the Chicago area and that they continue to be maintained “exclusively by NARA.”
Classified Obama records are held at a NARA facility in Washington, D.C., the statement said.
“As required by [Presidential Records Act]former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores his administration’s presidential records,” the statement said.
Despite the official statement, Trump continued to spread his false claims in light of a report by The Washington Post that classified documents related to nuclear weapons were among the items sought by FBI agents when they searched Trump’s Florida residence on Monday. according to people familiar with the investigation.
Within minutes of the archives’ statement, Trump again pushed his evidence-free claim in response to the latest reports, saying, “What are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of them classified, that President Obama took to Chicago?”
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