1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

The Justice Department's recent opinion claiming the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional threatens our ability to hold presidents accountable. Congress must act immediately to protect this law and ensure presidential documents remain public property. The Office of Legal Counsel's determination that President Trump need not comply with the Presidential Records Act directly contradicts the law's purpose. This act was passed after Watergate specifically to prevent presidents from hiding or destroying records. The opinion was written by T. Elliot Gaiser, who clerked for Justice Alito and worked on Trump's 2020 campaign. He previously advised that the vice president could play a "substantive" role in overturning election results. His credibility on constitutional matters is questionable. Trump already faces accusations of willfully retaining national defense documents at Mar-a-Lago after his first term, including classified military maps shown to unauthorized individuals. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed that case before the election. Now he's fired the head of the National Archives and declared he won't turn over records from this term either. Congress has the power to enforce its own laws. Pass legislation with enforcement mechanisms that can't be ignored by executive branch lawyers. Presidential records belong to the American people, not to individual presidents.