Trump vs. the public's right to know

The Trump administration's moves to limit public access to government records are prompting warnings from watchdogs and historians.

The big picture: As the Justice Department challenges the constitutionality of the Presidential Records Act and slow-walks some Freedom of Information Act requests, worries persist about weakened oversight and the government being enabled to spin a curated narrative of American history.

• The Presidential Records Act and FOIA exist to preserve presidential documents as public property and to ensure access to government records, respectively.
• "By erasing and deleting the information to which we are entitled, they are depriving the public of information ... to know whether their government has been serving them as they promised to," Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, tells Axios.

State of play: The Justice Department issued a memo in early April declaring the Presidential Records Act — a Watergate-era law — unconstitutional.

• White House staffers no longer have to preserve text messages unless they are the "sole record of official decision-making," a departure from precedent that every president, including Trump in his first term, has complied with.
• Simultaneously, the president has reportedly slowed FOIA processing and dismissed numerous FOIA officers, increasing backlogs to fulfill requests for information.

The other side: President Trump is "committed to preserving records from his historic Administration, and he will maintain a rigorous records retention program," a White House spokesperson told Axios.

• The spokesperson added that staff must undergo retention training and that "emails and documents cannot be deleted from the White House system. "[T]here is no difference between our position on physical versus electronic records."

Yes, but: The administration has argued that the Presidential Records Act violates the separation of powers and that retaining all text is an "enormous technological burden," despite the National Archives providing guidance on automatically capturing texts.

Zoom out: Watchdog groups say the administration's moves are eroding transparency and sidestepping checks on the executive branch.

• "It's a burden because they don't want to comply with it," Nikhel Sus, Chief Counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, says.
• He noted that the Presidential Records Act is a very "deferential" law designed to "protect the President's autonomy," and that records aren't released until 5-12 years after a president leaves office.

Chukwu said slow-walking FOIA requests "plagues administrations of all political persuasions," but added that Trump is taking it to a "different level."

Case in point: Lauren Harper, of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, tells Axios she requested a 19-page DOJ memo about the administration's acceptance of a $400 million Qatari jet.

• The administration granted her expedited processing, but later said it would take 620 additional days to release the document.
• Chukwu said agencies have told her they have no responsive records in cases where it would seem "nonsensical" for none to exist, and that some responses arrive heavily redacted.

The bottom line: Harper warns, "the White House is attempting to privatize history. It's trying to be the sole decider about what becomes part of the American story, and that is fundamentally wrong."

• Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association, tells Axios that if the administration picks and chooses what they're curating, "then that is the only historical evidence that is left. …If you limit the kinds of things that can be pulled together to write that narrative, then you control it and control the story."

Go deeper: Exclusive: Trump's DOJ says he's not required to turn over official records