News Roundup: The Mar-a-Lago Files
An email released this week in response to our lawsuit shows the National Archives raised concerns about Trump records in May 2021 — but the Archives withheld more than 1,000 other documents citing ongoing law enforcement investigations.
“The original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un were not transferred to us,” an official at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) wrote to representatives of former President Donald Trump in May 2021, adding that it was “absolutely necessary that we obtain and account for all original Presidential records.”
That email was publicly released by NARA this week in response to a lawsuit brought by American Oversight and records requests filed by other organizations. While some of the contents of the message had been previously reported, the full email had not been seen by the public until now. See more from CNN here.
- American Oversight sued NARA in May for failing to comply with public records requests for documents related to the agency’s January 2022 repossession of 15 boxes of items from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
- In a cover letter to American Oversight, NARA also confirmed that the agency is withholding more than 1,000 pages of additional records for reasons related to ongoing law enforcement investigations. Meanwhile, the Justice Department reportedly believes that Trump still has not returned all of the government documents he took when he left office.
New Lawsuit: Investigating Kushner and Mnuchin’s Saudi-Backed Funds
In early 2021, two of the most senior members of the Trump administration — Jared Kushner and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — launched private equity funds backed in part by billions of dollars in investment from senior members of the Saudi government. Now, American Oversight is going to court to learn whether Kushner and Mnuchin may have used their influential government positions to lay the groundwork for their private business dealings.
- Our new lawsuit asks a judge to order the release of records related to three international trips taken by Kushner or Mnuchin in the waning months of the Trump administration, including travel to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.
- Following reporting earlier this year by the New York Times, questions have been swirling about the funds launched by Kushner and Mnuchin and any potential links to a government-backed fund that they had reportedly discussed with Middle Eastern government officials.
- A congressional committee is also investigating the matter, and our litigation will help ensure that the public gets the full story of what happened.
Exposing the Election Conspiracy Network
While Kushner and Mnuchin were flying around the world in December 2020 and January 2021, other members of the Trump orbit — both in the government and on the outside — were hard at work trying to illegally overturn Trump’s defeat. That loose network of extremists, conspiracy theorists, politicians, and donors that coalesced two years ago around Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” has continued working to undermine public confidence in elections. See how we’re tracking and exposing this network.
- Through our investigations and public records requests across the country, American Oversight has found that many of the same names we saw in the Arizona “audit” or Wisconsin’s partisan election review have been involved in similar efforts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Georgia, and elsewhere. See our latest analysis of records we uncovered from the Cyber Ninjas-led review in Arizona, including extensive contacts with election deniers around the country.
- This week, we also published an in-depth report on our findings from our investigation of the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan review of the 2020 election led by conservative attorney Michael Gableman. As a judge in one of our public records lawsuits said, Gableman’s review found “absolutely no evidence” of voter fraud.
Other Stories We’re Following
The January 6 Investigation
- Jan 6 committee announces October 13 public hearing (CNN)
- Oath Keepers acted on Jan. 6 to overthrow government and fight Biden’s presidency “by any means necessary,” prosecutors say (CBS News)
- Arizona GOP Chair pleaded the Fifth, Jan. 6 committee attorney says (Politico)
- Sen. Ron Johnson acknowledges texting with Trump attorney on Jan 6 (NBC News)
- Far-right group launches effort to get jobs for insurrectionists (Arizona Mirror)
Threats to Elections
- U.S. warns of security threats ahead of midterm elections (Wall Street Journal)
- Election officials confront a new problem: Whether they can trust their own poll workers (Politico)
- Armed Fringe Groups Are Gearing Up to ‘Protect’ Midterm Ballot Dropboxes (Vice)
- A majority of GOP nominees — 299 in all — deny the 2020 election results (Washington Post)
- They legitimized the myth of a stolen election — and reaped the rewards (New York Times)
- Conspiracy theorists flood the election process, set sights on monitoring ballot drop boxes (Michigan Advance)
- Experts alarmed by GOP secretary of state candidate’s conspiracy theorizing in NM (Source New Mexico)
- How election conspiracies cast a shadow over GOP, WA midterms (Seattle Times)
- ‘Death by a thousand cuts’: Georgia’s new voting restrictions threaten midterm election (The Guardian)
Audits, Recounts, and Other Sham Investigations
- Supreme Court allows defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to proceed (CNN)
- Ohio to hire election investigators to tackle ‘crisis of confidence’ (Columbus Dispatch)
- Nevada county’s plans to hand-count early ballots challenged (WHEC/Associated Press)
- Man behind sketchy Pennsylvania voting machine ‘audit’ has ties to failed Arizona recount (Daily Beast)
- As legal fees keep mounting, Gableman review costs public more than $1.5 million (WKOW)
Covid-19 Response Oversight
- Biden’s Operation Warp Speed revival stumbles out of the gate (Politico)
- Biden vaccine mandate for health workers survives Supreme Court appeal (Bloomberg)
- CDC ends daily reporting of COVID case and death data, in shift to weekly updates (CBS News)
- The great pandemic swindle: Feds botched review of billions in suspect PPP loans (Project on Government Oversight)
- Oklahoma GOP ties federal covid funds for hospital to ending gender-affirming care (Washington Post)
Mar-a-Lago Documents and Trump Accountability
- National Archives alerted lawyers for Trump about missing letters with North Korean leader in May 2021 (CNN)
- Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents included pardons, White House emails, legal bills (Bloomberg)
- Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in Mar-a-Lago documents case (Politico)
- Trump lawyer Alex Cannon declined in February to say all documents returned (Washington Post)
- In Trump White House, classified records routinely mishandled, aides say (Washington Post)
- ‘Defund the SEC’ becomes a rallying cry on Trump’s social media site (New York Times)
In the States
- Racist busing rides again (Texas Observer)
- The Story Behind DeSantis’s Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard (New York Times)
- Supreme Court leans toward Alabama in voting rights dispute (New York Times)
- Judge upholds ruling barring clerks from fixing errors on absentee ballots in Wisconsin (Wisconsin State Journal)
- Federal judge curtails protections for LGBTQ workers, trans kids in response to Texas lawsuit (Texas Tribune)
- Another National Guard soldier working Operation Lone Star dies by suspected suicide (Texas Tribune)
- Missouri leaders promise transparency. But open records are often cloaked in secrecy. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
- New Hampshire National Guard to deploy to US-Mexico border (WMUR)
- Youngkin, attorney general expect schools to follow transgender policies (Virginia Mercury)