Archive, SHAFR, AHA, CREW Won Litigation Hold Through Inauguration Day

White House Counsel Warned Staff Three Times About Preservation

Completed Full Export of Kushner’s WhatsApp Messages to Digital Archive

Washington, D.C., February 11, 2021 – The National Security Archive et. al. v. Donald J. Trump et. al. lawsuit, filed December 1, 2020 to prevent a possible bonfire of records in the Rose Garden, achieved a formal litigation hold on White House records that lasted all the way through the transition and Inauguration Day, the preservation of controversial WhatsApp messages, and a formal change in White House records policy.

The Archive worked with co-plaintiffs – the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) and the American Historical Association (AHA), as well as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) – to bring the case under the records laws, against President Trump, the Executive Office of the President, and the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA). [more...]