President Donald Trump’s missing Twitter messages add to a brewing scandal over his administration’s defiance of the Presidential Records Act, a law that requires the retention of federal records and communications. And the missing messages are likely to fuel concerns that Trump and his allies may hoard or destroy documents in violation of the law.
In January, The Washington Post filed a Freedom of Information Act request to Trump’s federally supported presidential library, seeking, among other things, direct messages Trump sent via Twitter (now X) accounts during his first term. The Post reported Wednesday that the library, a division of the National Archives, said it was “unable to locate any records related to” any direct message Trump sent via Twitter despite evidence he sent several.
The claim doesn’t pass the smell test.
As the Post noted, it doesn’t seem to square with the fact that former special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed and obtained several of Trump’s Twitter DMs during the probe of Trump’s unlawful push to overturn the 2020 election.
Per the Post: