A federal judge ordered the White House on Wednesday to preserve all presidential records including text messages exchanged among its top officials, telling the Trump administration that at least for now it must follow a law it had unilaterally declared unconstitutional.
The ruling by Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocks a Justice Department memo and White House guidance in April maintaining that President Trump’s White House records were his private property and that officials did not need to comply with the Presidential Records Act, particularly on preserving text messages.
“While the presidency is a singularly important institution, that gravity does not free it from modest constraint,” wrote Judge Bates, an appointee of President George W. Bush, adding, “Congress has validly determined that this act helps to maintain that trust by shining some light on the activities of the president and his aides.”
The order, which is set to take effect on Tuesday while the legal case moves forward, amounted to a major if temporary rebuke of an administration that has shown little regard for laws meant to provide the public a window into the workings of the government and create a detailed historical record of presidential decision-making.
At the heart of the case is the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law enacted after Watergate that requires the safeguarding of all documents chronicling presidents’ official duties. Mr. Trump’s Justice Department claims that the law infringes on presidential powers, a position that Judge Bates noted was not shared by any previous president, including Mr. Trump in his first term.
“Such acquiescence is not dispositive, but it is illuminating,” Judge Bates wrote in his 54-page ruling. “It suggests that the post-Watergate settlement reflected in the records act adequately protects the president’s interests” by ensuring that his successors could be informed on his policy decisions.
By contrast, the government’s argument that Congress lacked authority to designate presidents’ documents as government property would “disable Congress and future presidents from reflecting” on history, he said, quoting Shakespeare’s line: “What is past is prologue.”
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, suggested that the administration would appeal, saying in a statement that the administration “will ultimately prevail.”
Ms. Jackson added that Mr. Trump was “committed to preserving records from his historic time in office” and that the Trump administration had said it would “maintain a rigorous records retention program” that would preserve all materials it deemed to have “historical value.”
During a court hearing this month, Judge Bates had questioned the rigor of the policy the White House had adopted.
His ruling excluded Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance because a higher court had prevented judges from “micromanaging” presidents’ “day-to-day operations” regarding records preservation. But it would force other top officials who would frequently exchange text messages and emails with Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance to preserve them. He included some officials by name, such as Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, and Stephen Miller, the powerful adviser behind the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The American Historical Association and government watchdogs sued the White House in April, asking the courts to intervene after news of the Justice Department memo and White House guidance.
In its memo, the department had declared that the Presidential Records Act “aggrandizes” Congress “at the expense of” the executive branch. A day later, David Warrington, Mr. Trump’s White House counsel, issued guidance that appeared to relieve the president’s staff from some record-preservation duties, by advising that text messages need not be preserved unless “they are the sole record of official decision-making.”
The dispute continues a long history of Mr. Trump and his aides ignoring or skirting records laws. The Presidential Records Act formed the basis of Mr. Trump’s prosecution for taking White House records, including classified documents, to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after his first term. That case was later dropped after Mr. Trump was re-elected to another term.
Mr. Trump was known to tear up White House documents and leave them on the floor during his first term. Politico reported in 2018 that some administration officials even had to tape back together shredded documents to ensure compliance with federal laws. A month into Mr. Trump’s new administration, the White House sought to shield the Department of Government Efficiency from open records laws.
In August, the Department of Homeland Security told a government watchdog that the agency “no longer has the capability” to produce copies of top officials’ text messages amid its immigration crackdown. It was later revealed that the department ditched software that enabled automatic capture of officials’ text messages, citing national security concerns, and instead resorted to manual screenshots.
