House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) accused the Justice Department Thursday of stymying her investigation into former President Trump’s handling of presidential records, a sign the agency may be investigating the matter following a recommendation from the National Archives.
A source familiar with the situation did not refute that a Justice Department investigation into the matter is in its very early stages.
Maloney has since February sought to investigate Trump’s handling of some 15 boxes of records he brought to his Mar-a-Lago residence after he left office, some of which were labeled top secret.
Those documents were later recovered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which referred the matter to the Justice Department.
But Maloney said after initial correspondence from NARA, the agency said it could not go into greater detail about the contents of the boxes.
“The Department of Justice is preventing NARA from cooperating with the Committee’s request, which is interfering with the Committee’s investigation,” she wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“By blocking NARA from producing the documents requested by the Committee, the Department is obstructing the Committee’s investigation,” she added.
“The Committee does not wish to interfere in any manner with any potential or ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice. However, the Committee has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Committee.”
Maloney includes a portion of a March 28 letter from Archivist David Ferriero indicating the Justice Department asked that it cease cooperation with the committee.
“With respect to your request for information about the contents of the 15 boxes that NARA received from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence or about any reviews conducted by other federal agencies, based on our consultation with the Department of Justice, we are unable to provide any comment,” he wrote.
The Justice Department did not respond to request for comment from The Hill. The FBI said it could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
It’s not uncommon for the Justice Department to limit information to congressional committees on subjects they are investigating.
NARA requested Justice Department involvement in early February, just as Maloney was kicking off her investigation.
Maloney suggested Thursday that her investigation holds promise, pointing to a mid-February letter from Ferriero “identifying significant potential violations of the [Presidential Records Act] and other federal laws governing the preservation of federal records.”
Updated 1:27 p.m.