“President Ronald Reagan allowed removal of classified information from the White House to his presidential library in California after leaving office in 1989.”
Presidential libraries are designed and built with secure storage for classified documents, and run by the Archivist of the United States, so this example does not support Trump’s case. As far as I know, Reagan did not have classified documents sent to his ranch as he left office...
As far as Carter, the Presidential Records Act did not come into effect until Reagan’s Administration. Prior to Reagan, presidential records were considered to be the property of the outgoing president, so Carter broke no laws. From Reagan onward, presidential records have been the property of the government unless they were truly personal in nature - letters not related to his duties as presidents, etc.
President Ronald Reagan faced allegations of violating the Presidential Records Act during his time in office. There were concerns that he had destroyed or failed to preserve official communications, particularly regarding the Iran-Contra scandal. However, no formal charges were ever brought against Reagan for violating the act. In 1994, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released a report stating that Reagan’s administration had violated the Presidential Records Act by failing to properly preserve and document some of his official communications. The report concluded that Reagan’s staff had destroyed some of his records, and that there were gaps in the historical record as a result. However, no legal action was taken against Reagan or his staff for these violations. WHY NOT?
In 1999, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released a report stating that the Clinton administration had violated the Presidential Records Act by failing to properly preserve and document some of his official communications. The report concluded that the administration had destroyed some of Clinton’s records and that there were gaps in the historical record as a result. However, no legal action was taken against Clinton or his staff for these violations. In 2001, shortly after Clinton left office, NARA issued a subpoena for tapes that contained phone conversations between Clinton and his top advisors. The tapes were later found to have been destroyed, leading to further allegations of violations of the Presidential Records Act. The case was closed in 2005 without any legal action being taken.
WHY ?
And should we start discussing Hillary Clinton ?
During the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server for official government business, it was discovered that she had used BleachBit to delete more than 30,000 emails that had been deemed personal and not work-related. The FBI’s investigation into the matter found that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information, but ultimately, no criminal charges were filed. Using Bleachbit is “careless” as opposed to WILLFULLY destroying data that should be preserved?
WHY?