It’s no secret that President Donald Trump loves to tweet, and now his actions on Twitter have gotten him in hot water with the House Oversight Committee.
Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD), chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to White House counsel Don McGahn expressing concern about the President’s habit of tweeting and then deleting posts on his two different Twitter accounts, @realdonaldtrump and @POTUS.
The letter noted that because Trump is President, his words are part of presidential record, and that he could be in violation of the Presidential Records Act if he deletes a tweet before it can be archived.
“Many of the messages sent from these accounts are likely to be presidential records and therefore must be preserved,” the letter reads. “It has been reported, however, that President Trump has deleted tweets, and if those tweets were not archived, it could pose a violation of the Presidential Records Act.”
Trump deletes tweets on a fairly frequent basis, usually to clear up typos.
The letter also touches on reports that Trump staffers were using private email accounts and encryption apps to communicate about government business. The letter recommends that staffers receive training on proper digital security and asks the administration to follow up with policies and training tools they have implemented to keep data safe.
“Official business must be conducted in such a way as to preserve the official record of actions taken by the federal government and its employees,” the letter reads.
“The need for data security, however, does not justify circumventing requirements established by federal recordkeeping and transparency laws,” it continues.
Read the full letter below:
