A federal judge has ordered the White House to preserve a wide range of evidence about President Donald Trumpâs dealings with foreign leaders, including his interactions related to Ukraine that have fueled an impeachment investigation in the House.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued the order Thursday, directing that White House officials not destroy records of âmeetings, phone calls, and other communications with foreign leaders.â
The judgeâs order also appears to specifically address reports that the Trump White House set up a special system to limit access to certain records of presidential conversations with foreign leaders.
Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, instructed the White House to preserve âall records of efforts by White House or other executive branch officials to return, âclaw back,â âlock downâ or recall White House recordsâ about dealings with foreign officials.
The order came in a lawsuit filed in May by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, as well as two history-focused organizations: the National Security Archive and the Society for the History of American Foreign Relations. The suit alleged that the White House was failing to maintain and putting at risk records of presidential actions required to be documented by the Presidential Records Act.
While the suit predated the Ukraine controversy, lawyers pressing the case asked Jackson on Tuesday for a temporary restraining order, citing reports that records of Trumpâs phone calls with the president of Ukraine and some other leaders had been removed from the usual database at the White House and moved to another one not typically used for those calls.
Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing Wednesday that the White House had already taken steps to secure many of the records the plaintiffs expressed concern about. The filing also suggested that in response to the request for a restraining order, White House lawyers broadened an existing instruction to preserve records of Trumpâs foreign interactions.
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