presidential library

A presidential library is a repository of the records, papers, and artifacts of a former U.S. president, established after the president leaves office and operated as part of a national system administered by the National Archives under the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955. The libraries are typically built with private funds raised by a nonprofit foundation and then turned over to the federal government to operate. Because those foundations are private entities, they can accept large donations, including from corporations and foreign sources, with limited disclosure, which has drawn recurring ethics concerns. Those concerns sharpened when Donald Trump, as a sitting president, settled lawsuits against media companies with payments routed to his presidential library foundation, including $16 million from Paramount, the parent of CBS News, and $15 million from the Walt Disney Company, the parent of ABC News, arrangements that legal scholars argued could implicate federal bribery law.