National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Background
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent federal agency responsible for preserving and providing access to federal government records. Established in 1934, it enforces the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which designates all presidential records as federal property that must be transferred to NARA at the end of an administration. In January 2022, NARA retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club that Trump had removed from the White House, discovering that the boxes contained classified material. Trump refused to cooperate and NARA’s subsequent referral to the DOJ triggered the FBI investigation that led to the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and the federal indictment by Special CounselJack Smith.