This week, Donald Trump utilized his Truth Social platform to draw attention to a similar incident involving the withholding of information by another former president, Bill Clinton.

Trump mentioned the “Clinton sock drawer” case, which was litigated years ago by the legal watchdog group Judicial Watch, in a speech to supporters at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Tuesday, after he was indicted on 37 counts related to his handling of classified materials.

He cited a Wall Street Journal article by attorney Michael Bekesha, who asserted that under the Presidential papers Act, a president “chooses which records to return or keep, and the National Archives has no recourse.”

“The Presidential Records Act allows the president to decide what records to return and what records to keep at the end of his presidency. And the National Archives and Records Administration can’t do anything about it. I know because I’m the lawyer who lost the ‘Clinton sock drawer’ case,” Bekesha wrote in the Journal.

“In 2009, historian Taylor Branch published “The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President.” The book is based on recordings of Mr. Branch’s 79 meetings with Bill Clinton between Jan. 20, 1993, and Jan. 20, 2001,” he continued. “According to Mr. Branch, the audiotapes preserved not only Mr. Clinton’s thoughts on issues he faced while president, but also some actual events, such as phone conversations.”

The meetings between President Clinton and Mr. Branch were arranged by the White House, and Nancy Hernreich, the director of Oval Office operations at the time, oversaw the audiotape production.

“Did that make them presidential records?” Bekesha enquired.

The National Archives and Records Administration did not receive the recordings. Branch asserts that in order to prevent the recordings from becoming public, Clinton concealed them in his sock drawer and transported them with him after leaving office.

“My organization, Judicial Watch, sent a Freedom of Information Act request to NARA for the audiotapes. The agency responded that the tapes were Mr. Clinton’s personal records and therefore not subject to the Presidential Records Act or the Freedom of Information Act,” the attorney wrote.

“We sued in federal court and asked the judge to declare the audiotapes to be presidential records and, because they weren’t currently in NARA’s possession, compel the government to get them,” he added.

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was supported by the Justice Department on the grounds that NARA is not required to continuously look for prospective presidential records that have not been turned in by the president at the end of their tenure. CONTINUE READING…