In an exclusive statement provided to an alternative news outlet, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) expressed her concerns regarding a baseless referral to the National Archives, which she believes resulted in the weaponization of the federal government against former President Donald Trump.
As details emerged from a private committee hearing held in March between the House Intelligence Committee and representatives from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Stefanik seized the opportunity to address the issue in an interview with the aforementioned news outlet.
During the hearing, NARA officials William Bosanko, the agency’s chief operating officer, and Mark Bradley, the office’s director of information security oversight, testified before the committee.
Bosanko revealed that he had raised the matter with the Justice Department after contacting the inspector general of the Archives. He expressed particular concern regarding President Trump’s communications with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
When Stefanik, a member of the Intelligence Committee, questioned Bosanko about any prior instances of referring a president to the inspector general, he emphatically denied it, stating, “No.”
“This shocking revelation epitomizes the illegal exploitation of federal agencies against President Trump, who was the frontrunner for the presidency,” Stefanik expressed passionately in her conversation with the news outlet. She continued, “The truth is that an unelected bureaucrat within a federal agency gravely misused their position by initiating an unfounded referral. This ultimately led to the unprecedented raid on the former President’s residence, based solely on personal correspondence between President Obama and President Trump, as well as between President Trump and the North Korean leader.”
The House Intelligence Committee highlighted that the issue of secret document retention extends far beyond Trump’s retention of letters from foreign leaders. Since 2010, NARA has received over eighty requests from libraries and colleges, with former Members of Congress and high-ranking government officials donating their papers. For instance, Senator Edmund Muskie sent 98 classified documents to Bates College.
NARA officials acknowledged the mixing of secret and unclassified papers and confirmed that this problem has persisted across multiple presidential administrations, starting from the Reagan Administration.
While classified documents were indeed missing, NARA’s primary focus was on locating items of historical significance, such as Obama’s letter to Trump and Trump’s correspondence with Kim Jong-un.
Stefanik vowed to continue her opposition to what she perceives as federal overreach, asserting, “I remain committed to vigilant oversight, aiming to uncover the truth, eradicate corruption and misuse within government agencies, and hold officials accountable for their politically motivated exploitation of the government, not only against President Trump but also against countless other American citizens.”