- White House officials couldn't stop President Donald Trump from his habit ripping up and throwing away papers, even when they needed to be preserved.
- So they enlisted records management staff to piece them back together, according to a report from Politico.
- Under the Presidential Records Act, all materials must be filed and saved in the National Archives.
White House officials enlisted records management employees to tape back together papers from President Donald Trump's office that he constantly rips up, according to a new report from Politico.
An entire department of records management employees pieced materials back together "like a jigsaw puzzle," former employee Solomon Lartey told Politico, so the administration won't break the law.
The Presidential Records Act says every document during a presidency is publicly owned and must be filed and saved as historical record at the National Archives.
White House staff reportedly collected papers from the Oval Office and private residence and sent across the street to the Old Executive Office Building for Lartey and his colleagues to tape back together.
Lartey told Politico that he and his staff saw newspaper clips, memos, letters from colleagues like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and more torn once or sometimes completely shredded.
"I had a letter from Schumer - he tore it up," he told Politico. "It was the craziest thing ever. He ripped papers into tiny pieces."
The Presidential Records Act says the sitting president holds "responsibility for the custody and management" of presidential records.
The White House declined to comment.