By Rebecca Shabad
WASHINGTON — The National Archives notified Donald Trump's lawyers in May 2021 that some of his missing presidential records included correspondence between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a letter left by former President Barack Obama for Trump, according to a previously undisclosed email.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released the email, dated May 6, 2021, and several other documents on Monday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from numerous news organizations.
The bulk of the requested material was not made public.
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In an email last year to three Trump lawyers, including Patrick Philbin, the Archives' general counsel, Gary Stern, said the agency "has run into a number of issues that need your help to resolve."
He said that "there are now certain paper/text records that we cannot account for" and that officials needed his "immediate help to ensure that NARA receives all presidential records as required by the Presidential Records Act."
“The original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was not transferred to us.
It is our understanding that in January 2021, just before the end of the Administration, the originals were placed in a folder for the president, but were never returned to the Office of Records Management for transfer to NARA," Stern told representatives. of Trump.
"It is essential that these original records be transferred to NARA as soon as possible," they added.
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Stern also said, “The letter that President Obama left for President Trump on his first day in office has not been transferred, as that letter was received by President Trump after his term began, it is a presidential record.” .
Other outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported those specific records when the National Archives announced in a statement in February that just weeks earlier they had "arranged transportation from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes containing presidential records, following conversations with representatives of President Trump in 2021.”
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Stern's email was among nearly a dozen pages of other communications between archives officials and Trump representatives handling the Presidential Records Act that were released.
Files said Monday they were holding nearly 300 other pages in their possession related to those communications.
The National Archives also released 54 pages of communications between agency officials and outside entities, such as Congress, the White House and the Justice Department.
The files said they retained some 1,250 pages of those communications.
Former US President Donald Trump, left, during his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. Susan Walsh / AP
Most of the pages that were revealed had previously been made public, such as the letters that House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, sent to the archives as part of her panel's investigation. about the classified documents and other presidential records that Trump did not transfer to the archives and instead took to his Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Inside the 54 pages was a letter Stern sent in June 2018 to Stefan Passantino, then Trump's deputy counsel, about a story Politico ran about how White House employees were responsible for jointly restoring Trump-torn documents. President.
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Stern asked the White House to explain "the scope of the problem and how it is being addressed."
“For example: How many records have been broken?
Has any record been destroyed or is it in a state where it cannot be recovered?
What steps have been taken to recover records that have been ripped out?” he asked, adding that the archives would be “happy to provide guidance on best practices for restoring damaged records.”
The documents were released just days after the files told the House Oversight Committee that some Trump White House records have yet to be turned over in compliance with the Presidential Records Act.