Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, dismissed former President Donald Trump's argument that a president can take home whatever documents they want.
Trump is facing 37 federal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents that he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021. In its investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said the former president took top secret information to Mar-a-Lago, his private residence in Florida, and obstructed governmental efforts to return the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges in a federal courthouse in Miami earlier this month and has maintained his innocence throughout the DOJ's probe.
During the Faith & Freedom Coalition's annual conference on Saturday, Trump defended his action of taking the classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office.
"Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has the absolute right to take them," the former president told his crowd of supporters. "He has the absolute right to keep them or he can give them back to NARA if he wants, he talks to them like we were doing and he can do that if he wants That's the law and it couldn't be more clear."
On NBC News' Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd asked Bacon on Sunday whether he thinks any part of Trump's statement is correct.
"I don't believe so, Chuck. We don't have a right to take top secret information to our home," the congressman responded. "You don't show our attack plans on Iran to people who are not cleared or pick documents that talk about our nuclear technology or where our intelligence resources are located throughout the world. And that's what happened there. And when the government asks for them back, you give them back. And if you deny having them, but then you have them, those are crimes."
Trump has repeatedly said that he has done nothing wrong under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which was enacted in 1978 after former President Richard Nixon resigned. The law states that presidential records belong to the U.S. government and not the president, and therefore should be preserved. The PRA outlines the requirements for the maintenance, access, and preservation of information during a president's tenure as well as after they leave office.
WATCH: GOP congressman says retaining, sharing of classified Iran documents is a crime.@RepDonBacon: "You don't show our attack plans on Iran to people who are not cleared ... And that's what happened there. And when the government asks for them back, you give them back." pic.twitter.com/PdCFdJSh8g
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 25, 2023
Under the PRA, documents that must be preserved include records related to certain political activities and president's duties such emails, text messages, and phone records, but it doesn't include the president's personal records or documents of a "purely private or nonpublic character." However, the PRA requires the president to separate personal documents from presidential records before leaving office.
Meanwhile, Todd asked Bacon about why some Republicans still support Trump despite his alleged wrongdoing, to which the GOP lawmaker responded that the Republican Party would function better if it supports the truth.
"Our party does best when we stand on the rule of law, the truth, the principles that made our party strong. And if we walk away from that, we'll be weakened in the short run, for sure," he said.
Newsweek reached out by email to Trump's media office for comment.
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