February 5, 2020

Trump Breaks the Law by Ripping Up Official Papers All the Time

But he’s outraged that Pelosi did.

Alex Brandon/AP

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President Donald Trump’s campaign was quick to rebuke House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for ripping up her copy of the State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, tweeted that Pelosi’s destruction of government records constitutes a violation of US Code punishable by up to three years in prison. 

But as it turns out, Trump rips up official papers all the time. As the New York Times reported Tuesday:

President Trump has long made it a practice to tear up his papers and throw them away. It is a clear violation of the Presidential Records Act, which is supposed to prevent another Watergate-style cover-up. When the National Archives sent staff members to tape these records together, the White House fired them.

As usual, the rules don’t seem to apply to Trump, who has famously boasted that the Constitution gives him, as president, the right to do whatever he wants—a lie the Senate will uphold if it votes to acquit him this afternoon.

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That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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