WorldWatcher
Gold Member
The PRA is controlling in dealing with records in possession of a former President, and there is no criminalizing of a former President in the PRA over documents.
Indeed:
44 U.S.C. §2205(3).
§2205(3) doesn't mean government records become the property of the FPOTUS.
The same PRA of 1978 says in
§2205(g)(1) Upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President. The Archivist shall have an affirmative duty to make such records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible consistent with the provisions of this chapter.
The former President (or his designee) can have access to Presidential Records through the NARA, not that the former President gets to take the records to his country club.
WW