Mishandling of classified documents by recent presidents has been the norm, not the exception, according to newly declassified testimony from a House Intelligence Committee hearing with National Archives staff.
William Bosanko, the agency’s chief operating officer, told Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) during the March 1 hearing that the agency has found classified information in unclassified boxes with every administration “from Reagan forward.”
Director Mark A. Bradley, who heads the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office, also provided some perspective on the frequency with which classified documents end up where they shouldn’t.
“Since about 2010, we have gotten over 80 calls from different libraries where mostly members of Congress have taken papers and deposited them in libraries for collections—their own papers,” Bradley said, later clarifying that all of those calls concerned the discovery of “classified information” by the librarians receiving those materials.
He said his office takes guidance from both the National Archives and the National Security Council.
“We are kind of an odd body,” Bradley said.
Former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and, for actions during his vice presidency, current President Joe Biden have all come under the microscope for alleged or confirmed mishandling of classified documents from their time in the White House.
The longtime Biden aide told the House Oversight Committee that she didn’t identify classified documents in the materials she handled while packing boxes at the end of his vice presidency.
The recent outsized interest in classified documents began with a conflict between the National Archives and Trump over classified documents from the former president’s time in office.
The agency ultimately referred the case to the Department of Justice, which executed a high-profile search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022.
“White House institutional practices for the handling of classified materials—including declassification procedures—are inconsistent with how the intelligence community and military handles classified materials. This is indicative of the staff’s packing processes and not any criminal intent by President Trump,” the letter reads.
Bosanko told Hill that in the 80 cases since 2010 and the three that his office is currently dealing with, “it appears that classified [documents] were inadvertently–presumably inadvertently—commingled with unclassified documents prior to packing.”
The Senate confirmed the National Archives’ newest director, Colleen Shogan, on May 10.
