Whistleblowers have told House Democrats that documents linked to President Donald Trump’s construction projects around Washington are being destroyed, congressional sources told CNN.
The warnings come as the Trump administration signals it will speed up work on the projects, which the president sees as a central part of his legacy, before Democrats take control of Congress in January.
Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, plans to send letters on Tuesday to the Interior Department and other federal agencies and companies, asking them to preserve all records and data linked to the committee’s oversight. Huffman will chair the committee in the new Congress.
Multiple whistleblowers approached the committee in recent weeks with concerns that the Interior Department was getting rid of records ahead of coming scrutiny, the sources said. The department oversees much of the national parkland Trump wants to use for his projects.
The Interior Department called the whistleblower claims “100% false.” A spokesperson said the department follows all federal records management obligations as directed by its ethics officials.
The letters also go to the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, both part of Interior, as well as the Agriculture Department and companies including Lockheed Martin and John Deere that donated to Trump’s projects. The whistleblowers did not say those recipients had destroyed documents, CNN reported.
Recipients must reply certifying their compliance, including efforts to preserve existing records, identify and recover any deleted information, and suspend any destruction or deletion practices.
The projects at the centre of the dispute include a golf course on the East Potomac and a proposed triumphal arch in Arlington, Virginia, on national parkland and other federal land.
Source: CNN
