Editor’s Corner

Abstract

As government information professionals, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say most of us have been closely watching the events related to missing sensitive documents and former President Donald Trump unfold. Historically, outgoing presidents did, in fact, take their documents with them when they left office because they were considered personal property, but the Presidential Records Act of 1978 (44 U.S.C. ß2201-2209) changed that. Thanks to the Watergate scandal during the Richard Nixon administration four years prior, all presidential and vice-presidential documents are now publicly owned and housed in the National Archives—that includes anything from margin notes and doodles to top secret national security materials.