Daijiworld Media Network - Washington

Washington, May 23: A federal judge in the United States has ordered aides to President Donald Trump to comply with the Presidential Records Act, rejecting arguments that the decades-old law interferes with presidential authority.

US District Judge John Bates, while delivering the ruling, cited George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 and observed that Congress enacted the Presidential Records Act to ensure government records are properly created, preserved and made accessible to the public.

The ruling contradicts an April memorandum issued by the US Justice Department, which argued that the law was unconstitutional and intruded on presidential powers. According to court documents obtained by USA Today, the Trump administration has until May 26 to appeal before the order comes into effect.

The Watergate scandal-era Presidential Records Act was passed in 1978 to regulate the handling and preservation of official presidential records.

Under the law, all records connected to a president’s official duties must be maintained and transferred to the National Archives once an administration leaves office. The same rules also apply to records of the vice president.

The legislation returned to national focus in 2022 after classified documents were recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property. Investigators had found more than 100 documents carrying classified markings, leading to multiple federal charges related to the handling of national defence information.

However, those charges were later dropped after Trump returned to office.