white house to preserve those documents, now cnn learned they ask the justice department to investigate trump's handling of those documents. >> all of this comes in a new book from the "new york times" maggie hagerman said they believe president trump was actually trying to flush pieces of paper down a white house toilet. cnn law enforcement correspondent whitney wild is following all of the latest developments. whitney, let's start with this new reporting related to the national archives discovery and reaching out to the doj hoere. what do we know? >> reporter: it's not clear if they'll launch a formal investigation. the reality is the vast majority of these referrals to the department do not end up as a formal investigation. in a statement wednesday, the archives said we do not comment on potential or ongoing investigations. the request came after recent revelations that the national archives had to retreat 15 boxes of records that end up with trump at mar-a-lago, his florida resort and other documents given