‘Gymnastics Enthusiast’ in DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel Came Up with a Way to Block Biden from Reading ‘Restricted’ Trump Admin Archives Jerry Lambe
In a last-minute attempt to assuage outgoing President
Donald Trump’s privacy concerns, the Justice Department last month issued a legal opinion stating that upon taking office, President
Joe Biden cannot access electronic records from the previous administration, even if those records are still on the president’s hardware after his inauguration.
The six-page memo penned by the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Devin DeBacker, an apparent “gymnastics enthusiast” states that under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) the U.S. Archivist, not the incoming president, assumes responsibility for the “custody, control, and preservation of” all records of the previous administration. DeBacker previously worked under Trump’s former White House Counsel