Latest news with #Shogan
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Has a ‘List' of National Archives Staff to Fire as Revenge for Docs Scandal
In recent months, Donald Trump asked advisers for a 'list' of staff at the National Archives who he should purge, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump said the list was to include, but not be limited to, Archives officials involved with the effort to get the Biden-era Justice Department to help recover classified material Trump hoarded at Mar-a-Lago after he left office the first time. Trump's stubborn refusal to simply turn over all of the highly sensitive government documents led to the FBI raid of his Florida estate, and then to criminal charges in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation (which were rendered moot by Trump's return to office). The list, which Trump administration officials vetted, includes Archives staffers who were directly involved with the records standoff with the then-former president, as well as some who weren't, the sources add. There are some in Trump's ear who want him to oust everybody on the list. There are others close to Trump, including some senior White House staff, who think the final list of Archives staff to dismiss should be more carefully curated, as there are some names on the initial list who they feel were just doing their jobs and not worthy of blackballing. The potential purge list includes Deputy Archivist of the United States William Bosanko, though it is unclear if he'll meet the same fate as now-former Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan, whom Trump dismissed on Friday. There are questions within the administration about whether Trump firing Bosanko would be legal. However, it is the position of the upper crust of the second Trump administration that the law — and the Constitution — should not get in the way of what the president, and his purge-buddy Elon Musk, want to do. In response to a request for comment, a National Archives official sent Rolling Stone a letter the American Historical Association sent the White House in response to Shogan's dismissal last week. The letter notes that Shogan serves in a nonpartisan, Senate-confirmed role, and that the law requires the president to communicate to Congress why he is dismissing her. 'Democracy rests on the rule of law. And the history of the United States rests on unfettered access to the archival record,' the letter concludes. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For the opening weeks of Trump's second term, the president, Musk, and their allies have been conducting a widespread crackdown throughout different agencies and departments of the federal government, stamping out traces of diversity programs and ousting numerous officials and staffers involved with the Trump criminal investigations as well as officials suspected of anti-Trump sentiments. Within the National Archives, officials are bracing for this wider purge to touch on them, and are taking a Trump-vengeance bloodletting as a given, three sources with knowledge of the matter say. Archives staff are 'talking in terms of inevitability,' says one person familiar with the situation,' noting that 'it's been grim.' In October 2022, Rolling Stone reported that Trump was already starting to tell confidants that if he returned to power, he wanted to fire several officials at the National Archives and stack it with his MAGA lackeys. If or when he officially orders the dismissal of others beyond just Shogan, it would represent the culmination of his years-long thirst for revenge against the nonpartisan historical agency. It would also underscore the staggering degree to which Trump is conducting his retribution tour. He is not satisfied with just purging high-profile institutions like the Justice Department and the FBI. He is also punishing institutions like the Archives — and even the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — for pissing him off over the years, as he and his lieutenants continue their blitz to try and subsume every corner of the federal government into Trump's conspiracy theory-fueled, far-right personality cult. 'National Archives employees who helped make the shocking decision to seek an unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful Biden Justice Department home raid on the former president — including searching Melania and Barron Trump's underwear drawers — over a dispute essentially about overdue library books deserve to get fired,' says Mike Davis, a close Trump ally and fixture in MAGA legal circles. The National Archives long struggled to retrieve documents Trump took from the White House upon leaving office in January 2021. The two sides tried to come to terms throughout the rest of that year, and the Archives retrieved over a dozen boxes from Mar-a-Lago in January 2022. The boxes included everything from Trump's letters to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to classified material and intelligence documents pertaining to national security. The saga was far from over. Justice Department officials visited Mar-a-Lago in June 2022, and Trump lawyers turned over even more classified material the then-former president took to Florida. The FBI was soon after tipped off that even more classified documents still remained at Trump's club, and in August that year, the FBI raided Trump's estate, seizing hundreds of additional classified documents — including highly sensitive material about nuclear weapons. Trump was indicted on criminal charges for his handling of the material the following June. The indictment was damning, noting that Trump suggested lying about the documents, and even destroying them. It also detailed the haphazard way the documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with Trump stacking up sensitive material in unsecured locations, including a bathroom. He also showed classified documents to third parties who lacked security clearance, according to the indictment. Trump claimed he did nothing wrong throughout the process, while asserting the Justice Department was targeting him for political reasons and suggesting any sensitive documents had been 'planted.' Rolling Stone reported that prior to the indictment, Trump asked his lawyers if they could get 'my documents' and 'my boxes' back from the federal government. Trump has alleged that he declassified the material, although soon after he was charged, audio leaked of him admitting at one time that he 'can't' declassify some of the sensitive documents he took from the White House. The case tilted in Trump's favor when it was assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge whom senior judges reportedly advised to pass the case to someone with more experience. She refused, going on to issue several judgements favorable to Trump before ultimately tossing the case last July. Trump's win in November's election snuffed out any possibility of accountability. Now, Trump wants to hold the National Archives staffers accountable for daring to try to recover the classified material he took from the White House. More from Rolling Stone Serena Williams Defends Taylor Swift Against Super Bowl Boos J.D. Vance Says Trump Can Ignore Judges Trump and His Family Earned Millions From Trump Coin While 810,000 Others Lost Money: Report Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Washington Post
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump dismisses archivist to the United States
President Donald Trump has terminated the head of the National Archives and Records Administration, targeting an independent agency that was involved in trying to recover documents he took to his Florida estate after his first presidential term. Colleen J. Shogan was named archivist of the United States by President Joe Biden and confirmed to her role in 2023, a year after the Archives referred its search for documents in Trump's possession to the FBI. Posting on LinkedIn Friday evening, Shogan wrote that Trump 'fired' her. The independent agency she leads, known as NARA, oversees research facilities as well as 13 presidential libraries and 14 regional archives. It also houses many of the country's founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independenc. It also holds 13 billion pages of text and 10 million maps, charts and drawings, as well as tens of millions of photographs, films and other records. 'No cause or reason was cited. It has been an honor serving as the 11th Archivist of the United States. I have zero regrets — I absolutely did my best every day for the National Archives and the American people,' Shogan said on LinkedIn. In a subsequent statement, Shogan told The Post, 'It was an honor to serve as the 11th Archivist of the United States. I did so with integrity, patriotism, and honor.' Sergio Gor, the director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, confirmed Shogan's dismissal. 'At the direction of @realDonaldTrump the Archivist of the United States has been dismissed tonight. We thank Colleen Shogan for her service,' Gor wrote on the social media platform X. The Archives may be one of the most apolitical arms of the federal bureaucracy, but in 2022, it became the target of public ire from Trump and his allies when the agency sought to retain documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate. When they recovered 15 boxes from Trump's home in January 2022, agency officials found a mess of disorganized papers lacking any inventory. Highly classified material was mixed in with newspaper clippings and dinner menus. And Archives officials believed more items were still missing. The Archives then took the extraordinary step of referring the matter to the FBI — sparking a high-profile investigation that led to an August 2022 raid of the estate, which yielded classified material. Shogan, however, was not the head of the Archives at the time the agency was dealing with the document recovery efforts. Her first Senate confirmation hearing took place in September 2022 — about six weeks after the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search. She was confirmed by the Senate in May 2023 with all but three Republican senators opposing her nomination. Trump had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in refusing to turn over documents, at times suggesting that the records were his and should not be returned to the Archives. Federal prosecutors, in an investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith, charged Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents from his presidency and conspiring with aides to cover up his actions. He faced 40 charges in total. But last year a judge dismissed the federal indictment against Trump. Smith resigned from the Justice Department just before Inauguration Day and late last month, DOJ fired more than a dozen officials who worked on Smith's investigations into Trump's criminal cases. The dismissal of the nation's record keeper marks the latest effort by the new Trump administration to reshape the federal government, with attempted changes that have included a sweeping buyout offer for federal employees, a purge of some 15 inspectors general across different federal agencies, the gutting of nation's foreign aid agency, USAID. William J. Bosanko, deputy archivist of the United States, sent a notice to all National Archives employees to inform them that Shogan had been dismissed from her position. 'In accordance with statute, I am temporarily assuming the role as Acting Archivist,' Bosanko wrote in the notice, according to a copy shared with The Post. 'We will share more information with you as soon as possible.' Shogan was the first woman to serve as archivist of the United States. She was previously senior vice president and director of the David M. Rubenstein Center at the White House Historical Association. She also held roles at the U.S. Senate and the Library of Congress. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024 that during her tenure leading the Archives, Shogan was accused by longtime employees of making changes to exhibits in the National Archives Museum that amounted to censorship. She also invited Melania Trump to speak at a naturalization ceremony at the Archives in 2023, where she presented the former first lady with copies of the conviction record of Susan B. Anthony, who was arrested for casting a ballot before women had the right to vote in the United States, and Trump's 2020 presidential pardon of Anthony. Shogan's predecessor, David S. Ferriero, left his role in 2022, telling The Post that he decided to retire partly because he was worried about the political future. 'It's important to me, that this administration replace me,' he said in 2022. 'I'm concerned about what's going to happen in 2024. I don't want it left to … the unknowns of the presidential election.' Jacob Bogage, Hannah Natanson, Jacqueline Alemany and Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump dismisses head of the National Archives
President Donald Trump dismissed the head of the National Archives, a White House official said Friday night, following through on a vow last month to change the leadership atop the agency, which was involved in the criminal case that had accused Trump of mishandling classified documents. White House director of presidential personnel Sergio Gor said on X that national archivist Colleen Shogan was dismissed Friday night at Trump's direction. 'At the direction of @realDonaldTrump the Archivist of the United States has been dismissed tonight. We thank Colleen Shogan for her service,' Gor wrote. Gor did not indicate who would take over Shogan's position. The National Archives did not provide a response when asked about Shogan's dismissal, instead referring NBC News to the White House for comment. The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A post from a LinkedIn account seemingly belonging to Shogan acknowledged the termination. "This evening, President Trump fired me. No cause or reason was cited. It has been an honor serving as the 11th Archivist of the United States. I have zero regrets - I absolutely did my best every day for the National Archives and the American people," the post said. Trump said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt last month that he intended to fire Shogan, saying: 'We will have a new archivist.' The National Archives played a key role in the criminal case against Trump, alerting the Justice Department in 2022 that Trump had potentially mishandled classified documents after the president failed to return records that the agency had requested, something presidents are required to do after departing office. Shogan, who became national archivist in May 2023, was not leading the agency at the time of its involvement in the case. Trump eventually returned some of the records but kept others, and investigators said they obtained security video in July 2022 showing Trump's aides moving boxes of classified documents. The FBI later opened a criminal investigation into Trump, searching his Mar-a-Lago residence and finding 11 additional sets of documents. Trump, who was the first former president charged with federal crimes, pleaded not guilty to any wrongdoing. The Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case last year, arguing the DOJ's special counsel Jack Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed. Smith appealed the dismissal but wound down the case following Trump's election last year due to the Justice Department's longstanding practice not to prosecute sitting presidents. Since taking office last month, the Trump administration has dismissed a number of officials who have been involved in investigations against the president, firing several Justice Department career lawyers and senior FBI officials. Two groups of FBI agents who participated in investigations against him sued the DOJ on Tuesday, alleging a survey they were instructed to fill out about their roles was instead used to identify targets for dismissal. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration dismisses national archivist
President Donald Trump's administration announced it had dismissed Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan in a surprise move Friday evening. 'At the direction of @realDonaldTrump the Archivist of the United States has been dismissed tonight,' White House Director of Presidential Personnel Sergio Gor wrote in a post on X. 'We thank Colleen Shogan for her service.' While Shogan had been told that Trump wanted to replace her, she did not expect her removal would happen as soon as Friday and was shocked when she was notified, a source familiar with the situation said. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) referred a request for comment to the White House. Shogan, who was nominated to the position by President Joe Biden in 2022, was the first woman to hold the post as head and chief administrator of NARA, and previously served as senior vice president and director of the David M. Rubenstein Center at the White House Historical Association. Shogan had served as the archivist since 2023 and was not at the National Archives when FBI agents searched Trump's home in 2022 looking for classified documents. The role of the National Archives took on new prominence in recent years, coming under scrutiny from Republicans in the wake of the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents. At the time, the Archives asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump's handling of White House records. Trump has been critical of the National Archives in the past, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview last month the previous archivist in place during the Mar-a-Lago raid, David Ferriero, 'was a disaster,' before hinting he planned to replace Shogan. 'I think I can tell you that we will get somebody,' he told Hewitt. 'Let me just put it – yeah, we will have a new archivist.' Just last month, Shogan blocked the Biden administration's move to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, citing 'established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.' In his first term, Trump's administration petitioned a federal court to throw out a lawsuit seeking to codify the ERA into law. The archivist also enjoyed personal ties to first lady Melania Trump, personally inviting her to give a rare public speech on citizenship at the National Archives in 2023. The two women met while Shogan was at the White House Historical Association during Melania Trump's previous tenure as first lady and worked together on a number of projects. This story has been updated with additional details.
New York Times
08-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Fires Nation's Archivist in Latest Round of Personnel Purge
The nation's archivist, Colleen Shogan, said on social media Friday night she had been fired by President Trump, in the latest act of retribution against a perceived foe that the president had promised to deliver upon returning to the White House. It was leaders of her agency, the National Archives and Records Administration, who raised concerns about Mr. Trump possessing boxes of classified documents that he had taken after he left office in 2021, setting off a criminal case against him. Ms. Shogan announced her firing on her professional LinkedIn page. 'This evening, President Trump fired me,' Ms. Shogan wrote. 'No cause or reason was cited. It has been an honor serving as the 11th Archivist of the United States. I have zero regrets — I absolutely did my best every day for the National Archives and the American people.' The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in a post on social media, Sergio Gor, who runs the presidential personnel office, confirmed Ms. Shogan's dismissal. Ms. Shogan, the first woman appointed to the typically apolitical role, was something of an unusual target for Mr. Trump. She was not involved in the criminal investigations into Mr. Trump's handling of classified documents, and was not the leader of the Archives when it raised concerns about Mr. Trump. She had also had high-profile clashes with the Biden administration. Last year, she blocked attempts by Democratic lawmakers to add a 28th amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, to enshrine gender equality into the Constitution. Ms. Shogan refused to publish the amendment on the grounds that it had not met the necessary requirements, even after President Joseph R. Biden, who appointed her, declared that it did. But her affiliation with an agency despised by Mr. Trump appeared to be all the justification he needed to dismiss her. The Archives, which is responsible for issuing and preserving the nation's records, alerted the Justice Department in early 2022 about Mr. Trump's potential mishandling of classified documents after it learned that he had taken more than a dozen boxes of presidential records to Mar-a-Lago, his private residence and club in Florida, after he left office. Ms. Shogan began leading the agency in May 2023. But on the day that his electoral win was slated to be certified last month, Mr. Trump vowed that he would replace Ms. Shogan during an interview with a conservative radio host who told Mr. Trump his 'problems' with the documents case came about because the archivist at the time 'hated you.' 'I think I can tell you that we will get somebody — yes,' Mr. Trump said. 'We will have a new archivist.' The F.B.I. executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 after trying for more than a year to get Mr. Trump to return documents. The case eventually led to Mr. Trump's being charged by the special counsel Jack Smith with mishandling classified documents and obstructing the Justice Department investigation. The case was ultimately dismissed last year by a judge Mr. Trump had appointed on the grounds that Mr. Smith had been unlawfully appointed to his job.
