White House gives unprecedented look at systems that prevent deleting messages, documents

The White House pulled back the cover on its methods for preserving presidential records this week, telling a federal judge that it has systems in place to prevent deletion of electronic documents, emails, chats and text messages created on their official devices.

Robert Eisenhauer, director of information technology at the White House, made the revelations in response to a lawsuit accusing President Trump’s team of preparing to destroy records that are required to be kept by law.

Employees’ use of Signal, an encrypted messaging app that has a “disappearing messages” feature, has come under particular scrutiny.

But Mr. Eisenhauer said the system used by staff in the Executive Office of the President stores all messages in “a purpose-built archive system” regardless of whether the disappearing function is toggled on.

“These messages cannot be deleted by an employee and are captured by the archiving system regardless of automatic erasure or ‘disappearing messages’ options selected by the distant end or EOP staff,” Mr. Eisenhauer said.

He said employees’ government-issued smartphones don’t have text messaging or Apple’s iMessage enabled by default. They can request SMS text messaging for “valid work reasons” and those messages are automatically captured and retained.

All electronic files created on the office’s system are saved, as are all emails. Microsoft Exchange settings prevent deletion and every message is also automatically captured in what Mr. Eisenhauer called “a continuous archiving system.”

The White House systems have drawn scrutiny after the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — the internal legal affairs division of the federal government — said the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.

Advertisement Advertisement

The White House Counsel’s office followed with a memo on April 2 suggesting compliance with the act was now voluntary.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Trump and his office on April 24, saying the new policy allows the president to destroy or shield some records from ever being seen.

“Defendants’ unlawful actions pose a real and immediate threat that presidential records will be irrevocably destroyed and forever lost to history,” the lawsuit said.

Mr. Eisenauer, though, said nothing has changed and he has kept all the archiving systems in place for electronic records.

He said the White House counsel’s office has also instructed him to “continue ensuring that all emails and electronic records are preserved in accordance with existing procedures.”

Advertisement Advertisement

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.