We have all been aware of the Presidential Records Act at least since we learned that Jared and Ivanka regularly broke it by using their own email accounts to do some sticky government business. So we all know that all “records” produced in the White House, phone calls, texts, emails, etc. are collected and recorded.

We likely didn’t know “where” they went, but we’ve learned that the records now go to the National Archives. The Daily Beast interviewed Don Wilson and John Carlin, who both served as U.S. archivists, and Carlin, in particular, has a rather explosive quote out:

“Given how frantic they are… there are things in those records that are going to make real trouble. I’m talking about prison time. It reinforces the fact that they know they’re in real trouble if these things are released—particularly if they’re released soon.”

Hold on. Trump has fought everything and anything of evidentiary value in every venue ever. He started with NDAs back as a businessman decades ago, a sort of “employer privilege” that goes way back. He wouldn’t allow executive branch employees to testify during his impeachment – which should be an impeachable act. He fought New York to the Supreme Court over his taxes and business records and is trying to do the same thing here.

The logical presumption is that any and all of these efforts are made in an attempt to either keep him out of prison or from being humiliated.

We are intrigued by the phone and wonder if Trump ever allowed himself to be given and use a government phone. Trump is so wary of “evidence” that he would never write a text, and the fact that everyone was texting Meadows may mean that Trump didn’t give his number out to hardly anyone. It would be interesting to see who had that number.

Regardless, the archivists point out that this type of evidence has ruined presidents before:

“Nixon knew that tapes were going to kill him, and so he obviously fought and said they weren’t records. They were, because they were created in the Oval Office.”

“You aren’t supposed to conduct personal business on your cell phone. If it is, then it’s an official record. Is this official business? If it is, then it’s technically a presidential record, even if it’s on your personal cell phone. All of it is supposed to be turned over at the end of the administration.”

Keyword, “supposed” to. One is not “supposed” to encourage a coup d’etat, either. In the same way that Trump has never felt bound by evidentiary obligations, he’s never felt particularly bound by rules and laws, either.

But Trump knows others might have been, people like Meadows, who has already released records that have severely hurt Trump. It doesn’t seem to be a stretch to say that Trump keeps all of this hidden to “avoid prison time.”

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