Donald Trump ‘tried to flush documents away’ in White House bathroom

Donald Trump jammed his White House toilet with papers despite an order to retain presidential records, a new book claims.

Donald Trump jammed his White House lavatory with papers that he flushed away despite an order to retain presidential records, a new book claims.

Maggie Haberman, a reporter on The New York Times, claims that staff “periodically” found wads of documents clogging the pipes of the lavatory used by the president.

Trump denied the claim, insisting that it was a “fake story” to sell Haberman’s book Confidence Man.

The former president came under scrutiny, however, as the National Archives and Records Administration, an independent agency, asked the Department of Justice to investigate his treatment of documents after 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from his Mar-a-Lago house in Florida.

Some of the papers might have been classified.

The Presidential Records Act says that White House records must be preserved and an outgoing president is responsible for handing documents to the archives agency at the term’s end.

Haberman told CNN: “Staff in the White House would periodically find the toilet clogged.”

She said that they would find “wads of clumped up, wet, printed paper … either notes or some other piece of paper that they believe he had thrown down the toilet”.

Haberman added that it was unclear what types of documents were found.

Trump dismissed the allegations while also denying any transgression in keeping papers that were to be handed back to the national archives agency.

“The papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis,” he said in a statement.

The former Republican leader added that the records would one day become part of the Donald J Trump Presidential Library.

“Also, another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book,” Trump insisted.

A House committee launched an investigation into whether Trump had violated the act by taking to Florida boxes of presidential records, including letters sent by Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea.

Carolyn Maloney, a Democratic chairwoman of the oversight committee, said that her inquiry “involves a former president potentially violating a criminal law by intentionally removing records, including communications with a foreign leader, from the White House and reportedly attempting to destroy records by tearing them up”.

Investigators have not found any evidence that the White House records were tampered with or deleted.

Haberman claims in her book that Trump has told people he remains in touch with Kim, although she adds that this may not be true.

Trump claimed in 2018 that he and Kim “fell in love” after exchanging “love letters”. His two face-to-face meetings with the North Korean leader failed, however, to stem the country’s missile testing.

Records are also patchy for Trump’s phone calls on January 6, when his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. A House committee is investigating the incident.

Call logs for the White House phone show gaps suggesting that Trump bypassed the system using his own mobile or that of an aide. The committee has subpoenaed phone companies for mobile records from members of his inner circle.

The Times