Trump keeps citing the Presidential Records Act in his Mar-a-Lago defense: What does it say?

Donald Trump keeps pointing to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) to argue that he has done nothing wrong in the classified documents case, but what does the legislation say?

In 2022, the FBI conducted a raid on Mar-a-Lago, finding more than 100 classified documents that had not been handed back to the government despite several requests and subpoenas being issued. He was subsequently hit with dozens of charges alleging that he withheld the classified documents after leaving the White House, then obstructed the federal governement’s investigation. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

In March of this year, Judge Cannon on the US District Court of South Florida heard arguments regarding the notion that the PRA protects Trump from prosecution and that the case should be dismissed. While Trump’s attorneys argued that the law is too vague about national defense information, experts say that Trump has misinterpreted the law.

Barack Obama-era US attorney Joyce Alene White Vance wrote on X on March 14 that the motions from the Trump team were “barely better than frivolous”.

“Trump insists he designated the documents as personal records under the PRA so his possession of them was authorized and he can’t be prosecuted for it. But he’s never been able to explain how the PRA trumps laws about handling classified and national defense [information]. It doesn’t,” she argued. “Even if, by some stretch of the imagination, a president can hang onto classified information by claiming its personal records, Trump’s still obstructed justice according to multiple first-hand witnesses.”

In the March hearing, Cannon appeared skeptical of Trump’s assault on the Espionage Act as well as his attempt to use the PRA as a shield. But she also suggested