White House gift records to Trump, Pence missing, State Department says

WASHINGTON – Facts Foreign Office stated that they were unable to make a complete and accurate account of the gifts given to them Former President Donald Trump and other US officials of foreign governments during Trump’s final year in office, citing missing data from the White House.

In a report to be published in the Federal Register next week, the department said the Executive Office of the President did not send information about gifts Trump and his family received from families. foreign leaders in 2020. It also said the General Services Administration does not send information about gifts given to Former Vice President Mike Pence and the White House staff that year.

The State Department said it sought missing information from the National Archives and Records Administration and the General Services Administration, but was informed that “relevant records” were not available because access restrictions regarding retired records.

The State Department’s Office of Reception reported the situation in the footnotes of the partial list of gifts received by U.S. officials in 2020. The office publishes such a list annually in part to recommend prevent potential conflicts of interest. A preview of the 2020 report was posted on the Federal Register website on Friday ahead of its official publication on Monday.

The report notes that the lack of gift information could be related to internal monitoring because the protocol office neglected to “submit data requests to all reporting agencies by January 20, 2021.” , when the Trump administration ends and the Biden administration begins. However, it also noted that there was a “lack of adequate record keeping regarding diplomatic gifts” between January 20, 2017, when Trump took office and left the White House four years later.

The State Department report comes as House lawmakers have opened an investigation into reports that Trump brought boxes of classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. after leaving office last year. The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Department of Justice to look into the matter.

Meanwhile, the committee investigating the January 6 uprising on Capitol Hill has identified a nearly eight-hour gap in official White House records of Trump’s phone calls as violence erupted and people His supporters stormed the building, according to two people familiar with the probe.

Regarding the 2020 giveaway, the department said it was “attempting to gather the necessary data from current authoritative sources … but it confirmed that potentially relevant records were not available to the Office.” The Chief of Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall, according to the right of access, apply the provisions to the retired records of the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President. ”

“Therefore, the data required to compile a complete list for 2020 is not available,” it said.

Gift records to Trump administration officials such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and former Director of Central Intelligence Gina Haspel are included in the 2020 limited report, as are records of profile for other senior diplomats, Pentagon and CIA officials.

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