{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://clayhiggins.house.gov/2022/08/11/higgins-oversight-republicans-demand-answers-fbi-and-naras-investigation-trump/", "Higgins, Oversight Republicans Demand Answers on the FBI and NARA\u2019s Investigation of Trump", "2022-08-11", "2022", "2022-08", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Clay Higgins", "H001077", "clayhiggins.house.gov", "clayhiggins", "https://clayhiggins.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) and every Republican member of the House Oversight & Reform Committee expressed serious concerns over the raid of President Trump\u2019s residence and the Biden administration\u2019s ongoing efforts to weaponize the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to target political rivals.\n\nIn a letter to the Acting Archivist of the United States, Debra Wall, the Republican lawmakers are seeking to understand the National Archives and Records Administration\u2019s (NARA) role, if any, in the FBI raid, and are requesting an immediate briefing and preservation of all documents and communications referring or relating to the warrant executed by the FBI on August 8, 2022, at Mar-a-Lago.\n\n\u201cOn August 8, 2022, several dozen Federal Bureau of Investigation agents descended upon Mar-a-Lago\u2014the private residence of former President Donald J. Trump. According to media reports, the FBI executed a search warrant to retrieve \u2018documents sought by the National Archives [and Records Administration].\u2019 Law enforcement raiding a former president\u2019s residence is unprecedented. Committee Republicans are concerned that NARA would utilize the FBI to gather documents that the president, by the very nature of his constitutional role, could declassify himself, if this was indeed the case as media has reported. The Biden Administration is continuing to weaponize the FBI against political rivals. The FBI and NARA\u2019s actions\u2014apparently to enforce the Presidential Records Act\u2014are so contrary to the customary treatment of former administrations that it begs scrutiny into whether a political motivation underlay the raid,\u201d wrote the Republican lawmakers.\n\n\u201cNARA\u2019s singling out of President Trump\u2019s handling of official records stands starkly in contrast to the way NARA has treated far clearer violations committed by politicians and officials who are not Republicans,\u201d continued the Republican lawmakers. \u201cCommittee Republicans are content to leave Secretary Clinton to her retirement, yet the FBI and NARA\u2019s behavior towards President Trump deserves an explanation as to why the latter deserved a raid by the FBI. Committee Republicans demand answers about the FBI and NARA\u2019s investigation of President Trump and any coordination between the two agencies. The seeming weaponization of the federal government against President Biden\u2019s political rivals cannot go unchecked, and if NARA is working to further these efforts, it will be only the latest agency to lose its credibility in the eyes of the American people under the Biden Administration.\u201d\n\nRead the letter to the Acting Archivist of the United States here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:59:24Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://clayhiggins.house.gov/2022/08/11/higgins-oversight-republicans-demand-answers-fbi-and-naras-investigation-trump/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8656070567667484, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}