When President Trump Deletes A Tweet, Is He Breaking The Law?

If President Trump deletes one of his recent tweets, he may be in violation of federal record-keeping laws, according to a letter sent by the the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican and chairman of the committee, sent the letter along with committee member Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat. It was directed to the White House and 55 federal agencies. The lawmakers asked for more information about how each agency is complying with record-keeping laws, which they argue may cover Trump's tweets.

"Many of the messages sent from [President Trump's twitter] accounts are likely to be presidential records and therefore must be preserved," the letter says. "It has been reported, however, that President Trump has deleted tweets, and if those tweets were not archived it could pose a violation of the Presidential Records Act."

Observers have noted that at least one recent tweet contains factual inaccuracies; this claim from the Oversight Committee may mean that Trump could not legally delete even false tweets, though he could correct them in follow-up tweets.

Many tweets that have been deleted were done so apparently because of misspellings. (Twitter does not allow users to edit tweets.)

Reports suggested that some White House officials may be attempting to avoid record-keeping laws, including the use of a purportedly secure messaging app called Confide, the letter notes. In addition to possible breach of protocol, it's also the case that this app may not be as secure as users believe.

"Federal recordkeeping and government transparency laws such as the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act ensure the official business of the federal government is properly preserved and accessible to the American public," the letter says. "Official business must be conducted in such a way as to preserve the official record of actions taken by the federal government and its employees."

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