By Nathan Worcester
Mishandling of classified documents by recent presidents has been the norm, not the exception, according to newly declassified testimony from a House Intelligence Committee hearing with National Archivesâ staff.
William Bosanko, the agencyâs chief operating officer, told Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) during the March 1 hearing that every âadministration from Reagan forward, we have found classified information in unclassified boxes.â
Director Mark A. Bradley, who heads the Archivesâ Information Security Oversight Office, also provided some perspective on the frequency with which classified documents end up where they shouldnât.
âSince about 2010, we have gotten over 80 calls from different libraries where mostly Members of Congress have taken papers and deposited them in libraries for collections, their own papers,â he said, later clarifying that all of those calls concerned the discovery of âclassified informationâ by the librarians receiving those materials.
He said his office takes guidance from both the Archives and the National Security Council.
âWe are kind of an odd body,â Bradley said.
Declassified testimony from the hearing can be read here (pdf).
Former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and, from his vice presidency, current President Joe Biden have all come under the microscope for alleged or confirmed mishandling of classified documents from their time in the White House.
In the case of documents found at the Penn Biden Center, House Democrats have drawn attention to the role of Bidensâ executive assistant Kathy Chung.
The longtime Biden aide told the House Oversight Committee she did not identify classified documents in the materials she handled while packing boxes at the end of his vice presidency.
The recent outsized interest in classified documents began with a conflict between the National Archives and Trump over classified documents from the former presidentâs time in office.
The agency ultimately referred the case to the Department of Justice, which executed a high-profile search warrant on Trumpâs Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022.
In an April 2023 letter to the House Intelligence Committee, Trumpâs legal team offered an explanation for how classified documents ended up mixed in with unclassified materialsâa mishandling that, as Bosanko testified, was a problem across multiple presidential administrations.
âWhite House institutional practices for the handling of classified materialsâincluding declassification proceduresâare inconsistent with how the intelligence community and military handles classified materials. This is indicative of the staffâs packing processes and not any criminal intent by President Trump,â their letter reads.
Bosanko told Rep. Hill that in the 80 cases since 2010 âand the 3 we are dealing with now, it appears that classified were inadvertentlyâpresumably inadvertentlyâcommingled with unclassified documents prior to packing.â
The Senate confirmed the Archivesâ newest director, Colleen Shogan, on May 10.