Amidst all the stories about Trump’s mishandling of records, which seems to have gone much further than anyone could have predicted, the National Archives have officially requested the Department of Justice to launch a formal investigation around the former president’s actions. They are asking for them to look into several areas, such as possible mishandling of classified records, and even more importantly, whether he violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires all White House documents to be sent to the National Archives when the presidential term is over.

Though the request has been made, it does not guarantee an investigation. The majority of these requests to the Department of Justice are not pursued. And don’t get us started on Merrick Garland.

The Washington Post reported that the request had been made but that nothing beyond that has been announced. When following up for information, the National Archives only said that “We do not comment on potential or ongoing investigations.”

The National Archives has asked the Justice Department to not just investigate Trump for removing documents from the White House, but also for stealing items such as this model of Air Force One, pictured at the White House, and now at Trump’s lair, Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/BjDU2WHbj5

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 9, 2022

Trump’s bad habits and illegal activity involving White House documents have only recently made significant headlines. Still, it started last Fall when Gary Stern, the general counsel for the National Archives, contacted Trump and his staff after noticing several boxes of records were removed from the archives when Trump went back to Mar-A-Lago.

BREAKING – Trump took *classified* documents as part of the documents he stole from the White House and took to Mar-a-Lago. This is why National Archives referred case to DOJ for possible criminal investigation.

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) February 10, 2022

It appears that said boxes were packed right up with Trump’s personal belongings when he was getting ready to leave the White House residence. This careless handling of records is not all that surprising coming from Trump, especially after learning that he also constantly tore up papers intended to become archived later, meaning that his staff or other parties that needed relevant information were forced to tape them back together to decipher them.