White House records management employees say they have spent months taping together papers for President Trump, who reportedly has the habit of “ripping up papers when he’s done with them” in contradiction of the Presidential Records Act. Politico spoke to Solomon Lartey and Reginald Young Jr., both former records management analysts and career civil servants who were paid more than $60,000 a year to Scotch-tape the president’s papers together.
Lartey described how disposed pieces of paper were taken from the Oval Office and residence for reconstruction, after aides tried and failed to get the president to stop ripping them up. Torn-up papers included newspaper articles with “scribbled notes, or circled words; invitations; and letters” from constituents and members of Congress. “I had a letter from [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer—he tore it up,” Lartey said. “It was the craziest thing ever. He ripped papers into tiny pieces.” While Lartey and Young were both terminated from their positions without explanation, they claim that staffers have been taping Trump’s papers together […]