Preserve documents and democracy

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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While much has yet to be learned about the contents — and context — of the documents retrieved from former President Donald Trump's Florida residence, last week's release of a redacted affidavit clarifies some critical components of the issue.

It's clear, for instance, that the Justice Department and National Archives tried to settle the issue through quiet communication. A request was made in May 2021 that Trump return any documents he may have taken with him to Mar-a-Lago, as required by the Presidential Records Act.

Seven months later, Trump's representatives told the federal government that they had 12 boxes ready to be retrieved. (There actually were 15). And a letter from Trump's lawyers acknowledged that they knew their client might still have classified materials the government wanted back and that the Justice Department had opened an investigation. So this was no "raid," as Trump and his sycophants have decried, but a search necessitated by the former president's noncompliance with reasonable and legal requests.

Last week, Americans learned that the materials that had been recovered included 184 "classified" documents, including 67 labeled "confidential," 92 marked "secret" and 25 determined to be "top secret." Some were also labeled "NOFORN," meaning they could not be legally shared with a foreign government. And others were marked "SI," which indicated they were related to the surveillance of foreign communications.

The unsealed affidavit also indicated "a probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found."

Transparency strengthens democracy. The release of the heavily redacted affidavit makes clear that the federal government followed the necessary steps and will enforce its laws regarding presidential records regardless of the politics involved.

But this hasn't stopped some of Trump's supporters in Congress from defending the indefensible, including attacking the very institutions critical to a functioning democracy.

Not surprisingly, some of Trump's supporters across the country have picked up on those cues and threatened fellow citizens serving the country at entities like the Justice Department and the FBI. And, astoundingly, at the decidedly apolitical National Archives and Records Administration, which "has become a target of a rash of threats and vitriol," according to a report in the Washington Post.

"Without the preservation of the records of government, and without access to them, you can't have an informed population, and without an informed population, you lack one of the basic tools to preserving democracy," former acting archivist Trudy Peterson told the Post. "The system won't work if the neutrality of the National Archives is not protected."

Preserving democracy is every lawmaker's sworn pledge. But instead of honoring that promise, today's America includes craven politicians like Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who predicted/promised "riots in the streets" if Trump is prosecuted for mishandling classified information.

Those kinds of threats erode faith in institutions and this nation's ability to protect and project its values worldwide.

"Assaults on the U.S.-led institutions that have shaped the globe for 80 years are now mainstream," Jon Lieber, lead analyst for the United States at the Eurasia Group, wrote in an analysis issued on Monday. "One of the drivers of this is sui generis and goes by the name of Donald J. Trump, who has gone far beyond any previous president in assaulting and breaking down norms. But Trump himself is a symptom of endemic dissatisfaction and lack of faith in institutions."

Proving Lieber's point, on Sunday Trump seemingly called on FBI agents to revolt against the bureau's leadership by using his social media account to question when FBI agents were going to say "we're not going to take it anymore."

Regardless of their political persuasion, Americans should resist these corrosive attacks on the institutions that undergird our democracy and let the Justice Department's investigation play out.