On February 18, 2022, David S. Ferriero answered Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney of House Oversight. NARA posted the signed PDF. The letter concerns “the 15 boxes of presidential records that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently recovered from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.”
Documented answers, in his words and NARA’s: NARA had ongoing 2021 communications with Trump representatives that resulted in the January 2022 transfer of 15 boxes. Staff were inventorying the boxes. “NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes.” On whether the Archivist had notified the Attorney General that Trump removed presidential records: “Because NARA identified classified information in the boxes, NARA staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.”
The same letter discusses torn-up paper records NARA said it learned about from a 2018 Politico report and, after the administration, from transfers. That is NARA’s account. It is not independently re-litigated here. Fox News later treated the DOJ-communication sentence as the trigger for the federal probe. That is reporting. The letter is primary. A staff contact is not an indictment. A classified marking is not a conviction.