Members of Congress from both political parties are warning President Donald Trump not to delete any of his tweets, arguing that doing so could violate federal record-keeping laws.
Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) and Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), the chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, respectively, sent a letter to White House counsel Donald McGahn II on Wednesday, warning that the president's tweets should not be deleted because they could be considered government records, Mic reported Friday.
Trump, who is famous for his frequent tweeting, has deleted tweets in the past, mainly if they contain grammatical errors.
The president does have two Twitter accounts, his personal account @realDonaldTrump and his official account @POTUS. He inherited the latter handle from former President Barack Obama when he took office. Neither of these accounts is backed up with data archiving abilities, which means deleting any messages could violate the law, according to Chaffetz and Cummings.
Chaffetz and Cummings also warned the administration that using encrypted messaging apps, like Signal, could be against the law.
"The need for data security, however, does not justify circumventing requirements established by federal recordkeeping and transparency laws," the lawmakers wrote.