President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Monday that he plans to replace the head of the National Archives, the agency whose leaders’ concerns about Mr. Trump’s decision to hang on to boxes of documents after he left office ultimately led to a federal indictment.
Mr. Trump made the comments in a brief phone interview with the radio host Hugh Hewitt, hours before his electoral college win was set to be certified in a joint session of Congress.
Mr. Hewitt told Mr. Trump that his “problems” with the so-called documents case happened, in Mr. Hewitt’s assertion, because the archivist at the time “hated you.” The case eventually led to Mr. Trump’s being charged by the special counsel Jack Smith with mishandling classified documents and obstructing the Justice Department investigation.
“I think I can tell you that we will get somebody — yes,” Mr. Trump said, chuckling. “We will have a new archivist.”
Colleen Shogan, the current national archivist, was not involved in the criminal investigations into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents, and a letter expressing concerns about his actions was written by her predecessor, who was then serving in an acting role. Ms. Shogan, the first woman to appointed to her position, began her post at the National Archives in May 2023. It is common for a national archivist to span across presidential administrations.
The National Archives alerted the Justice Department in early 2022 about potential issues with Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents after the agency learned that he had taken more than a dozen boxes of presidential records, including classified documents, with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left office.
Mr. Trump’s pledge to remove the archivist is just the latest example of the type of retribution some fear from a second Trump administration; he and his allies have already threatened to investigate, remove or even imprison those Mr. Trump sees as foes.
The letter alerting the Justice Department about missing presidential records was issued in early 2022. In August of that year, the F.B.I. executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago after trying for more than a year to get Mr. Trump to return documents.
Under the Presidential Records Act, presidents are required to provide most of their records to the National Archives once they leave office. Mr. Trump disregarded those requirements, ignoring the advice of his own advisers and sparking a dispute with the National Archives.
His indictment, which was filed in a federal court in Florida, was dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon, who Mr. Trump appointed to the bench. Mr. Smith’s team has been appealing that dismissal; Mr. Trump falsely claimed they had “won” the case, and called Judge Cannon “brilliant.”
During the prosecution of the classified documents case, Mr. Trump’s lawyers launched a sustained attack on the archives, accusing the agency of making a “sham referral” to the Justice Department once officials there discovered that Mr. Trump was in possession of classified material.
Mr. Trump has also complained that the archivist declined to make available documents related to the investigation into whether his 2016 campaign conspired with Russians.
Prosecutors working for Mr. Smith routinely pushed back, calling the allegations about the archives “a pervasively false narrative.”
The case was ultimately dismissed last year by Judge Cannon, who ruled that Mr. Smith had been unlawfully appointed to his job.
Mr. Smith and many of his special counsel staff plan to leave the department before the Trump administration begins on Jan. 20.
Jay Bratt, a senior national security prosecutor, is retiring after playing a key role in the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Trump’s classified documents case, according to people familiar with his decision who discussed it on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Bratt, 65, repeatedly raised the ire of Mr. Trump’s legal team, which accused him of bullying tactics and disrespecting the office of the former president as he oversaw the investigation. Mr. Bratt’s departure was first reported by the website SpyTalk.
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