Paper Tantrum? Docs Subpoenaed by 6 Jan. Panel Were Reportedly Torn by Trump

The documents were obtained by the 6 January Committee after a lengthy legal battle with the former president, who insisted that the records of his administration were protected by executive privilege. The US Supreme Court, however, ultimately dismissed those claims and allowed the unsealing of the documents.

The US House 6 January Committee has received the first of the subpoenaed documents from the Trump administration, some of which the National Archives had to tape back together after they had been torn into pieces. The agency explained that these presidential records arrived in that condition after the end of Trump's tenure.

The National Archives alleged in a comment for CNN that the documents had been torn by Donald Trump himself, but only referred to previous media reports as the source of their allegations. According to these reports, which surfaced as early as 2018, administration staffers had to tape back together many documents that passed Trump's desk after he allegedly tore them up.

"These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House", the agency said.

Apparently, not all of the records that needed to be turned over to the archives in full according to US law had been taped back together. It fell to staff at the National Archives to do this job now that the records had been subpoenaed by the 6 January panel.

It is unclear why certain documents were ripped up by Trump, while others were spared this fate.

The former president recently lost a lengthy legal battle with the 6 January Committee during which he tried to prevent the unsealing of the said documents. Trump has repeatedly criticised the committee dubbing it just another "witch hunt" orchestrated to harm him. The House Select Committee, which was created with the declared goal of investigating the cause of events at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, stated that it believes the subpoenaed documents contain important evidence allegedly proving that Trump tried to stage an insurrection – a claim that the former president strongly rejects.