Trump officials threatened with prison time over federal records

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 26, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

In the wake of the midterm wipeout, Trump administration officials have been put on notice that they could face as much as three years in prison for unlawfully destroying federal records. The Guardian reports that in a letter to department and agency heads on Wednesday morning, Bobby Scott made that warning plain.

Scott, who is the senior Democrat on the House education and workforce committee and expected to be its chair next year, cited the Federal Records Act of 1950 in calling on officials to “collect, retain and preserve records that document the ‘transaction of public business’ or contain ‘informational value’”.

“The American people have given Congress a clear mandate to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the administration,” wrote Scott. He asked for written confirmation by 18 November that the documents have been preserved and cautioned that federal employees who unlawfully conceal, remove, falsify or destroy them could be fined or put away for up to three years.

According to the report, the correspondence was sent to the heads of 10 departments and agencies under the House committee's purview, including the NLRB, Health and Human Services and the labor, agriculture and education departments.

The Democrats have been handed a resounding victory in Tuesday’s election with some key toss-up races won, ensuring majorities in both the Senate and the House. That will give them the oversight power to subpoena and go after members of the Trump administration.

In the nearly two years since Donald Trump took office, the administration has made sweeping changes to the federal government and trimmed its staff; at the Department of Education, the workforce has been halved on the grounds that states should oversee education.

With their new numbers, Democrats in Congress are ready to get to work. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House oversight committee, has told Republicans to “lawyer up” in the aftermath of the blue wave.

He is intent on opening investigations into the Epstein files, the immigration crackdowns, and Trump’s family business.

Garcia told Punchbowl News that his team had already spent months preparing, with some of that work taking place out of public view. He brought senior staff to Long Beach, California, to plan the opening months of a Democratic majority and has been coordinating with House Democratic leadership and the Judiciary Committee.

On Epstein, he plans to hold public hearings focused on survivors. His promised scrutiny of the Trump family includes its cryptocurrency ventures and questions about its members’ business contracts and board positions.

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