Defending our democracy through the presidential transition

The U.S. saw incredible turnout in this election. At least 159 million voters, a record number, participated in the 2020 elections. They made a plan and they made their voices heard, no matter what barriers were erected to stop them.

Now we must demand that officials in both parties live up to the example set by the American people and act with integrity to implement the will they expressed at the polls.

This means cooperating fully in the peaceful transferal of power. A first step finally came last month as the General Services Administration of the federal government acknowledged Joe Biden as president-elect and released essential transition funds.

Unfortunately, the process could still suffer from the intransigence of a sitting president unwilling to face defeat with honor and some Cabinet or staff members who may mistake faithfulness to a single leader as allegiance to their country.

Over the past three weeks, numerous top officials have been unceremoniously fired or forced to step down, only to be replaced with the most extreme Trump loyalists. These changes in appointed positions are insolent at such a late juncture. Some commentators have suggested that the new hires may have been selected to oversee destruction of documents in an effort to hobble the incoming Biden administration or cover up abuses, crimes, or constitutional violations from the past four years.

The basis for concern is the president’s own behavior. Trump himself is known to tear up papers in the Oval Office, leaving staff to resort to scotch tape to preserve them. He deletes his tweets, forcing archivists to collect them. He routinely employs nondisclosure agreements of questionable legality to silence administration personnel who work not for him but rather for the American taxpayer. He even hides his conversations with despots, including the details of five separate meetings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

These are serious breaches of the law, and the president’s staff and family serving in the White House follow his lead. Private email accounts and text apps that automatically destroy messages are among the tactics used to evade the recordkeeping requirements to which every executive branch member is subject.

For these reasons, the House Oversight Committee, backed by 20 additional committee heads, has taken the unusual step of warning the White House and federal agencies not to shred, delete, or remove any records leading up to Inauguration Day on January 20, 2021. As they underscored, destroying federal documents is a crime. Period.

Sadly, the toothless nature of document retention laws means that additional vigilance will be required to secure this information for the Biden team and for history. The American people are counting on the many honorable patriots working in the current administration, who will uphold their duties despite any pressure and raise the alarm should they observe illegal or unethical activities.

Courageous truth-telling should be afforded full protection but it must be acknowledged that whistleblower statutes have weakened under this administration’s unprecedented assault. This has had a chilling effect on witnesses who would hold our government accountable.

The Project on Government Oversight is, therefore, stepping in to assist. Our nonpartisan watchdog organization has decades of experience working with whistleblowers and protecting their rights. We have secure, confidential means of accepting reports from truth-tellers regarding document destruction or other wrongdoing. Although we do not provide legal counsel, we can link whistleblowers to legal and advocacy resources. Most importantly, we will tell their stories widely while protecting their identities.

In the months to come, Congress must undertake the challenge of strengthening whistleblower protections and adding enforcement provisions to other accountability and transparency laws, including the Presidential Records Act and Federal Records Act. Until they can do their part, every American must participate in government oversight as eagerly as we did in the 2020 election and for the same reason — democracy depends on us.

Danielle Brian is executive director of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).