Two watchdog groups filed suit Friday, April 24, against the Trump administration, accusing it of illegally weakening rules requiring presidents to preserve official records for the public

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, the White House, and other top officials.

They want a federal court to strike down the new policy and compel the administration to comply with the Presidential Records Act.

The law dates to 1978, right after the Watergate scandal. It says records created by the president and his staff belong to the American people, not to the president personally.

Presidents must preserve emails, memos, text messages, and other documents related to government business. At the end of a term, they turn everything over to the National Archives.

DOJ’s daring move that triggered the suit

On April 1, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a 52-page opinion declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. The opinion said Congress overstepped its power and interfered with the president’s independence.

The day after the opinion came out, White House lawyers issued new guidance, replacing strict preservation rules with more flexible ones.

Officials now have wider discretion over what counts as an official record and what can be deleted. The changes include looser rules for text messages and other electronic records.

CREW and the Freedom of the Press Foundation say this opens the door to the destruction of records. In their complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, they argue the move threatens public access to history.

Without the old rules, important details about policy decisions, foreign affairs, and domestic matters could be lost.

“Defendants’ unlawful actions pose a real and immediate threat that Presidential records will be irrevocably destroyed,” the groups wrote.

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Both organizations rely on the law in their work, with CREW investigating government ethics and often using records obtained through the Presidential Records Act or Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation pushes for transparency and uses presidential documents to report on government actions.

They asked the court to declare the new policy illegal and to order the administration to follow the 1978 law while the case proceeds.

The Trump administration remains silent

The Trump administration has not yet filed a formal response in this specific suit. In related cases, officials have said they are still preserving records but argue the president should control his own papers.

Supporters of the OLC opinion say the law gives Congress too much power over the executive branch. They point to the first 200 years of the country, when presidents treated their papers as personal property.

Critics call the opinion a sharp departure from nearly 50 years of practice, in which every president since Ronald Reagan has followed the Presidential Records Act.

Historians and transparency groups have warned that weakening it could hide how decisions get made.

This is not the only lawsuit on the issue. Earlier this month, the American Historical Association and American Oversight sued over the same OLC opinion. They fear records could be lost before researchers can study them.

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The filing on Friday came as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the annual gathering of journalists and officials in Washington, was underway.

Some viewed it as a pointed indication that the press had access to government information.

The Presidential Records Act also covers the vice president’s office. The suit names Vance and his staff, saying the same rules must apply.