The mob on January 6 went on a rampage, injuring 140 police officers.
The White House has created a new web page to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riot, painting an ominous picture of Democrats.
Reporters want to know what the president was first told about the coronavirus, researchers want to know more about the text messages from the January 6 riot, and some want to know who covered the president’s ears.
On January 20, five years after President Trump first left office, the National Archives began accepting requests for records from President Trump’s first term. More than 200 applicants lined up that day.
The request touches on key moments in Trump’s presidency, including his relationship with the Trump Organization, major geopolitical events such as the Iraq airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani, and inside scoops on the coronavirus pandemic. Also targeted were players who eventually became big names, including Jared Kushner, Omarosa Manigault Newman, and Cassidy Hutchinson.
The initial, wide-ranging demands focused on the impeachment effort and behind-the-scenes of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In celebration of Sunshine Week, a national effort to “educate the public on the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy,” USA TODAY analyzed more than 200 requests made to the National Archives for Trump-era information on the first day of public access, Jan. 20, 2026.
Within minutes of the process starting, 20 people submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) letters via email. The log includes each filer’s name and the requests made by each filer.
Archivists typically respond to requests in a “first in, first out” order, so it’s beneficial to be first in line.
Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold can claim that title. His first request came shortly after the stroke in the middle of the night on January 20th. A prolific requester, Leopold writes a weekly newsletter and hosts a podcast about FOIA.
“I get excited every time a president’s records are subject to FOIA,” Leopold said. “I already knew what I was going to request, so I was ready. I’m on the West Coast, so it was only 9 p.m. here when NARA started accepting requests for President Trump records.”
It will likely be years before some of Leopold’s demands are returned. He said he is still waiting on records from the Obama and Bush eras and just received records on 9/11 detainees more than a decade after he requested them.
Leopold and others agreed with reports that White House staffers occasionally discovered wads of printed paper in toilet clogs, and requested that the documents be “crumpled in the trash, torn, shredded, or flushed down the toilet.”
Several requesters asked for records not in Trump’s own hands but from the Presidential Daily Diary (PDD), an official record that shows the president’s movements and discussions minute by minute, every day.
President Trump’s PDD was announced on January 6th as part of a Congressional investigation. But strangely, there was a gap of 7 hours and 37 minutes when the Capitol was stormed.
Some demanded “memcon and telcon,” short for conversation memos, important records of meetings with foreign leaders. The requesters specifically focused on calls and meetings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, China’s Xi Jinping, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Nate Jones, the Washington Post’s FOIA director, is close to the front lines making his demands. He’s still waiting for records from the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama libraries. In 2023, Jones pried open a cache of photos from the day Osama bin Laden was killed.
In this effort, the first request focused on President Trump’s knowledge of the 2018 death of Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi.
“This shows that this is a top priority for the Post in the history of the first Trump administration,” Jones told USA TODAY. “The public will have a better understanding of these events by viewing the complete records in the Trump Library.”
President Trump’s plans for a physical library are in the early stages but are moving forward in South Florida with millions of dollars from a legal settlement.
Not all of the more than 200 requests submitted on the first day were from journalists. The records include requests from the conservative Heritage Foundation, the left-leaning nonprofit American Oversight, and Canadian UFO hunter Grant Cameron.
“The records we seek are critical to understanding who made the decisions, how power was exercised behind closed doors, and what was planned,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “Preserving and making them publicly available is essential for true oversight, meaningful accountability, and public records that allow the state to understand what happened and respond accordingly.”
British journalist Martin Rosenbaum has requested President Trump’s records relating to Prime Minister Theresa May and Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Rosenbaum said the U.S. FOIA process generally provides more information than the U.K. FOIA process, but it comes with trade-offs.
“Confidentiality appears to be less of a concern, and less is being hidden,” Rosenbaum wrote in USA TODAY. “On the other hand, a delay of several years for this kind of information is extremely extreme and, in my opinion, completely unjustified. By the time the material is published, it will probably be much less relevant and valuable.”
Average Americans interested in records are also in line, like frequent FOIA requester Shannon Berlant, who is near the front of the line for records related to President Trump’s alleged consideration of pardoning Julian Assange.
“I’m happy to be one of the first, but realistically I’m not going to hold my breath. It’s probably going to be years before I receive my record,” Berland said.
If claimants do not want to wait patiently for months or years, they may also consider litigation to speed up the process. That’s the path taken by National Security Advisor Kel McClanahan. Eight of his demands are already in litigation, including one involving former national security adviser John Bolton.
“Look at the chaos unfolding around us right now, and consider how the stage for much of it was set during the first Trump administration,” McClanahan wrote in an email to USA TODAY. “Having the record of what they did then will help us understand and fight back against their excesses today.”
