The Presidential Records Act is a law that directs the country's leader to take steps necessary to ensure that executive branch decision making is adequately documented and maintained. According to a law review article by Carl Bretscher, the Presidential Records Act was passed in 1978 "to prevent a repeat of Watergate's legal drama surrounding ownership of presidential records."

Deleted tweets? Purges of phone records? The erasing of secretly recorded conversations? The Trump Administration tells a D.C. judge that courts can't review compliance with preservation laws.

A watchdog group cited the Presidential Records Act and challenged the way Trump and staffers "seek to evade transparency and government accountability" by the use of certain communications practices and by a consolidation of power that results in records being shielded from other disclosure laws like the Freedom of Information Act. In particular, CREW, the watch group, nodded to news reports that White House staffers were using Signal to send encrypted, disappearing messages as well as resorting to the secret chat app Confide to duck any record preservation. Also mentioned is Trump's famous tweet implying a taped conversation with former FBI Director James Comey and the president's repeated deletion of social media messages, the plaintiff is asking for injunctive relief compelling Trump and his staff to comply with duties under the Presidential Records Act.