An attorney from President Donald Trump's transition team ordered aides and volunteers to save records pertaining to "several pending investigations into potential attempts by Russia interests to influence the 2016 election," according to Politico.
The memo, which was provided to Politico, was from Kory Langhofer of Arizona law firm Statecraft, and instructed officials to keep documents related to the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and campaign officials including former campaign manager Paul Manafort former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and advisers Carter Page, Rick Gates, and Roger Stone.
The memo also instructed transition staff to keep all records of foreign travel, including "emails, voicemails, text messages, instant messages, social media posts, Word or WordPerfect documents, spreadsheets, databases, telephone logs, audio recordings, videos, photographs or images, information contained on desktops, laptops, tablet computers, smartphones or other portable devices, calendar records and diary data," Politico reports.
"Please immediately suspend any deletion, modification, overwriting, or other possible destruction of the information described above, including electronic information, and take all reasonable measures to preserve this information," the memo said, according to The New York Times.
Politico noted that none of the staff members named in the memo has been accused formally of any wrongdoing, but the memo warned that "failure to follow these protocols could result in criminal or civil penalties, and could form the basis of legal claims, legal presumptions, or jury instructions relating to spoliation of evidence."
"In order to assist these investigations, the Presidential Transition Team and its current and former personnel have a responsibility to ensure that, to the extent potentially relevant documents exist, they are properly preserved," the memo said, according to Politico.
The request appears to show what lawyers have been asked for or expect to be asked for in probes pertaining to the Trump campaign and Russia's involvement in the 2016 election, Politico reports.