Whistleblowers Claim DC Arch Records Are Being Destroyed as Trump Races to Build Before January

Whistleblowers have told House Democrats that the U.S. Department of the Interior is destroying records tied to President Donald Trump’s construction projects around Washington, including his aspired arch, before the new Congress is seated.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and its expected chairperson in January, has sent 36 preservation letters dated Nov. 9 to nine federal agencies and 27 companies and organizations, according to the letters posted by the committee and initially reported Tuesday by CNN, citing congressional sources.

Corporate recipients include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, RTX and Palantir, along with the Trust for the National Mall. Each was asked to certify in writing by Nov. 23 that it is preserving records.

The Interior called the whistleblower claims “100% false,” and a spokesperson told CNN that “the Department follows all federal records management obligations as directed by the Department’s ethics officials.”

Military.com reached out to the department for comment on whether it will certify compliance by the Nov. 23 deadline and on its coordination with Arlington National Cemetery. No response was received by publication.

The arch in question is already being deliberated in court. On Nov. 5, the National Capital Planning Commission approved its final site and building plans after a hearing ran more than nine hours.

Three Vietnam veterans sued to stop the project in February. Military.com previously reported on their lawsuit and on the renderings the White House released in April.

What Democrats Want Saved

Huffman’s letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanded preservation of “electronic messages involving official business that are sent using both official and personal accounts and devices,” including “phone-based message applications, or encryption software.”

It also directs the department to disable “ephemeral messaging features, such as disappearing message, auto-delete, or expiration settings” and to “identify, recover, and preserve” anything already deleted. “Save everything,” Huffman said in a statement accompanying the letters. “Those days of obstruction are over.”

In August, Huffman and five other committee Democrats wrote to Dennis Kirk, Trump’s nominee for Interior inspector general, citing reports that department officials had shredded documents and used disappearing Signal messages to avoid the Federal Records Act.

“Destruction of federal records implies there is something to hide,” they wrote.

Federal law 44 U.S.C. 3106 requires agencies to report any unlawful destruction of records to the National Archives. Willfully destroying federal records carries up to three years in prison, though agencies may lawfully dispose of records under approved schedules.

Destruction alone does not establish wrongdoing. CNN noted that the whistleblowers did not accuse Lockheed, John Deere or the other companies of destroying anything.

Nor do the letters themselves name any project or mention a whistleblower, describing only the committee’s investigations of an administration that “repeatedly obstructed” them.

The Arch at Arlington’s Gate

According to the commission’s approval document, the plan would use Arlington National Cemetery’s parking garage for arch visitors and Memorial Avenue—the cemetery’s entrance road—for pickup and drop-off.

The commission urges the Interior to keep coordinating with cemetery officials and to monitor construction noise. Federal aviation approval requires continuous floodlighting of the arch’s top third at night, the document says.

The veterans who sued—Army veteran Michael Lemmon, a former U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Navy veteran Shaun Byrnes, and Army veteran Jon Gundersen—argue the arch lacks congressional authorization and would sever the line of sight between Arlington House and the Lincoln Memorial.

“This is hallowed ground,” Lemmon told Military Times.

Opponents’ modeling cited at the commission hearing showed the arch casting shadows across thousands of graves, including President John F. Kennedy’s, and more than 90% of the 130 people who testified opposed it.

Trump has said on Truth Social the arch would also house snipers and store drones and “large quantities of sniper ammunition,” a claim Chutkan questioned in court.

The Race to Build Before the Gavels Change Hands

Over the next 60 days, the arch, new fencing at Lafayette Square, the East Potomac Golf Links redevelopment, and the Tidal Basin plan that includes Trump’s Garden of American Heroes, will all move through federal approval or historic preservation review, CNN reported.

“It is going to be like a storm where it plays out until the new Congress is seated,” Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation told the network.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said Trump “is moving at lightning speed because we don’t have time to waste.”

Chutkan’s order lapses around Nov. 19 unless extended, four days before Huffman’s certification deadline. The government was due to file a status report Monday showing compliance.

Committee aides told CNN they expect a hearing early in the new Congress focused on the golf course and the arch, and the panel is prepared to issue subpoenas.

“Everything is coming; it’s all coming,” Huffman said. “We’ll have tools to be able to stop a lot of it.”