A top House Democrat is warning members of the Trump administration not to hide or destroy documents as the party plans to investigate top officials in the next Congress.

Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, who is primed to lead the House Education and Workforce Committee next year, sent letters to the heads of numerous federal agencies on Wednesday, reminding them of the Federal Records Act and the threat of criminal liability for anyone in violation of it. Scott’s letter follows incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Robert Garcia’s two-word warning to Trump officials after Democrats’ “blue tsunami” in Tuesday’s midterms: “Lawyer up.”

The letters warn that anyone who “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys” federal documents could face up to three years in prison. And one can only imagine the sorts of things that might be unearthed by Scott’s committee.

Letter recipients include leaders of several agencies that Trump and his allies have used to federalize the MAGA movement’s racism, sexism and antiscientific hysteria. Education Secretary Linda McMahon — who has helped dismantle school desegregation policies while trying to abolish her own department — got one. So did Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose conspiracy theory-laden antivaccine agenda has been condemned for promoting eugenics. And Andrea Lucas, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair who has helped fuel MAGA world’s false claims that the workforce is rigged against white men, received Scott’s warning as well.

They’re joined by the heads of the Agriculture Department, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Endowment for the Arts and more. And they all received the same message: Investigations are coming, so don’t even think about pulling a Trump and hoarding documents in your bathroom.

And the warnings seem more than warranted. In addition to Trump’s personal history with documents, he has waged war on the Presidential Records Act, which requires the retention of federal records and communications. Furthermore, he reportedly vowed to issue mass pardons to members of his staff within 200 feet of the Oval Office before his term ends.

This is not someone known to adhere to federal records laws, and we have no reason to believe he expects anything better from members of his administration.

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