By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A U.S. House of Representatives Committee investigating the removal of classified documents by former President Donald Trump has increased its investigation into the Republican’s handling of these records according to a Friday letter.

Representative Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chair of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) asking for more information about what she described as “what appear to be the largest-scale violations of the presidential records act since its enactment.”

Maloney requested that NARA send information to David Ferriero the Archivist of the United States by March 10. This included a description of all boxes taken from Trump’s Florida house. Following reports that Trump’s staff had found documents in an unfinished White House toilet, she also requested information regarding any records Trump attempted or destroyed.

In a Feb. 24 letter, NARA was also requested to send communications and documents to NARA by March 17. These were related to personal messaging accounts being used for official business purposes by Trump officials.

A request for comment was not received by the National Archives immediately. The National Archives had written to Maloney last Wednesday to confirm that they had discovered classified material in Trump’s boxes on his trip to Florida.

Maloney’s committee has been looking into the handling of records by Trump, who left office in January 2021. Since it was found that Trump had taken 15 boxes of documents from the presidency to Florida to conceal his wrongdoing, Maloney’s committee has been investigating.

Maloney released a statement saying that the American people deserve to be aware of how Trump hid and destroyed Federal records. He also stated that they will not repeat these abuses.

U.S. Presidential Records Act demands that memos, letters and notes be preserved in accordance with the law.

The Washington Post published this month’s first report that documents taken to Trump’s house and later returned to Archives were classified. This may increase Trump’s legal pressures or those of his close aides.

U.S. Justice Department does not yet know if it has launched an investigation.