The process for sorting and archiving White House documents at the end of an administration is a massive undertaking — one that experts say has lots of room for error.
Any piece of paper that a president or top government official writes on or handles is supposed to be kept by the National Archives.
"It could be something as simple as a napkin doodle that Barack Obama made when he was a little bored in the middle of a meeting," said Larry Pfeiffer, director of The Michael Hayden Center for Intelligence Policy and International Security.
There is a permanent office at the White House dedicated to maintaining and organizing documents for the archives. But Pfeiffer, who served as senior director of the White House situation room under President Obama, says political staff can take months to clean out out filing cabinets at the end of an administration.
"I worry that the records management aspect of the job tends to take a little bit lower priority, tends to get a little bit rushed, you know. We're all humans," Pfeiffer said.
Now as mishandled classified documents have come to light from two administrations, experts say it's time to review the often overlooked protocols for handling sensitive information.
White House staff do receive some training on how to handle documents, but Pfeiffer says training should be more comprehensive and repeated annually. He’s also calling for an independent review of the departure procedures that outline what should happen when an official is leaving office.
Experts say another issue is the classification system itself.
"When you have national security professionals that know that there are documents that are classified that don't necessarily need to be classified, it can lead to a more lax approach to these rules that really are designed to be followed to the tee," said Liz Hempowicz, vice president of policy and government affairs at Project on Government Oversight.
Until more changes are made, this might not be the last time secret documents are discovered in unsecure places.
"I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow President Obama or President Bush or Vice President Cheney or Vice President Pence ordered staffs to do a thorough research and review of their storage spaces," Pfeiffer said. "Would I be shocked if one or two documents popped up? No, I would not, given what's happened."
Kellan Howell
