In a post on X, the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Sergio Gor, has announced that Colleen Shogan has been removed from her role. “At the direction of President Donald Trump, the director of the National Archives has been dismissed.”
Over the past two years, Trump repeatedly accused the agency of contributing to a smear campaign against him for participating in the Justice Department’s investigation into the case of top secret documents illegally withheld at Mar-a-Lago after the end of his first term. Shogan is only the figurehead to pay the price in this affair, as she was not in charge of the National Archives at the time of the raid in the Florida mansion—she was appointed by Biden in 2023.
Gor has not announced Shogan’s replacement, although ABC News in midweek had pointed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his successor. The rumor was later denied and corrected following testimony from staffers who had not been informed of any change. Pending a new appointment by Trump, the acting director will be Deputy Archivist Jay Bosanko.
The Archives’ former director of litigation, Jason R. Baron, reminded Politico that federal law stipulates that the president must notify Congress of the dismissal of the director of the National Archives and that the new one must be appointed “without regard to political affiliations and solely on the basis of … professional qualifications.”
