Marco Rubio steps down as acting head of the US National Archives

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio is no longer the acting archivist of the United States, a spokesman for the National Archives and Records Administration said on Thursday.

The national archivist is responsible for overseeing government records and heads the National Archives, which Trump criticized after warning the Justice Department about its handling of classified documents in 2022.

A few weeks after taking office last year, Trump fired then-U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and appointed Rubio as acting head of archives, one of many hats he wore in the administration.

Rubio’s many roles, which have prompted jokes and spawned internet memes, underscore Trump’s confidence in him, even though the two exchanged insults when competing against each other for the Republican presidential nomination a decade ago.

He has been at the center of Trump’s push for US oversight of Venezuela, following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the president’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters through the revocation of visas and green cards.

NARA General Counsel Matt Dummermuth said in an email that Rubio resigned from his position at the National Archives under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which limits how long officials can serve in an acting capacity in Senate-confirmed roles.

Dummermuth said Rubio turned over authority at the National Archives to James Byron, the archivist’s senior adviser.

‍The FBI raided Trump’s ⁠Mar-a-Lago mansion in 2022 as part of an investigation into the removal of official presidential records from the White House after his first term. ⁠The National Archives was looking for the documents. Trump was later impeached and the case was dropped after he won the 2024 election.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sonali Paul)