House Democrats call on Trump to preserve AI chatbot records
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on October 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The request to preserve AI conversations could signal what's to come if Democrats flip the House in next week’s election.
The top Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight panels are calling on President Donald Trump to preserve his conversations with artificial intelligence chatbots, including billionaire Elon Musk’s Grok.
Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., sent a letter to Trump on Wednesday demanding that the White House preserve “any prompts” that the president or his staff have submitted to AI chatbots such as Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity. They also said the White House must preserve any AI-generated outputs in response to those prompts.
The lawmakers said their request “is not optional,” noting that the Presidential Records Act requires the adequate documentation of presidential records.
“Preserving the President’s and his advisors’ AI prompts is thus essential to preserving an accurate historical record and informing future administrations against the gaping national security vulnerabilities created by this Administration’s apparent reliance on unsecured, privately operated AI systems,” they wrote.
Raskin and Garcia are also requesting a closed-door briefing with the president and his staff by Nov. 11 on their use of AI chatbot technologies.
The lawmakers said their request is informed by reporting from Time that said Trump “sought the chatbot’s advice on carrying out some of your presidential duties, including asking Grok to opine on how Venezuelans would respond to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.”
Weeks later, the lawmakers said, Trump “ordered the U.S. military, without congressional authorization, to attack Venezuela and capture President Maduro.” They added that Trump “reportedly ‘came away thinking Grok was ingenious.’”
The top Democrats called the episode “deeply troubling” because Trump allegedly consulted a chatbot, not Congress, on military operations. They also said the unsecured use of AI chatbots exposes the United States to national security risks and “malign influence from unknown and unaccountable third parties.”
The lawmakers are requesting details on the White House’s document retention policies governing AI-generated materials, AI chatbot contracts, Trump’s use of AI chatbots, and cybersecurity safeguards applied to AI chatbot usage.
"The White House preserves all required records in accordance with the law," a White House official told Nextgov/FCW.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include comment from the White House.