National Archives nominee fails to clear Senate committee amid Trump-FBI raid fallout

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday failed to advance President Joe Biden's nominee to head the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The committee voted 7-7 on party lines on advancing Colleen Shogan to a confirmation vote, the Washington Examiner reported. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have to discharge Shogan from the committee to move the process forward.

The confirmation process would not normally engender such controversy, though an ongoing legal battle involving former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents has led Republicans to scrutinize NARA to a greater degree than usual. 

NARA previously sought the return of documents Trump had in his possession. Trump voluntarily cooperated with a grand jury subpoena seeking their return, though the FBI later returned to raid his estate in pursuit of more materials.

During the committee hearing, Republicans asked Shogan about the alleged politicization of NARA in connection to that dispute, though the nominee denied having been briefed on the issue. 

"I want to be clear that as the nominee for this position, I have not been briefed on any of the details," she said, per the Examiner. "But as I understand it, when there is some concern about damage to records in general at the National Archives, at that point in time, to retrieve the records, there is a voluntary exchange of communication with those individuals. And as I understand that, once again, they don't have any past knowledge of this."