Reports according to a memo, instructed members of President Trump’s former transition team, both aides, and volunteers to save any records related to “several pending investigations into potential attempts by Russia interests to influence the 2016 election”.

The memo asked campaign officials to preserve all documents related to the Russia, Ukraine and a number of campaign advisers and officials, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort, advisers Carter Page, Rick Gates and Roger Stone, and former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn.

Records the memo refer to  “emails, voicemails, text messages, instant messages, social media posts, Word or WordPerfect documents, spreadsheets, databases, telephone logs, audio recordings, videos, photographs or images, information contained on desktops, laptops, tablet computers, smartphones or other portable devices, calendar records and diary data.”

The memo warned that “failure to follow these protocols could result in criminal or civil penalties, and could form the basis of legal claims, legal presumptions, or jury instructions relating to spoliation of evidence. With this in mind, “please immediately suspend any deletion, modification, overwriting, or other possible destruction of the information described above, including electronic information, and take all reasonable measures to preserve this information.”

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President Trump decried the investigation, dubbing it “phony” and the “greatest witch hunt alive”. This order was given the same day Vice President Mike Pence hired his personal attorney to help handle any inquiries pertaining to the Russian investigation. P