Executive orders on White House’s website don’t match the official documents

According to a report from USA Today, the White House has published seemingly manipulated versions of President Trump‘s executive orders on its official website, “raising further questions about how thorough the Trump administration has been in drafting some of his most controversial actions.”

The report states that at least 5 posts on the page do not match the official versions sent to the Federal Register.  While most the cases involved typos and missing words, there were at least “two cases where the original text referred to inaccurate or non-existent provisions of law.”

USA Today provided the following examples:

The controversial travel ban executive order suspended the Visa Interview Waiver Program and required the secretary of State to enforce a section of the Immigration and Naturalization Act requiring an in-person interview for everyone seeking a non-immigrant visa. But the White House version of the order referred to that provision as 8 U.S.C. 1222, which requires a physical and mental examination — not 8 U.S.C. 1202, which requires an interview.

An executive order on ethical standards for administration appointees, as it appears on the White House website, refers to”section 207 of title 28” of the U.S. Code. As the nonprofit news site Pro Publica reported last week, that section does not exist. The Federal Register correctly cited section 207 of title 18, which does exist.

“These last-minute edits suggest the Trump White House needs to revisit their vetting, sign-off, and publication processes for executive orders,” said John Wonderlich, executive director of the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

According to a Federal Register spokesman, the version signed off on by Trump that his office receives is the exact text approved by the White House.

“We would never correct something that the president signs,” the Federal Register’s Jim Hemphill said. “Once the president’s signature is on that, it’s a legal document that we would never change.”

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