Top House Democrats Ask Trump Whether He Has Sought Grok's Advice on Official Duties and Demand He Preserve All AI Chatbot Prompts
The ranking members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees have written a letter to President Trump asking whether he has been soliciting advice from Grok in order to help carry out his official duties as President of the United States. They also demanded that he preserve any prompts sent to Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, as well as outputs in response to those prompts, that were 'submitted to AI chatbots in carrying out your constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties.' The letter was provided by Politico.
Context
The letter argues that AI chats used for official work are presidential records, which could set an early rule for how governments must keep and disclose their use of chatbots.
The ranking members are the senior minority party lawmakers on a committee: Jamie Raskin on Judiciary and Robert Garcia on Oversight. The Presidential Records Act makes records created by the president and staff in official duties public property that must be kept. TIME reported in October that Trump spent hours talking with Grok in December 2025 and asked how Venezuelans would react to the capture of Nicolas Maduro. This post is a secondhand report of a letter first obtained by Politico.
Deep dive
Representatives Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, the top Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, sent a letter dated October 28 to President Trump asking whether he has been soliciting advice from Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk's xAI, to carry out his official duties. The letter was first reported by Politico, and Andrew Curran shared the first page on X.
The lawmakers told the president that any prompts he, his staff or advisors submitted to AI chatbots in official work, naming Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, along with the AI generated responses, belong to the United States and must be preserved under the Presidential Records Act. According to Politico and the committee's press release, they also asked for a closed door briefing by November 11 on the White House's use of AI and its rules for keeping prompts and outputs.
The letter cites reporting from TIME and TechCrunch that Trump spent hours talking with Grok during a December 2025 Oval Office meeting with Musk and asked how Venezuelans would respond to the capture of Nicolas Maduro. The White House has not confirmed that account. A White House official told reporters it preserves all required records in accordance with the law.
The Democrats are in the minority, so the letter carries no subpoena power on its own, but Politico notes both would be expected to chair their committees if Democrats win the House.
What to expect next
Watch whether the White House provides the requested briefing by the November 11 deadline, and whether the National Archives issues guidance on treating AI prompts and outputs as federal records. The outcome of the House elections will decide whether this becomes a formal investigation with subpoena power. Any rule that AI chats are official records would also affect agencies and contractors that use chatbots in government work.