Democratic leaders asked President Donald Trump to preserve records of his AI chatbot conversations. Lawmakers want to know if he used tools like Grok before ordering military operations in Venezuela. The letter said, "Any prompts that you, your staff, or advisors have submitted... are the sole property of the United States."
Democratic leaders on two US House committees have asked President Donald Trump to preserve records of his conversations with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, including Elon Musk's Grok, amid allegations that the 80-year-old consulted AI before taking decisions, including launching a military operation in Venezuela.
The US lawmakers, in a letter, sought the preservation of prompts entered by Trump, his staff and advisers into AI chatbots while performing official duties, along with the responses generated by the systems. The request covers Grok, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini and Perplexity.
"You reportedly 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 Nicolas Maduro. Grok advised that President Maduro was a 'deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall,'" the letter said.
A Time report, citing a White House official, earlier this month said that Trump spent hours asking Grok questions about his presidency and legacy.
"At the time, Trump was ordering missile strikes against Venezuelan boats he alleged were smuggling drugs into the US. He asked Grok how Venezuelans would react if the US captured Maduro. According to the official present, the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall," the Time reported.
Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Robert Garcia of California are seeking to establish whether AI-generated responses played any role in shaping government policy. The lawmakers have also reportedly requested a briefing on the matter by 5 pm on November 11.
They said that any prompts submitted to AI chatbots by the President, White House staff or advisers in the Executive Office of the President while performing constitutional, statutory, official or ceremonial duties should be preserved, along with the systems' responses.
"Any prompts that you, your staff, or advisors in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) have submitted to AI chatbots in carrying out your constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties ...are the sole property of the United States and legally must be preserved for posterity," the letter said.
A White House official, meanwhile, told US news outlet Politico that the administration preserves all records required under the law.
The scrutiny comes as the US government expands its use of AI tools.
In July 2025, the Pentagon signed a multimillion-dollar agreement to begin using Grok as part of a wider rollout of AI systems for government purposes. The Pentagon has also used AI tools from other providers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, although the companies have different arrangements and conditions governing their systems’ use.