The Justice Department told White House personnel on Wednesday that they must preserve all presidential records, including any notes regarding President Trump's meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders.

"Defendants today instructed relevant personnel to preserve the information," DOJ lawyers wrote to a federal judge Wednesday afternoon.

The question of whether the White House was doing this bubbled up in federal court yesterday, following government transparency and historical archivist groups' emergency request about how the White House treated notes from the Trump-Zelensky July 25 call and other Trump discussions with world leaders.

From the Justice Department's statement to the court this afternoon: