Next, Security Council policy staff members would create a formal “package” combining the Situation Room notes with their own, which would become the final, official memcon once reviewed by the Security Council Executive Secretariat and formally approved by the national security adviser or the adviser’s deputy. The final memcon would go to the Security Council records office for posterity.

The memcon can be edited at any point along the production and review process until it is approved and sent to the Security Council records office. During the Obama administration, edits to memcon packages produced by the Security Council policy staffs were not substantive. The editorial review process was not used to remove unflattering or incorrect things about the president, but troubling reports like the whistle-blower complaint suggest that practice may have changed in the Trump administration. The memcon released to the public last week might not be the only, or the most complete, White House record of the presidential conversation in question at the heart of the current controversy.

Notably, to fulfill the requirements of the Presidential Records Act, the Security Council’s document management systems for processing “packages” would most likely have captured any electronic edits to the memcon.

Why do we go to all of this trouble? For two critical purposes. First, it reminds national security officials what was discussed and what the president and the other leader did (and did not) commit to. This enables officials to hold foreign governments accountable for their leader’s private commitments and prevents other governments from wrongfully claiming that the president made a commitment he or she did not. Second, a faithful memcon is a valuable historical record to enlighten future generations about foreign relations.

The whistle-blower’s allegation that the draft memcon was “locked down” at the direction of “White House lawyers” using a separate electronic system dedicated to processing the most sensitive national security materials also strikes me as highly unusual. Although presidential memcons are among the most sensitive and closely held documents in the White House (their contents are very desirable foreign intelligence targets), in the Obama administration it was standard practice for memcons — even extremely sensitive ones — to be produced and handled on the Security Council’s primary electronic system, which can handle material up to and including “top secret” classification.