Yesterday, we discussed the FBI’s filing, released late Tuesday, of what they found in the August raid of Mar-a-Lago. Basically, they found over 100 highly classified documents, many of them the highest security clearance, hidden all around MAL. The FBI also released one photo of the documents – FBI agents had clearly discovered top-secret documents stashed away somewhere in MAL, so they removed the documents, spread them out on the ugly carpet and documented them as evidence by taking photos. This documentation of evidence is what Donald Trump is stuck on. He’s now arguing “hey, I hid those documents, I didn’t leave them out on the carpet!” Insane. He’s also arguing that all of the top-secret documents he squirreled away were his “presidential records.”
Former President Donald Trump argued in a court filing Wednesday that the National Archives should have expected to find classified material among the 15 boxes Trump turned over in January from Mar-a-Lago because they were presidential records.
The filing, his closing written legal argument before a critical hearing Thursday, acknowledged that classified material was found at Mar-a-Lago, but argued that it should not have been cause for alarm — and should not have led to the search of Trump’s Florida residence earlier this month.
Painting the probe as politically charged given Trump’s potential run as a candidate 2024, he scoffed at the idea that the DOJ could be “entrusted with the responsibility of evaluating its unjustified pursuit of criminalizing a former President’s possession of personal and Presidential records in a secure setting.”
In posts on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump claimed that he had declassified all of the documents in the photo.
“Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!),” Trump wrote, “and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see. Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!”
An ex-president can’t just grab all of these top-secret documents on his way out the door and claim their “presidential records.” That’s not a thing. No ex-president does that. No ex-president lies his face off when the FBI gives him multiple opportunities to merely hand over the documents either. As for potential charges, the Department of Justice will likely not bring charges until after the midterms:
The Justice Department will likely wait until after November’s midterm elections to bring charges against Donald Trump if they decide the former president broke the law, according to a new report. In the wake of the FBI leading a raid at his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, the former president could face potential prosecution for his handling of classified documents, says Bloomberg. Though, people familiar with the situation told the publication that federal prosecutors are unlikely to charge Mr Trump with any crime close to election day on 8 November.
While Mr Trump is expected to announce a third presidential run in 2024, CNN notes that his legal issues may see him postpone that announcement.
“Everyone was operating under the assumption that shortly after Labor Day would be the best possible time to launch, but that has changed and he’s being told to deal with the FBI stuff first,” a Trump adviser told the network.
In Bloomberg’s report, they note that it had been a long-standing DOJ policy that prosecutors would not file charges or take major investigative action that would impact a candidate, party, or election within 60 days of voters going to the polls. That would put the cut-off point at 10 September, which one source told the outlet makes it unlikely anything will be announced before the elections.
Yes, the famous DOJ policy to not announce investigations or charges against political candidates right before an election. Tell that to James Comey. As much as I want to see Trump frog-marched in handcuffs immediately, I know it will probably be months before that happens, if it happens at all.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Former President Donald Trump at the 2022 LIV Golf Tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey on July 31, 2022. Featuring: Donald Trump Where: Bedminster, New Jersey, United States When: 31 Jul 2022 Credit: Media Punch/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images
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- United States President Donald J. Trump makes remarks as is surrounded by African-American supporters in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Tuesday, June, 10, 2020. Credit: Doug Mills / Pool via CNP | usage worldwide
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- United States President Donald J. Trump makes remarks as is surrounded by African-American supporters in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Tuesday, June, 10, 2020. Credit: Doug Mills / Pool via CNP | usage worldwide
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- Russian President Vladimir Putin gathers with fellow Group of 20 leaders for a group photo in Buenos Aires on Nov. 30, 2018, during the opening day of their two-day summit. U.S. President Donald Trump (L) is also pictured. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
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- United States President Donald J. Trump holds a news briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday, August 12, 2020. Credit: Chris Kleponis / Pool via CNP
As much as I want to be nonchalant about it, it hurts my heart every time he doesn’t get seemingly any consequences.
He will be indicted and most likely convicted. The news media has a vested interest in creating a frenzy of any kind for ratings so take all of the punditry with a large grain of salt. Your fear and hopelessness works for them if those feelings help them fill up broadcast time and keep us all engaged and clicking. The DOJ moves slowly and deliberately because they do not lose in court. I do wonder whether he’ll be jailed or if they work about an agreement whereby he is exiled to house arrest in a third country. That may seem like a strange concept, but if our country is to survive as a republic, removing him from the U.S. and stifling his ability to communicate with the lunatic fringe is extremely important.
Of course, he hates the photo. That photo will kill him in the court of public opinion. It’s the one thing everyone will remember.
I am not at all convinced he will be charged with any serious crimes. He has been a criminal his entire life and gotten away with it. This will, however, delay his presidential bid because the RNC is currently paying his legal bills. Once he is officially a candidate that can no longer do so.
@MeganC not anymore! There was an article a couple of days ago that said the RNC is not paying his legal fees anymore! I was shocked to hear that they were in the first place. Now he has to pay for it out of his “Billionaire Pockets” lol.
Lock him up.
Whenever I read stories about Trump, I have to check that I’m actually alive in the waking world and not hooked up to some Matrix style dystopian virtual reality.
I’m not even American but the visceral second hand embarrassment/anger/incredulity I get whenever I remember that this fraudulent by-product of all that is wrong with the humanity actually became the president of the most powerful country in the world, I feel like I’m going to curl myself into a singularity of cringe. Just straight up collapse into a black hole of despair because people (including politicians!) did and still do support him and take him seriously.
Sorry for the run on sentences but I’m just…🤯. Every time.
That first part – about Matrix life- I wholeheartedly get. I am in that with you.
Oh my god this!
So well said.
I feel the same all the time (that first sentence’s imagery is spot on!).
@macheath I am an American but you perfectly described how I’ve felt for the last 5+ years!
I am convinced that there is a parallel universe out there where he didn’t “win” the Republican nomination because at least ONE other candidate stood up to him and challenged him on his awful rhetoric, history of criminal behavior, etc. etc. and that 2016-2020 was not the horrific sh!t-show that we all lived through. And parallel universe me doesn’t live in the heart of Y’all-Qaeda (because TX couldn’t have gotten away with their insane 6-week forced birth abortion ban without the Christian Supermajority shredding my constitutional rights.) I am super jealous of Parallel Universe AMA1977.
Look, none of us would know anything about ANY of this if that Giant Orange Whiner hadn’t opened his big yap about the search warrant. That’s the whole reason it’s now a situation in which the DOJ has been forced to balance ensuring the integrity of its investigation with the risk of letting a toxic narcissist and the fascist and/or power-drunk hopefuls that surround and enable him from running away with the narrative. He did this to himself.
Yep! Gotta love it! The sole reason we have that photo that he dislikes so much is because HE ASKED FOR IT; he requested the search results be made public & he got it. Sucks to be you, trump.
There comes a time when people who have been shielded too long from consequences commit crimes too big & too blatant to be covered up. That time has come for Donald Trump. He will be indicted. He will go to prison. His attorney, Christina Bobb, will likely lose her law license & may also go to prison. The Rosenbergs were executed for less than what’s alleged here.
I see lots of parallels to a totally separate case I’ve been following–that of Alex Murdaugh in South Carolina. It’s a story of a sociopath who happened to be the scion of a wealthy, powerful family. He was allowed to get away with crimes for so long that he seemed almost untouchable. Now he will almost certainly die in prison.
That Murdaugh case is WILD! It’s amazing that that family has run roughshod over South Carolina for so long – but maybe not so amazing, at that.
Stealing highly classified documents was the las straw so to speak. He was asked to return all the docs he stole and he refused claiming they were his. What a spoiled petulant child grown up he is. Merrick Garland will not drop the ball on this. Trump will be prosecuted and jailed sometime the end of the year.
Because of the punishment, prosecuting stolen classified documents is the quickest way to prevent Trump from running for any office. That photo announces proof so nobody is talking Trump 2024 anymore. DOJ wants to work in secrecy but they’ve been working this whole time and have plenty of other charges.
I love that they didn’t forget Breonna Tayor either.
Whether he declassified them or not, they’re still not his personal documents to take home with him, they’re presidential records that are required by law to go to NARA. And no president can just say ‘I declassify everything, all the time’; that’s just stupid. The documents on the floor are clearly laid out for photographic documentation purposes, not strewn about & they are very clearly blanked out of any information. He’s describing something that we can see with our own eyes is NOT TRUE. His entire filing is a waste of any court’s time. It’s substandard work.
+1
There’s no reason to take any of these documents unless the contents in there are worth something to someone. Now it’s just a question of who he’s already sold this information to and who knew about it *cough* Jared
But TRUMP IS NOT EVEN A CANDIDATE IN THE MIDTERMS AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!
And THAT DIDN’T STOP ANYBODY IN THE HILLARY EMAIL SCENARIO!!!
Sorry, this makes me scream. “We don’t investigate anybody running for office, except when we do.”- DOJ
It’s common for big important cases to take a long time, and Trump committed so many crimes. Merrick Garland had interviews about the delay and the scope in July, this is old news. It’s that photo that is recent and it makes people impatient.
He’ll go down – once he finally actually understands that he will take as many as he can with him. He won’t go down quietly or on his own.
Also he ain’t gonna get any help from Putin who has been cleaning house – there has been several ‘accidental deaths’ of powerful oligarchs who were once part of his circle and some of whom came out and spoke against the was in Ukraine. Most recent one ‘fell’ out of a hospital room.
If Dump is not scared of the DOJ he will be scared of what Putin will do once he no longer has a use for him.
F this guy. He’s a criminal and has evaded the consequences of his action for far too long. He’s not special, he’s not a celebrity, he’s not even RICH, for crying out loud. He should not get any special treatment, not even for being an ex-president. He’s an ordinary citizen who should be treated like one.
I wonder what documents he had by his passports loose in his desk. Like if he had to exit the US fast, he grabs his passports and documents to barter privilege in a foreign country? Or release them to foreign adversaries just to F*** all of us as his parting shot.
Apparently some documents they found in his desk drawer included top secret intelligence operations mixed in with his passports and a few other items. If he shared/sold this information to enemy countries it could put the lives of imbedded agents in danger or, at the very least, would harm national security by eliminating them as sources of information.
Garland has to act fast, certainly before the mid-terms and a potential Republican win.
Trump’s former bitch boy Alan Dershowitz said Trump is guilty of everything the FBI proved he did here. Guess he won’t be representing trump this time around, or maybe he will, since he knows all his clients are guilty from the get go.
All of this just reiterated he thinks privilege will keep him safe from prosecution and he’s truly not very bright…at all!
I think the DOJ will be the ones to finally nab him. All this couldn’t be more cut-and-dried. But between his age, his many health issues, and the fact that he’s likely on Putin’s s**t list at this point (yet another Russian oligarch died today by “falling” out a window – the fifth Russian oligarch to die under mysterious circumstances just since January!), I think there’s a very good chance he won’t live long enough to face legal consequences.
I think I’m a fairly nice and compassionate person, but when it comes to Trump, I would have utter and unseemly joy if he actually went to prison. I really, really want to see Trump perp-walked…and know that he’s in prison, in an orange jumpsuit instead of a Brioni suit, with no self-tanner or hair dye, no sex (and no women to sexually assault!), no Big Macs or Diet Cokes or well-done steaks with ketchup, no mansion, and most of all, no access to social media or cheering crowds. That would be an awesome thing! Come on, Merrick Garland, make it happen!!
If not the DOJ, the IRS.