Posted on 03/14/2024 10:30:00 AM PDT by Signalman
A judge in Florida will hear arguments Thursday on whether to dismiss the federal government's case alleging former President Donald Trump illegally took classified and top-secret documents with him upon leaving the White House.
Trump's attorneys say their client was entitled to keep such records when he returned to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, arguing the Presidential Records Act gives him the authority to designate the documents as personal and keep them.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and his team argue the files in question are presidential records, not personal ones, and that the act does not apply to classified and top-secret documents like those kept at his estate, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, is presiding over the case.
Cannon is also expected to hear arguments on a separate but related motion by Trump's lawyers. They argue the basic on which the bulk of the criminal charges are based is unconstitutionally vague as it applies to a former president, the wire service also reports.
Traitor Joe wasn’t even charged despite the fact he was vice President and had no authority to retain top secret documents ….in his garage
Not only VP, he also removed classified documents when he was a senator.
” and that the act does not apply to classified and top-secret documents like those kept at his estate,”
He had ZERO classified documents. Some declassified documents had “classified” stamps on them that do not vanish with declassification.
He is NOT charged with possessing any classified document. The charges are all Espionage Act “national defense information” charges. That wide ranging charge can be anything and does not require something be classified.
This keeps getting passed as a “fact” that he had classified documents... but he did NOT.
Trump initially said everything he had was declassified and maintains that position. Then after the F-Troop raid on Mar-a-Lago, DOJ tried to force him to enumerate all documents he possessed. He refused.
It was an obvious trap that he lists all he had. DOJ would slip in a classified document not on his list, then they would prosecute him.
It is a lie and he only had declassified documents.
Also all the documents he had were packed by National Archives and left unceremoniously in the White House driveway in boxes.
This is a set up. Cannon needs to set hearing after hearing and kneel on the ball to run out the clock. If she dismisses it out of hand, they will appeal it quickly and reinstate the charges. Kneel on the ball, delay and set hearing after hearing, take weeks to consider.
They literally demanded Trump certify a list of what FBI took in the raid and affirm that was the complete list. It’s truly amateur. Jack Smith is a clown used to predetermined political venues like the Hague.
And he remains one of the few people overturned unanimously by the Supreme Court.
And there are no criminal or civil penalties in the Act
Excellent point. The president, to my understanding, can declassify any classified document, and I don’t believe that any formal procedure is required to document this action.
Our criminal justice system fails to dismiss illegal criminal prosecutions promptly. It’s an embarrassment. Cannon has generally benefited Trump in her rulings. If the pattern continues she will give Trump a favorable ruling dismissing the charges after sufficient delay to ensure the appeal isn’t decided before the election.
Incorrect in my opinion, and I read the exact law several times, and heard actual lawyers debate both sides.
The PRA allows a President to keep “personal records” which are almost always something the President created himself. The Bill Clinton “sock” recordings fall into that type of document. However any documents that were originally created by the government, and simply used, or referenced by a President while in office, are called “Presidential Records” and still belong to the government.
In a nutshell, Trump is attempting to claim these classified documents that were originally created by the DoD etc were his “personal records” which is completely contrary to what the law says.
The PRA is also not a criminal law, and does not discuss the handling of classified information, as that scope is the purview of higher level federal criminal statues that would supersede the PRA in cases involving classified information.
You’re welcome make your own determinations about it, and the judge may rule in Trump’s favor anyway, but a simple reading of the PRA which is not a complex document makes it clear the information in question is Presidential in nature, not personal. Trump is just attempting to claim the PRA protects him by his attempted misclassification of the document type as personal records, when he didn’t create any of them to begin with.
Dismiss the federal government’s case it’s bogus from the get go just a another biased judge hunting case.
The stench the the democrat party still lingers.
You twist the facts like a pretzel. Your boundless hatred of President Trump as he endures persecution by satan and his minions is evil and disgusting.
It may have been a setup, when the National Archives did not provide him a place near his home to store all this stuff, after he left office, as they have customarily done for other Presiidents.
Where Trump appears to have fallen into the trap, if it was one, was when his legal team swore in affidavits that all the classified info had been turned over, when it appears it had not actually all been turned over. Where it really gets bad, if true, are the text messages regarding Trump still moving stuff around after it was under subpoena.
I don’t doubt that Trump was unfairly targeted. However his actions could be construed of someone who believed they were above the law, and had their lawyers file affidavits that were false, and order his people to secretly move things around, instead of just complying with it.
We’ll see what the judge says, but he now appears to be going out on a limb trying to claim government documents are “personal” and not “Presidential” when the law is clear the President doesn’t make that determination, the law does, based on whether the President personally authored the documents, or the government originally did.
Have you even read the law? If so, do you really believe that documents originally created by the government are somehow classified as “personal records” of the President? Show me the part where it says that. What the law says is that personal records are things such as diaries, letters written to personal friends, correspondence with their political party offices, etc, all originally composed by the President himself.
You twist the facts like a pretzel. Your boundless hatred of President Trump as he endures persecution by satan and his minions is evil and disgusting.
I’m giving you the facts, not twisting them, but you are determined to ignore them.
I also don’t hate Trump, or anyone, as we are all God’s children in the end, and every person has value in the Lord’s eyes, which I respect.
I do however, despise being misled by someone, which is exactly what I believe is happening when Trump is attempting to claim these government documents are personal ones, when the law is quite clear on the matter, based on my reading, and actual legal interpretations of the actual language I’ve heard. Just saying the PRA protects Trump, as he and his surrogates endlessly do, is one of the main reasons I quit supporting him fully last year, as it appears to be completely incorrect and designed to mislead based on a simple reading of the simple law.
Actually he was only a senator when he first stole documents. PLUS he told classified info to his biographer...which in turn destroyed the evidence of the audiotapes.
As the highest classification authority...they can be his.
Like Trump approving his policy on Iran for example. That’s his policy...his personal record.
Even worse
What’s worse?
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