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.
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.
Trump's lawyers were not allowed inside Mar-a-Lago to witness the FBI search of Trump's property.
-PJ