Trump officials demand Mueller return thousands of emails

Axios ^

[Magnatron]

Officials of President Trump's transition team plan to ask Special Counsel Robert Mueller to return "many tens of thousands" of transition emails they contend were unlawfully provided to him. But the prosecutor's office says emails being used in the investigation were properly obtained.

[montag813]

This is a full scale Coup De Tat and Trump better start fighting it like one or we wont have a democracy left for our children. This is madness.

He should have fired many more sub-department heads across the entire government, and suspended with pay others who can't be fired due to civil service protections. It is too late for Mueller now, but not for treason yet to come.

[iontheball]

Who in the hell did the GSA think they were working for in the Executive Branch when they turned the materials over to the Special Counsel. They apparently didn't even contact the President-elect or his officials. They need to be fired for starters. What you likely have are hold over Obozo liberals who were only too happy to unload Trump transition material into Mueller's lap. If Mueller had no warrant and no approval from the transition team, the documents he has have been illegally obtained and he knows it. GSA employees were custodians who owed a legal fiduciary obligation to safeguard the documents as a bank would on their customer’’s account.

[Robert DeLong]

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended, contemplates the creation and operation of a private nonprofit organization to facilitate presidential transitions. See 3 U.S.C. § 102 note 2(h)(3)(A).

For the 2016 presidential transition, TFA was the nonprofit organization that facilitated the orderly transition of executive authority from President Barack Obama to President Donald J. Trump. Its activities were funded partially through congressional appropriations and partially through dollar-limited private contributions. See id. note 6(c), 7(a). TFA is a private and independent nonprofit organization; it is not controlled by and does not share employees with the White House, the GSA, or other federal agencies. In fact, most PTT personnel are volunteers, acting in their personal capacity, to advance TFA’s nonprofit mission of peacefully and efficiently transferring executive power.

In other words, the transition team is not a government agency.

[gov_bean_ counter]

No reason for them to have .gov email accounts. Those aren’t given out like Halloween candy.

[af_vet_rr]

You can quote regulations and promises that were made all day long.

At the end of the day, if they were using government computers (tablets, laptops, phones) and/or government email addresses, only a moron would expect to have privacy on such systems.

I'll repeat myself: There is a reason why Hillary and her buddies tried to avoid using government computers and email. They wanted some semblance of privacy, and they knew that was the only way to get it.

[Robert DeLong]

You need not repeat yourself, or for that matter even state it in the first place as it was quite evident why Hillary had a private server in which she illegally communicated government business to avoid FOIA requests.

However, you apparently do not understand that a private entity setup to facilitate the transfer of powers between outgoing & incoming administrations are not using government issued equipment. They are not part of the government, thus their emails are not something GSA has authority to turn over to anybody. It is the property of the transition team, period.

[timestax]

They are not part of the government, thus their emails are not something GSA has authority to turn over to anybody. It is the property of the transition team, period.

Darn tootin !

[hinckley buzzard]

The owners are those who originated the messages. It is explicitly stated under the law, these are considered private confidential documents and not available to the government without expressed consent of the owners. This is a mass violation of the team members’ rights.

[hinckley buzzard]

These were private messages between private citizens. Read the article. This was the presidential transition team, before any of them were in the government. PTT privacy is explicitly protected by law. Mueller broke it.

[joesbucks]

Agreed. But if a judge rules it was a proper process, then team Trump is nothing more than using Lois Lerner tactics.

[raiderboy]

I hope you are right. I see no evidence that Sessions is doing anything except MS13. That is nothing compared to what is demanded of him with the criminal clinton cabal. I am very discouraged. T5rump must respond very soon. Instead I read on Faux that Trump just loves Mueller who is a trump assassin and needs removal. The whole administration seems in denial of reality.

[Bratch]

[grania]

The whole administration seems in denial of reality

I wonder if President Trump would've made the attempt to save the nation if he suspected just how far gone its governance is. I agree, he's gotten some people in there who haven't bought into the Deplorable agenda. I don't understand why Jared and Ivanka are still there.....they seem very untrustworthy, either out of naivety or out of total disdain for the platform that got President Trump elected.

As far as AG Sessions is concerned, what would happen if he weren't there? You'd have major Republican swampthings demanding a fellow traitor fill that position. AG Sessions is very methodical and more interested in cleaning up the mess he encountered than he is in punishing hillary, until he's got irrefutable evidence lined up. That's my take, anyway.

[raiderboy]

my gosh. The evidence on hillary is irrefutable. There is no question whatsoever. She should be in the PEN.

[timestax]

They steadfast refuse to look into this. Why?

[af_vet_rr]

These were private messages between private citizens.

You should never assume anything going through a .gov domain is private. Ever.

[af_vet_rr]

However, you apparently do not understand that a private entity setup to facilitate the transfer of powers between outgoing & incoming administrations are not using government issued equipment. They are not part of the government, thus their emails are not something GSA has authority to turn over to anybody. It is the property of the transition team, period.

They were using a .gov, or rather a ptt.gov, domain for their emails, which means their emails were passing through government servers, which is why the GSA had the emails to turn over.

I'm not saying it's right, but when a third party is involved, in this case government email servers, regardless of what promises were made or what regulations exist, the expectation of privacy has been compromised.

The more surprising thing is that Trump's people weren't encrypting their emails. Had they been encrypting, then all the GSA would have is a bunch of useless characters jumbled together.

If they weren't encrypting their emails, that stuff could have been intercepted by interested third parties. Hopefully they were at least using VPNs to connect to those government email servers.

[af_vet_rr]

I hope you are right. I see no evidence that Sessions is doing anything except MS13. That is nothing compared to what is demanded of him with the criminal clinton cabal. I am very discouraged. T5rump must respond very soon. Instead I read on Faux that Trump just loves Mueller who is a trump assassin and needs removal. The whole administration seems in denial of reality.

Sessions is just another disappointment. I think he was hoping to spend his time going after marijuana or something, or do some things he couldn't get passed through Congress.

As for Faux News, on the one hand they seem to cozy up to Trump every chance they get, but on the other hand they seem to be trying to play him. Makes me wonder what's going on there, and how much influence the Murdochs and the Saudis have.