The fact that the layers in the PDF disappeared after several days proves that they tampered with it. That’s really a very important point supporting the fact that they knew the PDF was a forgery.
I also downloaded the original PDF from the White House and verified the layers. There were all sorts of anomalies. It was really a very poorly done forgery. And then several weeks later I downloaded the PDF again, and all the layers were gone!
I downloaded the PDF too- within minutes of it being released I knew it was a forgery (I have done imaging software for a living- I am qualified enough to be an expert witness in court)
If the forgers had just flattened the PDF image (compressed all the layers to one) ALL of this would have been moot- we could have imagined there was layers from the anomalies in the document, but there would be no proof.
The fact that they forgot to compress the layers WAS THE SINGLE BIGGEST ERROR.
It shows specifically all the errors in font sizes, alignment, pixel size, image curvature, etc.
If there was only something UNDER one of the layers that was covered- then he would be doomed. But at least they were smart enough to erase things first. (easiest first step on the first layer)