Letter Surfaces of Obama Foundation Admitting in 2018 They Keep Classified Documents in Unsecured Storage at Furniture Warehouse

The Last Refuge ^ | September 18, 2022 | sundance

[Bratch]

Letter Surfaces of Obama Foundation Admitting in 2018 They Keep Classified Documents in Unsecured Storage at Furniture Warehouse

September 21, 2022 | sundance | 12 Comments

“Hoffman Estates” is a previously abandoned Chicago area Sears furniture warehouse.  The Obama Foundation leased, then re-upped the lease, to use the facility to store all the paper documents from the Obama administration {Location Link}.

The Obama administration told the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) they were going to upload the documents into a digital form for use in the Obama library.  The paper documents were, still are, held at the Hoffman Estates warehouse while this digitization process took place.  It should be noted, the Obama Foundation has never digitized the records, hence they renewed the warehouse lease.

Contrast against the DOJ-NSD legal position about classified records held in the secure facility of Mar-a-Lago, a 2018 letter {Obama.org pdf here} from the Obama Foundation to the NARA is an example of the two-tiered selective justice system.  Within the 2018 letter the Obama team admit to storing both “classified and unclassified” documents at the warehouse: [Page #2, bullet-point 7]

[Obama.Org pdf]

Obviously, there were no raids on Hoffman Estates from the FBI to secure the classified documents.  Nor did the DOJ National Security Division trigger a criminal investigation of President Obama for holding documents, particularly classified documents, against the interests of the NARA while they “digitized them;” a process, which again should be noted, never even began.

The intent of sharing this information is just to highlight the political dynamic within the NARA, DOJ and FBI as it pertains to selective enforcement of presidential records.

Once again, to hopefully save the time of responding to DC inquiry, all of this information is open-source discovery.  It exists in the vast space of the internet and this letter itself is found in the archives of the Obama Foundation itself.

This information does not surface as an outcome of any CTH relationship with any entity who is now, or was ever, part of the Trump administration or the Trump legal team. So, save your insufferable subpoenas.

Readers, researchers and news media can do whatever they want with the information provided.  The source citations are provided. Make it your own, or not.

[Michael.SF.]

I cannot find that anyone else is reporting on this.

Anyone know of the source that released this?

[Michael.SF.]

I found this letter from Cohen that was published in the NYT. It is dated in March 1, 2019, but only mentions unclassified documents.

[Bratch]

He pulled the document from the Obama Foundation website.

[Michael.SF.]

Thank you.

I did not even look at the PDF link address.

[LJM]

It would appear from various articles in Chicago news sources, including the Daily Herald article that was linked, that the Hoffman Estates warehouse was leased by the GSA for NARA and not by the Obama Foundation. So the records at Hoffman Estates were actually in the custody of NARA and not the Obama Foundation.

[Bratch]

Per the letter, the overhead cost is being funded by the Obama Foundation.

[LJM]

We’re talking about who had custody of the records. The point of your post was that the Obama Foundation had custody of the classified and unclassified records and not NARA. It now appears clear that NARA had control and that Obama so that there was a clear difference with the Trump situation in that regard. I believe that Presidential libraries are supposed to create endowments of up to 60% funding to the archives for the record keeping while they digitize and do the other activities that are necessary in setting up the Presidential Libraries. I agree that the government and FBI Etc has been out to get Trump since before he was actually elected. But my point simply is, to argue effectively on these subjects we need to stick with the facts as they are. Hence, my point in bringing to your attention, your error in who is leasing the Hoffman Estates and has actual custody of the records.

[shotgun]

Perfect. Now the foreign powers know right where to go.

The gross ineptitude of the Obama administration rears its ugly head again

FUBO

[Prince of Space]

I saw this letter a few months ago when I was trying to research the NARA a$$hole who put this thing into motion. If I could find it, I’m surprised that the DOJ and FBI couldn’t. /s

So what happened to the $300,000 that the OF wired to NARA in 2018? The records still haven’t been digitized. The OF was supposed to pay NARA $3,300,000 to help them facilitate that, which the OF promised to complete within 5 years. Where is the outrage about these classified records sitting offsite in an Illinois warehouse?

NARA has tried to get around this discrepancy by claiming they “control” a large number of offsite storage facilities. So why couldn’t they just temporarily call MAL another one of those facilities instead of going the route they did? Is every govt. agency in DC in bed with the Democrats? I think the American taxpayer has a right to know what we’re paying for.

[Bratch]

I’m too cynical to believe the entity that invested $3.3 million would not exercise control of the items.

It also appears they’re penalizing the Trumps because they own the properties where they had their documents stored rather than needing to rent the spaces.

[Prince of Space]

The problem is that the letter above was sent in August 2018, 19 months after Obama left office. The OF admitted they still had classified documents in their possession in the Hoffman Estates warehouse and they were working to get them back to NARA.

The FBI raided MAL exactly 19 months after Trump left office. He too was working with NARA to return many of the documents. Why was there an entirely different response to the same exact situation?

[PA2SK]

You guys are grasping at straws at this point....
https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/fact-check-barack-obama-did-not-keep

“In an August 12 statement, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said it took “exclusive legal and physical custody” of Obama presidential records when he left office: “NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area where they are maintained exclusively by NARA. Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area. As required by the [Presidential Records Act], former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”

[Prince of Space]

According to the letter above, the OF admitted that they had the documents, classified and unclassified, sitting in a warehouse in Illinois at exactly the same point after leaving office as Trump. In August 2018, the records were in Illinois, not a secure NARA facility, and not in Virginia, because the OF leased the warehouse, not NARA.

In August 2022, NARA knew that Trump possibly had classified documents stored in the basement of MAL in a doubly padlocked room at a facility guarded by the Secret Service as well as Trump’s private security detail. Why the difference in response to the same situation?

[Prince of Space]

So you believe what NARA is claiming about the location of Obama’s records rather than the letter from the Obama Foundation in August 2018 that outlined the terms of their agreement? 🤣

I also remember reading an article after the MAL raid about the head of NARA, David Ferriero, complaining that the Obama Foundation wasn’t responding to NARA’s multiple requests for the documents, which could be the reason for the OF letter above. I’ve been unable to find that article again, which is strange.

[Prince of Space]

You don’t know that. Take five minutes and do some basic research. The answers are out there. Don’t block out the world because you don’t like what’s out there.

Says the guy who swore by the “vaccine,” told the rest of us we were crazy for refusing it, and that there were virtually no adverse affects from it. 🤣

[PA2SK]

Dude, regardless of whether this letter is accurate or not it does not change the fact that NARA has both physical and legal custody of Obama era records, both classified and unclassified, and has since Obama left office. If there are classified records at the Hoffman Estates facility that’s NARA’s problem because they control that facility, not Obama. Contrast this with trump who had classified records at his publicly accessible country club, even in his desk in his personal office where he frequently hosts visitors. On top of that his lawyers outright lied to the government trying to retrieve the records, claiming they had all been returned when they clearly hadn’t.

[Engedi]

Sure hope Trumps lawyers get this information to use for Trump.

[ridesthemiles]

I knew there was poor storage of such documents-—

[griswold3]

The key to all this is “intent”. No one in the MSM and the Deep State would hold the belief that the Obama Adm had Ill intent.
But With Trump they would promote any and all bad intentions because he’s Trump.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

Is that you, Adam Schiff?