Posted on 06/20/2023 10:02:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If former president Donald Trump’s case ever makes it to court, federal prosecutors will use his own words against him — spoken on national TV to Fox News host Bret Baier on Monday. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even play one on internet video. So when it comes to stories like this one, there are a few people I turn to for sharp analysis and good advice.
On the surface at least, what Trump said could cause him trouble in court.
When Baier asked, “Why not just hand [the documents] over then?” Trump replied, “Because I had boxes — I wanted to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen.”
“These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of [personal] things.”
You can read more of the transcript here and decide for yourself.
I’m not here to pass judgment on the many indictments against Trump… except that I can’t let the opportunity entirely go. If we’re going to start prosecuting high-level executive branch people for keeping classified documents they shouldn’t have had, let’s start with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, neither of whom, as secretary of state or (then) as vice president, had any legal power to declassify those documents. Trump did, which is maybe a strong mitigating factor.
That out of the way, it’s both easy and proper to dismiss Twitter hot takes like this one from Erick Erickson:
Guys, Trump admitted on TV tonight he withheld documents from the grand jury. Game over, legally. What an idiot.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) June 20, 2023
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Wait, so the Grand Jury is allowed to see the documents but Trump’s lawyers are not?
He has already claimed he had legitimately personal items in those boxes, such as his Last Will and Testament. Like his tax returns, that is his private business not something you turn over to people who arguably have a vendetta and want to cause you as much harm as possible.
In addition, imagine the chaos of that move. You are on the job literally until the last second, and then everything has to go. So of course they pack all kinds of things up and move them at the last minute. I’d also tend to believe him when he says they may have put some personal documents inside folders that said “classified” - maybe not the smartest thing to do, but just because the folder says classified doesn’t mean there is anything in it that is a government secret.
And even if it were, there is still the argument that he, as POTUS, has the right to declassify anything in the most informal of manners. The argument I’ve heard is that there is no real process to declassify a document, if you are POTUS you decide by how you handle it.
RE: Hillary’s attorneys were allowed...with no supervision and probably no security clearance to delete anything they wanted...under the guise that they were private. I think they deleted something like 33,000 documents.
Can the defense use this in the court to exonerate Trump? If not, then citing Hillary’s crime is irrelevant. We already know about the DOJ’s double standards, but Trump’s case stands on its own.
Yep......I’m afraid sometimes the man is his own worst enemy.
“They are his documents“
Not according to the law.
44 USC Chapter 22,
§2202. Ownership of Presidential records
The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records; and such records shall be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
There is nothing in the law that says that merely declassifying records or taking records from the White House converts them from presidential records to personal records. You can certainly argue that taking them is not a criminal but a civil case under the PRA, but this continued argument that Trump owned them is just wrong under the law, and would be a losing defense in court.
He could have posted the documents on a billboard. They are his to do as he pleases.
Bret Baier is a very solid and fair interviewer - truly a rare bird.
Not true.
Donald Trump admits on tape he didn’t declassify ‘secret information’
Check the ruling from the Clinton sock drawer case, then get back to me.
Trump did not establish a time line in his statement. When it comes to handing them over it is not clear at what point he did not want to hand them over. We could be talking about a time before he was even asked to hand them over. Trump didn’t say here that he ignored any such request or demand. And it seems unclear what Nara actually asked for and when they asked for it. At one point Trump was just asked to put an extra lock on the door. Why would they ask him to do that if they were demanding the documents? A lot does not add up.
“ Wasn’t the grand jury from after the fbi raided his home ?”
No. The subpoena from the grand jury came first. The raid came after the FBI saw surveillance video showing boxes being removed from storage before the Trump attorneys searched the boxes in response to the subpoena.
They are automatically declassified the moment he thinks about it. Nice try, though.
Was Trump under oath during the Baier interview? If the prosecution enters the interview in court, the judge will have to allow the missing parts where he lays out that DoJ ignored the same behavior by the current president (as a Senator and VP) and a former VP
Two possibilities. Trump is either playing a game of 3D chess we mere mortals cannot fathom, or the former president's insatiable ego will not allow him to decline any moment in the spot light. 🤔
The law disagrees with you.
The documents were in boxes with my golf shirts was not a good answer.
“Why did he agree to be interviewed by Bair of all people ?”
If you are running for President you should make yourself available to the people via interviews. Trump is in charge of how he answers questions. This is Trump’s deal and he is used to the heat.
“ He has already claimed he had legitimately personal items in those boxes, such as his Last Will and Testament. Like his tax returns, that is his private business not something you turn over to people who arguably have a vendetta and want to cause you as much harm as possible.”
All Trump had to do was return any documents with classification markings. His own lawyers were allowed to do the search in response to the subpoena, so that argument won’t hold water. It wasn’t until the FBI got evidence indicating that Trump may have moved some of the boxes preventing his attorneys from searching them for documents responsive to the subpoena that they got the search warrant.
In 2025 when the USSC finally validates POTUS PLENARY power over classified docs, and the fact they became unclassified as soon as Trump took them home, it will be too late to save him from a Federal conviction.
I like Trump,but he doesn’t seem to know when to shut up.......
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