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 ...
No he isn’t. He is a nevertrumper and a Rupert shill. WTH is wrong with you?
I am glad Trump went on there and hopefully more people will ditch FOX after seeing that turd Baier treat Trump with disrespect.
People comparing Hillary’s issue with Trump’s issues is a bad idea, Trump is the one on trial and I doubt introducing something someone else did that has never been proven is not going to be allowed and not believable by a jury.
She did violate the law and should have been prosecuted and jailed, but she was not, at this point from a legal standpoint it’s immaterial.
The only thing that matters are the facts of this case, all the other is just internet talk.
Most of them time when he does that, he’s not facing jail, in this case is was DUMB and goes against any advice his Lawyers gave him, no wonder he has a hard time getting great lawyers.
Do you categorically reject that possibility? I wish that I possessed that certainty today.
NARA WAS present when they were being packed but did not pack them themselves. Bottom line...the NARA new they were going to Mar a Lago...why no red flag??
The grand jury issued the subpoena. Trump did not fulfill the terms of it. That resulted in the “raid”.
The government “asked” three times for the documents.
Trump can make all of the arguments that he wants. He can have a thousand reasons. He “chose” to withhold documents. He admitted this last night.
He argues about ownership and classification all the time. People need to understand that doesn’t matter in terms of complying with a subpoena. You either comply with it or not. Willfully “not complying” with a subpoena is one of the definitions of “obstruction.”
Whether or not the guy hates Trump, never talk about a case is excellent advice. At some point, even free publicity can become a negative.
Trump absolutely has the freedom to say anything he wants, the government in this case has an absolute right to use whatever he says against him.
Every Defense Lawyer in the world would have told him to SHUT UP, don’t talk about the case, Trump like always doesn’t listen, this time it may have cost him.
He will get to make that case.
But you can bet that if there is any legal advantage to the prosecution regarding what President Trump said to Baier, the jury will see that video.
I support Donald Trump. I think he is getting railroaded by these trials. I think the media and Biden are out to get him. But this is a textbook example of the downside of Donald Trump. You have to be blind to not see how much he damages himself with these types of statements. He thinks he can charm or bully his way through anything and thinks he can handle anything with off the cuff statements. It comes back to haunt him again and again and again and again. I cringe when I hear him talk like this.
“A Trump conviction will be weighed against the Biden non-convictions.”
By whom? The keyboard judges on FR?
The PRA is feckless. It has no enforcement mechanism. There are no penalties. It is meaningless and if it did have meaning it would be unconstitutional because it allows the administrative state to usurp executive powers.
The documents that Trump had at Mar-a-Lago were selected by Trump and/or staff under his direction while Trump was President and Chief Executive. They were transported to Mar-a-Lago by government employees. From what I understand, the GSA is responsible for doing that for every President.
There can be zero assumption or accusation of illegality while President Trump had complete executive authority over every single document in the entire executive branch when he chose an ever so minuscule number documents to follow him to Mar-a-Lago. The assumption is the President deemed every single document to be completely legal for him to take. He did not need to follow any procedure, process, protocol or classification standard.
Quite simply, all he needed to do was point and say, “take that document, take that box.” The moniker used for the documents, the classification of the documents, the contents of the documents DOES NOT MATTER.
I want to see the administrative state put in its place. This is the first step. I recommend that Trump, when re-elected, sends teams into DOD, DOS, DOJ, FBI, ATF, CIA, NSA, every intelligence agency, hell, every agency, and obtain copies of EVERY record and document of import then transport them to a huge warehouse where they can be sorted and investigated. Expose the crap the administrative state has been doing with our tax dollars, the rights that have been abused and at a minimum put the people responsible in another warehouse to sit. They get chairs. No desks. No phones. No computers. They can stay there until they quit or are prosecuted.
Pseudo intellectualism.
I can guarantee you a Trump conviction will never be compared to a non-conviction of Biden, the judge will sentence him if Trump is found guilty based on nothing but the facts of this case.
Since the Trial has been fast tracked until August of this year, Trump could be facing jail time by the end of the year, the judge will likely allow him to released based on appeal which could take months if not years to go all the way to the supreme court, if necessary.
Trump is in some serious legal jeopardy and people need to come to realize that.
I strongly disagree with your assertion that Baier is a neverTrumper.
And you really should stop treating fellow Freepers with disrespect.
And Eric Erickson is a fat pig of a psuedo- journal hey look at me NEVER trumper, and fake as hell “libertarian”.
His stupid show was shoved into Rush’s old time slot in GA and it is long steaming hot cylinder of selfie me me me excrement of a failed “conservative” who is GOPe through and through.
He came to GA to be middle management at the now long gone textile mills of Bibb. Working for the very companies who gave in to the BANKSTERS who worked for the UNIONS- to offshore the entire industry and put millions out of work. All for Indonesia and... Wal Mart. Erickson is like a male Hillary Clinton. With an even bigger and stupid mouth.
Chose as in...not until I have reviewed them.....Like Hillary and the 33,000 documents her attorneys deleted.
What’s so hard to understand that documents are Trumps?
“And you really should stop treating fellow Freepers with disrespect.”
I agree, and not just WRT that individual - but that concept went out the door long ago.
You realize that all the documents Trump had are supposedly copies of electronic documents. By the way, the National Archives has zero power over the Chief Executive. It’s the other way around. Trump selected the documents while he was Chief Executive, when he had power to do so. The PRA is feckless and toothless. It doesn’t mean a damn thing and it cannot amend the US Constitution. Executive power is over the entire executive branch, including the National Archives. They as nothing more than dickless librarians and need to be treated as such.
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