Opps He Did It Again
Donald Trump has more Classified Documents
But who’s really shocked about that? There was talk back in August that he might have had more. Turns out he did. And that’s not the only unwelcome news for the Former President.
In case you have been living under a rock for the last 6 months, in early August the DOJ and FBI executed a search warrant [https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/22344485-revised-affidavit-for-mar-a-lago-search/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1&onlyshoworg=1] on the former President’s home in South Florida. During the investigation, the FBI found more than 100 classified documents. These documents included intel on the President of France, as well as one of the highest types of classification, compartmented classified information.
Option 1 — I haven’t been living under a rock.
Option 2 — Remind me
Following this legal search, the Trump legal team filed a lawsuit with a Florida district court seeking to have a special master appointed to review the material seized in the search as it may include personal documents from his time as a private citizen as well as material from his presidency that may fall under executive privilege. The judge Aileen Cannon granted this request and appointed federal judge Raymond Dearie to oversee this process. The DOJ appealed this ruling to the 11th circuit court of appeals in Atlanta. Who recently overturned Judge Cannon’s ruling of special master [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/us/politics/trump-special-master.html].
Which brings us to today Dec. 8th today is the day that Justice Department is taking possession of the documents Judge Dearie has had since September. Add that to the information breaking last night; a storage locker held by Donald Trump was searched and more classified documents were discovered. [ one more sentence — ?]
Found in a Florida storage unit near Mara-Lago on the orders of Trump’s attorneys. The documents have been turned over to the FBI. [washington post] The facility is run by the GSA. Reports suggest that Trump has never been in the storage facility. It was part of a wider search conducted by Trump’s attorneys. The search included trump properties in New Jersey, New York, and the storage facility in West Palm Beach.
The latest document discovery is a violation of not only of the subpoena that was issued in May for any Classified Documents in his possession, but also the affidavit that Christina Bobb signed in June. Which has brought her under DOJ scrutiny [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/us/politics/christina-bobb-trump-lawyer-investigation.html]. It also shows the willful disregard for government regulation.
Which is a necessary part of successfully charging, indicting and convicting Donald Trump under the Espionage Act [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2009-title18/pdf/USCODE-2009-title18-partI-chap37-sec793.pdf]. This latest discovery goes a long way to supporting his willful retention of document he had no right to as a private citizen.
While the title of this article may be lighthearted the subject matter is incredibly serious. There are many people who have done similar things, they either went to prison and in some cases paid hefty fines or paid exceedingly high fines under the Act. In the end it does not matter why Donald Trump took the documents. What matters is that he kept them for years after he was asked to return. And if you or I had done that we would already be in jail.
Notable Thefts from the National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/research/recover/notable-thefts.html
In case you want to read the redacted search warrant and memorandum for the search warrant filingyou can find the links to those documents below.
Revised affidavit for the search warrant: https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/22344485-revised-affidavit-for-mar-a-lago-search/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1&onlyshoworg=1
NOTICE OF FILING OF REDACTED :MEMORANDUM: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22267147/notice-of-filing-of-redacted-memorandum.pdf
