Boxes of WH documents retrieved after left office

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MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
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So how has Faux News covered this.

"Feds raid Dear Leader's private home and illegally removed his personal papers"

"Pelosi's gazpacho storm troopers march on Mar-A-Lago"
 
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hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
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emperus

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2012
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Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
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Dave_5k

Platinum Member
May 23, 2017
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nm so many simultaneous investigations going on, I got them mixed up.
Easy enough to do! Let's see, this isn't even a complete list, and some of these cover multiple issues:
1) Trump's fake tax returns, which are top secret confidential information that no one is allowed to see (according to Trump), although courts have disagreed
2) vs. Trump's auditor double crossing him and no longer backing up his fake financial statements, which totally proves he's innocent of all charges (according to Trump), never mind the non-sequitur
3) vs. the Confidential and compartmentalized secret files that Trump used for toilet paper and shipped to MaraLago - after his second term started, which of course were not actually confidential information, and he certainly never flushed similar files 10 times, 15 times, and its all totally normal anyway (according to Trump)
4) vs. the Legitimate Political Discourse he led and inspired on January 6 that has multiple totally fake lawsuits going forward, that Trump has complete and total immunity from anyway (according to Trump) although the "biased" judge has disagreed
5) vs. the call to Georgia Sec State to find votes and overturn the election that was yet another 'perfect' call (according to Trump) as Trump actually won the election (according to Trump)
7) vs. the fraud case against Trump by his niece
8) vs. the retaliation lawsuit by Vindman and claims of Trump violating the Ku Klux Klan Act (which totally isn't possible for a Grand Dragon in good standing, so yet again fake news)
9) vs. the defamation lawsuit over Trump lying and defaming a former rape victim that was totally not his type
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
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White House records taken by Trump contained classified information, National Archives confirms

At some point the Justice Dept. is going to have to act.
This article says they are.

Confirmed: Trump Really Did Take Classified Documents to Mar-a-Lago – Mother Jones

In a letter addressed to House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), which was first reported by the New York Times, the agency said that the Justice Department was now looking into the matter.
 

uclaLabrat

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2007
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How does that work with a former president? As president he can declassify anything, but once he's out of office if the material wasn't officially declassified is he still subject to criminal liability?

I'd assume if he's removing classified docs it's a huge deal.
 
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DaaQ

Platinum Member
Dec 8, 2018
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This is like snail mail, nothing like classified emails..... on a server.....cause nobody but Trump would be in control of them so they were safe......for National Security.






/S jic
 
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Roger Wilco

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2017
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Nyt-


“The White House Counsel’s Office indicated that they would address the matter. After the end of the Trump administration, NARA learned that additional paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump were included in the records transferred to us. Although White House staff during the Trump administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records, a number of other torn-up records that were transferred had not been reconstructed by the White House.”

Other new information cast doubt on Mr. Trump’s handling of government records. The New York Times reported that among the documents that were sent back to the National Archives were some that archivists believed were classified. It was also reported that a book scheduled to be released in October by a Times reporter revealed how staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet, leading them to believe that Mr. Trump had tried to flush them.
 

sactoking

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Sep 24, 2007
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How does that work with a former president? As president he can declassify anything, but once he's out of office if the material wasn't officially declassified is he still subject to criminal liability?

I'd assume if he's removing classified docs it's a huge deal.
If you remember back a couple of years he Twittled about declassifying some documents and was sued by journalists who wanted access to these newly declassified docs. His attorneys argued (successfully) that while the President had the ability to declassify any document they wish just saying "it's declassified" doesn't work, there's a big administerial process to go through.

Carry that forward, he can't argue that these docs are declassified on his say-so because it's pretty clear that they didn't go through the process. My belief is as a current private citizen he's subject to the same laws concerning the handling of classified documents as the other 300,000,000+ Americans who are not currently the President are subject.
 

Dave_5k

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May 23, 2017
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How does that work with a former president? As president he can declassify anything, but once he's out of office if the material wasn't officially declassified is he still subject to criminal liability?

I'd assume if he's removing classified docs it's a huge deal.
One would think so, but has to be proven to be a “knowing” violation, so Trump can easily plead to be an ignoramus:

Deliberate Destruction or mutilation of records is potentially a more serious charge that is perhaps harder to ignore:
 

emperus

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Apr 6, 2012
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One would think so, but has to be proven to be a “knowing” violation, so Trump can easily plead to be an ignoramus:

Deliberate Destruction or mutilation of records is potentially a more serious charge that is perhaps harder to ignore:

Unfortunately, he was warned by the National Archives. He also persecuted Clinton for her "emails". And when Pelosi ripped up the SOTU speech, he wrote “Well, I thought it was a terrible thing when she ripped up the speech. First of all, it’s an official document. You’re not allowed—it’s illegal what she did.” He understood what he was doing was illegal.
 

trenchfoot

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
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From a fellow employee I am friends with: "Democrats should stop picking on Trump about all of these silly things people say he's guilty of. Instead, the Democrats should put all of that hoax charges against him aside and concentrate on things that can make America great again, like when Trump was in the White House."

There was no way I was going to pursue that line of thinking with him due to my past experiences with folks who say things like that where they end up using circular reasoning as an argument for why they're right about how they're trying to defend Trump and his behavior.

To wit: "Trump can never be wrong about anything because he's never wrong about anything. You'd know that if you'd just listen to what he says from our point of view."
 

trenchfoot

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
15,895
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Well Trump may have taken what he thought were personal belongings of his to Mar a Lago by mistake and he may have flushed some weather maps that he scribbled on with a sharpie down the crapper but everyone must remember that he's an honest guy that tells it like it is, made America great, knows that there are good people on both sides, built a wall along our southern border that he asked the Mexican president to chip in on to commemorate our lasting friendship with them, does not discriminate against people of color especially when he rents out those apartment units that he owns and prevented his friend Putin from invading Ukraine unlike what just happened to Slow Joe Biden.

I know all this to be true because both Hannity and Carlson on FOX said so and two guys can't be wrong about the same thing, amirite?

/S
 
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fskimospy

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Mar 10, 2006
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Well Trump may have taken what he thought were personal belongings of his to Mar a Lago by mistake and he may have flushed some weather maps that he scribbled on with a sharpie down the crapper but everyone must remember that he's an honest guy that tells it like it is, made America great, knows that there are good people on both sides, built a wall along our southern border that he asked the Mexican president to chip in on to commemorate our lasting friendship with them, does not discriminate against people of color especially when he rents out those apartment units that he owns and prevented his friend Putin from invading Ukraine unlike what just happened to Slow Joe Biden.

I know all this to be true because both Hannity and Carlson on FOX said so and two guys can't be wrong about the same thing, amirite?

/S
Most interestingly and potentially dangerously for Trump is if I'm not mistaken one or more people are on the record saying that Trump himself packed a lot of these documents and wouldn't let anyone else participate.
 

eelw

Lifer
Dec 4, 1999
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Most interestingly and potentially dangerously for Trump is if I'm not mistaken one or more people are on the record saying that Trump himself packed a lot of these documents and wouldn't let anyone else participate.
He’d probably throw Barron under the bus. He was just being helpful and packed everything on the table in the residence.
 
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Nov 17, 2019
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Most interestingly and potentially dangerously for Trump is if I'm not mistaken one or more people are on the record saying that Trump himself packed a lot of these documents and wouldn't let anyone else participate.
Until they get paid to say something else, or be mistaken.

 
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uclaLabrat

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2007
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Most interestingly and potentially dangerously for Trump is if I'm not mistaken one or more people are on the record saying that Trump himself packed a lot of these documents and wouldn't let anyone else participate.
Given the quote above about Hillary it doesn't seem he's going to successfully argue he didn't know that such activities were illegal.

Lulz.