Easy peasy

So, Trump's lawyers filed in court (the wrong one, but okay) about the documents. What's interesting about that? Two things.

1) the motion does not deny the records were found there. It doesn't claim that they were planted or that Trump is being falsely accused.it asks for a Special Master to sort the personal papers from the government papers.

2) the motion asking for the special master also asserts that a President has absolute authority to declassify (which is a separate legal question but whatever) what it DOES NOT do is claim he declassified what was found in the shed.

So, in front of a judge they're not denying that the records were brought there by Trump, AND not providing any evidence he declassified.

Which, if I were his lawyer, I would have in the motion and have it in hand for every Fox/OAN interview I could get.

“A criminal violation of those statutes only exists if it can be established that the person being investigated was not authorized to possess, store, transfer or copy those documents,”

Right. So...what evidence has he put forward to show that he, as an EX President, has the authorization to look at any of it?

Because once a President leaves office, they cease to have that super-special Presidential access.

Where's that evidence? Shouldn't that be right up in front of every camera?

If he declassified them...where's the evidence that happened? He's not a wizard. He can't just wave his hand and it happens magically.

There's a whole process to declassify documents. A lot of departments have to be updated and those records changed.

Do mistakes get made and a few documents that shouldn't have been in his house end up there? Sure. That is reasonable.

Is it reasonable that a few documents didn't get filed properly and were clearly marked to be declassed? Sure. That's reasonable.

Not 300+.

Where's the paper trail showing he declassed 300+ documents?

Where's the evidence he had the authority to h ave them at home?

Where's the evidence he had the authority to keep them in a shed?

Because remember in his court filing- where he is required to tell the truth or face perjury charges- he's not claiming the FBI planted those filed and he's not saying he declassified them.

To the extent bureaucrats assign classifications to documents, they do so only through delegated power. No matter how many little red rubber stamps they use to mark up documents, it is the president who has the final say. Not the Department of Justice, not the FBI, and certainly not some soggy little bureaucrats in the National Archives.

Sure. I agree. A president has broad powers to declassify information.

Now show me the evidence he did that with those 300+ documents.

And then explain to me why it was okay for them to be declassified?

Also, provide a list because I want to submit a FOIA request to see all of them.

Because that's what you can do with declassified documents. Request to see them. As a civilian. With no clearance at all.

That's why it's important that the system knows which documents are classified and which ones aren't.

“As president, he had broad, legally intimidating authority, established by law and court determinations, to declassify any and all documents and to determine what is and is not a presidential record,”

Sure. I agree. A president has that power.

But let me repeat: show me when he made those declarations.

Because there is a specific process for this.

He isn't a wizard and can wave his hand to magically declassify things.

There's a process. A process that generates receipts.

Show me the receipts.

Also, remember, in his court filing he's not claiming that he declassified those documents. He's claiming that the president has that power. He's not claiming he exercised that power over these documents.

Sure seems like if he had declassified 300+ documents, it would be there in the 1 place it's required to be right now- the court filing.

Trump wrote in October on his now-banned Twitter account that he had declassified some FBI-related materials. He also issued an order on Jan. 19, 2021, to declassify some FBI Crossfire Hurricane documents.

Sadly, no. He didn't. At least, according to his Chief of Staff in a sworn testimony, Mark Meadows, Trump himself said that his tweets are not policy.

So. What next?
Because we've already discarded the idea that the FBI planted the documents.

We know that he didn't officially order the documents to be declassified because there would be a paper trail. He didn't tweet about them (also, that tweet was about the Mueller investigation, which he never released) He specifically and expressly told his Chief of Staff that tweets about releasing information weren't policy.

Also, we know from his own court filing that Trump is not disputing that the documents were classified. He's only asking for a Special Master to sort through the 300+ to make sure his personal papers that are mixed in are returned to him.

LOL... tweets... the tweet is informing it was done... not to enact it... OMG

so dishonest...

Quote: LOL... tweets... the tweet is informing it was done... not to enact it... OMG

so dishonest... /quote

Oh, it was done then? In October of 2020?

So... ALL the files for the Russia probe were released? What date was that?

Oh, it was never?

Yeah. It was never.

He did release - some, not all - of the Russia probe files in the last week of his Presidency. (2021, btw. Not 2020).

But fun fact, he did so after consulting with the DoJ and the FBI as to which should remain classified and which can be released.

Do you see the difference?

There was a paper trail created. Multiple departments of the government were consulted and subsequently alerted to which documents were public and which were classified.

Receipts were written.

Then there's all the files he had at Mara Lago out in the shed. None of which he was supposed to have. They were Top Secret/SCI material.

The kind of stuff spy movies are written about.

And no receipts.

He didn't declassify them. He stole them. For what reasons, I don't know.

6rl6zh.jpg (click to show)

It's all going to come out...