Read my post again. Was I talking about the New York Times piece or your claim about being asked to edit stuff? Then read post 40 in this thread.July PPI = 9.8% | Page 3 | Swamp Gas Forums
Trump is always the victim. The reality? He was handled with newborn gloves when it comes to the boxes of documents Trump took and kept at MAL that didn't belong to him. The National Archives gave Trump the benefit of the doubt and first asked nicely for Trump to return the docs after the Archives had finished an audit in May, 2021. It took Trump months to comply, as the Archives didn't get anything back until January, 2022. When the Archives realized that not all the requested items were returned, including some classified materials, Trump got a lawyer to lie and say all classified materials were returned. The Archives then asked the DOJ and FBI to get involved. They first asked Trump to return all the documents, and at a meeting at MAR said at least put extra security on the docs. Trump added a padlock, but didn't return anything. The DOJ issued a subpoena. Again, Trump didn't return anything. Trump could have made this go away many times over without a whisper by simply returning what didn't belong to him. But Trump didn't comply. Guess you can say Trump didn't believe the law applied to him. And his sycophants tend to agree that Trump is above the law. This isn't about political persecution of a political enemy. That's what Trump did when he illegally withheld Congressionally approved funds for Ukraine in exchange for dirt against Biden. No, this is about following the law that Presidential docs belong to the people in the form of the National Archives. And the law that classified information should be properly stored, per the Espionage Act. Trump isn't the victim here, no matter how much he whines. Trump had every opportunity to comply and follow the law. He simply didn't.
Much like 1/6 and just about every other Trump crime, his acolytes don't want to hear the facts of the case. They just want to shout their talking points. "RAID!" "American KGB!" "Unprecedented" "Political persecution!" If they have to face the actual facts of the situation, they have to slip into uncomfortable reality and out of the sweet, warm right wing media bubble in which they try to stay ensconced.
Garland apparently looked over the evidence and deliberated whether or not to get a warrant for weeks. Garland didn't want this to become political. That's why the DOJ tried every possible way to get the materials back before getting a warrant. The DOJ also has a standing rule not to do something that could be deemed political 90 days before a general election. The raid occurred 92 days before this November's election date. Time was running out, and Garland had to act. Had Garland wanted this to be political, he would have acted sooner. He would have announced the raid and had FBI agents come while Trump was home, guns drawn, wearing the familiar FBI jackets. But it didn't happen this way. The FBI tried its best to keep things quiet, and it was Trump himself who made the raid public. But somehow poor Donnie is still the victim in all this?
Because they weren't declassified. I said it previously. just because the POTUS has the authority to declassify a document does not mean it has been declassified until the procedures to do so have been followed.
Here's a good explanation dispelling some of the myths and Trump claims from a former DOD Director of the Information Security Oversight Office. No, the POTUS does not have authority to declassify everything, nor was there record of a standing order from Trump that once a doc left the White House, it was automatically declassified. And as stated, a doc doesn't need to be classified under the Espionage Act for someone to break this law.
Multiple one off conspiracies (defined as multiple people getting together planning to do something illegal) to do the same thing at the same time. Good call.