There is only so much deference you can show a defendant who you're attempting to throw 100+ years on. I think they're going to have a really tough time getting a conviction given a president's broad authority and the venue.
Fair question, but if he truly thought he had a right to the records, then in his mind, he can do whatever he wants to with them. Based on the photos and location of the documents, sort of touching on your first point... I don't see a lot of evidence of trying to "hide documents." We all know he's rich and could have built an underground bunker for them if he was really trying to hide them. We really don't know why he moved them, but having boxes out in the open in a bathroom to me, apparently with nothing concealing the boxes, I don't know if that passes the beyond reasonable doubt on the hiding.
I don’t feel like I can say this enough in this thread, as we keep going around back the supposed “different treatment”, but Trump wasn’t charged over anything in the ~15 boxes that he voluntarily returned…
This post is all over the place. But have to comment on “democrats essentially forced him to” spend. So now trump was beholden to what dems told him to do? And It was trump who strongly pushed back on covid stimulus because it didn’t have enough $ to individuals. He wanted to give money away during the election cycle. and dear leader was running a deficit before Covid “increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.” DT
“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump said, according to a transcript of the recording obtained by CNN
Suicides did apparently tick up AFTER the pandemic though. Not sure why. Something like 4% increase. I think it’s the drug issue that really continued to explode, maybe he’s conflating that with “suicide”. But hard to quantify if that’s covid overhang or the scourge of fentanyl (probably a little of both, but it’s the drug doing the actual killing). I don’t doubt mental illness issues were caused by the stress and lifestyle disruptions. But for the most part America had pretty loose covid policies after that first 3 months. Did countries with more strict policies have even more deaths/suicides? Not really, like gun violence it’s mostly a ‘Murica problem. Excess suicides are not even a blip compared to COVID deaths. Seems some are still under the delusion there could have been a “free from consequence” pandemic if we just pretend it isn’t there. That just isn’t living in reality.
I think that's the crux of his argument. "No, I didn't go through the procedure, but I easily could have. Here's examples of other instances government officials took classified documents to their home and they were not indicted." You can talk about procedure and process all day, but as we know, the POTUS can bypass a lot of things just by the power of the pen. Executive orders to bypass Congress all day, etc. We'll see what happens.
Not not only that, he had his supporters chanting it at his rallies. Probably the second favorite chant after “lock her up”. We’re gonna Build a wall. Who’s gonna pay fit it? Mexico! Yee-haw. Yes, it’s a cult.
Other people like Pence took documents and he's not being charged because he returned them all and agreed to a thorough search by the FBI for more. Trump isn't being charged for anything in the 15 boxes he returned. Seems consistent to me. The DOJ doesn't want to prosecute these cases, especially when dealing with high ranking officials. Trump could've avoided this by returning all the docs in March 2021. Or when subpoenaed a few months later. Not only did he not comply, he lied to the Feds and his own lawyers about it! Read the indictment and tell me Trump shouldn't be charged.
Arranging to have your lawyers come review the documents to respond to a subpoena and then, immediately before they arrive, having people move some of the documents out of the room full of boxes the lawyers were going to review is the particularly damning part. Come up with the reasonable explanation for that other than “didn’t want the lawyers to see, inventory, and produce those.”
This is ban worthy. And if you didn't put him on ignore before that comment, NOW is the time. Any of you right wingers agree with that statement? Tell me now.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but do we really trust Trump to know (off the top of his head) which boxes were sensitive and which were not? Perhaps they were marked differently? I’m thinking of several possible explanations. None of it makes much sense to be honest. Perhaps it was a game of cat and mouse to him, but I do believe he thinks he had a right to have them. Why else would he do it?
All of this could've been avoided if Trump had simply cooperated. Allow the Feds complete access and NARA control of the docs, and no charges ever get filed. And the Presidental Record Act is crystal clear on who should have custody of all Presidential Records when one leaves office. And it's not the outgoing President. It's the National Archives. Establishes that Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the Archivist as soon as the President leaves office. Trump may believe he has the right to the records, but the law states otherwise.
Do you think he can declassify nuclear secrets? Isn't he beholden to the continued safety of the Republic? You think he should be able to take any document and declassify it? You don't. Stop it.
Again, the Presidential Records Act is not a criminal statute. There is no enforcement mechanism or protocol attached to it. Read it for yourself. And again, the president has very broad authority. The president bypasses law and congress almost daily with executive orders. You can’t view this like a document thief off the street. Those are documents he was privileged to see as POTUS. That he maintained paper copies is really not that big a deal. Pence, Biden, Hillary, Obama.. Add to that Cannon is his judge. It’ll be interesting to watch play out, but I don’t think it’s going to go as easily as you believe it will.
Would have to know the specific document in question. Did it really compromise national security or is that just a DNC narrative? Will learn more as the trial plays out up until Cannon dismisses it.
