FBI Executed a Warrant at Mar a Lago; the Investigation Continues

The Obama order established an order on how documents become declassified. Your MDR link is the order in how documents are reviewed and determined in they are eligible for declassification or not. All MDR requests must be submitted in writing.

A President simply can't declassify in his own head. A declassified document is available for public consumption. With no record of a declassified order, and no stamp of declassification on the document, there is no way for anyone to distinguish what's still classified and what is not. It's why all documents that do not yet have a declassified stamp on them are dealt as classified documents.

And even if we accept the ludicrous argument the POTUS can declassify at any time, in his own head, then Trump declassified top secret SCI documents without review. These docs are national security risks, and simply should not be declassified. Nor should they lying around anywhere that isn't 100% secured.

So what's better for Trump? Criminally liable or grossly incompetent?

 

It appears not to apply to TS files that trump possessed despite having been asked for them and despite having been subpoenaed for them and that he and his lawyers lied about having. The EO you cited seems too apply to papers and info generated by the POYUS and VP - that they aren’t necessarily subject to regular review for declassification. Would not change their ownership- would still belong to the US in my reading.

 

Horse hockey. You are the one making this a political adventure.

The FBI showed up in khakis, without guns, to recover classified data that had previous been requested and then subpoenaed. They didn't alert the press, didn't hold a press conference, they haven't commented on the investigation. It feels political because trump is making it political.

Oh woe is you.

 

Here's a pro tip for you, I detest Donald Trump.

 

I didn't claim otherwise.

 

It's a cult. That's what they do.

 

The National Archives asked for the materials back roughly a year ago. They only got some of them back. This lead to DOJ having a subpoena issued in June. Again, they only got some of the materials back despite Trump's attorneys attesting this was all of it. This lead to the search warrant to get the rest last week.

No one at the DOJ said boo about this issue last week until Trump himself ran to social media to announce it. The DOJ operates in silence unless forced not to. That is why Comey's news conferences in 2016 were considered so out of bounds by the FBI.

 

For the "warrant violated the 4th amendment crowd", a perspective:

 

I don’t think this is the only way to declassify documents

 

Yes, I think the EO mentions that the archivists do it as SOP.

 

So are suggesting the because Trump is a "high level political actor" he should be above the law? The judge would not have issued the warrant absent very strong evidence that a crime had been committed and that the subject matter of the warrant was located on the premises of Trump's estate. The chances are that the affidavit submitted by the FBI agents who requested the search warrant contained considerably more documentation than that used to obtain most search warrants because of Trump's position. Because of the obvious need to preserve the confidentiality of sources if the affidavit is made public which I assume will happen sooner or later it will be redacted to the point that it is almost unintelligible followed by Trump's sycophants almost certainly alleging that the redactions are part of a coverup.

 

Don't forget, in his mind he had great healthcare plans, and a much better nuclear deal with Iran, and really awesome infrastructure policy. So he really didn't fail at all those things because in his mind they were all done, super good. Therefore, even our most sensitive national security secrets were declassified without telling anybody, he just told his own mind, which was all he needed to do. These are all basics for Trumpism government.

 

The Anti-Anti-Trump people have all started this sort of thing. Basically, they just criticize how it happened, regardless of how it happened. So if they had come out and held a big flashy press conference right after the raid, the complaint would be that this was obviously for political gain and shouldn't have happened. So instead, the DOJ did no such thing, choosing to handle this in a low key and professional manner, and now they should have held the political press conference and not doing so is wrong. It wouldn't have mattered what they did, this sort of complaint from people that don't like Trump but mostly spend their time confronting people who are Anti-Trump would exist.

Tell me: what could they have said at that Press Conference that would have made you happy?

 

If you hated trump you’d be upset he’s a traitor to this country and he stole classified national secrets to use for god knows what at his home in Florida. Instead you’re fussy about when the AG held his press conference.

 

You stated that I was making this a political adventure. No. I am not. I am pointing out political realities that are inconvenient. People get so wrapped up in their hatred for a political figure that they miss the forest for the trees. The objective for Democrats should not be to put Trump in jail. It should be to simply prevent him from getting re-elected. This smells for all intents and purposes like an actual witch hunt. I think most cleared-headed people would rather have a different Republican nominee than Trump. This does not help that, in fact it does the exact opposite.

 

None of this makes me happy.

 

Some of the Anti-Trump Republicans came up with a word for this sort of thing: Anti-Anti-Trump. They are mostly dealing with the pundit world, but essentially, they argue that the old Republican pundit class split into three groups. The first group stuck with Republicans and became Pro-Trump. The second group split with the party and became Anti-Trump. Then, there was a third group. They don't want to be responsible for Trump and his idiocy, but also don't want to join the people they built their careers criticizing.

So, instead, they became Anti-Anti-Trump. They spend most of their energies criticizing other people who criticize Trump. The classic construction of their arguments is "I don't like Trump, but let me tell you why his critics are wrong..."

 

What could they have said that would have satisfied you? Or would you have run onto here if they held such a press conference and said "How dare they hold a political press conference! So unprofessional! Do your job quietly like a professional!"

 

Well that certainly excludes most Republicans from accusations of being “level headed” as they prefer trump ~50% over DeSantis ~25%

 

We have a number of those guys here on this board. They start by saying 'I hate Trump'. And then they write a paragraph trashing posters who said bad stuff about Trump.