"It's not theirs, Its mine"

[Rigby5]

Depends on what he is talking about. Some documents are classified to such an extent, and in such short list of recipients even allowed to see them at all, they are beyond some verbal blanket declassification, if it was he actually said it, in the first place, and still does not make them his property under the Presidential Records Act. He should have given everything back, when told. Not a pissing contest unless you go against the law of the land since 1978. Donny has a credibility problem.

Wrong about classified docs.
Presidents and ex-presidents are totally above any possible classified regulations.

Right about NARA and FOIA, but only IF the docs were important, only one copy, and Trump had no intentions of turning them over.

 

[White 6]

There is nothing wrong with a president retaining whatever records he wants after office, as long as the National Archives gets what they are supposed to have for FOIA.
Does not matter who gets copies and how gets originals.

So whether or not docs are marked "classified" at whatever level, is irrelevant.
The only concern is why Trump was taking so long to get what should have been given to NARA, long ago?
If he never intended to give it to NARA, then that would be a violation.
But there really is no point is even considering prosecuting, since the deed now is done and NARA has it all.

But there is the other side of this, whether or not there really was anything of concern to NARA at Mar-a-lago, and that this may have all been an illegal publicity stunt to harm Trump?
I don't know without seeing the docs.

Rather curious myself.

 

[White 6]

Wrong about classified docs.
Presidents and ex-presidents are totally above any possible classified regulations.

Right about NARA and FOIA, but only IF the docs were important, only one copy, and Trump had no intentions of turning them over.

No. They are not.

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

The Justice Department revealed Friday that earlier this year, investigators found 184 unique documents bearing classification markings — including 67 documents marked confidential, 92 documents marked secret and 25 documents marked top secret — in material the National Archives and Records Administration initially collected from Trump in mid-January. The Archives later referred the matter to the Justice Department for further examination.

In their latest filing, federal prosecutors said that during the course of its investigation, the FBI "developed evidence" indicating that in addition to the 15 boxes retrieved by the Archives in mid-January, "dozens of additional boxes" likely containing classified information remained at Mar-a-Lago.
To retrieve those additional classified records, the Justice Department obtained a grand jury subpoena and on June 3, three FBI agents and a Justice Department attorney visited Mar-a-Lago to get the materials, according to Tuesday's filing. The officials received from Trump's representatives a "single Redweld envelope double-wrapped in tape," prosecutors said. Trump had previously claimed that he "voluntarily" accepted the subpoena and later invited investigators to Florida for the June 3 meeting.
According to the Justice Department's response, an unidentified individual characterized as the "custodian of records" for Trump's post-presidential office provided federal law enforcement with a signed certification letter on June 3 that stated a "diligent search" was conducted of boxes brought from the White House to Mar-a-Lago and that "any and all" documents responsive to the grand jury subpoena were turned over.
Records taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago were stored in a single location, a lawyer for Trump present on June 3 told federal officials: a storage room on the property, the Justice Department said in its response. A preliminary review of the documents conducted by the FBI revealed the envelope contained "38 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 5 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 16 documents marked as SECRET, and 17 documents marked as TOP SECRET."
"Counsel for the former president offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at the premises nearly five months after the production of the Fifteen Boxes and nearly one-and-a-half years after the end of the administration," Justice Department lawyers told the court.
But after the June 3 meeting at Mar-a-Lago, the FBI, according to the Response, claims it uncovered "multiple sources of evidence" that indicated more classified documents remained at the property and that a search of the storage room "would not have uncovered all the classified documents at the premises." Prosecutors added, "the government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation."
It was against that backdrop that the Justice Department sought the search warrant from a federal magistrate judge earlier this month, prosecutors said. During the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, federal agents seized 33 boxes, containers or "items of evidence" that contained more than 100 classified records, including information classified at the "highest levels," according to the filing. Three classified documents were allegedly found in desks in Trump's "45 Office" and also taken by the FBI.

Of the items seized by federal agents, 13 boxes or containers had documents with classification markings, some of which contained colored cover sheets indicating their classification status — the photo of which was submitted to the court in a supplemental filing.
"That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the 'diligent search' that the former president's counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter," the filing asserts.

(full article online)

Justice Dept. alleges "obstructive conduct" occurred at Mar-a-Lago after request for classified documents.

The Justice Department says Trump's legal team tried to conceal or remove certain records from investigators in the months leading up to the Aug. 8 search.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

referral to FBI.

3) The FBI reviewed the records and the criminal inquiry was opened. A grand jury subpoena was issued to Trump's team. Again, they delayed and delayed in complying. Finally, in early June they agreed to a meeting at MAL to comply. They turned over more
classified records, and swore out a statement that they had done a diligent search, they had not found any more classified records, and any records that remained were in the storage room. They refused to let the FBI agents look at the boxes in the storage room.

4) The FBI gathered new evidence that there were in fact more classified records at MAL, including in locations outside of the storage room. They got the search warrant and found approximately 100 additional classified records, some located in Trump's own office.

5) That is
straight up obstruction and concealment of classified records, and willfully retaining them in an unauthorized location.

6) Now come the legal arguments. First, DOJ says Trump lacks standing. The records are not his: they are the property of the US. Even if he wanted to claim
them as personal records, he never did so. He did not do so in 2021, he did not do so when subpoenaed, he never did it. He has no possessory interest in the records.

7) Second, they argue Trump is not entitled to any injunctive relief. Again, these are not his records, he
waited way too long to even try to stop the FBI from getting the records, he's not entitled to relief given Executive Privilege would not apply, and even if it did the criminal investigative need outweighs it.

8) Third, the Special Master is moot. The A/C privilege records were already separated and are set to be evaluated by the magistrate. The records Trump claims are covered by EP are not his anyway, and the Nixon precedents make clear he cannot invoke it to override the need to conduct a criminal investigation. 9) To sum it up, Trump took PLAINLY MARKED classified records to MAL, he delayed, obstructed and resisted Government efforts to recover them, he (or his staff) concealed the records from investigators, and they got caught doing so.

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[citygator]

 

[Chillicothe]

From the quoted Tweet offered by poster 'Sixties':
"Key take aways: Trump and two of his attorneys are in big trouble for obstruction of justice; and proof of Trump knowledge got stronger: classified docs all over, including his office and with personal items, and deliberately withheld."

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If ...what this morning's Washington Post reports is true; and if.... what the DOJ states in yesterday's filing is true........well yes, there seems to be cause to believe that Don Trump, as the final stop on the 'the-buck-stops-here' journey, along with his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, and his records secretary, Christina Bobb, could be in deep feces.

Now, Don Trump, with his recent showing of 71 million alleged votes has some political protection that few have. Certainly, more protection that Corcoran or Bobb. Still, the tale gets more and more sordid as details emerge through court filings. And we must give a nod to the DOJ for revealing what they know only through court filings.....and not through leaks to the press. We learn what we learn because the DOJ makes a filing...in this case a filing in response to a Trump filing.

I think that is a re-assuring channel for America to learn the extent of the suggested crimes that occurred at Mar-A-Lago with those people and in that storeroom.

In this morning's Washington Post:
"The filing traces the extraordinary saga of government officials’ repeated efforts to recover sensitive national security papers from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club, centered on a storage room where prosecutors came to suspect that “government records were likely concealed and removed … and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”
The agents also came to doubt claims by Trump’s team that the storage room was the only place where such documents might be found.
When agents conducted their court-ordered search on Aug. 8, they found material so sensitive that “even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents,” the filing says."

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Frankeneinstein]

Nope. It's a felony.

That's just a hybrid abbreviation for "fellow New Yorker"

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[surada]

That's just a hybrid abbreviation for "fellow New Yorker"

I hope all New Yorkers aren't as sick and criminal as Trump.