If you haven't been keeping up with what's happening in Washington, I urge you to get onto it right away. Following the raid on Mar-a-Lago, there are people on social media now openly speculating that former US president Donald Trump is going to end up in prison. We know from a New York Times report that the FBI found 184 classified documents for which the penalty is 5 years on each count for possession alone. His legal team have made a submission to the court and the court has ordered the release of a redacted version of the affidavit used to authorise the raid.
Subsequently, the Department of Justice (DoJ) responded in a 36 page legal submission setting out a damning case against the former POTUS and his team then responded to that.
In addition, a letter from the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) to Trump in May this year has been leaked on a blog. Hence, through these sources, we know a lot more details although well short of everything, and it looks absolutely dire for Trump.
The first submission by his lawyers sought to play down his actions and portray him as being a reasonable person who has already promptly and 'voluntarily' (emphasised in the original) returned documents that had been "inadvertently transferred by the movers to M ar-a-Lago" from The White House and has himself been wronged. FBI agents apparently took away his own 'privileged documents' and he wants them back:
His team are asking for a "Judicial Oversight And Additional Relief, which seeks an order that: (a) appoints a Special M aster; (b) enjoins further review of seized materials by the Government until a Special Master is appointed; (c) requires the Government to provide a more detailed Receipt for Property; and (d) requires the Government to return any item seized that was not within the scope of the Search Warrant."
However, the NARA letter makes clear that they "had ongoing communications with the former President’s representatives throughout 2021 about what appeared to be missing Presidential records, which resulted in the transfer of 15 boxes of records to NARA in January 2022."
In other words they were asking him for a year to return documents he had no right to have and in January 2022 he finally handed over 15 boxes which his lawyers then confirmed was the full extent of it - but it wasn't.
A report in The New York Times claimed the 15 boxes included 300 classified documents but the US Department of Justice say it was 184. Of these, 67 were confidential, 92 secret and 25 top secret. US law apparently provides for 5 years imprisonment on each count just for taking these documents without proper authorisation. That's 920 years straightaway.
The 25 Top Secret documents included classified material about human intelligence, spies and agents working with and for US security services. Other classified documents concerned signals intelligence, spy satellites and various electronic intelligence gathering techniques where the Americans are world leaders. Details are a closely guarded secret.
Apparently, Trump had removed the 'Top Secret' style jackets from some of the 12 further boxes of classified documents which were seized by FBI agents on 8 August. They were mixed up with random papers in various locations in the sprawling complex at Mar-A-Lago. The DoJ released an image showing what the FBI agents found.
There are informants on Trump's staff
The newly published affidavit asks for redactions in order to "protect the safety and privacy of a significant number of civilian witnesses." This has apparently caused concern in the Trump camp.
In further filings by the DoJ there are fears that Trump or his supporters will use witness intimidation to prevent staff giving evidence against him.
Executive privilege
Another filing on behalf of several former federal prosecutors who served in Republican administrations, challenges the very notion that Trump can exercise 'executive privilege' in taking and keeping the files seized by the FBI. Trump has claimed executive privilege’ but he seems to misunderstand. This refers to the government, the ‘executive’ is the sitting US government and he is now a private citizen.
The former prosecutors say:
"The purpose of the executive privilege is to prevent those outside the Executive Branch from intruding in the decision-making of the Executive Branch. That intrusion does not occur when the Executive Branch itself is the entity reviewing the records, and for its internal use."
And:
"The former President thus seeks relief to which he is not entitled—adjudication of his claims of executive privilege by a special master—in a court that is statutorily precluded from hearing the matter."
Bang goes the first line of defence.
His lawyers are in serious trouble.
According to The New York Times, during a visit on 3 June FBI agents were given a "sheaf of classified material" and Trumps lawyer Evan Corcoran then drafted a statement which another lawyer, Christina Bobb, duly signed. This declared that "to the best of her [Bobb's] knowledge, all classified material that was there had been returned" according to two people familiar with the statement.
Trump’s attorneys have never publicly acknowledged the signed statement, much less shared a copy with the press. In the submission requesting a “special master” to review documents seized by the FBI, they never mention that statement in the background “facts.” Instead, they insist that at all times, there was “complete cooperation between President Trump, his team, and the appropriate agencies.”
Classified files were all over Mar-a-Lago
More than that, it is his team’s submission that the classified stuff was held in the storeroom, the one that had the second lock added under Trump’s orders. But in the FBI raid, they found files all over the place including Trump’s desk.
In a separate development, one of his attorneys in the case of tax fraud being brought against him by New York, claimed in June, in a search for other documents, she had looked in every filing cabinet, every cupboard, every desk and storeroom in Mar-a-Lago. In which case she would have noticed and handled top secret documents with front pages making their classified status absolutely clear. Yet she continued to deny they were there. The attorney’s response was to the NY Attorney General so she either lied to him or to the DoJ.
Trump now says he 'declassified' the documents
In a tweet on Wednesday Trump said the FBI had strewn documents all over the floor and it was "Lucky I declassified."
Evidence of guilt.1. Admission he had the docs.2. DOJ was always smart - subpoenaed/demanded all documents "MARKED as classified" - retaining/concealing them is the crime.3. Claiming he declassified admits he knew the content.4. Declass order is a lie. Jury will smell it. pic.twitter.com/vzdYn4hFkU— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) August 31, 2022
Bear in mind that this was the first time he or his lawyers have ever claimed the top secret documents were in fact not classified at all! In any case, no president can simply declare secret documents declassified.
Several things are now clear and absolutely beyond doubt. The classified documents that he had were not taken inadvertently by movers as he claimed. He has not been cooperating with the NARA to return them. He has obstructed and delayed at every turn.
The documents were never stored securely, hundreds of visitors to Mar-a-Lago may have had access to them exposing US agents to risk of being uncovered and US nuclear and intelligence gathering techniques being blown.
Most legal practitioners seem to think the DoJ has a slam dunk case and one, a criminal defence attorney, tweeted:
It’s past my bedtime but I’ll say this: I read the entire DOJ filing. I litigate against the government ever damn day so I know a few things beyond google lawyering 😉 and this platform. This is a robust well-substantiated brief. Trump is screwed. 🚨
— Sara Azari (@azarilaw) August 31, 2022
And what we still don’t know is why he had the files, why those particular files and who picked them for him?
Once we know that he will be in real trouble. It is apparently being noted in the US that Fox News and leading Republicans are either going quiet, moving away from supporting him or becoming critics.
One of his supporters, Sarah Palin, lost a vote in Alaska this week while Biden's ratings have "skyrocketed 9% in a single month."
Story: https://t.co/qxzK8AlKet
— Grant Stern is boosted! (@grantstern) September 1, 2022
