Archives Found Possible Classified Material in Boxes Returned by Trump

[dutch508]

Star Member brooklynite (75,972 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142866994

Archives Found Possible Classified Material in Boxes Returned by Trump
Source: New York Times

The National Archives and Records Administration discovered what it believed was classified information in documents Donald J. Trump had taken with him from the White House as he left office, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The discovery, which occurred after Mr. Trump returned 15 boxes of documents to the government last month, prompted the National Archives to reach out to the Justice Department for guidance, the person said. The department told the National Archives to have its inspector general examine the matter, the person said.

It is unclear what the inspector general has done since then, in particular, whether the inspector general has referred the matter to the Justice Department.

An inspector general is required to alert the Justice Department to the discovery of any classified materials that were found outside authorized government channels.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/us/politics/national-archives-trump-classified-material.html

 

Star Member LiberalFighter (43,066 posts)

2. What was TFG going to do with it? Give it to Putin?

Star Member msfiddlestix (3,815 posts)

6. Ok. Wait. Just to clear a little matter up....

Is the boxed documents in question in this article, the one and the same as the cache of boxes referenced in another story reported earlier this week? The earlier report implied the National Archives people went to Mar-a-Lago to confiscate them.

In this article it is stated that Trump returned these boxes.

Small matter I realize.. but I'm trying discern if these are two separate transactions, shall we say?

In this case, it appears Trump complied with a request, National Archives didn't travel down to Florida and with a court order to search the place for the documents. At least that' what I'm inferring.




In the former report I had tried really hard to imagine these investigators showing up Mara a Lago prepared to search his digs, which would have required a court sanctioned search warrant etc



Editing to add the point : That would have been a BFD! Which I feel like would have been headlines shouted from the rooftops everywhere.

 

 

Star Member left-of-center2012 (33,081 posts)

12. If it helps ...

I heard on ABC Evening News tonight that the National Archives and Trump have been negotiating for months the return of boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago which Trump took from the White House and after Trump agreed to return them the National Archives retrieved them from Mar-a-Lago.

Star Member gab13by13 (7,492 posts)

18. I am hearing from a former Obama counsel,

that there are more boxes not recovered. I am sure a Trump lawyer went over the documents before they were released. I wonder how many of the documents are marked with a Sharpie?

Star Member gab13by13 (7,492 posts)

9. I looked it up a couple of days ago,

but stealing classified information has like a maximum 20 year jail time if I remember right.

I remember General Petraeus who was all lined up to be the presidential nominee until he was caught with classified information.

I am sick of TV lawyers claiming this is a hard case to prove. trump was on TV saying that government documents need to be preserved when he was talking about Speaker Pelosi tearing up his speech. So he knew what he did was illegal, he said so on TV.

 

madville (6,625 posts)

19. With mishandling classified material it usually

Boils down to intent. Simple carelessness like with storage is rarely prosecuted, it’s usually handled administratively, not criminally. There usually has to be some kind of nefarious intent, like selling information, exposing it publicly to cause harm to country, etc for it to be criminally prosecuted.

 

Star Member SergeStorms (13,777 posts)

13. Selling classified material to our enemies.

Hey, a shiftless grifter has to make ends meet somehow, right?

It wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Star Member gab13by13 (7,492 posts)

14. Here's another bomb shell.

They recovered 15 boxes, there is an indication that isn't all of them, that's how many they recovered.

This is how Hillary got in trouble for having 3 classified documents on her personal server. The thing was with Hillary the documents weren't classified but were later classified.

I believe this is the tip of the iceberg. I believe that Trump destroyed documents throughout his presidency.

Lock him up, for up to 20 years.

Star Member Roy Rolling (5,599 posts)

28. A parallel justice system

I’ve ****ing had it with political hypocrites. It’s as if “lock her up” deplorables don’t care about US classified secrets at all.

Which can only mean one thing—Putin has access to all the top-secret documents he wants.

It’s the watchdog that doesn’t bark all over again, as in Sherlock Holmes and “Silver Blaze”. It’s Trump’s criminal m.o. explained perfectly—the watchdog didn’t bark.

Star Member gab13by13 (7,492 posts)

29. Go back and read the post up top,

The National Archives reached out to DOJ to investigate the matter and DOJ told the National Archives to investigate the matter itself.

Is this also a big story? Does DOJ want nothing to do with investigating this? I know the National Archives has its own investigators but this sure seems like a matter for DOJ to me.
DOJ didn't hesitate to investigate Hillary. Is Merrick Garland's DOJ being not being partisan by not investigating Republican officials/politicians? Garland did say his department would not be partisan in his confirmation hearing.

 

[67 Rover]

Star Member gab13by13 (7,492 posts)

14. Here's another bomb shell.

They recovered 15 boxes, there is an indication that isn't all of them, that's how many they recovered.

This is how Hillary got in trouble for having 3 classified documents on her personal server. The thing was with Hillary the documents weren't classified but were later classified.

I believe this is the tip of the iceberg. I believe that Trump destroyed documents throughout his presidency.

Lock him up, for up to 20 years.

Cool. Now explain Hillary's numerous classified documents that were found on a pedophiles laptop oh and don't forget about the printed ones as well. 

[SVPete]

... according to a person briefed on the matter.

1. brooklynite, among all those DU-fools, should remember the numerous annoymorously sourced Gotcha-Trumps that turned out to be false or big nothingburgers.

2. As POTUS, Trump had the highest level security clearance. Has LIEden altered or revoked Trump's security clearance?

... Mr. Trump returned 15 boxes of documents to the government last month ...

Hmmmmmm ... what is the time-frame for former Presidents to return official documents in their custody outside of the WH? The timing of the return of the documents - a year after Trump left the WH - suggests to me this 3-part WAG:

1. The return of the documents in January 2021 was in compliance with a 1 year statutory time-frame;

2. The MSM are trying to make a scandal based on nothing but normal people not being aware of the provisions of applicable governmental records laws;

3. Thus DUmmies are busily ing another nothingburger.

[SVPete]

Looking over the applicable law, https://www.archives.gov/about/laws/presidential-records.html , I see no deadline for a President leaving office to turn in documents not already in Federal custody. OTOH, after a President leaves office, it is the Archivist of the United States who has sole responsibility to obtaining, preserving, archiving, and managing access to Presidential records. IOW, whatever the source of the one year delay in those records being received, Trump violated no law, and it is possible (even likely!) that the delay was due to the Archivist rather than Trump.

If I misunderstood the law, linked above, feel free to set me straight.