Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday rejected former President Trump’s claim that he declassified documents seized by the FBI during its search of his Mar-a-Lago resort last week.
DJT is full of cheeseburgers, corruption, nonsense, and lies.
It’s the absurdity, that make it true. What kind of raving lunitic would make up a story like that?
Check and Mate. They got him dead to rights. This ain’t hard to prove.
Chump was brazenly breaking every law and procedure with classified info even when he was in the WH with full staff and WH lawyers. Everyone knew he was a security risk as president, along with Jared and all the other people he forced clearances for, and also down at MAL where nothing was done properly for 4 years and spies could move around freely.
That we are supposed to believe he suddenly started doing stuff by the books AFTER his coup attempt, and after his presidency on a shoe-string budget with strip-mall lawyers is laughable.
No doubt Trump’s team will present evidence that the documents were declassified. A few Trump toadies will step forward to testify that they witnessed Trump verbally telling somebody in his presence to declassify the documents. I’m sure this testimony will be short on details and credibility.
That’s an important point. The other issues where he’s facing liability like the NY State financial stuff, the false electors scheme, and whether he actually coordinated the attack on the Capitol are complex, with many moving parts. A challenge to bring in front of a jury, although I hope it happens.
This one is very different. Clear and willful refusal to turn over documents important to national security. Doesn’t even matter if they’re classified or not, that’s a red herring. Any jury should be able to convict on the basic evidence. The only sticking point might be whether the government can explain in a public trial what that classified info is, and why it’s so important. I’m sure there must be ways to handle that.
If they are declassified, can they be published?
In the past, certainly. No shortage of liars. But remember, this is the real DOJ and real perjury now…not thumbing their nose at congress. I am wondering who will go on record to swear this.
Okay, fine. But (and apologies in advance if you know this already, but it bears repeating since so few people mention this), declassified or not, those documents are not Trump’s to do with as he wishes. That’s in the statute. To debate the classified/declassified thing is to fall into the argument that Trump and his allies want.
Somewhere in Switzerland there’s a numbered account that grew by a couple million dollars every time the nuclear codes changed.
“We should determine, you know, whether there was any effort during the presidency to go through the process of declassification,” Schiff said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I’ve seen no evidence of that, nor have they presented any evidence of that.”
Which is irrelevant to whether Trump violated 18 U.S.C. § 793, aka the Espionage Act which is not predicated on what the classification/declassification status of the documents he stole from he government was or is.
Schiff pointed out that in the warrant, the statutes the DOJ are asserting do not require information to be classified.
Good.
Before it actually sinks in what’s going on here, there will be minions who will look at lying for Trump as a Rite of Allegiance
whether there was any effort during the presidency to go through the process of declassification
Rep. Schiff has not fully researched the issue. He need only go back to the days of the Mueller Report to find legal scholars such as Sen. Lindsay Graham and Rudy Giuliani who told us “process crimes” are less egregious than other violations of the law.
Yes, Trump likes TV lawyers and TV trials where the pesky things like perjury, deflection, and decorum are not enforced.
Will the actual prosecutors get cold feet unwilling to prosecute a former president? Recall, they couldn’t prosecute a sitting president. Seems like there is always a guideline or two that makes the immediate prosecution of Trump take a back seat.
Someone will try a Freedom of Information Act request I’m sure, but not all declassified info is made available for various reasons. Like a FOIA request for Presidential records, where you have to wait a number of years after the President leaves office to get access.
Certain docs can be, but from what I have been reading if the stuff is really important science or defense or would put agents at risk…no.
Also, it is hard to publish stuff if someone is holding it hostage, or as contraband. You have to get it back from the thief first. And the thief COULD publish it, but would be advertising he had stolen the docs. So, Chump is wrong on all counts, hopefully prison-time wrong.
This is where skill, professional acumen and savvy are going to have to assert themselves. All of the characteristics and attributes of Merrick the Mild (which some derided) are needed to hold Trump accountable to the Rule of Law.
In a certain sense, this is all a distraction — the real questions are why did Trump take these documents, and to whom did he show them or give access?
But since he’s still the President, it’s ok for him to have the documents. And he can declassify them any time he wants, any way he wants. Garland just doesn’t understand the true power of the Imperial Presidency!
/s/