Phelix_Dacat » 10 Aug 2022, 2:52 am » wrote: ↑
The screams of savage indignation over the FBI raid on Trumpdumb's citadel of corruption and golf resort with the confiscation of about 10 boxes of documents is endlessly amusing.
Doing a small amount of digging, the best recount from what we currently know & suspect is found at the Just Security site.
https://www.justsecurity.org/82619/expe ... documents/
Five statutes come into play:
18 U.S.C. 1924
18 U.S.C. 2071
18 U.S.C. 641
18 U.S.C. 1361
18 U.S.C. 793
Lots of caveats in a well written and developed article.
I've also noticed a lot of folks wailing that Trump could declassify anything he wants without a process he, as President, would need to follow. Which is true, though misleading. Once Trump becomes a private citizen, all rules he is exempted from as President come into play. Specifically, Executive Order 13526, signed by President Obama and never revised by President Trump.
Trump, as President, could declassify any documents he wanted, either verbally or in writing, and he could have them in the possession as President. As President, Trump could have classified, unclassified, or declassified documents in his possession.
EO 13526 details the process the documents need to be processed under in order for people who are not the President to possess. Headers and footers crossed out, declassified stamped on documents, by an individual or individuals authorized to make such changes to classified documents, etc.
Meaning, as of January 20, 2021, if Trump is in possession of documents, even if Trump declassified them as per Katel's assurance, but they were not properly processed by Trumps subordinates, those documents would still be considered classified by EO.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/th ... nformation
I'd note intent, specifically Trump's intent, is a huge part of these laws and thus that needs to be more fully developed before any real discussion of the merits can be used to reach conclusion that are more than preliminary.
I know the knee-jerk reaction to assign poor intent to Trump is tempting and possibly correct at the end of the day. It's the beginning of the day, and that is not how "innocent until proven guilty" works.
Most amusing, IMHO, is President Trump signed into law in 2018 the "FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017". It became a felony offense for removing and/or retaining classified documents without authorization, upping the penalty from one year to five years. Karma is having a laugh if Trump is hung by legislation he signed just to stick his finger in Hillary Clinton's eye.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLA ... ubl118.pdf
You may now return to your regularly scheduled temper tantrums, already in progress ...