Reaction & Commentary
Specifically about the classified documents case and I need to make that clear since Trump has several cases coming out against him including some very old alleged crimes seemingly all at once and right during an election season kind of funny right that so many accusations are suddenly coming out all
At the same time while Trump is campaigning for 2024. now we can talk more about that part going forward but for now I want to talk about the CL the case of Trump’s classified documents now we won’t get a more complete picture of what’s Happening until we hear from the
Defense but for now we can go about what’s being said in the end and by lawyers who are pouring over the accusations so how’s it looking well it looks like the entire case is on very very unstable ground and let me explain Epoch times has a great analysis on this
And I’ll just lay out some of the key points first off the entire case is built on a novel legal Theory it’s never been done before and because nobody ever used the justice system this way well they’re making up the rules as they go along but look novel or not the case is
Going to run into some really serious historical precedent on how similar cases were actually treated before and they were treated differently I’ll tell you right now the main charges around the Espionage Act this is going back to 1917 in fact the problem with this is that when it comes to classified documents presidents
And former presidents are not held to the Espionage Act that was replaced in 1978 by the presidential records act and that act sets the rules it stipulates how when a president leaves office they hand over their official records to Nara that’s the National Archive and Records Administration but the law also allows
Former presidents to keep personal documents and that could include Diaries journals personal notes and so on so what’s the issue it was determined in previous cases including with former President Bill Clinton in fact and others as well that the president is the one who gets to decide which documents qualify as
Personal and which one should go to Nara you get that Trump mentioned this point himself during a speech last night to support us in New Jersey charging a former president of the United States under the Espionage Act of 1917 wasn’t meant for this an act for a crime
So heinous that only the death penalty would do and threatening me with 400 years in prison for possessing my own presidential papers which just about every other president has done is one of the most outrageous and vicious legal theories ever put forward in an American court of law
Which is not even mentioned in this ridiculous 44-page indictment under the presidential records act which is civil not Criminal I had every right to have these documents now even beyond that there’s a bigger issue at play the presidential records act establishes the laws on how presidential records should be handed
Over to Nara and it turns out as Trump mentioned it’s not even a criminal statute there is actually no crime involved in not handing the records over the worst thing a former president could face under any normal circumstances would be a civil lawsuit technically the presidential records Act
Is the law that Trump is under the whole idea that he did not hand over documents to Nara is based on this but despite this fact prosecutors are bypassing this all together technically what they’re accusing Trump of is violating the Espionage Act for not following the presidential records act you get that
But look let’s imagine none of these facts matter let’s just go with what Trump is being his Dev that he might have violated the Espionage Act for not following the the presidential records act and you know stick with me on this right under the under the Espionage Act there
Is no requirement that a former president should hand over classified documents it’s not in there Not only was the ACT never designed to be used this way but before the presidential records Act was formed in 1978 which again establishes the legal basis for everything we’re seeing here a president
Did not even have to hand anything over let alone again a former president the Espionage Act is from 1917 it does not include this law or this alleged violation it’s not part of it you getting that under this law it was not illegal for a former president to keep classified
Documents they’re accusing Trump of violating a different law which would only include a civil lawsuit but they’re charging on him with this one instead by using that one like imagine for example it’s like someone’s smoking a cigarette in a no smoking Zone normally you could slap them maybe with a small violation
But imagine an officer arguing that since there was a fire involved in lighting that cigarette they could instead charge him with arson this is similar to how they’re elevating a charge against Trump using one crime and turning it into another crime in order to even make a case
In other words it looks like they’re pulling the old legal bait and switch now it’s issues like this that have much of the Republican Party rallying around Trump interestingly they’re claiming that Justice is being turned on its head for political reasons here’s house Speaker Kevin McCarthy on this
That has a number of classified documents sitting in a garage but it goes back much further because he’d been here more than 40 years and you’ve covered this a long time so the idea that he the president President Biden has been president been vice president
But he was a Senator and to be able to get a document when you’re a senator or Congressman that leaves this gift you’ve got to hide that document you literally have to steal that document to know that he has one of those the idea of equal
Justice is not playing out here and so that’s a real concern to all Americans so as a policy maker elected officials we want to make sure it’s Equal justice for all okay look even then even with all of this they still need to prove Criminal Intent they need to prove that
Trump willfully kept National Defense documents and that’s also going to be really difficult but well this is where the process crimes come into play you may have heard the saying the saying that the process is the punishment here’s the investigation itself right here’s where it was it was used to create new crimes
The initial subpoena from the justice department or sorry the Department of Justice going back to May of 2022 was accused of being overly Broad in fact the overly broad nature of that search warrant notably signed off by well it’s not going to that just yet in fact the
Overly broad nature of that search warrant could help Trump’s lawyers push back but in order for that while Trump turned over all the documents with classified markings and here we are now Trump is accused of instructing a personal aid Walt nauda to move boxes for his lawyers Trump says this was him
Cooperating with the subpoena NADA then allegedly moved 64 boxes from the storage room where he kept documents and other items from his presidency and brought them to Trump’s residence also at Mar-A-Lago it’s alleged that now to move 30 boxes back to that room shortly before a trump lawyer searched the room
For the documents this is Being Framed As Trump trying to hide documents and this is going to come down to intent and what’s the current record on intent well now to claims his understanding was that Trump wanted to go through the boxes remember Trump was asked to hand over documents with classification markings
He was not asked to hand over boxes that may and you know possibly include documents the boxes were not the issue finding the documents with the markings was the issue you and searching the boxes could be framed as looking for those documents to hand over and with the subpoena being as broad as
It was well it made the task a lot more difficult to the point that the subpoena itself could actually be problematic for the prosecutors now Trump’s intent could also be based on how he understood similar cases and how they were treated before Trump knew that written law was in the presidential
Records act and so that was the reference point and he knew that under that law the one that he’s being accused of violating but being charged with a different one he could negotiate with Nara on which documents he could keep and Trump also knew there was legal precedence for how former presidents
Like many of the ones we mentioned here like Bill Clinton and others and on how the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton notably handled their classified documents cases some of these also had legal cases around them and Trump’s knowledge of these will impact the legal case that needs to show his intent can
They prove that Trump intended to keep classified military military documents that he could not legally keep well he may have looked at how others kept document just like that as reference and he likely saw they got off scot-free that there is FBI records notably on allowing them to get off scot-free
Regardless the justice department is sticking by its case amid the accusations attorney general Merrick Garland defended the Integrity of the special counsel watch as I said when I pointed Mr Smith I did so because it underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to both Independence and accountability Mr Smith is a veteran career prosecutor
He has assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity and the rule of law now back to the case the process crimes could get thrown out if the underlying crimes don’t hold up this is the legal precedent at least the big question
Though is going to be on whether the doj is following legal precedence or whether it’s choosing not to there’s other issues as well such as the very real possibility that Trump’s team could actually argue there was prosecutorial misconduct and this will potentially tie into the fact that prosecutors got
Communications between Trump and his lawyers under normal circumstances that would qualify as violating Trump’s attorney-client privilege in fact a significant portion of the indictment is based on evidence that would quote that would normally qualify as attorney-client privilege they don’t seem to want to follow that but for the
Rest and to see how Trump’s team chooses how to defend their case well we have to just wait and see folks stay tuned after the break we’re going to be speaking with Sebastian Gorka about the impact of the Trump indictment
