They perjured themselves part 2
That Times piece on the perjury and treason of Trump and his lawyers is too dense for one post.
Investigators developed evidence that “government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department sent Mr. Trump’s office a subpoena for any remaining documents with classified markings. That led prosecutors to conclude that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the government filing said.
The DoJ said give us the documents. Trump and his people hid two thirds of the documents, and his people told the FBI “That’s all of it.” Under oath.
You have to wonder what his people were thinking. Maybe Trump had convinced them that he still had such absolute powers that the FBI would never be able to find the remaining documents, because they wouldn’t be allowed to search.
The Justice Department effort began in May, after the F.B.I. examined 15 boxes of documents the National Archives had previously retrieved from Mar-a-Lago after months of asking Mr. Trump’s representatives to return missing records. The bureau found 184 classified documents in that initial batch.
On May 11, department lawyers obtained a subpoena to retrieve all materials marked as classified that were not turned over by the former president.
How did they know there were more? Perhaps they had a list, and there was a lot missing from the list. Perhaps they just had a number, and it was a lot bigger than 184.
On June 3, his team presented F.B.I. agents with 38 additional documents with classified markings, including 17 labeled top secret.
Ok I’d love to know how that conversation went.
“Sir, this is not all of them.”
“Sorry! Here’s 38 more.”
“Sir, thanks very much, have a nice day.”
Like that? Or was there any “Why didn’t you include these in the 15 boxes we’ve already searched? What part of ‘Hand over all the classified documents’ don’t you understand?”?
At any rate, there apparently was a request or demand to check all the documents, which the Trump people refused.
But one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers present during that visit “explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained,” the filing said.
I guess the Feds didn’t have the right paperwork with them to tell Trump’s lawyer to go fuck himself, they were going to open all the boxes in the storage room.
Mr. Trump’s team also provided the department’s national security division with a written statement on behalf of his office by one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers who was serving as the formal “custodian” of the files. While that person’s name has been redacted in government filings, multiple people have identified her as Christina Bobb.
What the hell is a formal custodian of stolen files?* You can call it formal all you like but the files remain stolen.
Ms. Bobb’s statement was attached to the department’s filing on Tuesday. In it, the lawyer wrote that “based upon the information that has been provided to me,” there had been a “diligent” search and all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned.
With her fingers crossed. Cute.
So they got the paperwork and found – oh looky here what a surprise – lots more documents.
The filing noted that “the F.B.I., in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former president’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform,” a fact that it said “calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.”
Polite for “these crooks lied to us under oath.”
*It’s a term of art in subpoena-world.
Or, as the Guardian puts it, “New legal filings paint Trump as a flailing liar surrounded by lackeys”. (Granted, it’s an opinion piece, not a news piece, but you have to love their directness.)
Hahaha I do.
I suppose we should be thankful that Trump and his team so rarely engage in long-term planning. They always simply ask themselves what is the most expedient thing to say or do to get them through today, rather than formulating a long-term plan with a consistent strategy.
For example, the whole “I declassified all these documents already” argument is shaky to begin with, but if they wanted to deploy it, they should have been taking that position from the beginning. But as DOJ has noted, none of the prior correspondence from Trump’s lawyers asserted that position.
Or, to return to the issue we discussed recently about copies, Trump could have made copies of everything, then promptly returned all of the originals. Then, as long as he wasn’t so reckless as to flaunt his copies or leave them lying around for anyone to see, he probably would have avoided further action from the government. But Trump doesn’t think that way (and of course, flaunting the confidential documents may have been at least part of why he wanted them in the first place).
Oh, one minor note: “custodian of records” is a term of art in the world of subpoenas. That doesn’t make it any less bewildering that Bobb was signing off as the custodian of documents she (I presume?) wasn’t cleared to access.
I know they’re all very “what do we do right this second” but even so…I would think the looming hulking presence of the FBI would terrify them enough to think maybe 2 or 3 days ahead for once. Aka “shit just got real.” You know? All this lying and messing around is all very well when it’s working, but then there comes the moment when the guts turn to water and you’d think they would…rat him out. Do a Michael Cohen before they get busted instead of after.
I think that has to do with the type of people who are willing to become part of Trump’s circle in the first place. Generally speaking, they are people who already were, or wanted to become, prominent in conservative/Republican politics. Turning on Trump means giving up on their careers: Cheney, Kinzinger, etc. have shown that, at least for the foreseeable future, there is no place for you in the GOP if you aren’t more or less enthusiastically pro-Trump. And there’s only so many slots available in cable news, think tanks, etc. for Never Trump Republicans, and most of those have already been filled. So turning on Trump means essentially going back to a “civilian” life.
Ok, you might say, but isn’t that better than risking prison time? After all, a lot of these people have professional or academic credentials that mean they wouldn’t be working some minimum wage job. For most people, sure, that’s a logical choice. But the kinds of people who are attracted to Trump tend to be ones whose ambitions far exceeds their capabilities. They are D-list talent who want desperately to be A-list, and Trump offers (and in some cases, temporarily gives them) that A-list status. Jenna Ellis doesn’t want to go back to being a parking garage lawyer, she thinks she’s better than that. It’s several years old now, but Rick Wilson’s book, Everything Trump Touches Dies, explains this phenomenon pretty well.
There are probably exceptions, though by definition they’re harder to think of because they’ve fallen out of the public eye. I just tried to look up what Hope Hicks is doing these days, and she seems to have stayed out of the news.
Ohhh that all does make sense.
With apologies to Joni Mitchell: And the treasons, they go round and round / and the tainted cronies lie up and down / We’re captured on a carousel of crime!
I’m reminded of this tweet https://twitter.com/JohnRMoffitt/status/831880122621972480 riffing on something that blew up three weeks into Trump’s term in office. (I no longer remember what…it’s all a blur…)
A more innocent time, when Trump’s bumbling incompetence and 0-day planning horizon still seemed remarkable.