More than 300
The NY Times on Trump’s lavish archive of classified documents:
The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.
There are levels here. He wasn’t supposed to have any documents: they were never his to keep. Multiply that by a very big number for classified documents. Multiply again for the huge number of them.
In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.
More than 300 separate crimes.
The previously unreported volume of the sensitive material found in the former president’s possession in January helps explain why the Justice Department moved so urgently to hunt down any further classified materials he might have.
And all this is happening, let’s not forget, at a hotel. A place with hundreds of people wandering around at all times. Trump stole hundreds of classified documents and kept them at his hotel.
Mr. Trump’s allies insist that the president had a “standing order” to declassify material that left the Oval Office for the White House residence, and have claimed that the General Services Administration, not Mr. Trump’s staff, packed the boxes with the documents.
Why would that make it ok? Trump’s saying “declassify all this stuff, I’m taking it home” doesn’t change the nature of the stuff.
And all of this is about documents on paper. How many secrets are out there on flash drives?
I’m beginning to think there may have been some light treason committed here.
This looks like the logical destination for someone who believed that, as President, anything he did was legal. Somehow he now believes that this exemption lasts in perpetuity by virtue of his having been President. Or, in anticipation of his returning to the Presidency in perpetuity.
I didn’t think Trump “did” computers. Of course, that’s what lackeys and underlings are for. But papers are so much easier to brandish. Waving a document around reads easily; wave a thumbdrive around and people might mistake it for a crayon.
Or a Sharpie.
The problem with paper is it’s filled with words, usually long and boring words that no one can pronounce, and not enough “Trump” words.
I’ve been wondering the same thing about copying, thumb drives, etc, as are other people. It’s not possible that the Justice Department is unaware of that angle. I’d love to know more.
The whole “declassifying” thing is a smoke-screen, anyway. At most, even if he’d actually declassified them anyplace other than in his widdle head (and there’s no evidence he did), taking unclassified documents would still be a crime. That he, himself, made a more serious offense, as part of his “But her E-Mails” schtick.
Pretty sure at this point, the Justice Department doesn’t need more evidence, they just need a way to keep closet Trumpeteers off the jury (that’s really the biggest concern–getting 12 people, and none of them being dyed-in-the-wool Fifth Avenuers).