Members of Congress have clearance to see classified/hear classified briefings by virtue of their office. Need to know principles apply and they can't just waltz into the FBI or CIA and demand to read everything, but saying he had "no legal right as a Senator" is simply incorrect. Additionally, there are levels of classification and even administrative matters may be classified. Not everything marked SECRET is a national defense secret. It is incredibly unlikely that Biden had any documents anywhere near the level of classification that Trump had in his possession for one simple reason: the intelligence agencies rarely give out paper copies to members of Congress. The White House operates separately with its own level of control (or seemingly lack thereof). |
The point is DOJ was giving Trump the benefit of the doubt that it was a “mistake.” But no, Trump refused, hid the docs, lied, then got others to lie for him. THAT is how he broke the law!!! DOJ tried very hard NOT to charge Trump but Trump thought he was immune to laws. No Cracker Jack Smith is gonna nail his ass to the wall. |
The New York Times has an excellent article about how the DOJ has bent over backwards to be lenient and courteous to Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/us/politics/trump-documents-jack-smith.html For those who can't access it, here are some passages: "Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the prosecution for the department, opted not to request conditions routinely imposed on other defendants seeking to be released from custody, like cash bail, limits on domestic travel or turning in his passport." "Conspicuously absent from the indictment was a potential charge that had been listed in the affidavit the Justice Department filed to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago last summer: Section 2071 of the federal criminal code, which prohibits the concealment and mishandling of sensitive government documents. It was the only crime on the sheet that might have directly affected Mr. Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, requiring that anyone convicted of it “shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.” " "By not pressing to limit contact between Mr. Trump and potential witnesses who are also his aides and other employees or advisers and lawyers, the prosecutors were seeking to minimize the potential for any violations of those strictures that might disrupt their efforts to keep the trial focused on the core charges involving national security secrets and obstruction." |
It actually pisses me off that that loathsome man is STILL getting kid glove treatment. |
To prove willful retention, a prosecutor has to show they knew they had them beyond a res doubt. They would prove that with, for example, a tape of them showing them to people while talking about how the documents are documents are classified. |
Burden of proof. How does it work? |
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-recording-classified-documents-b2354713.html "Former president Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted a legally dubious claim that he declassified sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property before he left the White House after losing the 2020 presidential election. But he admitted, on a tape, six months after leaving office, that a document in his possession was “classified”, “highly confidential” and “secret information”. He admitted, on tape, that he could declassify such documents as president, but now that he is out of office, “I can’t.” That's how it works. |
Not if he didn't know it was in his possession. As soon as the items were identified, he returned them. "willful" means intent. It's really hard to prove intent. It's like prosecuting a hate crime, where you basically have to have someone shouting racial slurs on camera while they are beating someone up. Trump did that. He admitted that he had classified documents that he could not declassify, on tape while he showed them to people without a clearance. He hid boxes of documents from his own attorneys when they were conducting a search, and it was all caught on camera. He suggested to his own lawyer that they could make documents disappear. He did this to himself. |
Does anyone think this judge will make it to the end of this trial? Aileen Cannon has only heard four trials in her life, none of them longer than 3 days.
How can she possibly handle a trial this big and complex, involving classified information? |
It's sickening that someone so glaringly unqualified could end up a federal judge. |
Okay, but she's made it through law school. Why would you assume she's an idiot? |
Nobody assumes she's an idiot. It's a matter of experience. Would you want a heart surgeon whose total experience is performing four appendectomies? |
They can’t take them home with them. So now we are admitting, yeah, Biden had them, but Trump is worse? |
So the new target is Fitton. Why? |
Np- have you read this entire thread? Have you read the indictment? There is only so much hand holding we can do for you. You’re gonna have to actually make a little effort. |