Not only did Donald Trump steal hundreds of classified documents from the White House and cart them off to his Mar-a-Lago club, it now appears that he personally selected and packed documents that were returned to the National Archives in January. Then, Trump tried to convince an attorney to lie and say there were no more. The attorney refused.
Almost every day brings more information about Donald Trump’s theft of classified documents, and just as often, that information underscores one simple truth: If anyone else had done what Trump has done, that person would be in jail. Trump has already been held above the law, just in the kid-glove handling, the slow proceeding, and most of all, in the failure to indict him on criminal charges.
The latest round of information has made it absolutely clear that Trump knew he had material so sensitive that others shouldn’t look at it, and it makes it clear that Trump not only lied to the National Archives about what was still in his possession, he attempted to get his attorney to sign his name to that lie.
But perhaps most important of all, the National Archives says it still doesn’t have everything that should be there, making it clear that Trump is still in possession of illegally-obtained property.
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As The Washington Post reported on Monday, it wasn’t Trump staffers who put together the 15 boxes of documents that were turned over to a contractor for the National Archives in January. Trump packed those boxes himself.
The actual transfer of the material to the archives was handled by attorney Alex Cannon, but Cannon was well aware that the boxes might have contained classified material. As a result, he refused to look to review the contents, and also ordered other aides involved in transferring the documents not to look, as none of them had clearance.
Not only is this possibly the first time in this whole affair that anyone seems to have expressed some concern about the handling of classified material, it also punches a truck-sized hole through one of Trump’s excuses. Because, if Donald Trump believed he had actually declassified this material, he forgot to tell the attorney he put in charge of returning it to the archives.
In February, after the boxes made their way to the archives, an attorney from the archives asked Cannon a very reasonable question: Is that all? When asked to attest that Trump had returned all the documents, Cannon refused.
Cannon’s refusal to declare everything had been returned soured his relationship with Trump, people familiar with the matter said. Cannon, who had worked for the Trump Organization since 2015, was soon cut out of the documents-related discussions, some of the people said, as Trump relied on more pugilistic advisers.
That first box of documents contained 184 classified documents. It also contained some of the empty folders and loose cover sheets that would be found in the later search at Mar-a-Lago. That obvious mishandling of classified materials, the way the documents were intermingled with other records, and Cannon’s refusal to attest that Trump had returned everything were part of what made the archives immediately contact Trump in an effort to find what remained.
But it wasn’t just that the archives asked Cannon to attest, and he refused. As The New York Times reports, Trump pressured Cannon to put his name on a claim that he knew was a lie.
Shortly after turning over 15 boxes of government material to the National Archives in January, former President Donald J. Trump directed a lawyer working for him to tell the archives that he had returned all the documents he had taken from the White House at the end of his presidency, according to two people familiar with the discussion.
Not only were there at least 25 boxes of material sitting in storage at Mar-a-Lago when Trump told Cannon to make this claim, but there was also a box of classified material in Trump’s personal office and more classified documents in his desk drawer. It’s difficult to find an explanation for this other than that Trump instructed his attorney to lie in order to cover up a crime.
But there is still another issue, one that still isn’t solved. As CNBC reports, when the archives put together the contents of those boxes, the folder Trump provided in June, and the results of the July search by the FBI, there are still missing items known to be in the White House at the time of Trump’s departure.
Among the missing are some of the most famous documents from Trump’s time in Washington. That includes the letter left for Trump by President Barack Obama and Trump’s “love letters” to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Also missing were at least two boxes of presidential records that Trump was keeping in his personal quarters. On Monday, the agency released 11 pages from their communications with Trump, in which they sought these records and expressed concern over Trump’s well-known habit of shredding documents, including those he was required by law to keep.
Also on Monday, the DOJ released some of the findings of the filter team as part of the ongoing “special master” issue. That team was charged with reviewing the over 11,000 documents taken from Mar-a-Lago and sorting those that might be protected by attorney-client privilege. Of that material, a total of 802 pages were initially thought to be of a legal nature that might be protected. However, Bloomberg reports that ultimately only 300 pages of material were found to be covered.
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