On Wednesday evening, attorneys for Donald Trump replied to the latest motion from the Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. That reply didn’t bother to deal with the claims that Trump’s legal team had previously signed a statement that there were no more classified documents on the premises. It didn’t bother to touch accusations that Trump hid documents, removed documents, and took other actions to obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation.
However, there is one thing that Trump is hurrying to deal with. That’s because he may be a liar, thief, and traitor, but by God he is not a slob! That picture published as part of the DOJ motion? Trump seriously wants everyone to know that this is not how he keeps his stolen, highly classified documents.
He keeps them in his desk, along with multiple passports, or in a cardboard box along with a TIME Magazine cover showing his defeated political enemies. Because what is he? An animal?
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The image attached to the DOJ filing shows at least 17 documents or cover sheets scattered across a stretch of truly tacky 1980s Newark airport hotel-grade carpeting. While it was possible to think this was supposed to show how Trump left these documents (confession time: I did exactly this before delivering a large slap to my forehead and writing a correction), the presence of a scale and exhibit number clearly shows that these documents were laid out and photographed for the purpose of cataloging their removal.
Trump wanted to know what the FBI took? This is what they took, though some of the documents were so sensitive that even the covers had to be covered before the image was taken.
Astoundingly, the defense Trump has launched regarding these documents—which include the documents with human intelligence and space-based intelligence so classified that a top-secret clearance isn’t enough to view them—is not an attempt to justify why he should have been allowed to have these documents, or what conceivable justification he had for ever removing them from the White House. Nope. Trump wants you to know … this is not how he left them.
Trump went on his deeply indebted Truth Social media platform Wednesday evening to complain “documents were sloppily thrown on the floor then released photographically, as if that’s what the FBI found when they broke into my home. Wrong! They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet, making it look like a big ‘find’ for them.”
Apparently, Trump genuinely believes “they took them out of cartons” makes things better. Is it possible that Trump thinks mishandling classified documents means that he didn’t keep them neatly enough? Sure it is.
Anyway, he was back in the echoing hallways of his platform this morning to complain again that the FBI “threw documents haphazardly all over the floor” and dropping a hint that this was all part of the plot against him: “perhaps pretending that it was me who did it!” This time he tossed on a statement that it was “lucky I Declassified!” since the FBI had taken pictures of the cover sheets.
Trump then went on the air with Real America’s Voice on Thursday morning to make this even more clear. “A lot of people think that when you walk into my office I have confidential documents, or whatever it may be, only classified, spread out all over my floor,” said Trump, “Like a slob. Like I’m sitting there reading these documents ... They put them there in a messy fashion and they took a picture.”
But the best evidence that this is the biggest concern on Trump’s mind is that he’s also dispatched his mouthpieces, including attorney Alina Habba, to make the case against document-scattering.
Donald Trump does not keep his classified documents scattered across the floor like a slob where everyone has to look at them. He keeps them in his desk so that he can show them only to … select visitors. Glad we got this cleared up.
Oh, and it’s now clear what happened with lawyer Christina Bobb, who signed the statement claiming that there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. It seems she’s not out there making media statements, and her name was missing from the latest Trump filing, because she is now reported to be up for a witness interview with the DOJ concerning her role in this affair.
Habba is probably safe. Lying about how neatly someone stores their stolen goods is not an offense. It’s just hilarious.
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