Among the items that the DOJ recovered from Mar-a-Lago was a record of Trump’s calls to Rudy Giuliani and emails about his post-election coup.
The log shows items titled “Draft 2019 immigration initiative,” “For POTUS Review,” and “Executive Action to Curb Illegal Immigration.” There was an “internal analysis” and packages of materials related to requests for presidential pardons and sentence commutations. Some of the clemency-related documents refer to initials, while others refer to full names of people who ended up receiving clemency from Trump, such as former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
The document titled “The President’s Calls” included a note that read, “Message from Rudy,” but it wasn’t clear if that was a reference to Trump ally Rudy Giuliani. There was an unsigned June 2017 letter from one of Trump’s law firms to former special counsel Robert Mueller, contents of a folder marked “NARA letters” — an acronym for the National Archives and Records Administration — and emails to a White House account regarding post-election legal action.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Donald Trump won the presidency after months of screaming about Hillary Clinton’s emails. Fast forward six years and Trump could be facing criminal charges for mishandling government emails.
The fact that Trump took documents and a record of his calls to his coup point man suggests that part of his motivation for mishandling government documents was to keep them out of the hands of investigators.
It is hard to say that the cover-up is worse than the crime in this instance because Trump tried to overthrow the government, but the cover-up is what could get him charged with a federal crime.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
