In the new superseding indictment against Donald Trump that expands on the previous felony charges in the classified documents case, the government used the former President’s public 2016 statements about the importance of protecting classified documents against him.
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These statements show that Trump knows and understood the importance of maintaining the security of our classified documents before he allegedly chose to steal them, hide them, and willfully retain them even while the government sought their return.
The indictment reads:
As a candidate for President of the United States, TRUMP made the following public statements. among others. about classified information:
a. On August 18, 2016. TRUMP stated, “In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”
b. On September 6. 2016. TRUMP stated, “We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. . . . We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified.”
c. On September 7, 2016, TRUMP stated, “(O)ne of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and lo enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.”
d. On September 19. 2016, TRUMP stated. “We also need the best protection of classified information.”
e. On November 3. 2016. TRUMP stated, “Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country.”
24. As President of the United States, on July 26.2018. TRUMP issued the following statement about classified infonm1tion:
As the head of the execu1ive branch and Commander in Chief, I have a unique Constitutional responsibility to protect the Nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it. More broadly. the issue of a former executive branch official’s security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our Nation’s most sensitive secrets long after their time in Government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access granted to our Nation’s secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests.”
Trump made these statements in an attempt to criminalize Hillary Clinton’s unintentional mishandling of potentially classified documents by using a personal e-mail server, but the FBI investigated her and so did the Republican House, to no avail. No crime committed.
Again, the FBI is a profoundly conservative organization that has always been run by a Republican. The chances that James Comey, who made the announcement linked to above about Clinton’s private e-mail system, was trying to help Clinton are zero.
Cut to Trump’s retention of classified documents after his presidency. The new indictment reads:
“In January 2021, as he was preparing to leave the White House, TRUMP and his White House staff, including NAUTA, packed items, including some of TRUMP’s boxes. TRUMP was personally involved in this process. TRUMP caused his boxes, containing hundreds of classified documents, to be transported from the White House to The Mar-a-Lago Club.
26. From January through March 15, 2021, some of TRUMP’s boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. TRUMP’s boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom’s stage, as depicted in the photograph below (redacted to obscure an individual’s identity).
27. In March 2021, NAUTA and others moved some of TRUMP’s boxes from the White and Gold Ballroom to the business center at The Mar-a-Lago Club.
28. On April 5, 2021, an employee of The Office of Donald J. Trump (“Trump Employee I”) texted another employee of that office (“Trump Employee 2”) to ask whether TRUMP’s boxes could be moved out of the business center to make room for staff to use it as an office. Trump Employee 2 replied, “Woah!! Ok so potus specifically asked Walt for those boxes to be in the business center because they are his ‘papers.”‘
Later that day, Trump Employee I and Trump Employee 2 exchanged the following text messages:
Trump Employee 2:
We can definitely make it work if we move his papers into the lake room?
Trump Employee I:
There is still a little room in the shower where his other stuff is. Is it only his papers he cares about? Theres some other stuff in there that are not papers. Could that go to storage? Or does he want everything in there on property
Trump Employee 2:
Yes – anything that’s not the beautiful mind paper boxes can definitely go to storage. Want to take a look at the space and start moving tomorrow AM?
29. After the text exchange between Trump Employee I and Trump Employee 2, in April 2021, some of TRUMP’s boxes were moved from the business center to a bathroom and shower in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s Lake Room, as depicted in the photograph below.
Well, it goes on and on, but you get the idea. This is very different treatment of classified material than advocated for by candidate Trump or even President Trump.
Donald Trump’s loose lips and willful conflation of using a private email server (something several on his team did, including seven officials) with deliberate mishandling of classified documents led to his “Lock her up!” chants at his rallies that live on today.
Except it’s not Hillary Clinton who is threatened with being locked up in reality. In reality, it’s Donald Trump who faces serious charges for endangering the safety of the United States, our military, our intelligence assets, and more.
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