Did Trump Touch Classified Docs With His Stinky Little Paws To Try To Keep Them From The Feds?

Special Counsel Jack Smith is said to be developing more and more evidence of obstruction in the classified documents case!

America is a banana republic again, because the Washington Post is reporting that the feds have evidence Donald Trump committed MORE crimes, related to the classified documents he stole and spirited away to Mar-a-Lago after the American people yeeted him out of the White House. As we all know, if you hold former presidents accountable for crimes, you are a "Third World" country. Isn't that right, Marco Rubio? 

What's next? Will they say Trump isn't even allowed to shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue without losing a single vote?

The new evidence Special Counsel Jack Smith's team reportedly has would seem to go a long way toward establishing intent, and that Trump knew exactly what he was doing.

Apparently, they've been looking through emails and texts from a former Trump aide named Molly Michael, which may provide evidence for more severe obstruction by Trump in the effort to recover the documents he stole, some of which were top secret and classified property of the United States government. WaPo notes here how the Trump situation diverges from classified documents found in the garage with Joe Biden's Corvettes. We would add that this is also where it diverges from classified documents found in the bottom of Mike Pence's underpants drawer with his fully clothed conservative Christian porno booby magazines. (ALLEGEDLY.)

When shit was found at those guys' locations, they gave it back . Hell, most of the searching was done at their own direction. From everything we can tell, any classified document retention was an accident .

Trump, meanwhile:

The Trump investigation team has spent much of its time focusing on events that happened after Trump’s advisers received a subpoena in May demanding the return of all documents with classified markings, the people familiar with the matter said. [...]

In the classified documents case, federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence thatafter the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession,the people familiar with the investigation said.

Yeah, sounds like that would be a serious fuckin' crime, if so.

"OK let's give those closely guarded state secrets back, but THESE closely guarded state secrets? I need to keep those! For REASONS." And he apparently was just touching all of them, with his tiny little stinky grubby paws.

Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes, these people said.

Remember just after the Mar-a-Lago raid in August of 2022, when even Fox News was openly asking if Trump had stolen nuclear secrets to sell to the Russians or the Saudis? Pretty sure nobody's ever gotten an answer to those questions — although we know more about some of it than we did before. Trump's specific purposes for keeping all these documents are part of what investigators are trying to figure out. (You know, besides the fact that the stupid moron thinks they are his documents .) One curious line of questioning for witnesses has apparently been whether he's been particularly focused on documents pertaining to Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley, who made him very mad by trying to rein him in at the end of his presidency.

Of course, mentioning the Mar-a-Lago raid requires us to note that when the feds stopped by in August of 2022 — months after the subpoena this article is about — they found all these extra shitloads of classified documents Trump had mysteriously failed to return.

“NEWS: DOJ's new filing includes. photo of the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. https://t.co/nm567c96bi”

— Kyle Cheney (@Kyle Cheney) 1661916458 

This isn't particularly surprising news, but it's interesting to read how much evidence the special counsel is apparently compiling. WaPo points out that when the FBI asked for authorization to do the friendly Mar-a-Lago search, their filing stated that “evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises.”

The application for court approval for that search said agents were pursuing evidence of violations of statutes including 18 U.S.C. 1519, which makes it a crime to alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal a document or tangible object “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency.” [...]

The Washington Post reported in October that Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, had told investigators that he moved boxes at Mar-a-Lago at the former president’s instruction after the subpoena was issued. Smith’s team has video surveillance footage corroborating that account, The Post reported, and considers the evidence significant.

And now apparently evidence of Trump personally rifling through shit and trying to hold back/conceal some of it from the feds. And even before the subpoena came through, apparently they've found evidence that Trump instructed people to "mislead government officials in early 2022," back when it was just the National Archives trying to get America's shit back.

[People say] prosecutors have collected evidence that Trump ignored requests from multiple advisers to return the documents to the archives over a period of a year, that he asked advisers and lawyers to release false statements claiming he had returned all documents, and that he grew angry after being subpoenaed for the documents.

Oh my God. And:

Investigators also have evidence that Trump sought advice from other lawyers and advisers on how he could keep documents after being told by some on his team that he could not, people familiar with the investigation said. They have collected evidence that multiple advisers warned Trump that trying to keep the documents could be legally perilous.

Lock him the fuck up, as soon as New York state is done locking him the fuck up, lock him the fuck up forever.

[ Washington Post ]

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here 

And once that doesn't exist, I'm also giving things a go at the Mastodon (@evanhurst@newsie.social) and at Post! 

Have you heard that Wonkette DOES NOT EXIST without your donations? Please hear it now, and if you have ever enjoyed a Wonkette article, throw us some bucks, or better yet, SUBSCRIBE!

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .