Trump Wants To Discuss The Classified Evidence Of Him Improperly Storing Classified Evidence By The Mar-A-Lago Pool ... BY THE MAR-A-LAGO POOL
Following the rules is so inconvenient, doncha know!
Slow news day, huh?
LOL, we are silly on Fridays!
Of course we are all waiting for Trump to get indicted in the January 6 inquiry, even as we endeavor to pick our jaws up off the floor after reading the superseding indictment which dropped last night in the documents case. What is it with the GOP and pool boys!
In all the hullaballoo it would have been easy to miss a separate filing on the Florida docket last night regarding all those classified documents Trump was storing in the pool shed. It seems the government and the defendants are having a wee tiny dispute as to how that evidence should be treated in discovery. To wit, Trump would like to treat them the way he did during his presidency (and after!), while the government would like not that.
“Defendant Trump’s counsel objects to the provisions in the proposed protective order that require them to discuss classified information with their client only within a SCIF. They expressed concerns regarding the inconvenience posed by this limitation and requested that Defendant Trump be permitted to discuss classified information with his counsel in his office at Mar-a-Lago, and possibly Bedminster.”
That’s right — Trump would like to run his mouth on the lanai at Mar-a-Lago about all the classified evidence he stole and hid in the pool shed for 18 months. It’s NO FAIR that he has to abide by the rules that say he can’t discuss that stuff outside a SCIF.
(Side note: Think of all the acronyms we’ve learned from President Crimetime! SCIF, FARA, NARA, PABOTUS …)
“The government is not aware of any case in which a defendant has been permitted to discuss classified information in a private residence, and such exceptional treatment would not be consistent with the law,” prosecutors argue in their motion asking Judge Aileen Cannon to issue a broad protective order.
Trump has already argued that his case is too important to be governed by the provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA, another acronym!) which allows the government to prosecute crimes involving classified documents without entering them into evidence on the public docket.
“In general, the Defendants believe there should simply be no ‘secret’ evidence, nor any facts concealed from public view relative to the prosecution of a leading Presidential candidate by his political opponent,” his lawyers wrote last month.
Prior to CIPA’s passage in 1980, it was common for defendants to deploy “graymail” to derail prosecutions by threatening to reveal classified documents on the witness stand. Indeed, it’s pretty clear that Trump is taking exactly that approach with his demand the evidence be declassified if the government wants to use it against him. Similarly, his co-defendant, the valet Walt Nauta, insists that he, too, is entitled to see all the classified documents his boss stole.
The government counters that Nauta is primarily being charged with obstruction and false statements crimes, and that seeing the classified documents personally, rather than through a lawyer with security clearance, won’t help his defense. And you can bet your last dollar that Carlos De Oliveira, the newly charged Mar-a-Lago property manager, is going to argue the exact same thing.
To be fair, Nauta has a better claim than De Oliviera, since Nauta faces charges for withholding the documents, while De Oliviera is mostly in trouble for his role in the harebrained scheme to destroy the security camera footage. But Trump’s position is particularly egregious, since he’s being charged in this very case with mishandling those documents at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster.
The government writes:
“Since the conclusion of Defendant Trump’s presidency, neither the Mar-a-Lago Club nor the Bedminster Club has been an authorized location for the storage, possession, review, display, or discussion of classified information. There is no basis for the defendant’s request that he be given the extraordinary authority to discuss classified information at his residence, and it is particularly striking that he seeks permission to do so in the very location at which he is charged with willfully retaining the documents charged in this case.”
In summary and in conclusion, THE BALLS ON THIS GUY.
Oh, and PS! Guess which senator introduced CIPA in 1980? Hint: He’s still in public life, and he really likes ice cream.
[US v. Trump, Docket via Court Listener]
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Considering Jack Smith is way ahead of what we know, it's what we don't know that will eventually come out that should be jaw dropping.
So Joe Biden KNEW way back in 1979 that Donald Trump was a threat to national security. If that doesn't earn him a second term, I don't know what does.