Michael Adkins
Donald Trump’s everchanging defenses for his keeping White House documents at his unsecured Mar-a-Lago residence follows his past behavior when facing legal ramifications. First, claim victimization; it is merely a political attack on him, then mix facts with ever changing misleading statements and outright lies. You may recall this is exactly how he handled his first impeachment trial. In fact, just this year he again changed one of his defenses when John Bolton revealed that his upcoming book disputes Trump’s claim that he did not withhold military aid to Ukraine for a requested investigation into the Bidens. His new claim is, well, even if I did, it would not have been an impeachable offense.
When the FBI legally searched Mar-a-Lago for White House documents. Trump played the victim, then said the search was unnecessary and inappropriate because he was “working and cooperating with the relevant Federal agencies.” That was untrue. After months of attempts and negotiations to retrieve the documents Trump removed from the White House, he finally gave up 15 boxes of documents in January of this year. One month later, the National Archives confirmed the discovery of classified documents still held at Mar-a-Lago and referred the matter to the DOJ. In June, Trumps lawyer stated in a legal document that there were no classified documents being held by Mr. Trump. Of course, we know that was not true. Oh, but Mr. Trump and his allies claimed the FBI planted the boxes of documents. His security tapes laid that claim to waste. Trump later contradicted both previous claims with the defense that he had a standing order that “documents removed from the Oval Office were deemed to be declassified the moment he retrieved them.” As yet, he has failed to produce evidence of such an order, one that former aide John Bolton said “is almost certainly a lie.” He then defended himself saying, “everyone takes work home once in a while … to prepare for work the next day.” That does not justify his retaining them after he left office.
He then followed up with a statement that Obama took over 30 million documents when he left the White House. Those documents, it turns out, are in Illinois under the control of the National Archives. In fact, the Presidential Records Act, passed in response to Nixon’s attempt to remove papers and tapes after his resignation, makes all presidential documents the property of the National Archives, who must control them. So, at the very least, Trump violated that specific law.
Trump defenders vehemently cried foul, accusing the FBI of wrongdoing [of course they were supportive of the FBI investigating Clinton], claimed the judge was a donor to Democratic candidates [in fact he donated to GOP candidates], and that the Democrats were responsible. Hey, even Trump learned the hard way that a president cannot successfully politicize the DOJ. The judge required “reasonable cause” that a crime may have been committed [my emphasis]. Three federal laws were cited in the warrant request. USC 793, concerning top secret documents, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison for each offense. USC 2071 and 1519 made it illegal to conceal [my emphasis] or destroy official U.S. documents and are punishable by up to three and 20 years in prison, respectively. Neither of those two laws requires the information be classified. A fourth law, not cited but pertinent, makes it illegal to intentionally take classified documents to an undisclosed location. Trump owns two properties in which secure facilities were built for White House documents. Mar-a-Lago was not one of them.
It should by now be obvious even to the most loyal Trump supporter that, as John Bolton said “when somebody begins to concoct lies like this, it shows a real level of desperation.”
Michael Adkins formerly was chair of the Hancock County Democratic Party. Send comments to [email protected].
