NEW Fox News articles can now be heard on audio! The political world has been ablaze with hyperbole, allegations, speculation, and panic ever since word broke two weeks ago that the FBI had carried out a search order on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
To try and explain what is actually happening in this situation, every pundit who claims to be knowledgeable about the law has emerged. In an effort to divert attention from their actions, the former president and his cronies have, as is customary, flooded the area with political defenses and sloppy legal arguments.
Let’s get to the point here so that the truth can be presented clearly and concisely. There was no oppression on August 8, 2022. Political persecution was not the case. It wasn’t just a small argument over exaggerated bureaucratic procedures. It was the criminal justice system in action, just like it would with any other regular person on any other day that began with the letter “y.”
Up until 12 p.m. on January 20, 2021, Trump served as president and commander in chief. As soon as Joe Biden took the oath of office, Trump was reduced to the status of a 70-year-old private individual who vacations in Florida in the winter to escape the subzero temperatures back in the Northeast. Beyond the level of physical security protection, he was no longer covered by any privileges or safeguards provided by the Office of the Presidency. Just like everyone else, he is governed by American law.
REINHART OFFICIALLY REJECTS DOJ’S CLAIM TO KEEP TRUMP AFFIDAVIT SEALED, TERMINATING RAID AS “UNPRECEDENTED”
It is also true that Trump had a special legal duty to properly turn over presidential papers to the National Archives and Records Administration as the outgoing president. The Presidential Records Act requires that since the records in question are national property. They do not belong to Trump personally.
This process would have begun quickly after his election loss and been finished well before his departure for Florida on January 20, 2021, in a competent White House. Not at all.
Trump spent his remaining two months frantically attempting to overturn his election defeat in the courts, state legislatures, and finally at the rally on January 6, 2021. Document preservation did not top his list of priorities.
As a result, it appears that over 25 boxes worth of presidential records were moved to Florida and kept at Mar-a-Lago in a basement. But there probably never would have been a criminal component to this case if it were just a matter of retrieving unclassified presidential information. However, countless correctly marked classified documents were concealed inside those boxes. There was no indication on the documents that Trump had ever declassified them. There is no concrete proof that Mr. Trump ever declassified them. There would be no reason for anyone examining those records to think otherwise than as appropriately classified documents.
TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO HOME AND RESORT CHECKS AND BALANCES SHOW LIMITED GOVERNMENT AT ITS BEST
The government made a quiet and lawful attempt to retrieve the records. After a year of discussions with Trump’s staff about the issue, 15 cartons were returned to NARA in February.
The agency returned in June armed with a subpoena after discovering further boxes of information that needed to be returned. Both occasions, the boxes contained correctly designated classified papers, up to and including those categorized as Top Secret and necessitating access eligibility to Sensitive Compartmented Information.
There were no additional documents, according to an affidavit signed by a Trump attorney. After the government acquired evidence that the Trump lawyer was not telling the truth, a court-approved search warrant was performed on August 8, 2022, and sure enough, several additional classified documents were discovered.
