The US Politics |OT|

[Machiavellian]

After reading a few articles on the subject of the docs Trump had in his possession, I noticed how his story changed once the search warrant was release. First it was a raid, then we found it it was a search warrant. Next Trump and his lawyers try to suggest that evidence was planted but this does not really fly because the government tracks all documents, who has them and when they get returned. Meaning that its impossible to plant something that is already shone to be in your possession.

So when the search warrant was released, Trump changed his tune and now those planted docs were all declassified. The problem for Trump is that the search warrant and charges did not care about their classification but instead that he still had documents no matter their classification in his possession that were not his to take. Even worse for Trump they found exactly the documents they were looking for which included docs even the president cannot declassify. So now Trump has changed his statements again saying all presidents take home their work etc. Problem with this defense is that 18 months since he left office, being subpoena for those documents shows a willfulness to keep those documents he is required to give back to the government. The fact that the government got a signed statement from his lawyer saying he returned everything is pretty damming.

I guess the real big issue is will the DOJ actually seek criminal charges or will they just be happy with getting the stuff they were looking for and end it at that. Even if the DOJ could get a conviction would it be worth it. Personally, if they have the evidence they should present it and go forward. Forget about politics and proceed as they would if this was another employee of the government who tried to take documents from the US.

There was no reason for Trump to keep some of those documents even if you believe he was keeping them for keepsakes. Its not like you can just allow anyone to look at SCI/TS documents once you are out of office and even an ex-president cannot view them once he leaves office. This was a very dumb thing Trump has done and I am sure he will look to find a fall guy but who in their right mind would look at 5 to 10 years in prison.