Trump response to DOJ classified documents stay lacks transparency

Monday, 12 September 2022 11:15

Trump response to DOJ classified documents stay lacks transparency ^Featured

Written by Stephen Sabludowsky

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Didya know that the former President of the United States TODAY in a court filing is claiming that the classified document emergency that has shocked the world is a mere “document storage dispute”. He also is maintaining that the documents were in safekeeping since he there are some secret service people protecting the president.

That, in essence, is Trump’s reply to the DOJ’S demand that the classified documents not be reviewed by a special master. The government requested the classified documents be carved out of any review because they the FBI needs access to them to engage in necessary national security risk loss analysis. The DOJ insists that there are no conditions whatsoever that a former president should have possession and would have right to control these classified documents.

Calling this a “document storage dispute” is both laughable and an insult to our intelligence. It’s akin to labeling World War II as a neighborhood rumble among gangs. The selfishness of the former president knows no bounds and his attorneys are helping him maintain a high-risk national security threat impacting us all.

If you look at the statement by his attorneys, which is copied below, he is saying that these classified documents are as safe at a golf course than in the severely controlled Scifs because a few secret service people guard the president. There is no evidence that the secret service agents guard the documents when Trump is in Mar A Lago. There is no evidence they protect these highly classified documents when he is golfing or out of town. Accepting Trump’s logic, we might as well do away with the Scifs (and while we do that, let’s just remove all classifications).

Trump argues that his position is predicated upon providing public view to the process. This is insane. He is placing a false personal claim over our country’s most important records regardless the impact upon the nation.

If Trump truly were interested in transparency, he would not be playing games with the truth. He and his attorneys won’t even declare for certain whether the documents were classified or declassified. They refuse to confirm the status because doing so would result in his attorneys (and others) facing potential criminal charges for their prior statements to the FBI.

If Trump wanted transparency, he would tell us why he swiped classified documents and other presidential records away from usual safe keepings. He would tell us why he kept at his country club, information about nuclear capabilities. He would tell us why he has special rights that no modern-day prior president has ever maintained or even attempted to do so. He would tell us why dozens of folders were empty. He would tell us what why our secrets were stashed away in his desk drawer. Only he can provide clarity and sunshine into his own mind and motives. Instead, like always, he prefers to make himself into the victim. Meanwhile while our foreign partners, our spies and others now question if they can trust us with their own sacred confidences.

Here segments of Trump’s response:

“This investigation of the 45th President of the United States is both unprecedented and misguided. In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records.

There is no indication any purported ‘classified records’ were disclosed to anyone. Indeed, it appears such ‘classified records,’ along with the other seized materials, were principally located in storage boxes in a locked room at Mar-a-Lago, a secure, controlled access compound utilized regularly to conduct the official business of the United States during the Trump Presidency, which to this day is monitored by the United States Secret Service

Given the significance of this investigation, the Court recognizes, as does President Trump, that it must be conducted in the public view. The Court has correctly directed commencement of a process which certainly benefits the Government, President Trump and the people of the United States. The Plaintiff respectfully submits any stay of the injunction or limitation on the scope of review- only erodes public trust and the perception of fairness.”

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