Sport fans, grab the popcorn. We continue…
As reported by The Washington Post on Thursday, the Department of Justice is moving forward with a probe into the removal of 15 boxes of White House records to former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. WaPo was informed by people familiar with the situation that the Department of Justice is moving forward with a thorough investigation. This is still in its early stages.
According to WaPo, it’s not yet clear if Justice Department officials have begun reviewing the materials in the boxes — which were finally turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration in late January — or seeking to interview those who might have seen them or been involved in assembling and moving them.
According to the 1978 Presidential Records Act (PRA), presidents must preserve all memos, correspondence, email faxes and notes related to their official duties. They also have to turn these over to the Archives after they leave office. Reportedly included in the material is Trump’s correspondence with “Little Rocket Man,” North Korea’s nutjob dictator, Kim Jong-un.
The Justice Department has been under increasing pressure to show it’s hand. Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) accused the DOJ of obstructing her committee’s investigation into the 15 boxes of records Trump took to his estate in Palm Beach.
In a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Maloney alleges that the Justice Department is “interfering” with the investigation by preventing the National Archives and Records Administration from handing over a detailed inventory of the contents of the recovered boxes. This is what WaPo has transcribed:
It is not the intention of this Committee to interfer in any way with ongoing investigations by the Department of Justice. But, the Committee is still waiting for an explanation from the Department about why NARA cannot provide any information that pertains to compliance with the law to the Committee. [Presidential Records Act]Unclassified information about the 15 Mar-a-Lago boxes.
Oh, please. Irrespective of whether Trump violated the Act, the notion that Trump-Derangement-Syndrome-riddled Congressional Democrats aren’t interested in politicizing the ever-loving crap out of this thing before it even gets off the ground in earnest, is preposterous at best, a bald-faced lie at its worse.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich, in February, defended the former president’s actions.
Fake News has been pushed by political-motivated sources from the government.
So who’s telling the truth? I don’t know — and neither does anyone else without access to the relevant facts and no political ax to grind. However, part of the Presidential Records Act is:
- Public ownership is established for all Presidential records.
- The President is responsible for managing and custody of the Presidential Records.
- The President and his staff must take every practical step to keep personal records separate from presidential records.
- It is established that the Presidential records will automatically be transferred into the legal custody and control of the Archivist when the President leaves office.
Here’s a bit of relevant background, as provided by the Lawfare Institute in February.
On Jan. 31 and Feb. 5, The Washington Post reported that former President Trump routinely “tore up briefings and schedules, articles and letters, memos both sensitive and mundane” in violation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and that some of the records received by the Jan. 6 committee had been “ripped up and then taped back together.”
On Feb. 7, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) disclosed that it had been forced to retrieve 15 boxes of records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
The New York Times reported on Feb. 9th that certain boxes held classified records.
On Feb. 10, a preview of Maggie Haberman’s book disclosed that “staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet—and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper.”
So it starts. Oder it continues.
One — this one, anyway — can only look forward with great anticipation (and expectations) to the game-onIf Trump declares his candidacy to the Republican nomination for 2024, festivities will start in earnest.
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