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Breaking Down the Trump Indictment.
Here is the charging document. It's filed in the Southern District of Florida, which could become important for jury selection reasons. The core of the case is the allegation that Trump instructed his personal assistant to move boxes containing classified documents in order to hide them from his attorneys and the grand jury.
In January 2021, while he was still president, Trump and his "body man" Waltine Nauta moved dozens of boxes containing records and documents (presumably including the classified documents at issue in this case) from The White House to Mar-a-Lago.
On two separate occasions in 2021, Trump referred to and displayed classified documents during conversations with individuals who had no security clearance or need-to-know. Trump mentioned in these conversations that he had not declassified the information and that he shouldn't be showing it to anyone.
In May 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told Trump to turn over presidential records that he kept after his presidency.
In January 2022, Nauta, on behalf of Trump, turned over some (but not all) of the boxes to NARA.
The boxes turned over to NARA contained 197 classified documents, prompting a Department of Justice criminal grand jury investigation.
On May 11, 2022, the grand jury issued a subpoena ordering Trump to turn over all classified documents in his possession, custody, or control.
In the following weeks, Nauta is seen on security footage moving 64 boxes from the Mar-a-Lago storage room and bringing them to Trump's residence, and moving only 30 boxes from Trump's residence back to the storage room.
Trump also makes numerous suggestive and mafioso-esque statements to his lawyers about how great it would be if there were no documents and praising Hillary Clinton's lawyer for deleting 30,000 of her emails.
On June 2, 2022, 'Trump attorney 1' visited the Mar-a-Lago storage room and searched through the boxes there for classified documents to comply with the subpoena. He finds 38 classified documents. Only the boxes in the storage room were searched. He then asked 'Trump attorney 3', who did not take part in the search for documents, to sign the certificate of compliance with the subpoena and turn over the 38 documents.
In July 2022, the grand jury obtained the surveillance footage of Nauta moving boxes mentioned above, prompting the court to issue a search warrant authorizing the FBI to seize all classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.
On August 8, 2022, the FBI executes the search warrant. 75 classified documents were found in the storage room, and 27 classified documents were found in Trump's office.
What is quite interesting here is that attorney-client privilege between Trump and 'Trump attorney 1' was pierced under the "crime-fraud exception". The theory is that because Trump misled 'Trump attorney 1' as to the location of the documents in order to violate the subpoena, that means his legal services were "rendered in the commission of a crime," and therefore not protected by privilege. I am curious if any of our resident lawyers can weigh in on if this meets the typical threshold, because it seems like a bit of a stretch to me.
Trump also lost the two lawyers who were representing him immediately after the indictment was unsealed. It's not clear if they quit or if they were fired. Its amazing how fast the guy burns through lawyers. It seems like half of them end up with their career in ruins too. I can't tell if Trump is a nightmare client, or if the powers that be are targeting his legal representation in order to leave him stuck with bottom-of-the-barrel attorney's to defend against federal charges.
Trump's conduct here is bizarre, what is the upside of retaining these documents? Why consent to being recorded and then say "hey rando, check out these top secret invasion plans I definitely didn't declassify." Why lie to your lawyers about moving the documents? If you're willing to not just "accidentally" misplace some classified documents, but defy a subpoena to return them why be so sloppy? Why not have Nauta photocopy them and return the originals?
I can buy that Alvin Bragg's indictment was a politically motivated hit job advancing a novel legal theory, but I just can't see that with this. They gave him an out when they asked him to return the documents and he lied to his lawyers about returning them all. This isn't the clever deep state ensnaring Trump, this is him agreeing to be recorded showing classified military plans to some writer. It's either idiocy or some genuine belief that he's above document retention law.
My model of Trump is that he's really just a narcissist who refuses to accept that those documents are not his to keep anymore. I don't think he's a 60 IQ mouth breather, I think he's legitimately pretty smart most of the time(albeit dumber than most presidents imo), but he also is not neurotypical.
Like this is the sort of behaviour you'd see on https://old.reddit.com/r/raisedbynarcissists/, someone's parent is keeping their child's possessions after the child moved out and estranged themselves, then insisted on keeping those possessions even after the child gives the parent numerous warnings and advance notice they'll call the police if they have to.
I'm not 100% certain of this of course, I'm not a psychiatrist who can diagnose someone, but it's my best guess
This may be true, but I honestly don't think it really is better that Hillary Clinton avoided such problems because she was more dishonest/corrupt and deliberately destroyed evidence.
Trump may be stupid and/or arrogant, but he didn't dump boxes of documents in the shredder or furnace. That may be a stupid decision on a personal basis, but if these really are Top Top Important Documents, then isn't it better to be able to get them back?
Of course, if it doesn't really matter if he shredded the Top Top Important Documents or not, then this really is just out to get him as a vendetta.
I think the investigation of Hillary was definitely botched. I don't have a strong opinion of whether they should go back and arrest her today. But ultimately this is about Trump, not Hillary.
That's true, but the problem is Trump didn't give them back. They were requested multiple times but he held onto them and didn't give them back, and showed them to people without clearance. What option besides arresting him is there when he does stuff like that?
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Wasn’t Scott’s assessment of trump that he was really weird, probably not neurotypical, but he’s not close enough to him to make a diagnosis?
That sounds familiar yeah
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