a new Justice Department court filing has revealed revealed that trump,
may have attempted to hide the classified documents that he had decided to take
home with him from the White House something that he was not supposed to do
something that he is now being investigated for.
And while I appreciate the careful rhetoric used by the doj in this court
filing, I will say it is, in my opinion, pretty clear that he was trying to
obstruct the doj investigation into these classified documents.
Now, the filing came in response to trump's request for
an independent review of the materials seized from his home.
He of course, is making the argument that some of those materials
are privileged and so he is not okay with the FBI going through them.
But we'll see if the judge actually agrees with what trump is asking for,
which is essentially a third party to look through those documents and
ensure that privileged material is not being reviewed by the FBI.
Now, among the new disclosures in this 36 page filing Were that the search
yielded three classified documents in desks in desks inside Trump's office with
more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification
markings in the residents including some at the most restrictive levels.
So, that discovery happened after trump's lawyers by the way,
had lied to the doj about trump no longer having in his
possession any classified material.
So, that's another part of this investigation that I'm curious about.
Right? So was it that trump,
lied to his lawyers and the lawyers relayed inaccurate information to the doj?
Or are his lawyers just flat out lying about what trump actually has in his
possession?
We'll find out that's something that's also being looked into and
understand representing trump is such a liability that when it comes to
this particular investigation, he's having difficulty finding lawyers who want
to represent him and I don't blame them.
Now, that was twice the number of classified documents the former
President's lawyers turned over voluntarily while swearing an oath that
they had returned all the material demanded by the government.
So the doj filing also made clear that the prosecutors are now focused on trump,
potentially taking steps to obstruct justice.
Which wouldn't be surprising to me because in previous investigations it was clear
that he was attempting to obstruct justice and he never was prosecuted for it.
He never faced any charges for it in this case though,
considering the severity of the issue,
considering the sensitive nature of the documents, he wrongly took home with him.
Who knows he could be prosecuted.
However, the doj has released a statement making it clear, well,
I don't know if they released a statement, but someone close to the investigation
within the doj has said that if trump is ever charged for
any of this, it is not going to happen prior to the midterms because they
don't want to give any impression that this is politically motivated.
They want to keep this professional.
They want to stick to the facts?
The doj is not releasing statements about this investigation on social media.
Instead they've decided to respond to trump through these official court
filings.
And I think that is the right way to do it because when they do the court filings
they also provide some additional details and evidence as to why it is that they
had to go about this investigation the way that they have and as we've shared with
you guys before, they've given trump every opportunity to just comply like the raid.
Didn't need to happen if he just gave back the classified documents he
had in his possession.
Now investigators developed evidence that government records were likely
concealed and removed from the storage room
at mar A Lago after the Justice Department sent trump's office a subpoena for
any remaining documents with classified markings.
So it appears that he was trying to hide the documents that led prosecutors to
conclude that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation.
The government filing said.
Now the filing also included some visual aids.
One specific visual aid that's been getting a lot of attention and
it is this photo of the classified documents.
So for those of you listening to the audio version of the show.
If you haven't seen the image, I'll describe it a little bit.
So the documents are marked as classified and top secret slash S.
C. I.
And the the red document that is marked secret S.
Ci those are the kinds of documents that you can only review in a secure government
facility.
So there are different levels of classification and
that is one of the highest forms of classification.
Which is why this is a serious matter.
You're not supposed to just have these documents laying around your
residents at a resort.
So there's that now the Justice Department effort by the way,
we should understand what the timeline is and we should repeat the timeline over and
over again to make it very clear that this isn't some unfair political hit job trump.
Had every opportunity to just comply.
Give them the documents.
We wouldn't have even known about all of this but he wouldn't comply.
So here's the timeline.
The Justice Department effort began in May after the FBI examined 15 boxes
of documents the National Archives had previously retrieved from MAr A Lago.
After months of asking trump's representatives to return missing records,
the bureau found 184 classified documents in that initial batch.
But those weren't all of the documents as we have learned.
So on May 11th department lawyers obtained a subpoena to retrieve all materials
marked as classified that were not turned over by the former president.
On june 3rd, his team presented FBI agents with 38 additional documents with
classified markings including 17 labeled top secret but that ain't it.
There was more trump's lawyers present during that visit explicitly
prohibited government personnel from opening or
looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room,
giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with
classification markings remained, the filing said So at the time by the way,
you also have the issue of trump's lawyer Christina bobb lying and telling the D.
O. J.
No that's it.
Trump handed he handed everything over okay bob's
statement was attached to the department's filing on Tuesday in it.
The lawyer wrote that quote based upon the information that has been provided to me.
There had been a diligent search and
all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned.
But the FBI uncovered multiple sources of evidence indicating that
the response to the May 11th grand jury subpoena was incomplete and
that classified documents remained at the premises,
not withstanding the sworn certification made to the government.
On june 3rd, the Justice Department filing said in particular the government
developed evidence that a search limited to the storage room would
not have uncovered all the classified documents at the premises.
And then at that point the doj obtained at least one more subpoena
because they just wanted trump to hand over the documents.
And this subpoena was for
the security camera, security camera footage at mar a Lago.
And the search warrant from august 8th revealed that there had been multiple
multiple people working with civilian witnesses.
Okay So people probably within mar a Lago who knew some things up here and
what was found during the final raid, right?
The filing noted that the FBI in a matter of hours recovered twice as many
documents with classification markings as the diligent search that the former
president's council and other representatives had weeks to perform
a fact that it said, calls into serious question.
The representations made in the June three certification and
cast doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.
He thinks he's above the law.
He was hiding classified documents.
He had multiple opportunities to just hand everything over.
He wouldn't do it.
So for anyone who might look at this investigation and
think it's unfair to trump.
I I just want to ask you, if you break the law,
how many chances do you get to right that wrong before you're prosecuted?
I'm serious.
Because I would venture to say that as soon as you break the law, it's over,
you're gonna be prosecuted.
So why do you want to live in a country that treats powerful people differently?
Why do you want to live in a country that believes or
supports the notion that the powerful don't have to live
up to the same standards that ordinary people have to live up to?
The powerful people don't have to abide by the law the way the rest of us have to.
So if this was Obama or biden like to me, I think the health and
the safety and the democracy in this country is
far more important than rooting for my party.
I'm not a loyalist to the party, I'm a loyalist to the country and
doing what it takes to make sure that we actually enforce the laws for
everyone, including the powerful.
And it just amazes me that there's just a long line of people who
are raising their hand to say trump, can break the law.
He can do whatever he wants.
We're gonna defend him no matter what it's crazy because the system doesn't
make those types of exceptions for you.
They never have.
They never will.