The Mar-a-Lago Documents Case: Do Trump’s Own Words Convict Him?

Recent reports indicate that Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is closing in on a decision about whether to indict former President Donald Trump in the investigation into Trump’s possession and handling of top-secret and classified documents he took from the White House.

The Guardian reported that Trump was notified by federal prosecutors that he is a target of the Special Counsel criminal investigation into the documents case.

Trump’s potential crimes include not only his taking top-secret and classified documents, but also obstruction of justice in interfering with the government’s efforts to retrieve them.

The publicly known evidence in this case keeps growing, and some of the strongest evidence comes from Trump himself.

Trump’s own words may well play a pivotal role in convicting him.

The Documents Are “Mine”

• “I have the absolute right to do whatever I want with them. I have the right.” — CNN Town Hall, 5/10/23
• “They should give me immediately back everything that they’ve taken from me because it’s mine, it’s mine. They took it from me — in the raid. They broke into my house.” — Mesa, AZ Rally, 10/9/22
• The boxes of documents are “mine,” Trump told several advisers. — The New York Times, 8/16/22

In fact, the documents belong to the American people. According to the Presidential Records Act, presidential documents, including the documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago, are required to go to the National Archives. Period.

The Documents Were “Declassified”

• “I have no classified documents. And, by the way, they become automatically declassified when I took them.” — CNN Town Hall, 5/10/23
• “If you’re the President of the United States, you can declassify just by saying ‘it’s declassified’ — even by thinking about it. … I declassified everything.” — Fox News/Sean Hannity, 9/21/2022
• “In other words, when they left the White House, they were declassified.” — Fox News/Sean Hannity, 9/21/2022

Recent reports describe a recording from 2021, in the hands of federal prosecutors, in which Trump states that he kept a classified document about a potential attack on Iran. Reports indicate Trump knew that he could not declassify the document, despite what he has said publicly.

Recent reports also indicate that the National Archives is providing Special Counsel Smith with 16 records that show that, while President, Trump and his top advisers were informed about the process that needed to be used to declassify documents.

(And Trump’s claim that he could declassify documents by just thinking about it is simply ludicrous.)

“All They Had To Do Was Ask.”

• “They could have had it anytime they wanted — and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.” — Trump on Truth Social, 8/12/22
• Trump asked his team to release a false statement saying he had returned “everything” the Archives requested. — The Washington Post, 10/3/22
• “They like to say that I’m obstructing, which I’m not, because I was working with [the National Archives] very nicely until the raid on my home.” — Trump statement from Mar-a-Lago, 4/4/23

The Archives began seeking missing documents in May 2021. A year later, the Justice Department subpoenaed Trump to return “any and all” classified documents in his possession. In June 2022, the government retrieved 38 documents, but Trump still failed to return all the classified documents he had. Finally, last August, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the remaining documents. They seized more than 100 classified documents still in Trump’s possession.

According to recent reports, Trump’s team moved boxes of papers on the day before government officials arrived in June 2022 to retrieve the subpoenaed documents. Investigators, according to published reports, consider the timing suspicious.

Last September, Trump was warned by a former White House lawyer that he could face legal consequences if he did not return the classified documents in his possession.

Trump’s own words may play a critical role in convicting him in any documents case brought against him. His statements and admissions are especially damning. Stay tuned.

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