Trump appeared to have business motive for keeping classified documents, Jack Smith finds
By: Zack Stanton (MS NOW)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Special counsel Jack Smith gathered evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump took many top secret documents that related to his worldwide business interests, and investigators considered this a likely motive for Trump concealing them at his Florida club after he left the White House, according to newly released case records.
The special prosecutor also had evidence indicating that after leaving office Trump had shown a classified map to passengers on a private plane, including his future chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and took at least one document that was so secret that only six people had authority to review it, according to a memo reviewed by MS NOW and cited by the House Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
Trump's reason for taking hundreds of pages of classified documents when he left office in January 2021 — and then concealing them when the Justice Department subpoenaed him for their return in May 2022 — has been one of the larger mysteries of the case. FBI agents conducting an unannounced search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 discovered hundreds more pages of top secret records that Trump and his lawyers had failed to return to the government after claiming they had fully returned all classified materials.
In a January 2023 "progress memo" reviewed by MS NOW, Smith's office discussed the possible motive after the FBI discovered that Trump held on to many documents related to his businesses.
"Trump possessed classified documents pertinent to his business interests — establishing a motive for retaining them," according to the memo, which tracked progress in the documents and election-interference investigations. "We must have those documents."
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, Raskin insisted that Trump's Justice Department has sought to cover up the details of Trump's "hoarding" of classified government secrets and storing them in his Mar-a-Lago club's showers and closets — which put national security at risk — as well as the clues to Trump's motives for doing so.
"These new disclosures suggest that Donald Trump stole documents so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them, that the documents President Trump stole pertained to his business interests," Raskin wrote to Bondi.
"This glimpse into the trove of evidence behind the coverup reveals a President of the United States who may have sold out our national security to enrich himself."
In a statement to MS NOW, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended Trump and denied the allegations in Smith's progress memo.
"It's pathetic that Democrats with zero credibility like Jamie Raskin are still clinging to deranged Jack Smith and his lies in 2026," Jackson said. "President Trump did nothing wrong, which is why he easily defeated the Biden DOJ's unprecedented lawfare campaign against him and then won nearly 80 million votes in a landslide election victory."
Smith has been largely barred from discussing details of his work or evidence in the case that is not yet public. In January, Smith declined in public testimony before Congress to describe his work other than the public filings and successful indictments he brought against Trump in the summer of 2023. He cited Trump Justice Department instructions that he could not discuss the evidence in or conclusions of Volume 2 of his investigation, which was not yet public.
Smith testified that he believed Trump's Justice Department would try to use any misstep by him as justification to investigate him or bring criminal charges against him at Trump's request.
Indeed, Trump took to social media on the day of Smith's scheduled testimony to urge Bondi to investigate Smith for weaponizing the investigation against him.
Trolling, taunting, spamming, and off topic comments may be removed at the discretion of group mods. NT members that are known plagiarists, repeat comments, or continue to disrupt/deflect the conversation risk having all of their comments deleted. Please remember to quote the person(s) to whom you are replying to preserve continuity of this seed. Any use of the phrase "Trump Derangement Syndrome" or the TDS acronym in a comment will be deleted. Any use of the term "Brandon", "Traitor Joe", or any variations thereof, when referring to President Biden, will be deleted. Right wing trolls can expect to have their irrelevant questions and comments deleted. Posting debunked lies will be subject to deletion. Use of the terms "leftist" or "lefty" will also be subject to deletion. ©
Tags
Who is online
93 visitors
Trump stole the classified documents for his personal financial gain.
Now that's winning!!!
and treason
those documents can be exchanged for cash and urban real estate in the capitols of our enemies ...
Can you call me?
in trump's world, everything has a price tag ...
... even his family members.
There is a lot of 'may have'. While I have little doubt that Trump is the kind of person who would use whatever he could for money or an ego boost, we should have had a full investigation and trial so any questions of 'may have' were fully answered.
a C note says the mo$t classified stuff trump stole is under the mattress pad in ivanna's casket buried at bedminster ...
a c-note says that the reason Donny is still married to Melania because she knows too much.
well...he always said he could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and get away with it....
I'm surprised he hasn't used threats of suicide as a fund raiser on his moronic base ...
And still the self-righteous GOP wants to talk about the 'problems' of liberalism. . . while this grifter continues to look for new avenues and pathways to greater wealth. You know, I even wonder about the request for 200 billion dollars 'owing' to the Iran war crisis. Why can't MAGA supporters discern that if Trump says the war has been won already. . .what is the 200 Billion essential needed to 'conclude'? Will it be used to repair Iran? Rebuild foreign countries thrusted into the U.S.-Iran war? Or, will it become 200B loss somewhere in the 'system' and off the books?
Fuck them. They can kiss my big, white, ass.
Sorry for the language, CB
Woman, thou art loosed! - Says my big, 'er. . .narrow black, round one.
break out the pick and a commodores costume ...
So. . .you're suggesting I am a 'brick-house' that needing to be 'explored'?
HA!
... or ohio players, sly, whatever works best for you ...
fuck, I gave away my age ...
I will raise you with The Average White Band and Wild Cherry.
you got it -awb
I was a mere lad and. . . listening to this great group in 'trying' times in need of civil rights. . . it was a 'lifesaver ' because it conveyed a sense of something we, blacks, could discern but many were not allowing for with and to us. . . that Whites in America really could understand what we were saying-so many in the majority would simply not 'hear us' back then. It gave us hope to see cross-over music bands coming into existence in this country.
What is funny when you look at history and music history to boot. . . people groups have always had interracial associations and members. . . .
At one time black music could not be played on white radio stations. That led to travesties like Pat Boone.
To be honest, I always liked Pat Boone * , and then he came 'out' as a mean-spirited conservative. . . for that matter I liked Anita Bryant . . . and she came 'out' against homosexuals in a mean-spirited way, and so it is with all the other conservatives that 'out' themselves against their fellow American s that simply want to be free and prosperous (like them in the land that prides itself on granting individual freedoms)!
Learning that someone you love professionally and talent-wise hates 'You,'. . . is such a 'downer.' It's like losing a family member-sort of. . .isn't it? It leaves a 'wound' in the mind (and soul?) that can won't heal and it is reopened every time you hear the mention of one of their names. ( Chuck Norris . . .comes to mind.) Scott Baio - 'Chachi' comes to mind. . .and I hate when liberals feel compelled to 'discount' his body of work, because of his acting on his conservative worldview . . . .
When I think about it, I have enjoyed the 'body' of work of a great many conservatives for years and decades. . . only to have them 'turn rotten' on me when their political worldview is 'outed' and they are either racist, nationalistic, and/or mean-spirited to liberals as a whole.
* Pat Boone was strikingly good-looking in his youth!
Wikipedia.
too milquetoast for me
fakes and posers ...
he's a thumper wimp/rwnj that turned maga towards the end ...
Who? All of them?
Pat Boone
wonder bread
with mayo
he ended up with what every maga thumper deserves ...
CB, the problem with Pat Boone, and why I call him a travesty, has to do with the fact the he and his record company, made millions of dollars covering songs originally performed by Black singers and musicians who were denied radio play on white radio stations. The list of songs includes:
AI Overiew
Pat Boone famously covered several R&B and rock 'n' roll songs originally recorded by Black artists in the 1950s, often finding greater mainstream pop success with them.
-------------------------
Of course, the same can be said about Elvis who recorded:
AI Overview
-------------------------
Some argue it introduced R&B to wider, mainstream and often segregated audiences. So, there is that.
I understand what you are 'saying.' I get your point. However, I choose to look beyond that point. . . and feel I can 'safely' do so because of a related point: Over the years, I have truly learned how many black artists covered songs by original white artists. . .and it was not always a function of the times. Prince, Michael Jackson, Aretha, Isley Brothers, Tina Turner, and Whitney Houston, to name a few, comes to mind.
BTW, I agree with it! Art is art and should be rendered so. And I agree, . . .honored so it introduces ART to a wider audience as art flows back and forth (as it should).
Your point is well stated, accepted, and clear.
The distinction regarding the Black artists you listed is that by the time they were releasing records they were not excluded from play under the prior policy of discriminatory practices by white radio stations. Their biggest successes came predominantly through play on radio stations whose largest demographic was white listeners. The exclusionary policies no longer existed by the time those artists were active, and thank goodness for that!
As for Pat Boone, the original versions by Black artists of the songs he covered were far superior to his. That's not even a close call.
It's nice that a lot (not all) of that music is being found and restored. I listen to a lot of old jazz and blues. There are some songs you can find on YouTube that still cannot be played on the radio.
Er, G'. . . I am being gracious. . .and I agree again. . . because, if the discriminatory practices had remained in place. . . permissions may/would not have been given by the original artists (likely liberals/progressive originalists writers of songs) anyway.
It is the same or similar circumstances we all always seem to find ourselves 'stewing in' when it comes to dealing with some conservatives whom 'endlessly' test our participation in freedoms they enjoy for themselves.
The issue is this: We had to enjoin society to break out of the 'stup' of the times. That is, practically-speaking, we were losing music rights, privileges, and 'control' to the majority at will. . . and yet, the beauty of this has always been there were White people in this country then as now that care so much about equality, equity, and. . .justice that they could not and would not allow inequality, inequity, and injustices to stand no longer than they could get their 'arms' around it.
Thus, the people like yourself, the TiGs, the John Reiners and countless more of you. . .have been our 'rocks' in the quarry. . . willing to control our abusers, ready to partner with us in our weak state/s, always open to being friends in the heat/hot/hell that we found ourselves (think Civil War era).
Note: I am writing this as I prepare for an appointment within mere hours, and I apologize if I am a bit off on your point by being mildly distracted. This is what is in my heart right now. . . .
Funny, you mention this: I have heard some songs on Youtube (adult-versions) from the early years of music in our country. . . that makes me. . . blush!
Someone posted a song with a lady laying on a bed and I closed the tab. . . and can't find the thread or article? again. . . so I will just post this here:
Got to go-back later!
CB, just a brief point regarding the law. Once a song has been published, i.e., released to the public (which includes record albums or CDs, streaming services, online uploads and printed sheet music), any other artist has the absolute right to record a cover version subject to what is known as a mechanical license, sometimes referred to as a compulsory license, which requires a fee, set by law, payable to the copyright owner(s). If a song has not been published, the permission of the copyright owner, generally the songwriter or music publisher, is required before any version of the song can be recorded. In the U.S. this is authorized under Section 115 of the Copyright Act.
Note that a compulsory mechanical license is not applicable to published songs for use in movies, TV shows, commercials or video games. The right to use the music in one of those formats is obtained through what is called a synchronization (sync) license. Sync licenses are granted for amounts negotiated between the parties and are not set by statute like mechanical licenses.
They can be played on the radio if the station owner, program director, DJ or whoever is responsible for programming chooses to play them.
I love YouTube for being able to find and listen to almost anything I want. I've been listening to a lot of early Motown recently, plus early reggae and all kinds of other stuff.
I love Youtube. I am not enjoying AI tunes off the service! Youtube is amazing. . .although, I kind of hate that they are a property of Google now. Which means I share more of. . . 'myself' with Google than I wish I had to for its use! That said, change is the nature of our world.
my friends and I gravitated to music that didn't receive AM airplay. it was huge rock and roll cred for us to have been previously listening to artists that had just broke out on the FM dial and hadn't hit the mainstream yet. in denver, we were lucky to have a radio station, KFML, that was progressive free form and simulcast on AM and FM. it introduced listeners to non-mainstream music across all genres. it's all I listened to in my car, and since it only had an AM radio, I set it there and pulled all the selector buttons and the tuning knob so it couldn't be changed by rude riders. it was always on my stereo at home and on a weekend night they had a show called High Street where you tuned into a local late night TV movie, turned off the sound on the TV, and a comedy group improv'd the movie dialog on the radio. they would even simulcast new groups from a club downtown that was used by the music industry to showcase new groups. but radio dial real estate eventually became too valuable and it disappeared into non-existence in the mid 70's.
When I was young we only had AM radio playing music. For rock music, FM radio became a thing in the late 60s, starting in 1968.
I was never around a radio long enough to listen until I got a job as a dishwasher at a dude ranch in 1970 and the waitresses were all college age. the only station we got in the mountains was a 50K watt top 40 station. it was as monotonous and repetitious as my summer job.
Am I missing something or were you?
I was more interested in the girls (guests) that would be gone by the end of the week. the waitresses there were more interested in being ridden by the wranglers after they got off their horses. I still got into plenty of trouble ...
Nice save.
I was the only person on staff that wasn't invited back for the following summer, after getting caught setting off fireworks with the owner's daughter one night. hey, nobody told me the place had previously burned down due to a fireworks display gone wrong years before ...
Translation of Trumpist DoubleSpeak: He did all the things that he is accused of and more that they haven't figured out.
most of maga thinks that no crime has occurred if they can run out the clock on prosecution ...