Trump's Aides Frantically Packed His Things to Leave the White House
By: Kayla Gallagher (Business Insider)
Interesting take................perhaps he DIDN'T know what was being packed.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former President Donald Trump's South Florida residence, Mar-A-Lago, was searched by the FBI on August 8, 2020. Brandon Bell/Getty Images Redeem now
- In the chaos after the 2020 election, White House aides were secretly packing Trump's boxes.
- Classified materials may have made their way to Mar-A-Lago amidst the kerfuffle.
- Ex-Trump officials told the New York Times they didn't recall ever seeing classified material going into boxes.
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Aides to then-President Donald Trump were frantically and secretly packing the president's things behind his back at the end of his presidency because Trump insisted he wouldn't be leaving the White House after the 2020 election, per a report by the New York Times.
It's the latest media reporting about the chaotic transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration, one that now is at the center of an unprecedented federal criminal investigation of the former president.
According to the Times, the former Trump officials who were interviewed said they didn't recall ever seeing classified material going into boxes. But several of the people said that the packing had to happen in secret "to avoid being ordered to stop by Mr. Trump, who continued to assert that he had won the election."
NBC News reported in August that once Trump realized his time as commander-in-chief was up, he hurriedly stuffed document after document into banker boxes and shipped them to his Palm Beach estate. Politico last month cited former aides who said the Oval Office and an adjacent private dining room only got packed up the weekend before Trump left the White House.
"In my entire time of briefing President Bush, he asked to keep only one thing, which was a chart of those responsible for 9/11, which he then, when we captured or killed somebody on that list, he would cross off," Michael J. Morell, former deputy director of the C.I.A. and an agency analyst who delivered President George W. Bush's daily intelligence briefing, told the New York Times.
Morell told the Times that Bush was careful when it came to sensitive materials, never taking a single chart out of his office. Other intelligence personnel told the New York Times that Trump didn't have the same sense of caution.
Trump would sometimes ask officials to retrieve documents for them, but they weren't always successful. If they asked for the documents back, Trump would assume they didn't trust him, according to John Bolton, a former Trump national security adviser.
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I was told I was basically full of shit the other day when I suggested that he wasn't directing the pack up to move.
Perhaps some would like to rethink it.
I'm not saying he didn't go through them once delivered to Mar-A Lago but..........................................he isn't always the sharpest tool in the shed and figured if it got packed, it was okay.
If Trump went through the materials himself, as has been reported, then he would have seen the TS/SCI markings.
No matter what, when Trump was asked to return the documents he should have simply complied. When the Trump camp formally stated in June that no further classified documents were present at Mar-a-Lago they lied or are incompetent. Trump is ultimately responsible for this. This might be a result of incompetence, ego, etc. but ultimately Trump ...
Personally, I would have no problem with Trump pleading incompetence or oversight or ... if this had occurred soon after he left office. Then the documents could have been secured with very little fanfare. Trump could have claimed oversight and moved on. But once he was on notice, he is absolutely responsible (in my eyes) for making a serious, honest search of the documents at his residence and fully cooperating with their return to a secure government facility. Instead, he lied.
I see no rational excuse for Trump in this matter and judging from the correspondence from Trump's legal team, they are struggling to find a defense.
He says he "declassified" everything so I guess he knew what was in the boxes.
Blanket statement to cover his ass just in case..........................
But that does not cover his ass unless he (or someone) can deliver the formal registration that shows these documents were indeed declassified while he was in office. Nobody has (yet) even implied they could produce this record.
[SPAM]
Dont make too much sense Pat. You will upset them being on a roll.
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The National Archives has been asking to get the documents back for many many months. If Trump took them by accident, why did he refuse to give them back? When people have accidents they usually say "oops", not "their mine".