Trump Associate's Stated Plan to Publicly Release "Declassified" Documents (Just Security)

[Nevilledog]

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I just published what I consider a potentially important turning point for MAL investigation.

Thanks to @BarbMcQuade @AWeissmann_ for comments in the piece on legal implications.

Trump Associate’s Stated Plan to Publicly Release “Declassified” Documents

justsecurity.org
Trump Associate's Stated Plan to Publicly Release "Declassified" Documents
New revelations "could have significant legal implications for the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation."
7:09 AM · Aug 18, 2022

https://www.justsecurity.org/82723/trump-associates-stated-plan-to-publicly-release-declassified-documents/

As this article was going to press, ABC News published a report that weeks before the Mar-a-Lago search, former President Donald Trump’s associate Kash Patel “vowed to retrieve classified documents from the National Archives and publish them on his website.”

If that scheme involved Trump himself and the Mar-a-Lago documents, it could have significant legal implications for the Justice Department’s ongoing criminal investigation. Any plan to release the documents could potentially trigger specific elements of the Espionage Act and other criminal statutes designed with the core purpose of preventing unlawful dissemination of classified and other sensitive government documents. As I discuss below, credible evidence of such a plan also would likely factor into the Justice Department’s decision on whether to bring criminal charges.

The ABC News report is based on an interview Patel gave in June. However, Just Security has collected six other interviews and statements in which Patel discussed and elaborated on this plan. The excerpts of each of those are appended below.

The June interview may be among the most innocuous. It suggested Patel would go to the National Archives to obtain the documents. Likewise, in another interview on July 4, Patel suggested his plan was to pressure the Archives to release materials in their possession. Less innocuous and far more incriminating, however, are other interviews in which Patel more explicitly discussed an effort to release documents housed at Mar-a-Lago.

Patel is no ordinary aide to Trump. During the Trump administration, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President, a job he reportedly “landed after Fox News host Sean Hannity took him to meet Trump in the Oval.” After the November 2020 elections, Patel was dispatched to the Defense Department as chief of staff to the acting defense secretary where, among other activities, he reportedly pursued the idea that Italian military satellites had been used to turn votes to Joe Biden in the presidential election, according to Jonathan Karl’s book and the House Select Committee hearings. Since leaving office, Patel has joined the board of directors for the former president’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group. On June 19, 2022, Trump sent a letter to the National Archives designating Patel as one of the former president’s “representatives for access to Presidential records of my administration.” Patel claims to have been in the room when then-President Trump verbally declassified documents. He has often made other statements in right-wing interviews that anticipate and put forward Trump’s specific claims of innocence about the Mar-a-Lago documents.

*snip*

[bullimiami]

1. Enough. Throw these conspirators in jail awaiting trial on national security grounds.

Lock trump down in mal and cut off his communications.

It’s obvious they stole top secret docs and were making plans to use them to their own advantage against the usa. This is espionage and treason.

[Ocelot II]

2. Time for a grand jury subpoena.

He's high on my list of Trumpist assholes who should be fitted for an orange jumpsuit, and soon.

[Nevilledog]

3. This is who trump wants to be CIA director

[Ocelot II]

6. I think it's fair to assume that will never happen...

But it sure makes you wonder why he'd want that particular stooge to hold that position. Actually, I don't have to wonder.

[Tommy Carcetti]

4. .........................

[Nevilledog]

7. Wonder how many perverted kid's books he's sold?

[onecaliberal]

5. When will he be arrested?

[Qutzupalotl]

8. His actions look like he has some offer from a foreign government

to release classified documents. Speculation on my part, but I can't think of any other reason to release them, and I have no idea who would pay him. But MBS did give Jared $2B.