Outstanding review from "Just Security" of Kash Patel's statements on classified docs.
It begins with this introduction, is followed by quote after insane quote from Patel.
"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.
The Dissemination Plan
When news of the Mar-a-Lago documents began heating up in May 2022, Patel spoke with right-wing media outlets about Trump’s objectives in retaining these documents. He began laying out the defense that the documents had been “declassified,” and specifically identified Trump’s goal to release the information publicly. He described the content of the documents to include matters related to the Russia investigation (Crossfire Hurricane), but also a much broader range of issues."
][link:https://www.justsecurity.org/82723/trump-associates-stated-plan-to-publicly-release-declassified-documents/|
= new reply since forum marked as read
If I remember correctly, then was he involved with intelligence info there, and wasn't Nunes ( and Patel‽
trying to block the Russia probe?
Am I wrong in thinking this was the case?
