Justice Department insists to Trump's attorneys that he return all documents marked classified

[Nevilledog]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/politics/trump-white-house-documents-mar-a-lago-justice-department/index.html

CNN
—
Justice Department officials have demanded in recent weeks to former President Donald Trump’s attorneys that he return any outstanding documents marked as classified, making clear they do not believe he has returned all materials taken when he left the White House, a person familiar with the outreach told CNN.

The Justice officials – including Jay Bratt, a top lawyer in the Department of Justice’s national security division – have communicated to Trump’s attorneys that he has an ongoing obligation to return the documents marked as classified.

The New York Times first reported on the outreach.

Whether the FBI rounded up all of the sensitive federal records in Trump’s possession during its August 8 search of his Florida residence and resort is a question that’s loomed over the situation in recent weeks.

In numerous court filings, prosecutors indicated they had concerns that classified records were possibly still missing. For instance, the Justice Department described the need to determine if other classified records still hadn’t been collected, and pointed to the empty envelopes with classified banners that were seized in the August Mar-a-Lago search.

*snip*

[kentuck]

1. One person knows whether or not there are more documents, and he should be subpoenaed.

That person is Donald Trump.

If he cannot talk, or refuses to talk, and continues to hide the documents, then he must be considered an enemy of the United States, I would think?

Can the indictments be far behind?

[dchill]

2. Uh... Gee... Doesn't anybody see that it's time to...

...lock this fucking traitor of a foreign agent down? I'm totally serious. I know no other former President has ever been jailed, but when did any other President do anything remotely comparable? NEVER. NOT EVER. ARREST HIM! LOCK...HIM...UP!

[Joinfortmill]

34. 👍

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Why the fuck isn't he in jaill already?

If I had kept classified documents, I'd have been arrested and jailed in less than two weeks. What is so fucking different about Trump that he's still wandering about, free?

[kentuck]

5. He is questioning the authority of the DOJ and the government.

He is dividing the institutions into partisan tribes. They cannot function properly.

He is a threat to the security of this country, in my opinion.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Why does he get to do that, and ordinary people don't?

Were I to have taken classified documents I'd have been jailed very soon. Not months and months later, if ever. Such a shame we all don't have his privilege.

[kentuck]

8. It's more than just privilege.

There is a criminal aspect to it.

Justice is at a crossroads. They must act, regardless of the fear of repercussions, or else, see our democracy disappear. They really have been left with no choice.

[triron]

19. DOJ better make it pronto.

[vapor2]

4. DOJ should check trump's golf course where Ivana is buried

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. I also want Lincoln's bust back

Link to tweet

[thesquanderer]

39. snopes says not what it seems

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-white-house-looting/

[keithbvadu2]

10. Trump seems to be out of lawyers who will 'verify' that all classified docs have been returned.

Trump seems to be out of lawyers who will 'verify' that all classified docs have been returned.

Let's see Trump swear under oath that all have been returned.

[PuppyBismark]

11. No question DOJ knows what documents are missing

All classified documents are managed extremely carefully. The security records in the White House security system know each and every document checked out and which ones have not been returned.

If tfg does not return them it is one more piece of evidence against him. Furthermore the DOJ will be able to asses the risk of the information being give to the wrong entities. That is the scary part.

[boyedav1969]

17. I also wouldn't be surprised...

...if they know where some of them are. Perhaps they don't have enough for probable cause. Or with this being an investigation still underway, perhaps they're letting him demonstrate a pattern of obstruction. I wouldn't be shocked at all by a Mar-a-Lago style search of one or more other properties.

With the empty Top Secret binders they recovered from Mar-A-Lago, it would seem easy to demonstrate that he hasn't given everything back.

[James48]

23. Not so.

Believe it or not, there is very poor inventorying of classified documents. There isn’t a “main federal log” listing classified documents. It doesn’t exist.


There would be a very good chance that those documents marked classified , that WERE in those envelopes that were recovered- those documents could have been sold and our Justice Department not know what was in them.

[PuppyBismark]

29. I worked in the white house and classified docs are tracked

While there is not a government wide system to track them, local classified documents are are logged especially highly classified documents. One has to check them out to get them out of storage.

In the case of the White House there is even a system to subtly change copies to be able to identify individual copies for highly classified documents.

[Joinfortmill]

35. 👍

[Duppers]

12. Garland, where is your search warrant??

Insider worries about the DOJ team on Trump's Mar-a-Lago case

Following a bombshell Thursday night report in The New York Times, a former top Department of Justice official publicly warned about the team Attorney General Merrick Garland has investigating Donald Trump."

https://www.rawstory.com/doj-mar-a-lago/



Would the DOJ let an average citizen use this defense for what very well may be treason?

Paging Merrick Garland.

😵‍💫🤬

[anarch]

13. well that's not fair; how's he supposed to return the ones he sold to our nation's enemies?

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Without a warrant, good luck.

I've had my share of quirky law clients. You can't make them do what they don't want to do. You give them warnings and step back.

[CatWoman]

22. Keith Olbermann suggested on his podcast today

the DOJ will conduct additional searches of Trump Tower and Bedminster.

[msfiddlestix]

15. Hand it over... Or Else!!!!!

[malthaussen]

16. And the response is no doubt "Make me."

I hope I live long enough to see the full power of the law descend on Mr Trump's head, but I am doubting it more and more.

-- Mal

[EndlessWire]

18. They're going to box him in a corner.

I got this from the Times link. All they have to do to start is to make a motion to the Court to get him to declare that he has returned everything--on the record. Then, if he hasn't and they recover more, he'll be in it.

Surely there is another tracking record that tells them more stuff is missing, rather than just empty folders. Walls is involved, isn't she? I believe they know. They are giving him the same opportunity to give the docs back that they gave him before. This is the first that we have heard they made more than one request.

I'll bet, before all this is over, that they exhume whatever or whomever is in that grave. Betcha.

[triron]

20. This already happened. Trump wasn't arrested so

Why shouldn't Trump do what he's doing?

[EndlessWire]

21. I agree that this same scenario already happened.

But, we are faced with figuring out just what he really did do with those missing docs. Did he hide them? Or, did he sell them? Or, give them to his cronies?

It is best to give him an opportunity to correct his mistake. Catch more flies with honey. Also, a search warrant covering ALL his properties, including the grave, can include numerous requests for him to voluntarily give back the missing docs.

This isn't child's play, contrary to what Trump thinks it is. This is damaging to the US, and Trump is playing with fire. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a massive, all-encompassing search warrant executed the day after Midterms occurs.

I am as impatient as everyone else, but once in awhile I can see that Garland is doing his job. There is a sense of timing, with these requests.

[Joinfortmill]

36. Let us pray

[BlueIdaho]

24. I believe TFG is on the short end of the fuse of doom.

I believe they know which documents he’s holding and their location. I believe they are about to lower the boom on that fat bastard.

[Joinfortmill]

37. From your lips to God's ear. Amen.

[sop]

25. The DOJ "insists"? Trump has an "obligation"?

Yeah, right. Trump is just thumbing his nose at Garland now, daring his prosecutors to do anything about it.

[LudwigPastorius]

26. Excuse my French, but...

why the ever living fuck hasn’t that orange toad been arrested?

[Silent3]

27. Or else they'll hold their breath until they turn blue!!! n/t

[jalan48]

28. Maybe we should up the ante to pretty please.

[Captain Zero]

30. Susan Collins isn't concerned yet.

nt

[Joinfortmill]

38. 👍

[Hermit-The-Prog]

31. Traitortrump was illegally in possession of Top Secret docs and walks free. Would you be free?

[johnnyfins]

32. DOJ should be insisting with handcuffs and leg irons, not words

[Joinfortmill]

33. Ok, time to indict.

[kentuck]

40. It is a chess move by Garland.

Either he knows there are more documents or he has a witness to the fact. Trump cannot withstand another discovery of stolen documents that he has lied about.

That would be the beginning of the end for him.

[lindysalsagal]

41. Legally, he can't. It would prove he refused all the other dozen times.

Any kindergarden teacher knows, this. I certainly hope there is some kind of legal strategy going on behind the scenes, because this is a hopeless, impossible request. That would mean the doj is already defeated, and our experiment in law is over.

There is no longer any reason for anyone to follow any laws: It's now a cabal of inside moves by inside people for inside secrets.

[Hotler]

42. "Demanded". That type of tone is not playing nice. Did you try sending him a cheese burger pizza and

the Mrs. some flowers and a gift card to Walmart?