I feel like being in possession of that amount of incredibly sensitive national security data (according to the unsealed indictments) ought to have been no-knock warrant territory, personally
Anyone who has had to take any kind of training about dealing with government documents should be beside themselves after seeing the bathroom picture. It’s just insane.
Like, I 100% understand how the president would unintentionally take classified information with them when leaving the White House. Half their meetings every day are classified, a large proportion of the documents they handle are classified, and any notes they take about classified information are also classified. It is not reasonable to expect the President to be 100% perfect about the storage of the thousands of documents he will see in a month, let alone over the 4 years in office. They rely on their aides to help keep track of this stuff, and mistakes happen. A file gets put in a briefcase, or a desk drawer, then an emergency happens and everyone forgets it was there.
I get that, that’s normal IMO. Where this becomes exceptional is that AFTER he was notified that he still had classified information they were STILL storing them in a damn public bathroom. He was bragging about having these documents and showing them to people, KNOWING THEY WERE CLASSIFIED.
Literally all he had to do was hand them back, like every other president has, and go “oops, sorry, these got mixed into the wrong box.” Nobody would fucking care if that had happened, because everyone recognizes that mistakes happen and we aren’t going to prosecute the president for accidentally taking home a classified document and giving it back when they find it. Yes, we would do that to a normal low-level person who did the same- but I think that’s fundamentally different in the scope and volume of the job. The president has more important things to think about than the security classification of the document he’s holding, or the notes he took earlier. It’s other people’s jobs to consider that for him so he can focus on the actual problems he is facing every day in administering the entire federal government.
That’s exactly why Pence didn’t get charged as well. Yeah, he had classified docs, but he surrendered them without any issue. Trump and his conspirator(s) on the other hand actively worked to deceive the US Gov’t about the return of these documents.
If he had handed everything back, okay, there’s nothing to talk about anymore, shit happens from anyone in a high level position (like POTUS, VPOTUS, SecDef, etc) where, like you said, they handled those documents on a daily basis for briefings, took notes, etc. to make decisions with. Sometimes things slip through the cracks, that’s why there’s the step of agencies saying “Hey, you still have some classified docs and we need those back.” Complying with the request under the assumption of an honest mistake results in nothing occurring as a result. Pretending to comply and conspiring to further hide those docs, while leading your lawyers down a different path though is very much a violation of any good will the federal government is giving you.
I feel like being in possession of that amount of incredibly sensitive national security data (according to the unsealed indictments) ought to have been no-knock warrant territory, personally
Anyone who has had to take any kind of training about dealing with government documents should be beside themselves after seeing the bathroom picture. It’s just insane.
RIGHT??
Like, I 100% understand how the president would unintentionally take classified information with them when leaving the White House. Half their meetings every day are classified, a large proportion of the documents they handle are classified, and any notes they take about classified information are also classified. It is not reasonable to expect the President to be 100% perfect about the storage of the thousands of documents he will see in a month, let alone over the 4 years in office. They rely on their aides to help keep track of this stuff, and mistakes happen. A file gets put in a briefcase, or a desk drawer, then an emergency happens and everyone forgets it was there.
I get that, that’s normal IMO. Where this becomes exceptional is that AFTER he was notified that he still had classified information they were STILL storing them in a damn public bathroom. He was bragging about having these documents and showing them to people, KNOWING THEY WERE CLASSIFIED.
Literally all he had to do was hand them back, like every other president has, and go “oops, sorry, these got mixed into the wrong box.” Nobody would fucking care if that had happened, because everyone recognizes that mistakes happen and we aren’t going to prosecute the president for accidentally taking home a classified document and giving it back when they find it. Yes, we would do that to a normal low-level person who did the same- but I think that’s fundamentally different in the scope and volume of the job. The president has more important things to think about than the security classification of the document he’s holding, or the notes he took earlier. It’s other people’s jobs to consider that for him so he can focus on the actual problems he is facing every day in administering the entire federal government.
That’s exactly why Pence didn’t get charged as well. Yeah, he had classified docs, but he surrendered them without any issue. Trump and his conspirator(s) on the other hand actively worked to deceive the US Gov’t about the return of these documents.
If he had handed everything back, okay, there’s nothing to talk about anymore, shit happens from anyone in a high level position (like POTUS, VPOTUS, SecDef, etc) where, like you said, they handled those documents on a daily basis for briefings, took notes, etc. to make decisions with. Sometimes things slip through the cracks, that’s why there’s the step of agencies saying “Hey, you still have some classified docs and we need those back.” Complying with the request under the assumption of an honest mistake results in nothing occurring as a result. Pretending to comply and conspiring to further hide those docs, while leading your lawyers down a different path though is very much a violation of any good will the federal government is giving you.