Donald Trump a la Annette Stern, the Attorney General, and the Showdown over Classified Documents in Mar-a-Lago

In the May 2021 letter to Trump’s representatives that was released publicly on Monday, Stern wrote there were “certain paper/textual records we cannot account for,” citing Trump’s letters with Kim and from Obama.

Stern added that the Obama letter was also missing, noting that the Archives’ presidential libraries of other presidents maintain copies of similar letters. “It is necessary that this one be provided to us as well,” he wrote.

The Justice Department subpoenaed Trump in May after he returned a number of boxes of materials to the National Archives.

The FBI seized more than 22,000 pages when they searched the Mar-a-Lago residence of President Donald Trump in August.

Alex Cannon was contacted by officials from the National Archives who had been attempting to getMr. Trump to turn over any presidential records he didn’t turn over after leaving office. Mr. Cannon declined to convey Mr. Trump’s message to the archives because he was not sure if it was true, the people said.

The discovery of a large volume of documents with classified markings, when archives officials opened the initial 15 boxes they recovered in January, set in motion events that lead to a criminal investigation and the search of Mar-a-Lago.

Trump had asked the justices to reverse a federal appeals court and allow a special master to review about 100 documents marked classified, a move that could have opened the door for his legal team to review the records and argue that they should be off limits to prosecutors in a criminal case.

For all the political drama that surrounds the continuing revelations over one of the darkest days in modern American history on January 6, it’s the showdown over classified documents that appears to represent the ex-President’s most clear cut and immediate threat of true criminal exposure.

A person with knowledge of the investigation says that the Justice Department interviewed Mr. Nauta on several occasions. Those interviews started before the F.B.I. executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and carted off more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 that bore classification markings. Mr. Nauta has answered questions but is not formally cooperating with the investigation of Mr. Trump’s handling of the documents.

Chris Kise, the former Florida Solicitor General, joined Trump’s legal team following the FBI search in August, sources close to the president said. Some of Kise’s advisers were more aggressive and had faced a challenge from Trump.

The General Services Administration had shipped Trump’s belongings after he left the White House, and the two documents were found in a storage unit in Florida, where the team of two searched.

But the new cache of email adds new detail showing how documents from the Trump administration made their way to Florida – and directly debunks attempts Trump and his allies have made to defend the former President by blaming GSA.

New details about the chaotic nature of Trump’s transition were revealed in the newly released emails.

His lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment. A spokesman for Donald Trump has accused the Biden administration of collaborating with the media to leak information.

The process has been used by power-hungry bureaucrats to intimidate those who have supported President Trump, said the Trump spokesman. Why? Democrats are left scrambling to have a new witch hunt to distract from their failure because they have failed the American people.

What can we expect to see from a former president in moving forward with transition funds? An email exchange between the former president and the director of correspondence of correspondence Kathy Geisler

If the item is property of the former president, it should not be shipped using transition funds. If an item is considered property of the Federal Government, Kathy Geisler wrote in an email that it should go to the National Association for Regulatory Authorization or the General Services Administration. “I just wanted to make sure we had an understanding of what you are allowed to ship using Transition funds.”

In the email exchange, Trump’s director of correspondence Desiree Thompson Sayle asked Geisler to point out where in the federal code she was referring to. The attached letter suggests that the attached guidance is on what gifts can be accepted by a government employee or elected official.

I am in full compliance with the final disposition of gifts. Sayle said that they were loading the portrait received after the 21st on a Penske truck to move it to his house.

It wasn’t until mid-January – just nine days before President Joe Biden’s inauguration – that Trump’s staff began setting up a post presidential life for the former President following a plan signed off on by former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Following the same pattern of past presidential transitions, GSA would provide the funds and support to help with the transition and setting up a post-presidential office.

The chaotic environment continued even after Trump left the White House. In July 2021. a flurry of late- night emails show staff scrambling unsuccessfully to get the boxes sent off on the last night of their tenure, eventually having to use other resources.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/10/politics/trump-documents-shipping-gsa/index.html

Investigating a pro-Trump mob attacker who left the White House for a clean investigation: a new witness account of a subpoena

“My intern is flying back to DC tomorrow, and he can repack the pallets in Crystal City,” Sayle wrote to GSA. I want to send him to collect a roll of shrinkwrap from Uhaul, but I need to know if there is an AC on the 12th floor.

CNN had reported late Wednesday that a Trump employee told the FBI that the ex- President had ordered him to move boxes out of a basement storage room at his club after a subpoena for classified documents. The FBI also has surveillance footage showing a staffer moving the boxes.

The witness account of Trump’s actions after the subpoena was served in May could be key to the federal criminal investigation that is looking into a range of potential crimes, including obstruction and destruction of government records.

The footage showed Walt Nauta, a former military aide who left the White House and then went to work for Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, moving boxes from a storage room that became a focus of the Justice Department’s investigation, according to the people briefed on the matter. The inquiry has centered on whether Mr. Trump improperly kept national security records after he left the White House and obstructed the government’s repeated efforts to get them back.

The House January 6 committee voted to subpoena him after laying bare his depraved efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and his dereliction of duty as his mob invaded the US Capitol.

The hearing featured never before-seen footage of congressional leaders huddled in a secure location during the insurrection, as they pondered the implications of the pro-Trump mob attacking the Capitol. The accounts of the ex- President trying to dodge admitting he was a loser in 2020 made a case that his subsequent actions made his previous actions even more heinous.

The developments that could hurt Trump the most happened off stage. The distance still left to run is because of the extraordinary legal thicket surrounding the ex-president, who has not been charged with a crime, and because he left a presidency that constantly tested the rule of law.

While Trump has frequently defied gathering investigative storms, and ever since launching his presidential campaign in 2015 has repeatedly confounded predictions of his imminent demise, there’s a sense that he’s sliding into an ever-deeper legal hole.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an emergency request from former President Donald Trump to intervene in the dispute over classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.

The court turned down the emergency request, which could have delayed the case. Conservatives who objected to Trump elevating them to the bench often seem to think that he owes them a debt of loyalty.

While television stations gave blanket coverage of the committee hearing, there was more news that made it clear that an investigation into the former President could continue into January 6. Unlike the House’s version, the DOJ’s criminal probe has the power to draw up indictments.

After leaving the courthouse in Washington, DC, there was a man on his way to his car. A person familiar with the situation told CNN that Short was compelled to testify for the second time. The area where the grand jury meets was also visited by another Trump adviser. He didn’t tell reporters what he was doing.

As recently as last Thursday, Trump complained to donors at a roundtable at Mar-a-Lago that federal investigators “got to see everything” when they searched his residence and were conducting a “complete sham” investigation, according to a person familiar with his comments.

Still, David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment, told CNN’s “New Day” that though the details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raised troubling questions, they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstructing justice.

The legal risk for Trump is that he is in violation of the grand jury subpoena, which is related to the case of whether the former President mishandled classified documents. The prosecutors claimed that the Trump team tried to block the probe and that they had not complied with a subpoena.

On Thursday morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state court to block the Trump Organization from moving assets and continuing to perpetrate what she has alleged in a civil lawsuit is a decades-long fraud.

James filed an application for a preliminary injunction against Trump and his associates, arguing that they’re engaging in fraudulent conduct right up to trial.

It is very unusual for the Justice Department to observe searches that are not conducted by law enforcement. The department didn’t say anything. The former president and his counsel are being transparent, said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump.

There are other probes connected to Trump. There is also the matter of yet another investigation in Georgia over attempts by the former President and his allies to overturn the election in a crucial 2020 swing state.

The unselect committee is a total ‘BUST,’ and it is likely the un-elected committee will sweep the midterm elections

As always, Trump came out fighting on Thursday, one of those days when the seriousness of a crisis he is facing can often be gauged by the vehemence of the rhetoric he uses to respond.

First Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich mocked the unanimous 9-0 vote in the select committee to subpoena the former President for documents and testimony.

“Pres Trump will not be intimidate(d) by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions. Budowich believes that Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms and that America First will be restored.

Then the former President weighed in on his Truth Social network with another post that failed to answer the accusations against him, but that was clearly designed to stir a political reaction from his supporters.

“Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why didn’t they meet at the end of the meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST,’” Trump wrote.

Given the ex-President’s history of obstructing efforts to examine his tumultuous presidency, it would be a surprise if he does not fight the subpoena, although there might be part of him that would relish a primetime spot in a live hearing.

The subpoena could also give the bipartisan committee some cover from pro-Trump Republicans who claim that it is a politicized attempt to impugn Trump that has not allowed cross-examination of witnesses. If it wished to enforce a subpoena, the committee would have to seek a contempt of Congress referral to the Justice Department from the full House. It took such a step with Trump’s political guru, Steve Bannon who was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress and soon faces a sentencing hearing.

But any effort to follow a similar path if Trump refuses to testify could take months and involve protracted legal battles. It is not clear whether the Justice Department would consider this a good investment, especially given its own January 6 probe. And there’s a good chance the committee will be swept into history anyway, with Republicans favored to take over the House majority following the midterm elections.

The vote to seek the ex- President’s testimony is seen as yet another dramatic flourish in the set of slickly produced hearings, which often resembled a television courtroom drama, given the slim chances of Trump complying with a congressional subpoena.

The investigation is no longer just about January 6 but about the future, as was stated by the committee’s Republican vice chair.

The Wyoming lawmaker, who lost her primary to a Trump-backed candidate, said that we chip away at the foundation of our Republic if we try to excuse the conduct of the former President.

Where are the beef? A complaint from the Special Master about the Mar-a-Lago raid of President Donald Trump’s home in the 11th Circuit

The Justice Department asked the court to stay out of the case because of the sensitive nature of the records.

The judges on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to freeze portions of the orders after receiving a request from the Justice Department.

“The Eleventh Circuit lacked jurisdiction to review, much less stay, an interlocutory order of the District Court providing for the Special Master to review materials seized from President Trump’s home,” Trump told the Supreme Court last week.

Raymond Dearie, the senior US judge appointed as special master, will be “substantially impaired” by the appeals court order and that it will slow “ongoing time-sensitive work,” Trump’s team added.

“Any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a President’s home erodes public confidence in our system,” the filing said.

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, is wrong to have hired a special master, according to Elizabeth Prelogar, the US Solicitor General.

Cannon’s decision to block DOJ’s access to documents marked classified and seized from Mar-a-Lago has slowed down the DOJ’s ability to work on the case and given Trump a runway to sharpen his defenses.

A court-appointed special master expressed frustration on Tuesday with the limited information he’s getting from the Justice Department and from defense lawyers for former President Donald Trump about disputes over documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

“Where’s the beef? I need some beef,” Judge Raymond Dearie, acting as the third-party reviewer of the seized documents, said during a half-hour conference call with the attorneys from both sides.

Dearie is reviewing the documents to determine which ones the Justice Department can use in its criminal investigation. He will then send recommendations to district Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida.

Dearie wondered whether the judge could decide if the letter should be kept confidential based on the fact that the two sides couldn’t determine if it was sent.

“I don’t want to be dealing with nonsense objections, nonsense assertions, especially when I have one month to deal with who knows how many assertions,” said Dearie of the Eastern District of New York.

There is a certain incongruity there if I am wrong and I have been wrong before. According to Dearie the attorneys may address that in a submission.

Trump and the Mar-a-Lago case: a possible resolution of the ‘Doing What I Want?’ lawsuits against the former president

The parties have not yet indicated how many of the seized pages are in dispute and will need the special master to make a call.

The possibility of allowing federal officials to return to Trump’s property – likely with Trump’s own lawyers present – is just one option on the table as the Trump team grapples with how best to protect the former President from legal jeopardy. Sources say that the legal team is trying to decide how accommodating they should be toward the Justice Department, even though no firm decisions have been made.

In the throes of multiple legal battles and hoping to alleviate some of the pressure he is facing, Trump has recently signaled to aides and allies that he is open to a less adversarial approach toward the Justice Department – one that might swiftly resolve the records issue after weeks of contentious court proceedings, according to people familiar with the situation.

“The general belief in Trump World is that this is much ado about nothing and the sooner we get past it the better,” said a person close to Trump, adding that the former President has told allies he “wants to move on.”

The battle to get them back has been complicated by a court proceeding that is under seal according to people familiar with the situation. The Justice Department could ask a judge to issue an order forcing the Trump team to work with the DOJ for another search.

Trump accused federal investigators of planting evidence during their search of Mar-a-Lago, a claim he has never substantiated in court.

The complicating factors include Trump’s views on the document dispute. He initially claimed that his team had been fully cooperative with investigators and insisted on social media “ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK,” for documents to be returned. On social media and in court filings, Trump stated that the Mar-a-Lago documents are his property. “I want my documents back!” the former President said in early October.

Trump lawyer Christina Bobb had to hire her own lawyer after signing an attestation in June which declared that Trump’s team had conducted a “diligent search” to comply with the Justice Department’s subpoena and returned all documents with classified markings. Bobb, who was Trump’s custodian of records at the time, recently told federal investigators in a voluntary interview that the attestation had been drafted by another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, for her to sign. Bobb was told to sign the attestation in Mar-a-Lago, but she insisted on first explaining her knowledge was based on information given to her.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-second-search/index.html

Corcoran is not a lawyer, but a search by F.B.I. agents leaves Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s home

Sources familiar with the situation say that Corcoran insisted to his colleagues that he does not face any legal risk and that he has not hired a lawyer.

A third Trump lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, had his cellphone seized by the FBI last month and has testified in front of a Georgia grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The Justice Department has sent a letter about ownership and executive privilege claims in a number of records that have undergone early review. It likely foreshadows larger fights to come over the main bulk of roughly 13,000 documents and other materials F.B.I. agents took from Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club and residence, in a court-authorized search in August.

The materials from the initial tranche that Mr. Trump maintains belong to him include six packages submitted to him when he was president supporting requests that he grant clemency to pardon-seekers; two documents related to his administration’s immigration policies; and an email addressed to him from a person at a military academy, it said.

Two documents with classified markings were found in a Florida storage unit during a search by a team hired by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.