It's US Govt. PROPERTY and does not belong to him.
I'm aware of that, but if he took it when he was prez, I'm just asking if it is technically illegal or not.
I don't know, but on it's face. it doesn't make sense that one would be allowed to hang onto government documents after leaving office & returning to private citizenship.
Especially after the goddamned awful job he did, EVERY DAY he was in office. One douchey thing after another, for four years+, EVERY DAY.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Top secret documents in Trump's office were stored just steps away from Mar-a-Lago's 'completely open' catering hall, says Michael Cohen
"It's directly above the catering hall," Cohen said, referring to the office room. "It's not just guests. It's not just members; it's anybody that's there hypothetically for a wedding or a christening, a bar mitzvah — any event they have."
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
America's secrets: Trump's unprecedented disregard of norms
By AAMER MADHANI
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump isn't the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around the safeguarding of sensitive government records, but national security experts say recent revelations point to an unprecedented disregard of post-presidency norms established after the Watergate era.
Document dramas have cropped up from time to time over the years.
Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson's national security adviser held onto explosive records for years before turning them over to the Johnson presidential library. The records showed that the campaign of his successor, Richard Nixon, was secretly communicating in the final days of the 1968 presidential race with the South Vietnamese government in an effort to delay the opening of peace talks to end the Vietnam War.
A secretary in Ronald Reagan's administration, Fawn Hall, testified that she altered and helped shred documents related to the Iran-Contra affair to protect Oliver North, her boss at the White House National Security Council.
Barack Obama's CIA director, David Petraeus, was forced to resign and pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor for sharing classified material with a biographer with whom he was having an affair. Hillary Clinton, while Obama's secretary of state, faced FBI scrutiny that extended into her 2016 presidential campaign against Trump for her handling of highly classified material in a private email account. The FBI director recommended no criminal charges but criticized Clinton for her "extremely careless” behavior.
As more details emerge from last month's FBI search of Trump's Florida home, the Justice Department has painted a portrait of an indifference for the rules on a scale that some thought inconceivable after establishment of the Presidential Records Act in 1978.
“I cannot think of a historical precedent in which there was even the suspicion that a president or even a high-ranking officer in the administration, with the exception of the Nixon administration, purposely and consciously or even accidentally removing such a sizable volume of papers," said Richard Immerman, who served as assistant deputy director of national intelligence from 2007 to 2009.
FBI agents who searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Aug. 8 found more than 100 documents with classification markings, including 18 marked top secret, 54 secret and 31 confidential, according to court filings. The FBI also identified 184 documents marked as classified in 15 boxes recovered by the National Archives in January, and it received additional classified documents during a June visit to Mar-a-Lago. An additional 10,000 other government records with no classification markings were also found.
That could violate the Presidential Records Act, which says that such records are government property and must be preserved.
That law was enacted after Nixon resigned from office in the midst of the Watergate scandal and sought to destroy hundreds of hours of secretly recorded White House tapes. It established government ownership of presidential records starting with Ronald Reagan.
The act specifies that immediately after a president leaves office, the National Archives and Records Administration takes legal and physical custody of the outgoing administration’s records and begins to work with the incoming White House staff on appropriate records management.
According to the National Archives, records that have no “administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value” can be disposed of before obtaining the archivist's written permission.
Documents have been recovered from Trump’s bedroom, closet, bathroom and storage areas at his Florida resort, which doubles as his home. In June, when Justice Department officials met a Trump lawyer to retrieve records in response to a subpoena, the lawyer handed them documents in a "Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape."
Trump has claimed he declassified all the documents in his possession and had been working in earnest with department officials on returning documents when they conducted the Mar-a-Lago search. During the 2016 campaign, Trump asserted that Clinton's use of her private email server for sensitive State Department material was disqualifying for her candidacy; chants from his supporters to “lock her up” became a mainstay at his political rallies.
James Trusty, a lawyer for Trump in the records matter, said on Fox News that Trump's possession of the sensitive government material was equivalent to hanging on to an “overdue library book.”
But Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, said in a separate Fox News interview that he was “skeptical” of Trump's claim that he declassified everything. "People say this (raid) was unprecedented -- well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK,” Barr said.
Trump's attitude about White House records is not so surprising to some who worked for him.
One of Trump's national security advisers, John Bolton, said briefers quickly learned that Trump often tried to hang onto sensitive documents, and they took steps to make sure documents didn’t go missing. Classified information was tweeted, shared with reporters and adversaries — even found in a White House complex bathroom.
That approach is out of step with how modern-day presidents have operated.
Obama, while writing his White House memoir after leaving office, had paper records he used in his research delivered to him in locked bags from a secure National Archives storage facility and returned them in similar fashion.
Dwight Eisenhower, who left office years before the Presidential Records Act was passed, kept official records secure at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, even though there was no requirement for him to do so.
Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel during the final years of the Obama administration, recalled that Fred Fielding, who held the same position in the George W. Bush administration, advised him as he started his new job to hammer home to staff the requirements set in the records act.
Similarly, Trump's White House counsel, Donald McGahn, sent a staff-wide memo in the first weeks of the administration underscoring “that presidential records are the property of the United States.”
“It's not a hard concept that documents prepared during the course of our presidential administration are not your personal property or the president’s personal properties," Eggleston said.
Presidents are not required to obtain security clearances to access intelligence or formally instructed on their responsibilities to safeguard secrets when they leave office, said Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA officer and senior director of the White House Situation Room.
But guidelines issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the intelligence agencies, require that any “sensitive compartmented information” –- some of the highest-value intelligence the U.S. possesses –- be viewed only in secure rooms known as “SCIFs.”
The FBI, in a court filing, this past week included a photo of some of the records that agents discovered in the search of Trump's estate. The photo showed cover sheets on at least five sets of papers that are marked “TOP SECRET/SCI,” a reference to sensitive compartmented information, as well as a cover sheet labeled “SECRET/SCI” and “Contains sensitive compartmented information.” The FBI also found dozens of empty folders marked classified, with nothing inside and no explanation of what might have been there.
A president can keep reports presented during a briefing for later review. And presidents –- or nominees for president during an election year -– aren’t always briefed in a SCIF, depending on their schedules and locations, Pfeiffer said.
“There’s no intelligence community directive that says how presidents should or shouldn’t be briefed on the materials,” said Pfeiffer, now director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. “We’ve never had to worry about it before.”
People around the president with access to intelligence are trained on intelligence rules on handling classified information and required to follow them. But imposing restrictions on the president would be difficult for intelligence agencies, Pfeiffer said, because “by virtue of being the executive of the executive branch, he sets all the rules with regard to secrecy and classification.”
President Joe Biden told reporters recently that he often reads his top secret Presidential Daily Briefing at his home in Delaware, where he frequently spends his weekends and holidays. But Biden said he takes precautions to make certain the document stays secure.
"I have in my home a cabined-off space that is completely secure," Biden said.
He added: "I read it. I lock it back up and give it to the military.”
___
Associated Press reporter Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Updated September 6, 2022 at 10:36 p.m. EDT|Published September 6, 2022 at 7:53 p.m. EDT
A
document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including
its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former
president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residenceand private club
last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring
concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material
stashed in the Florida property.
Some
of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely
guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the
dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or anear-Cabinet-level
official could authorize other government officials to know details of
these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the
search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive
details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents
about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a
need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access
programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel
authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with
such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure
compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to
keep careful tabs on their location.
But such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.
After
months of trying, according to government court filings, the FBI has
recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year:
184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records
Administration in January, 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to
investigators in June, and more than 100 additional documents unearthed
in acourt-approved search on Aug. 8.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Updated September 6, 2022 at 10:36 p.m. EDT|Published September 6, 2022 at 7:53 p.m. EDT
A
document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including
its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former
president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residenceand private club
last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring
concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material
stashed in the Florida property.
Some
of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely
guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the
dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or anear-Cabinet-level
official could authorize other government officials to know details of
these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the
search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive
details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents
about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a
need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access
programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel
authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with
such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure
compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to
keep careful tabs on their location.
But such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.
After
months of trying, according to government court filings, the FBI has
recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year:
184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records
Administration in January, 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to
investigators in June, and more than 100 additional documents unearthed
in acourt-approved search on Aug. 8.
continues...
so this is basically a global security issue now instead of a national security issue.
well done, dump.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
One douchey thing after another, for four years+, EVERY DAY.
He's not hanging on to them however.
so fucking out of his depth and unprepared
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Top secret documents in Trump's office were stored just steps away from Mar-a-Lago's 'completely open' catering hall, says Michael Cohen
"It's directly above the catering hall," Cohen said, referring to the office room. "It's not just guests. It's not just members; it's anybody that's there hypothetically for a wedding or a christening, a bar mitzvah — any event they have."Is that 36 million number correct? He got 74 million votes.
he got independents too
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump isn't the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around the safeguarding of sensitive government records, but national security experts say recent revelations point to an unprecedented disregard of post-presidency norms established after the Watergate era.
Document dramas have cropped up from time to time over the years.
Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson's national security adviser held onto explosive records for years before turning them over to the Johnson presidential library. The records showed that the campaign of his successor, Richard Nixon, was secretly communicating in the final days of the 1968 presidential race with the South Vietnamese government in an effort to delay the opening of peace talks to end the Vietnam War.
A secretary in Ronald Reagan's administration, Fawn Hall, testified that she altered and helped shred documents related to the Iran-Contra affair to protect Oliver North, her boss at the White House National Security Council.
Barack Obama's CIA director, David Petraeus, was forced to resign and pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor for sharing classified material with a biographer with whom he was having an affair. Hillary Clinton, while Obama's secretary of state, faced FBI scrutiny that extended into her 2016 presidential campaign against Trump for her handling of highly classified material in a private email account. The FBI director recommended no criminal charges but criticized Clinton for her "extremely careless” behavior.
DONALD TRUMP
How Archives went from 'National Treasure' to political prey
Trump moves to general election mode with Pennsylvania rally
A timeline of the investigation into Trump's Mar-a-Lago docs
Republicans notably silent, split as Trump probe deepens
As more details emerge from last month's FBI search of Trump's Florida home, the Justice Department has painted a portrait of an indifference for the rules on a scale that some thought inconceivable after establishment of the Presidential Records Act in 1978.
“I cannot think of a historical precedent in which there was even the suspicion that a president or even a high-ranking officer in the administration, with the exception of the Nixon administration, purposely and consciously or even accidentally removing such a sizable volume of papers," said Richard Immerman, who served as assistant deputy director of national intelligence from 2007 to 2009.
FBI agents who searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Aug. 8 found more than 100 documents with classification markings, including 18 marked top secret, 54 secret and 31 confidential, according to court filings. The FBI also identified 184 documents marked as classified in 15 boxes recovered by the National Archives in January, and it received additional classified documents during a June visit to Mar-a-Lago. An additional 10,000 other government records with no classification markings were also found.
That could violate the Presidential Records Act, which says that such records are government property and must be preserved.
That law was enacted after Nixon resigned from office in the midst of the Watergate scandal and sought to destroy hundreds of hours of secretly recorded White House tapes. It established government ownership of presidential records starting with Ronald Reagan.
The act specifies that immediately after a president leaves office, the National Archives and Records Administration takes legal and physical custody of the outgoing administration’s records and begins to work with the incoming White House staff on appropriate records management.
According to the National Archives, records that have no “administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value” can be disposed of before obtaining the archivist's written permission.
Documents have been recovered from Trump’s bedroom, closet, bathroom and storage areas at his Florida resort, which doubles as his home. In June, when Justice Department officials met a Trump lawyer to retrieve records in response to a subpoena, the lawyer handed them documents in a "Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape."
Trump has claimed he declassified all the documents in his possession and had been working in earnest with department officials on returning documents when they conducted the Mar-a-Lago search. During the 2016 campaign, Trump asserted that Clinton's use of her private email server for sensitive State Department material was disqualifying for her candidacy; chants from his supporters to “lock her up” became a mainstay at his political rallies.
James Trusty, a lawyer for Trump in the records matter, said on Fox News that Trump's possession of the sensitive government material was equivalent to hanging on to an “overdue library book.”
But Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, said in a separate Fox News interview that he was “skeptical” of Trump's claim that he declassified everything. "People say this (raid) was unprecedented -- well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK,” Barr said.
Trump's attitude about White House records is not so surprising to some who worked for him.
One of Trump's national security advisers, John Bolton, said briefers quickly learned that Trump often tried to hang onto sensitive documents, and they took steps to make sure documents didn’t go missing. Classified information was tweeted, shared with reporters and adversaries — even found in a White House complex bathroom.
That approach is out of step with how modern-day presidents have operated.
Obama, while writing his White House memoir after leaving office, had paper records he used in his research delivered to him in locked bags from a secure National Archives storage facility and returned them in similar fashion.
Dwight Eisenhower, who left office years before the Presidential Records Act was passed, kept official records secure at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, even though there was no requirement for him to do so.
Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel during the final years of the Obama administration, recalled that Fred Fielding, who held the same position in the George W. Bush administration, advised him as he started his new job to hammer home to staff the requirements set in the records act.
Similarly, Trump's White House counsel, Donald McGahn, sent a staff-wide memo in the first weeks of the administration underscoring “that presidential records are the property of the United States.”
“It's not a hard concept that documents prepared during the course of our presidential administration are not your personal property or the president’s personal properties," Eggleston said.
Presidents are not required to obtain security clearances to access intelligence or formally instructed on their responsibilities to safeguard secrets when they leave office, said Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA officer and senior director of the White House Situation Room.
But guidelines issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the intelligence agencies, require that any “sensitive compartmented information” –- some of the highest-value intelligence the U.S. possesses –- be viewed only in secure rooms known as “SCIFs.”
The FBI, in a court filing, this past week included a photo of some of the records that agents discovered in the search of Trump's estate. The photo showed cover sheets on at least five sets of papers that are marked “TOP SECRET/SCI,” a reference to sensitive compartmented information, as well as a cover sheet labeled “SECRET/SCI” and “Contains sensitive compartmented information.” The FBI also found dozens of empty folders marked classified, with nothing inside and no explanation of what might have been there.
A president can keep reports presented during a briefing for later review. And presidents –- or nominees for president during an election year -– aren’t always briefed in a SCIF, depending on their schedules and locations, Pfeiffer said.
“There’s no intelligence community directive that says how presidents should or shouldn’t be briefed on the materials,” said Pfeiffer, now director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. “We’ve never had to worry about it before.”
People around the president with access to intelligence are trained on intelligence rules on handling classified information and required to follow them. But imposing restrictions on the president would be difficult for intelligence agencies, Pfeiffer said, because “by virtue of being the executive of the executive branch, he sets all the rules with regard to secrecy and classification.”
President Joe Biden told reporters recently that he often reads his top secret Presidential Daily Briefing at his home in Delaware, where he frequently spends his weekends and holidays. But Biden said he takes precautions to make certain the document stays secure.
"I have in my home a cabined-off space that is completely secure," Biden said.
He added: "I read it. I lock it back up and give it to the military.”
___
Associated Press reporter Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP's coverage of Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Make Obama Special Master
Biden Laid the Trap. Trump Walked Into It.
At his Pennsylvania rally, the former president gave exactly the narcissistic display his Democratic nemesis tried to provoke.
Russian State TV Host Says 'All Our Hope' Placed in 'Beloved' Donald Trump
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-tv-praises-trump-putin-1740156
Material on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Some seized documents were so closely held, only the president, a Cabinet-level or near-Cabinet level official could authorize others to know
A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance. Some special-access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation’s existence. Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.
But such documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago, with uncertain security, more than 18 months after Trump left the White House.
Deep inside busy Mar-a-Lago, a storage room where secrets were kept
After months of trying, according to government court filings, the FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year: 184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to investigators in June, and more than 100 additional documents unearthed in a court-approved search on Aug. 8.
continues...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
How does any other country trust us at this point?
Trump ally Steve Bannon to surrender Thursday to face new N.Y. indictment -source | Reuters
"This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system," Bannon said in the statement.
Enjoy state prison asshole.
well done, dump.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Well when you believe you are above the law then of course it's the political weaponization of the criminal Justice system
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Trump ordered a nuclear reactor on the moon in his final days as president - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism
The DOJ can get Trump's hand-picked judge removed from the case — here's how - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
So in touch, such a brilliant politician.
These people are just suckers. It's really sad.
Breitbart hawks Steve Bannon fidget spinners (nypost.com)