Trump Charged With 37 counts of Espionage, Obstruction and related crimes

[N.E. Brigand]

I'm not sure if this was in CNN's story as published earlier today or was added later (the story was updated within the past hour), but I see that it says that the classified documents found in Mike Pence's Indiana home were found in boxes that "first went to Pence’s temporary home in Virginia before they were moved to Indiana," and it also says that the boxes were not stored in a secure location in either home. (Which as far as we know is also true of documents found in Joe Biden's house.)

[N.E. Brigand]

The Guardian reports that "Two more papers found in Trump's storage last year were marked 'secret.' Since the papers were handed over swiftly, the Justice Department is not expected to include them as part of its wider inquiry."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The Guardian reports that "Two more papers found in Trump's storage last year were marked 'secret.' Since the papers were handed over swiftly, the Justice Department is not expected to include them as part of its wider inquiry."

Aren't those the documents that were discovered and revealed some time ago? The Guardian makes it seem like they are new documents, but I don't think that is the case. Perhaps I am wrong.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Guardian reports that "Two more papers found in Trump's storage last year were marked 'secret.' Since the papers were handed over swiftly, the Justice Department is not expected to include them as part of its wider inquiry."

Aren't those the documents that were discovered and revealed some time ago? The Guardian makes it seem like they are new documents, but I don't think that is the case. Perhaps I am wrong.

You're not wrong that they were discovered several weeks ago. But I don't recall if previously reporting specified that they were indeed classified (and specifically that they were marked "secret") or if we only knew that they were government documents. The key new information seems to be the bit about how the Justice Department reportedly has no plans to take any action regarding them.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Associate Press has a new article: "Classified records pose conundrum stretching back to Carter ... At least three presidents. A vice president, a secretary of state, an attorney general. ... It turns out former officials from all levels of government discover they are in possession of classified material and turn them over to the authorities at least several times a year, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of classified documents." It's not clear when Jimmy Carter returned documents (I think the article implies it was quite some time ago), and legally, he may not have been required to do so, because the Presidential Records Act that he signed into law in 1978 only became effective when Ronald Reagan became president.

As others have noted, it's a bit irritating to see this "everybody does it" piece from the AP today when one of this article's authors wrote a story eleven days ago with the headline "Analysis: Documents probe dents Biden's claim to competence." The two pieces aren't entirely at odds with one another, but it's curious that the friendlier framing was only used after Mike Pence was found to have accidentally retained classified documents too. Where's the analysis questioning Pence's competence?

[N.E. Brigand]

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post reports: "Representatives for former presidents and vice presidents were just sent letters asking them to review personal records [i.e., for classified documents], per a person familiar with the correspondence." I believe that request (to former Presidents Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Obama and former Vice Presidents Quayle, Gore, and Cheney) would have come from the National Archives.

Edited to add: apparently President Carter was not included on this request, because as was mentioned here lately, the Presidential Records Act only took effect after he left office.

[N.E. Brigand]

NBC: "Biden's notebooks among items seized by FBI in Delaware home search."

This is the search last week to which Joe Biden voluntarily agreed, about which it had previously been reported by CNN that the FBI took "six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President" and that the FBI "also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years."

The new reporting says that the "notebooks, from Biden's time as vice president, do not have classified markings, but were taken because some writings relate to his official business, a person familiar with the investigation said." As to whether Biden should have kept the notebooks, it may depend on whether or not he showed them to anyone while he was vice president.

[N.E. Brigand]

NBC: "FBI searched Penn Biden Center in November after classified documents were discovered."

And the New York Times has reporting on this as well.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

I appreciate Marcy Wheeler's note that once today's work is completed, the FBI will have searched 100% of locations where Joe Biden may have kept documents but only "parts of 16% of [Donald Trump's] U.S.-based properties, not including those held by the kids."

At first I was inclined to say that any such comparison should set aside the matter of Trump's children, because why not include Biden's children? But given that Ivanka worked in the White House and had access to classified documents and, given that there seems to have been a fair bit of overlap between Trump's presidency and the business operations managed by Don Jr. and Eric, I'm not sure Wheeler is wrong to mention them here.

But what really jumped out a me was the reminder that Donald Trump has properties overseas -- and he spent time at some those properties during his presidency. Maybe the FBI should conduct a raid in Ireland!

(Yes, I know the partial Mar-a-Lago search wasn't actually a raid. And Wheeler is surely right to point out that the FBI would need clear probable cause to search Trump's other properties, and his merely having possessed some documents at his Florida home would not be sufficient to obtain a warrant.)

- - - - - - - - - -
News moves fast today: while I've been typing, I see V posted about how today's FBI search of Biden's Rehoboth Beach home found no classified documents.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The agents did collect some handwritten notes of Biden's. It is unclear why.

I've seen numerous people complain about the fact that the FBI searched several of Biden's properties but only one of Trump's. But that is simply because Biden is cooperating and Trump is not, so as N.E.B. notes above the only way that the FBI can search any of Trump's properties is if they can gather up sufficient evidence to show probable cause of evidence of an actual crime at that actual location. That is a very high bar and the fact that they were able to easily reach that bar for the search of Mar-a-Lago remains remarkable.

[River]

Trump lied and dicked around so much he eventually gave the Feds enough probable cause to obtain and execute a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago. Since he's never shown himself capable of learning lessons I wouldn't be surprised if the process is quietly repeating for other Trump properties. If it is, we'll know when Trump throws a tantrum about it.

The agents did collect some handwritten notes of Biden's. It is unclear why.

Maybe to decide if they've been classified in the time since Biden made them? Or refer to something else that's classified? Or because they're paid to be paranoid?

[N.E. Brigand]

"FBI to search Pence’s home in Indiana for more documents." In the next few days, it appears.

Yesterday when the FBI was searching Joe Biden's vacation home, the statement issued by the president's lawyer said that in keeping with the FBI's preference for voluntary searches, Biden didn't announce it in advance. Pence is declining to comment on this story, but a "source close" to him says that Pence believes all documents had already been found.

[N.E. Brigand]

"FBI to search Pence’s home in Indiana for more documents." In the next few days, it appears.

Yesterday when the FBI was searching Joe Biden's vacation home, the statement issued by the president's lawyer said that in keeping with the FBI's preference for voluntary searches, Biden didn't announce it in advance. Pence is declining to comment on this story, but a "source close" to him says that Pence believes all documents had already been found.

The New York Times story on the subpoeana issued to Mike Pence in the January 6th investigation (following up on stories from ABC and NBC, the latter of which Voronwë linked to in the 2020 thread; I should note that Marcy Wheeler throws some cold water on that news) also has news regarding the classified documents investigation: the subpoena "comes at a moment of rising tension between the Pence team and [the Dept. of Justice] over the discussions about searching" Pence’s home, and "Pence’s advisers were incensed by the disclosure of a pending search . . . and blamed the department for leaking details to pressure them" (h/t Ryan Goodman).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

But the search is still happening (I'm less impressed with Ryan Goodman than I used to be).

[N.E. Brigand]

But the search is still happening (I'm less impressed with Ryan Goodman than I used to be).

The search of Pence's home turned up one more classified document.

The FBI also removed five other non-classified documents following a search that lasted five hours.

[N.E. Brigand]

And ABC reports that Donald Trump's lawyers "turned over a folder with classification markings found last month at his Mar-a-Lago resort to federal agents ... It is unclear what type of classification markings the folder had or what material had previously been inside. Additionally, sources tell ABC News that a laptop belonging to a current aide of the former president was also provided to federal agents."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

As the great Laurence Tribe says:


And as Ryan Goodman (yes, I know) of JustSecurity explains:


Holy shit!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is also interesting.