Trump frantically packed up documents to take with him in the last days of his presidency after

[TexasTowelie]

Trump frantically packed up documents to take with him in the last days of his presidency after finally accepting he was leaving the White House, report says


Between the January 6 Capitol attack, challenges to the 2020 election, and his impending second impeachment, President Donald Trump had some chaotic final days in office.

Amid the chaos and the realization that every election challenge was failing, Trump began instructing aides to pack up documents he planned to take with him to Mar-a-Lago, according to an NBC News report published Saturday.

Two sources with knowledge of the situation told the outlet Trump's aides were hurriedly stuffing documents and other materials into banker boxes that were then shipped to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Palm Beach club and residence.

One source said Trump only seriously began making plans to leave the White House after January 6, his final two weeks in office, after months of baselessly claiming he had won the election.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-frantically-packed-up-documents-to-take-with-him-in-the-last-days-of-his-presidency-after-finally-accepting-he-was-leaving-the-white-house-report-says/ar-AA10Dfl5

[Lucinda]

1. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[TheBlackAdder]

17. Just saying -- On the last day, most employees have their posessions taken screened by security.

[Rural_Progressive]

27. That may be appropriate for employees

but here we are dealing with an illegally deposed emperor who's planning on returning to the throne.

Hope that clarifies things for you.

[usaf-vet]

40. So there is an EXCEPTION in the regs dealing with classified documents that provides total....

.... forgiveness if you were in a rush to steal them and plan to sell them?

Well, who would have guessed?

One more question was that forgiveness applicable only if your initial were DJT?

Lock the treasonous traitor up in Leavenworth Federal prison for a term to equal ONE YEAR for every classified document STOLEN.

[snpsmom]

2. More spin

to distance Trump and place the blame on others.

[COL Mustard]

20. Don't forget about the pilot and crew of

Air Force 1. They must have culpability! They probably planted the stuff down so it would be found. Clearly they were responsible for flying it out! Lock them up!!!!

[wnylib]

26. Yup. It's total BS regarding the security documents.

Why is MSNBC promoting this excuse that makes it look like Trump accidentally took documents that are more restricted than top secret?

There is no way that the highly restricted, very secret documents were accidentally packed into boxes. They have to be specifically requested and are handled by a person who remains with the document the whole time that an authorized person looks at them and then the handler locks them up afterward.

The presence of those highly sensitive, ultra secret documents at MAL means that Trump and at least one accomplice not only arranged for him to have those documents, but also arranged a way to get them out of the WH undetected.

[stopdiggin]

32. and that is a cunundrum

At the level of security that you point to - who would be signing on to tossing things willy nilly in to boxes (at least 30+ of them) for removal? In fact, under the conditions you describe - how would 30 boxes worth of these documents be laying around ready to be snatched up - at the WH, or any other location? Couldn't happen.

Clearly we're talking about different things and different actions (aides and employees stuffing things into boxes, vs very restricted high security materials) - and the reporting we're getting isn't helping to clear up the picture for us. Both things could have (and apparently did) happen - but they are not the same thing. And we need to be clear about that.

Because what Donald Trump has done here is far more egregious and dangerous - than a hurried and sloppy packing job.

----- -- -----

[wnylib]

41. I think that I have finally figured out

how Trump got the very high security docs. If he had appointed a MAGA loyalist to the position of SCI document handler, then he could easily have obtained those documents without detection by any one else.

Regarding the other documents, I just don't believe that nobody on Trump's staff knew that documents could not be removed. Even as a citizen who never worked for a government office, I know that much.

[stopdiggin]

44. right. both actions are violations

(and clearly spelled out to the actors involved). But - one of the actions here is of an order of magnitude ... Far, far more serious. And I really think there will end up being a price ...

I have to believe that even the Rs (particularly those in uniform?, but also Mom&Pop?) are not going to be able to brush aside this level of danger and threat - by simply acceding that security and protocol bows down to a feckless man steam rolling national security with the argument, "I'm the president - I'm the decider."

I don't think it's going to wash ...

[LeftInTX]

43. Trump would fire them if they challenged him

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/13/trump-mar-a-lago-search/

John F. Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, said the former president had long exhibited a lack of respect for the strict rules for document handling sacred to the intelligence community, which is in the business of guarding the country’s national security.

“His sense was that the people who are in the intel business are incompetent, and he knew better,” Kelly said. “He didn’t believe in the classification system.”

Former national security adviser John Bolton said “almost nothing would surprise me about what’s in the documents at Mar-a-Lago.” He recalled that Trump would at times ask to keep the highly classified visual aids, pictures, charts and graphs prepared to augment his presidential daily brief, a document presented to him each day about key pressing issues, which he did not typically read.

“People were nervous enough about his lack of concern for classification matters that the briefers typically said, ‘Well, we need to take it back,’ ” Bolton said. “He’d usually give it back — but sometimes he wouldn’t give it back.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-handling-secret-documents-fbi-mar-a-lago-search-rcna42935

From Nov 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-possible-security-risk/2020/11/09/f19c853e-229e-11eb-952e-0c475972cfc0_story.html

As president, Donald Trump selectively revealed highly classified information to attack his adversaries, gain political advantage and impress or intimidate foreign governments, in some cases jeopardizing U.S. intelligence capabilities. As an ex-president, there’s every reason to worry he will do the same, thus posing a unique national security dilemma for the Biden administration, current and former officials and analysts said.

All presidents exit the office with valuable national secrets in their heads, including the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, intelligence-gathering capabilities — including assets deep inside foreign governments — and the development of new and advanced weapon systems.

[tanyev]

3. "I'm not leaving this place empty-handed!"

[3Hotdogs]

5. "Oh.... that bowl over there... looks silver....

Grab that, too."

[Codifer]

36. "Leave the gun..."

"Take the canoli".

[uponit7771]

37. +1,

[agingdem]

6. Yes, because lowly aides had the

clearance to remove boxes of classified documents from a high security, heavily guarded facility, carry the boxes out of the White House, and load them onto a no-name truck...no questions asked..and innocent baby duck Trump, still reeling from his unsuccessful coup attempt, was too distraught to notice..

Trump and his asshole apologists are forever redefining bullshit

[stopdiggin]

33. yeah. that doesn't work - at all -(nt)-

[Novara]

7. "Two sources with knowledge of the situation"

Really? Wouldn't the DOJ like to have a chat with these sources? the J6 committee?

There's a hell of a lot of speculation and unsourced information masquerading as facts flowing around. We'd all do well to look at these sorts of articles with a skeptical eye.

I don't doubt this is true and it sounds likely, but I am tired of reading unsourced and anonymous information. I want facts. I am questioning every salacious statement until I see corroboration of actual quotes from named people.

[Effete Snob]

10. " I am tired of reading unsourced and anonymous information"

Yep.

It is interesting to know what might have been going on, but you don't know if someone may also be planting disinfo/misinfo.

I don't mind it being published and circulated, but what cracks me up are the reactions along the lines of "what are the Trump supporters going to say/do about THIS?" as if Trump supporters are going to believe anything sourced in WaPo from "people close to the investigation" or whatever. Hell, they don't believe most of the sourced information.

[SouthernDem4ever]

24. What's worse is the talking heads on TV speculating about everything

they don't have all the facts and the host has on experts to predict what will result of the incomplete info they don't have.

[Effete Snob]

25. It's cheaper than producing news

What boggles the mind is that you have these one hour "news" programs that cover something like four or five stories.

I'd love to watch a news program that had two or three minutes of coverage of stories around the country and the world. If you wanted to know what some "former government tit-sucker" thinks of it, you can go find that on the blogs or whatever.

Who made the decision that "news" networks aren't actually going to produce news programs?

[SouthernDem4ever]

28. They have turned themselves into click bait

for ratings, adverts, money etc.

[dameatball]

8. Meh, maybe. Incompetence is a pretty poor excuse and still not a defense. I have been following

this saga like most everyone else and have ventured a few theories. Sooner or later we will all know the truth or at least as much of the truth as national security allows us to learn.

[ashredux]

9. This was planned. Donald did not think it up all by himself, for he didn't know exactly what to take

This was planned. Donald did not think it up all by himself, but he didn’t know exactly what to take

I’m placing my money on General Flynn. He knew exactly what documents would bring the best price, and who to sell them to. He had an intelligence background, and he certainly had turned into a traitor. This whole thing runs deep.

[kentuck]

11. He was thinking revenge.

What could he do to get even with the people of America?

It was reported that he was not very stable at that time.

[Meadowoak]

15. Was he ever stable?

[AZ8theist]

35. a stabull geen yus!!

[orangecrush]

30. Or saving his ass

From his russian "creditors" after losing.

Trying to still be useful.

[Wednesdays]

12. So?

If the documents were taken in haste, he had a year and a half to correct that error.

[3825-87867]

14. Hey! He was too busy

golfin' and rally-n and it just slipped his mind!

[3825-87867]

13. Hopefully this won't turn into

The Warren Commission II! To be sealed for 50+ years! (for national security, of course - not just for a few to Cover Their Asses til they are dead)

[PatSeg]

16. They were "shipped" to Mar-a-Lago?

Hopefully not by some commercial carrier. What a disturbing thought - Top Secret documents being handled by FedEx or UPS.

[Historic NY]

18. Lugging boxes to Marine One

[link:https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-leaves-white-house-and-legacy-of-chaos-as-joe-biden-inaugurated/0bb4aed8-ee65-4b5b-b4e2-4f8bbb6c258b|]

[The Third Doctor]

19. He knew what he had

He was told that he had to give these documents back over several months and refused.That destroys the scapegoating excuse.

[AllyCat]

21. Those aids need to be subpoenaed, investigated, questioned

Because they aided and abetted A F’IN TRAITOR!!

[bonniebgood]

22. Maybe the Aids have already been questioned and investigated. The J6 committee has

said that 100's are coming forward. We don't know who the 100's are.

[AllyCat]

34. True. Hope you are right.

This aggression cannot stand man!

[LeftInTX]

42. Yes, the FBI has been questioning them

They started questioning them during April and May

[AllyCat]

46. Good news.

All the people who were more afraid for their jobs than their reckoning with their conscience. Jeez.

[SheltieLover]

23. Kicking for visibility

[orangecrush]

29. KICK...

[msfiddlestix]

31. I recall reading these reports at the time.. I also remember a huge armored security moving van

long before Jan 6. The image of this vehicle was posted here I think might have been on twitter. I zoomed that image in an attempt to
to see more details, but that didn't reveal anuthing much. It was sometime after the elections.

I've wondered if anyone else here recalls this scene and might repost it given the current events.

[LeftInTX]

38. January 14th is what I find

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/moving-day-approaching-trump-white-house-n1254170

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/17/historians-having-to-tape-together-records-that-trump-tore-up



Historians having to tape together records that Trump tore up

When Trump lost the November election, records staffers were in position to transfer electronic records and pack up the paper ones to move them to the National Archives by 20 January as required by law. But Trump’s reluctance to concede has meant they will miss that date. The National Archives has said it will still take custody of them.


Lack of a complete record might also hinder investigations of Trump, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal inquiries to investigations in the state of New York.

Even with requests by lawmakers and lawsuits by government transparency groups, there is an acknowledgment that noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act carries little consequence for Trump. In tossing out one suit last year, US circuit judge David Tatel wrote that courts cannot “micromanage the president’s day-to-day compliance”.

Link to tweet

/photo/1

[msfiddlestix]

39. I recall this report as well. Reminds me about anything else they stole

I don't know what the protocols are regarding items belonging to the white house. just seems like an exiting president doesn't get to take that stuff home when they leave the white house if in the first place, items belonged to the white house, before they arrived.

[Arazi]

45. Meaningless. He was asked for them back, multiple times

He refused.

End of story