An observation about espionage.

[NQAS]

A couple of points have been made regarding how the DOJ knew classified documents were still at MAL. Point one: DOJ had a source. Point Two: There was CCTV showing movement of the documents from one place to another - documents that were reported by TFG and his minions to have been returned.

I'm pretty sure the DOJ can deal with the assertions that TFG declassified these documents before stealing them. So IMO that's a non-issue, a red herring aka BS.

Possession of classified documents is one thing. And it's a bad thing. And that's good for the the DOJ.

Then there's the issue of what he did with these classified documents. And his defense will be either "didn't do anything, they were just souvenirs," or, if the DOJ claim is that he gave/sold this material, his response will be "prove it." This will never turn up in court or in newspapers, but here's what I think. Think, as in, I have no fucking clue and am speculating. To wit, thanks to NSA and/or CIA and/or DIA, there is proof that TFG provided this material to a foreign power. He had to transmit this material in some way. Maybe he had a secure electronic method available, which was probably not secure enough that the NSA couldn't gain access. Maybe he gave them to someone, directly or via any of his fellow traitors (spouse, kids, a certain son-in-law, Bannon, Stone, Fox, et al). However they were transmitted, they eventually have to end up on someone's desk. That's where human sources come into play. IMO there's not a chance in hell that any intel agency told TFG where they had sources. That would have been utter madness. If that's how the USG learned about the transfer of classified documents to a foreign power, there's no chance that this will be made public. But I sure would like to be the proverbial fly on the wall in a closed court session where this was brought up.

One more thing. I read somewhere in the past week that among the documents collected at MAL were details of identify of intelligence officers, and maybe assets, and payments made to the same. That makes no sense. Protection of sources and methods is paramount, and I just can't imagine any agency, even in the TFG's administration, releasing this information to TFG. No prospective asset would ever risk their lives being an asset is their identities were revealed.

So, my two cents. Gotta get back to work.

[Karadeniz]

1. Always good to read plausible scenarios... keep thinking!!!

[brush]

2. Whether they were classified on not, the Presidential Records Act...

specifies they go to the National Archives, not to his basement in Florida. In other words he wasn't supposed to have them, classified or not.

He stole them and smuggled them to Florida. He'sa thief.

[Chainfire]

3. I wonder if the documents retrieved were original documents of photocopies.

If he original documents were left in their proper places to conceal that copies had been made. The reason that I wonder, is that I believe that highly classified documents are tracked from hand to hand, with a hard custody trail, in normal situations.

I also wonder why it was so important to Trump to retain the retrieved documents that he was able to get his attorney to lie to the FBI about their existence. If Trump believed that he had a right to retain the documents, he would have screamed it from the rooftop months ago and told the FBI to go hump themselves instead of trying to conceal the fact.

It just seems to me, as a plumber, that there are not only criminal acts in play, but it seems rather obvious, to me, that there was criminal intent.

Now, here is a fiction that would be worth writing. Assume, for the sake of discussion, that the FBI knew, all along, about what was in the basement, had an idea of how Trump intended to use them, but were waiting for Trump to transfer information to outside entities before moving on him? The "sting" of the century.

[njhoneybadger]

4. Trump wanted this to happen.

It’s the only thing that makes sense. I know all these secrets and if you think your going to lock me up I’ll release them. It’s his idea of blackmail because he really doesn’t give a fuck about America.

[IggleDuer]

5. I seem to recall ...

... that in his first few weeks in office, Mango Mussolini gave Konstantine Kalymnik documents, presumed to be the names of our covert agents in Russia and Israel (among others). He may still be doing this.