What will Trump do?

A 2018 Pew Research Center study indicates that a staggering 90% of federal criminal cases end up with defendants pleading guilty to their alleged offenses. That same data shows that 8% of cases end up being dismissed by the U.S. Attorney's Office. The other 2% of defendants take their cases to trial.May 19, 2021 so you know that Trump will want a jury trial because they'll never find an impartial jury. So, if he's convicted he'll cry foul and want a retrial.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

RocktheHouse · M

1) He has not been indicted or charged with a crime.
2) He cannot be convicted of a crime because he committed no crime.
3) The POTUS has the power to declassify documents. Trump was de facto 'Commander in Chief' at the time that the documents were declassified and removed from the White House.

The Supreme Court determined in its 1988 decision on Department of the Navy v. Egan that the president’s power over classified information comes from executive authority granted by Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which says, in part, that the “President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”

https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/government-verify/how-us-presidents-can-declassify-documents-trump-mar-a-lago-search-fact-check/536-e1961390-e7c6-438a-b9b5-671dc9c6f7ec

windinhishair · 70-79, M

@RocktheHouse Trump has admitted to taking records covered under the Presidential Records Act to Mar-a-Lago. That is a crime regardless of their classification. So he has already committed a crime and has admitted it.

Tastyfrzz · 61-69, M

@RocktheHouse the documents had not been declassified. His saying that does not make it so.

windinhishair · 70-79, M

@Tastyfrzz For many of those documents, they cannot be declassified without concurrence of the agency generating them.

RocktheHouse · M

@windinhishair The documents clearly belong to the United States, and not Trump. No one is arguing that. However, having the documents in his possession doesn't constitute intent to commit a crime. It's like an employee of a company writing down someone's personal information, but not actually using it in the capacity to commit fraud. Thus, although Trump violated the PRA, there's no crime. The FBI retrieved the documents; they didn't have to raid Mar-a-lago to do so. That was apart of a spectacle to further assassinate Trump's character.

Tastyfrzz · 61-69, M

@RocktheHouse they requested them to be returned for months then he only gave back a third of them but had his lawyers say they were returned so they're in trouble but the big thing now is that he lost, sold,or gave away a bunch of them. Some were found with his passports in his desk drawer which indicates possession. Anyone else would be in Leavenworth prison by now.

RocktheHouse · M

@Tastyfrzz

had his lawyers say they were returned

The lawyer wrote that no 'classified materials' were at Mar-a-lago.

Tastyfrzz · 61-69, M

@RocktheHouse then they found two times as much in the search. He needs to be taken down into a dark room, stripped and water boarded to find out where the missing docs are.

RocktheHouse · M

@Tastyfrzz You liberals are talking in circles. First you say Trump violated the Espionage Act, when we point out the POTUS has the power to declassify documents, you say it doesn't matter because he violated the PRA, then we respond "it doesn't constitute a crime," then you say: it does because the documents were classified.... and so on and so on.

windinhishair · 70-79, M

@RocktheHouse People are just presenting facts. If you are incapable of understanding them, that is on you.

Do try to pay attention.

The Espionage Act addresses releases of information detrimental to national security.

The part of the Espionage Act that is likely most relevant in this case is § 793(d). It applies to individuals who lawfully accessed material:

“relating to the national defense,” and who proceeded either willfully to convey it to “any person not entitled to receive it,” or willfully to “retain[] the same and fail[] to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”

Trump retained national security information and refused to release it to the National Archives, which was and is entitled to possess it. Trump therefore violated the Espionage Act. Notice that it doesn't matter whether the material was classified or not.

Trump HAD the power to declassify information while he was president. He did not retain that power after his presidency. Material produced by a particular agency has to have declassification agreed to by that agency, and there is a standard process that needs to be followed. Trump did not initiate that process while he was president, and cannot unilaterally declassify information. He is lying about the declassification.

The Presidential Records Act is a separate issue. That requires that ALL records that constitute presidential records MUST be turned over to the National Archives when the president leaves office. Trump did not do this. Notice that this also applies regardless of the classification status of the records. Trump has admitted he had records he was not entitled to have, at Mar-a-Lago. He has therefore admitted committing a crime in possessing those records.

SW-User

@windinhishair Just stop, dammit! You’re making too much since, man!