Donald Trump demanded documents back later than you thought: The former president, even after his lawyers told him he was likely to be indicted in the classified documents case, demanded the return of documents that were taken in the earlier raid.
Donald Trump Looks Like a Fool
We already knew that, following last year’s raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit to demand the documents be returned to him.
Now, a report says the ex-president was fixated on getting the documents back even later than previously thought.
According to Rolling Stone, even after Trump’s lawyers informed him that he was “on the cusp of indictment,” he was still demanding the return of “my documents” and “my boxes.”
The sources for Rolling Stone were “a source with direct knowledge of the matter and two other people briefed on it.”
It would seem exceedingly unlikely that Trump will get his boxes, which are evidence against him, back at any point, although Trump appears to be believe, according to the story, that he will be president again in 2025 and will get the documents back then.
The story adds that various lawyers have told Trump that, under the Presidential Records Act, he has the right to government documents.
However, most legal experts do not believe this to be the case.
“Whatever one might say about his Presidential Records Act argument, there’s no argument that it immunizes him from criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act,” attorney Brian Greer told Rolling Stone, adding that the Presidential Records Act would not allow the president to defy subpoenas.
Trump, it appears, has adopted the theory pushed forward by some in conservative legal circles, even if they’re unlikely to hold up in court when it comes time for a criminal trial.
“Within his own orbit of legal advisers, and among various MAGAfied advocacy organizations and conservative activists, there is a vast network of Trump allies willing to tell him what he wants to hear, and trying to prop up his corrupt legal fantasies — even if such arguments ultimately do not make it to a courtroom,” Rolling Stone said.
Tom Fitton, who despite not being a lawyer is the head of the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, appears to have been pushing the theory that Trump was allowed to keep whatever documents he wants under the Presidential Records Act. He and his supporters have frequently cited the “Clinton socks case,” in which Judicial Watch was itself a plaintiff.
However, as Above the Law points out, that case has little in common with what Trump has been accused of.
That was a court case, from 2012, in which Judicial Watch was trying to get access to some records of an interview former President Bill Clinton did with a historian during his presidency. Clinton had, per the case, kept the cassette tapes from the interview in a sock drawer. Clinton was not accused of mishandling classified materials, or any other crime; the case was instead a civil matter, about whether Judicial Watch had the ability to access the materials, and a court found that they did not.
“Note that Fitton’s shop sued none of those parties to compel them to produce the records, meaning that the only issue was Judicial Watch’s authority to use a civil suit to compel NARA to reclassify the tapes as presidential records and ask for them back,” Above the Law said of the “socks case.”
The analysis made clear that the case isn’t about the same issues as the Clinton case.
“President Trump is welcome, under the SOCK DRAWER CASE, to introduce evidence that he designated any of these records as personal, rather than Presidential, at the time they were created or handed to him,” the site said. “Keep in mind, though, that the standard for that is rather high; the records must be “of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.”
Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
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