berg80
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2017
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Here we go again. The right wing obfuscation machine is once again running at full steam. Black is once again white. The idea behind it is to muddy the waters. To create doubt, to confuse the facts, to float counter narratives, to give the remaining Trump fans a reason to continue their obsessive adoration of him. It takes on a number of forms.
1. Assassinate the character and impugn the motives of the opposition. For example, accuse Garland of nefarious reasons for doing his job by trying to regain possession of classified documents. Equate the FBI with storm troopers for participating in Garland's efforts.
2. Fall back on past, specious memes like "fake news" in order to cast doubt on any reporting that does not defend the Orange Menace.
3. Continually obscure the facts in an attempt to convince supporters that up is down.
One of the first smoke bombs thrown by Individual 1 was the notion everything he did was perfectly legal because a prez has the authority to declassify documents at will.
WASHINGTON ā Former President Donald J. Trumpās claim that he had declassified all of the documents that the F.B.I. seized in the search of his Florida home this month ā including those marked as top secret ā has heightened interest in the scope of a presidentās power to declassify information.
Days after the search, Mr. Trumpās office claimed that when he was president, he had a āstanding orderā that materials āremoved from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,ā according to a statement read on Fox News by a right-wing writer Mr. Trump has designated as one of his representatives to the National Archives.
Apart from whether there is any evidence that such an order actually existed, the notion has been greeted with disdain by national security legal specialists. Glenn S. Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, said the idea that whatever Mr. Trump happened to take upstairs each evening automatically became declassified ā without logging what it was and notifying the agencies that used that information ā was āpreposterous.ā
The claim is also irrelevant to Mr. Trumpās potential troubles over the document matter, because none of the three criminal laws cited in a search warrant as the basis of the investigation depend on whether documents contain classified information.
www.nytimes.com
Does Classification Even Matter?
All that said, there is an even more fundamental reason why Trumpās claims of declassification are likely to fall short as a legal defense. While there are criminal statutes that hinge on classification, they arenāt among the criminal offenses that the FBI included on the search warrant. To the contrary, all three of the criminal provisions that the FBI did list can beāand two routinely areāapplied to misconduct that has absolutely nothing to do with classified information, making it unclear whether Trumpās claims of declassification would make any difference even if true.
The first provision listed, 18 U.S.C. Ā§ 1519, is an obstruction of justice provision that makes it a crime to knowingly alter, conceal, destroy, or falsify āany record, document, or tangible object[,]ā so long as itās done with the intent to impede or influence a federal investigation or other process. Itās unclear whether the Justice Department included Ā§ 1519 on the search warrant because it believes records held at Mar-a-Lago have been concealed or manipulated in violation of Ā§ 1519, or because members of Trumpās team may have generated false records as part of the extended negotiations over the retrieval of those records (such as the inventory that one or more of Trumpās lawyers reportedly signed in June 2022 asserting, incorrectly, that all classified documents had been turned over). Either way, whether the records held at Mar-a-Lago are classified or not is irrelevant, as the Justice Department routinely brings successful Ā§ 1519 charges in relation to records that are entirely unclassified, such as police reports and records of maritime waste disposal.
The second provision, 18 U.S.C. Ā§ 2071, similarly applies to any effort to willfully and unlawfully conceal, mutilate, or destroy āany record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thingā that is āfiled or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States[.]ā This language has been understood to cover efforts to conceal or destroy just about any sort of public record for well over a century. Consistent with this view, the Justice Department has described Ā§ 2071 as āa broad prohibitionā covering āacts [that] involve either misappropriation of or damage to public recordsā without regard to whether they are classified and has successfully brought charges in relation to unclassified records ranging from Selective Service records to military flight logs.
Meanwhile, the facts are increasingly available in the public square and fairly straightforward.
A heavily redacted affidavit supporting the FBIās search this month of Mar-a-Lago was just released by a Florida federal judge. The document confirms that federal law enforcement is investigating former President Trumpās possession of highly classified documents, and of presidential records, and of possible obstruction. Under the Presidential Records Act, all documents need to remain in federal custody regardless of classification level. āThere is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the PREMISES,ā the filing reads.
The filing ā written by an unidentified FBI agent trained in ācounterintelligence and espionageā ā says that agents suspected Trump of hiding intelligence information relating to signals collection, human sources, and other top secret information. That suspicion came out of the 15 boxes that Trump returned to the archives in January, the affidavit said. Agents discovered 184 āunique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET,ā per the affidavit. That included markings referencing human sources, FISA, records to be kept away from foreign nationals, and signal intelligence.
āSeveral of the documents also contained what appears to be FPOTUS ās handwritten notes,ā the filing reads. FPOTUS refers to the āFormer President of the United States.ā
This matter follows a long list (the Mueller investigation, the Zelensky phone call/extortion, the Capital riot/attempted coup, allegations of election fraud, to name a few) of instances where the facts were well known but purposely blurred by a barrage of disinformation from Trump.........then reinforced by right wing media.
Their methods continue to come to light..........
www.npr.org
.........but not until the damage is done.
1. Assassinate the character and impugn the motives of the opposition. For example, accuse Garland of nefarious reasons for doing his job by trying to regain possession of classified documents. Equate the FBI with storm troopers for participating in Garland's efforts.
GOP reacts to Trump search with threats and comparisons to āGestapoā
2. Fall back on past, specious memes like "fake news" in order to cast doubt on any reporting that does not defend the Orange Menace.
3. Continually obscure the facts in an attempt to convince supporters that up is down.
One of the first smoke bombs thrown by Individual 1 was the notion everything he did was perfectly legal because a prez has the authority to declassify documents at will.
Presidential Power to Declassify Information, Explained
WASHINGTON ā Former President Donald J. Trumpās claim that he had declassified all of the documents that the F.B.I. seized in the search of his Florida home this month ā including those marked as top secret ā has heightened interest in the scope of a presidentās power to declassify information.
Days after the search, Mr. Trumpās office claimed that when he was president, he had a āstanding orderā that materials āremoved from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,ā according to a statement read on Fox News by a right-wing writer Mr. Trump has designated as one of his representatives to the National Archives.
Apart from whether there is any evidence that such an order actually existed, the notion has been greeted with disdain by national security legal specialists. Glenn S. Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, said the idea that whatever Mr. Trump happened to take upstairs each evening automatically became declassified ā without logging what it was and notifying the agencies that used that information ā was āpreposterous.ā
The claim is also irrelevant to Mr. Trumpās potential troubles over the document matter, because none of the three criminal laws cited in a search warrant as the basis of the investigation depend on whether documents contain classified information.
Presidential Power to Declassify Information, Explained (Published 2022)
In an interview, Mr. Trump again insisted that āI declassified everything.ā He added that as president, āyou can declassify just by saying āitās declassifiedā ā even by thinking about it.ā
Does Classification Even Matter?
All that said, there is an even more fundamental reason why Trumpās claims of declassification are likely to fall short as a legal defense. While there are criminal statutes that hinge on classification, they arenāt among the criminal offenses that the FBI included on the search warrant. To the contrary, all three of the criminal provisions that the FBI did list can beāand two routinely areāapplied to misconduct that has absolutely nothing to do with classified information, making it unclear whether Trumpās claims of declassification would make any difference even if true.
The first provision listed, 18 U.S.C. Ā§ 1519, is an obstruction of justice provision that makes it a crime to knowingly alter, conceal, destroy, or falsify āany record, document, or tangible object[,]ā so long as itās done with the intent to impede or influence a federal investigation or other process. Itās unclear whether the Justice Department included Ā§ 1519 on the search warrant because it believes records held at Mar-a-Lago have been concealed or manipulated in violation of Ā§ 1519, or because members of Trumpās team may have generated false records as part of the extended negotiations over the retrieval of those records (such as the inventory that one or more of Trumpās lawyers reportedly signed in June 2022 asserting, incorrectly, that all classified documents had been turned over). Either way, whether the records held at Mar-a-Lago are classified or not is irrelevant, as the Justice Department routinely brings successful Ā§ 1519 charges in relation to records that are entirely unclassified, such as police reports and records of maritime waste disposal.
The second provision, 18 U.S.C. Ā§ 2071, similarly applies to any effort to willfully and unlawfully conceal, mutilate, or destroy āany record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thingā that is āfiled or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States[.]ā This language has been understood to cover efforts to conceal or destroy just about any sort of public record for well over a century. Consistent with this view, the Justice Department has described Ā§ 2071 as āa broad prohibitionā covering āacts [that] involve either misappropriation of or damage to public recordsā without regard to whether they are classified and has successfully brought charges in relation to unclassified records ranging from Selective Service records to military flight logs.
Meanwhile, the facts are increasingly available in the public square and fairly straightforward.
A heavily redacted affidavit supporting the FBIās search this month of Mar-a-Lago was just released by a Florida federal judge. The document confirms that federal law enforcement is investigating former President Trumpās possession of highly classified documents, and of presidential records, and of possible obstruction. Under the Presidential Records Act, all documents need to remain in federal custody regardless of classification level. āThere is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the PREMISES,ā the filing reads.
The filing ā written by an unidentified FBI agent trained in ācounterintelligence and espionageā ā says that agents suspected Trump of hiding intelligence information relating to signals collection, human sources, and other top secret information. That suspicion came out of the 15 boxes that Trump returned to the archives in January, the affidavit said. Agents discovered 184 āunique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET,ā per the affidavit. That included markings referencing human sources, FISA, records to be kept away from foreign nationals, and signal intelligence.
āSeveral of the documents also contained what appears to be FPOTUS ās handwritten notes,ā the filing reads. FPOTUS refers to the āFormer President of the United States.ā
READ: Redacted Mar-A-Lago Affidavit Gives New Details On What FBI Agents Were After
A heavily redacted affidavit supporting the FBIās search this month of Mar-a-Lago was just released by a Florida federal judge. The document confirms that federal law enforcement is investigatingā¦
talkingpointsmemo.com
This matter follows a long list (the Mueller investigation, the Zelensky phone call/extortion, the Capital riot/attempted coup, allegations of election fraud, to name a few) of instances where the facts were well known but purposely blurred by a barrage of disinformation from Trump.........then reinforced by right wing media.
Their methods continue to come to light..........
The DOJ under Barr wrongly withheld parts of a Russia probe memo, a court rules
The Justice Department improperly withheld parts of an internal memo Attorney General William Barr cited in announcing that President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice, an appeals panel said.
www.npr.org
