Why Would Trump Hold Onto Anything From His Presidency That Would Give ANYONE Grounds to Invade His Private Space With a Search Warrant?

Maybe I'm just being naive but why give people LEGAL grounds to come after you?

That's like leaving a job, especially if involuntarily and deciding to keep one of the cell phones that you've been using for both work and personal calls and then refusing or not wanting to turn it over when asked for it. I understand that having your own personal items mixed in with your work items presents a dilemma but you don't deal with it by lying about what you're holding and then not turning over everything that is asked for.

Unless I'm missing something, does Trump or anyone else believe he's entitled to keep classified, top secret documents at his home? Why would he not turn these items over? Just general principle?

Former President Trump is asking a federal court to appoint a special master to review the documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago this month during a court-authorized search.​
In a motion filed in federal court in Florida, Trump also is seeking to prevent the government from further reviewing the documents that were taken until a special master is appointed, and he wants the government to provide more details on items that were taken during the search.​
The legal action is the first from Trump's attorneys since FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago two weeks ago.​
"Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes," the filing says. "Therefore, we seek judicial assistance in the aftermath of an unprecedented and unnecessary raid on President Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago."​
Trump's attorneys argue that the search raises Fourth Amendment concerns and that the warrant used was overly broad. They also say the department took the unprecedented step of searching the former president's home despite what Trump's attorneys say was his voluntary assistance with investigators over several months.​
In a statement, Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley reiterated that the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago was "authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause."​
The department is aware of Trump's motion, he said, and will file its response in court.​
Last Friday, the judge in the case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, gave the Justice Department one week to provide a redacted copy of the affidavit used to justify the unprecedented search of Trump's residence. Multiple media organizations had asked the judge to unseal all documents related to the search, notably the affidavit laying out the reasoning and research. At a hearing last Thursday, the organizations said they do not want to release any information that would have a chilling effect on current or future witnesses, endanger people involved in the probe or compromise the investigation.​
Read the full warrant documents from FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home's Mar-a-Lago home

The Justice Department argued at the hearing that redacting the affidavit would leave no information of substance to release and also noted that the search itself and release of the warrant last week had created a volatile situation where FBI agents have already received death threats.​
The Justice Department must give Reinhart their proposed redacted version by Thursday at noon. The judge has not said what, if anything, he will ultimately order made public.​


While the Justice Department asked the court to unseal the warrant, citing intense public interest, it has argued strongly against releasing the affidavit, saying doing so could compromise its investigation, other probes, the possibility of future witness cooperation and the safety of agents and individuals named in the affidavit.​
The warrant shows that FBI agents retrieved documents labeled classified, secret, top secret and confidential as well potential presidential records. It also reveals that the Justice Department is investigating the potential violation of three federal statutes, including the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice.​
The genesis of the investigation comes from an unlikely source: the National Archives. This winter the agency, in charge of cataloguing and storing important government documents, retrieved 15 boxes of key presidential records that it said Trump was improperly and possibly illegally keeping at home.​
/----/Asking democrats to use logic in their hysterical, crazed, delusions is now considered a hate crime.
 
Trump has always been too naive about his treatment by the government. He still has not fully realized that the FBI/DOJ is out to get him at all costs, and that he should not just look at the legality of his actions, but also their potential for opening him up to abuse by his enemies in those agencies. He still clings to the hope that he will at last be treated fairly, and is surprised every time that he is not.

Trump used his constitutional power as president to declassify documents. He was taking documents with him as he left office, as ever single American president in history has done. Even though he declassified the specific documents, the information in them was sensitive and could reveal classified information, so he consulted with the FBI about properly storing them and took their advice on security for them.

He did not stop to think that having a document marked "SECRET" in his home, even though declassified, could give the FBI excuse to raid him, and the DOJ excuse to leak their musings on what crimes they might be able to accuse him of in order to influence another election. He did not pause to imagine the FBI showing the public a declassified document with a marking still on it, knowing that TDS would prevent half the public from understanding that it was declassified.

Since the Stzok/Page texts came out - as well as numerous equally odious texts from other FBI personnel still on his case - he should have acted at all times as if the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world are out to get him by any means necessary.

They are.

Good point, OP.
Oh'.................you are serious................WOW.
 
Well, as the late Associate Justice Scalia liked to say: criminals are stupid.

Some of it is the arrogance and hubris of Trump – criminals don’t think they’ll get caught.

Some if it was a Trump temper-tantrum having been voted out of office – taking classified documents because he’s ‘still president.’

But mostly it’s incompetence and stupidity, the consequence of a hurried departure from the WH. The recently disclosed affidavit indicated that classified documents were found among newspapers and other common items.

It’s Trump being reckless and irresponsible as usual, it’s Trump being unfit to hold any public office, it’s Trump the lazy, clueless dullard.
/-----/ In case you missed it:
"The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’" according to Article II of the Constitution, the USSC’s majority wrote. "His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." 1988 USSC Ruling.
 
/-----/ In case you missed it:
"The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’" according to Article II of the Constitution, the USSC’s majority wrote. "His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." 1988 USSC Ruling.

That's why they have the read in/read out protocol.
 
/-----/ In case you missed it:
"The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’" according to Article II of the Constitution, the USSC’s majority wrote. "His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." 1988 USSC Ruling.

That's true, for the most part.
The president must leave a paper trail, consulting with the agencies involved.
Then submit the document to the archivist, NARA, and the document, if approved, will be marked declassified.
 
Trump has always been too naive about his treatment by the government. He still has not fully realized that the FBI/DOJ is out to get him at all costs, and that he should not just look at the legality of his actions, but also their potential for opening him up to abuse by his enemies in those agencies. He still clings to the hope that he will at last be treated fairly, and is surprised every time that he is not.

Trump used his constitutional power as president to declassify documents. He was taking documents with him as he left office, as ever single American president in history has done. Even though he declassified the specific documents, the information in them was sensitive and could reveal classified information, so he consulted with the FBI about properly storing them and took their advice on security for them.

He did not stop to think that having a document marked "SECRET" in his home, even though declassified, could give the FBI excuse to raid him, and the DOJ excuse to leak their musings on what crimes they might be able to accuse him of in order to influence another election. He did not pause to imagine the FBI showing the public a declassified document with a marking still on it, knowing that TDS would prevent half the public from understanding that it was declassified.

Since the Stzok/Page texts came out - as well as numerous equally odious texts from other FBI personnel still on his case - he should have acted at all times as if the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world are out to get him by any means necessary.

They are.

Good point, OP.
Trump's problem is that he thinks the rules shouldn't apply to him. If he could get past that, most of his problems would go away.
 
"I spent a year and a half working on Hillary Clinton's email server where we executed multiple search warrants and I never heard one Republican once raise a finger talking about how we were using Gestapo tactics." — Former FBI Chief Peter Strzok
 
That's true. Trump sabotaged his presidency and his reelection.

If you're going to rewrite history and pretend the Democrat party ever wasn't trying to destroy him, at least don't do it when almost everyone alive remembers you are lying
 

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