BIll Barr Trump taking documents

Started by Hobby, Sep 02, 2022, 05:52 PM

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Hobby

(CNN)Former Attorney General William Barr appeared on Fox News on Friday to say there is no "legitimate reason" for classified documents to have been at Mar-a-Lago and cast doubt in the idea that they had somehow been declassified.

"No. I can't think of a legitimate reason why they should have been -- could be taken out of government, away from the government if they are classified," Barr said of the documents found at former President Donald Trump's Florida resort.
"I, frankly, am skeptical of the claim that [Trump] declassified everything," Barr added.
Mar-a-Lago search inventory shows documents marked as classified mixed with clothes, gifts, press clippings
Mar-a-Lago search inventory shows documents marked as classified mixed with clothes, gifts, press clippings
"Because frankly, I think it's highly improbable, and second, if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them and said 'I hereby declassify everything in here,' that would be such an abuse and that shows such recklessness, it's almost worse than taking the documents," he said.
Barr also rejected criticism that the FBI search was in the wrong because it was "unprecedented."
"Let me just say, I think the driver on this from the beginning was loads of classified information sitting in Mar-a-Lago. People say this [raid] was unprecedented -- well, it's also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, okay," Barr said.

"And how long is the government going to try to get that back? They jawboned for a year, they were deceived on the voluntary actions taken, they went and got a subpoena, they were deceived on that they feel, and the facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around," he added. "And so how long, you know, how long do they wait?"

"What people are missing is that all the other documents taken, even if they claim to be executive privilege, either belong to the government because they are government records -- even if they are classified, even if they are subject to executive privilege -- they still belong to the government and go to the Archives," he added.

Hobby

#1
I agree with Barr, Trump has no excuse to keep documents that belong to the government.  After months of the government trying to get the documents back and under a subpoena Trump handed over some documents but not all.  This was the time Trump should have separated his private documents from the government and asked for a special master.  The government had to physically search for records for the remaining records at Trump's home and now Trump wants to be rewarded by the court to appoint a special master which is absurd considering that Trump comingled documents all through Mar A Lago.