Timeline
[My commentary in red]
We know from the Search Warrant that the following crimes are being investigated:
18 USC 2071 — Concealment, removal or mutilation
Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed 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, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
From the Justice Department Criminal Resource Manual, § 2071 requires specific intent: the defendant must “willfully” violate the law.
18 USC 793 — Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information (part of the Espionage Act)
Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it.
[I highlighted the “national defense” part because this is what matters for the Espionage Act, not classification markings.]
18 U.S.C. § 1519— Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations
(Obstruction of Justice) provides that “Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both
The agents retrieved, among other things, info regarding the President of France (??!!), various classified TS/SCI docs, and miscellaneous top secret documents.
Three other statutes Turmp potentially violated:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Criminal Contempt (18 U.S.C. § 402)
- False Statements to Federal Investigators (18 U.S.C. § 1001
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
In other words, the crimes being investigated go beyond mere theft.
Trump makes off with government property: During the last days and hours of the Trump administration, the White House counsel’s office told Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that roughly two dozen boxes in the White House residence, including documents marked highly classified, needed to be turned over to the archives, as required by law.
Specifically, in the final days of the Trump administration, Pat Cipollone, White House counsel determined that “roughly two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept in the Residence of the White House over the course of President Trump’s last year in office” needed to be transferred to the National Archives (NARA).
Instead, they were shipped to Florida apparently in the trucks of commercial movers.
Phase 1: NARA (National Archives and Record Administration) tries to get the documents back
January 2021: NARA officials identified various high-profile items that Trump had not sent to their collection under the requirements of the Presidential Records Act.
Summer, 2021: Trump showed off the Kim Jong-un letters, waving them at people in his office.
Fall 2021: After several months of conversations, the NARA grew frustrated with the slow pace of document turnover.
At some point, NARA threatened to alert Congress and the DOJ if Trump didn’t turn over the documents.
Phase 2: Trump returned 15 boxes of documents, including highly sensitive defense secrets, thus prompting an investigation into whether the materials had been mishandled and whether remedial steps needed to be taken to protect national security.
January 2022: Trump returned 15 boxes of documents. Trump reportedly packed these boxes himself. The boxes arrived at the National Archives without any kind of log or inventory and contained “a hodgepodge of documents” including some that didn’t even come from Trump’s time in the White House. A preliminary review revealed the following:
-
- The boxes contained “newspapers, magazines, printed news articles, photos, miscellaneous print-outs, notes, presidential correspondence, personal and post-presidential records, and a lot of classified records.”
- Of “most significant concern” was that “highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records” and not properly identified.
- 184 unique classified documents, including 67 marked confidential, 92 marked secret, and 25 marked “top secret.” These included Sensitive Compartmented Information, Special Access Program materials, and classified national security information. Also included: Sensitive signals intelligence — intercepted electronic communications such as emails and phone calls of foreign leaders
- FBI agents (when they reviewed the boxes) observed markings reflecting that the documents were subject to sensitive compartments and dissemination controls used to restrict access to material in the interest of national security.
- There was also evidence that certain pages of presidential records had been torn up.
[Trump not only took documents that didn’t belong to him, he also tore some up.]
-
- Some of the NDI (National Defense Information) documents contained Trump’s handwritten notes.
- [The fact that Trump’s handwritten notes are on these documents is important–how important we won’t know until we know what he wrote.]
- Some of the NDI (National Defense Information) documents contained Trump’s handwritten notes.
“It could not be determined who was involved with packing the boxes at Mar-a-Lago or why some White House documents were not sent to the Archives,” though people familiar with the episode said Trump oversaw the process himself — and did so with great secrecy, declining to show some items even to top aides.
[If true this takes away Trump’s ability to blame someone else]
The archives identified items still missing, including the map of Hurricane Dorian that Trump infamously altered with a sharpie pen.
Soon after the 15 boxes were returned, Trump asked one of his lawyers, Alex Cannon, to tell the National Archives and Records Administration in early 2022 that Trump had returned all materials requested by the agency, but the lawyer declined because he was not sure the statement was true, according to people familiar with the matter.
February 9, 2022: The NARA asked the DOJ to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records. Initially, the issues were:
February, 2022: Trump wanted to release a public statement saying he’d returned everything, but people around him persuaded him not to do that. (They kept him from releasing a lie.)
February – March, 2022: As part of its investigation, the FBI interviewed several Archives officials about the returned classified documents and their interactions with Trump’s team.
April 7, 2022: The public learned there was an investigation when NARA publicly acknowledges that the Justice Department was involved.
April 11, 2022: The White House counsel’s office responded to the DOJ’s earlier request and said it would allow the FBI access to the boxes. [Essentially the Biden White House waived any claims of executive privilege and said the FBI could have access. This means the documents are not protected by executive privilege under the Presidential Records Act and case law, including the ruling in the lawsuit Trump brought against NARA asserting executive privilege.]
April 12, 2022: The NARA informed Trump’s lawyers by email that the FBI would examine the sensitive documents that Trump had returned in February. In light of the “urgency,” they would allow the FBI access the week of April 18. Trump was allowed to have a representative also view the documents, but the representative needed security clearance. Both Pat Philbin and John Eisenberg had the necessary clearance, but excused themselves: Neither had been involved in packing the boxes and neither knew what was in them. [Smart move to extract themselves]
After Philbin and Eisenberg were no longer involved, Trump was represented by Corcoran (a former assistant US attorney who was representing Steve Bannon in a separate criminal case.) Reportedly other lawyers had declined the job, and Trump hired Corcoran during a conference call without vetting.
Soon afterward: Philbin was interviewed by FBI agents (they considered him a witness) about how 15 boxes of material — some of it marked as classified — made their way to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. (Mr. Cipollone was also interviewed at some point.)
PHASE 3: TRUMP DELAYED THE FBI FROM ACCESSING THE DOCUMENTS
Undated: The New York Times reported that in the spring, Trump “dug in his heels, insisting to his advisers that he has returned everything and is unwilling to discuss the matter further.“
[Now, for the first time in the process that has been going on for more than a year, Trump is trying to assert executive privilege. Corcoran made the same arguments that Trump had made in court and lost when he tried to keep records from being sent from the National Archives to Congress.]
[So Trump was warned that retaining these documents obstructed an investigation and endangered national security]
May 1, 2022: Corcoran asked for another delay.
May 5, 2022: This detail was included in the redacted search warrant: Kash Patel, writing for Breitbart, said that reporting that Trump had possessed classified documents was misleading because the president has the unilateral power to declassify any document.
[First, this isn’t true. Second, prior May 5, Trump never tried to claim that he’d declassified everything. In other words, he made up the defense after Breitbart published this article.]
May 10, 2022: The NARA wrote a lengthy explanation to Corcoran explaining that a former president does not have the right to assert executive privilege under these circumstances. Acting archivist Debra Steidel told Corcoran that the Biden White House deferred the privilege question to her, and she has found Trump’s privilege claims unconvincing.
The DOJ “developed evidence” that additional classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago and thus obtained a grand jury subpoena for additional classified documents: The subpoena was directed to the custodian of records for the Office of Donald J. Trump, and it requested “any and all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings.” The return date was May 24.
May 11, 2022: Trump’s lawyer accepted a grand jury subpoena. The subpoena sought “any and all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings.”
[In other words, the subpoena sought all records in his custody regardless of how and where they were stored, and regardless of whether Trump purportedly declassified them.]
May 12, 2022: The FBI could begin reviewing the material it had already obtained. [Prior to May 12 would have been the time for Trump to challenge the FBI’s access to these documents under the procedures given in the Presidential Records Act.]
May 16 – May 18, 2022: the FBI conducted a preliminary review of the material already obtained and realized how sensitive these documents were.
The FBI identified documents with classification markings in 14 of the 15 Boxes. A preliminary review revealed the following: 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 92 documents marked as SECRET, and 25 documents marked as TOP SECRET. Id. Further, the FBI agents observed markings reflecting that the documents were subject to sensitive compartments and dissemination controls used to restrict access to material in the interest of national security.
[The FBI thus verified what the NARA claimed: The material removed in January contained highly sensitive documents]
May 25, 2022: Trump’s lawyer, Corcoran, sent the DOJ a letter claiming that Mr. Trump had the absolute authority to declassify the documents.
This happened prior to the evening of June 2.
-
- Evan Corcoran searched for additional documents. During his search, he was “waved away” from searching Trump’s office. Corcoran appeared to have been “misled” by someone in Trump’s orbit who told him that all the records were stored in the Storage Room.” (Source: The Guardian.)
- Corcoran drafted an affidavit stating that “after a diligent search” all responsive documents had been returned to the government. (Source: The Guardian)
- He gave this affidavit to Christina Bobb to sign. (Source: The Guardian)
- She signed the certification at Corcoran’s direction, “only after adding caveats to make the declaration less ironclad since she had not conducted the search herself.” (Source: The Guardian)
June 2 (evening), 2022: Trump’s lawyer asked FBI agents to meet him the next day to retrieve responsive documents.
-
- Counsel for the former President told the FBI agents and DOJ lawyer that all the records that had come from the White House were stored in one location—a storage room at the Premises (hereinafter, the “Storage Room”), and the boxes of records in the Storage Room were “the remaining repository” of records from the White House. (Source: Search Warrant. The lawyer appears to be Evan Corcoran.)
- Counsel further represented that there were no other records stored in any private office space or other location at the premises and that all available boxes had been searched. (Source: The Search Warrant)
June 3, 2022: Four investigators, including a top Justice Department counterintelligence official, visited Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the subpoenaed material. They met with Trump’s lawyer and “another individual” who was present as the custodian of records for the former President’s post-presidential office. (Source: Search warrant: The lawyer appears to be Corcoran; the other person is Christina Bobb.)
-
- FBI agents and DOJ attorneys were permitted to visit the storage room. Critically, however, the former President’s counsel explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained. (Source: The search warrant.)
- The FBI determined that “the storage room, FPOTUS’s residential suite, Pine Hall, the ’45 office’ and other spaces within the premises aren’t currently authorized for the storage of classified information.
- Trump’s lawyer gave the FBI agents and DOJ lawyer a “limited number of documents.”
- Neither Trump nor his lawyers asserted that these documents had been declassified, and in fact, handled the documents as if they were classified.
- The custodian of records for the former President’s post-presidential office” gave the FBI agents and DOJ lawyer a signed certification representing that “after a diligent search” all responsive documents had been returned to the government. (Source: Search warrant. Custodian of records, unnamed in the warrant, appears to be Christina Bobb.)
-
- documents contained in a Redweld envelope included: 38 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 5 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 16 documents marked as SECRET, and 17 documents marked as TOP SECRET. Further, the FBI agents observed markings reflecting sensitive compartments and dissemination controls. (Search warrant)
- Counsel for the former President offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at the Premises nearly five months after the production of the Fifteen Boxes and nearly one-and-a-half years after the end of the Administration. (Search warrant)
June 8, 2022: Jay Bratt (Chief at Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, National Security Division, DOJ) sent Trump’s lawyer a communication directing him to secure all National Defense Information material according to law. He asked Trump to secure “the room at Mar-a-Lago where the documents had been stored and that all of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago (along with any other items in that room) be preserved in that room in their current condition until further notice.”
The padlock: Trump’s story is that investigators told him that the room where documents were being stored needed to be secured better, so he added a padlock and thought that would take care of the problem. The story made no sense.
Trump’s idea that a padlock would cure the deficiencies in how these items had been stored is absurd.
June 22, 2022: Federal investigators served a subpoena to the Trump Organization (which owns Mar-a-Lago), demanding surveillance video from Mar-a-Lago. The footage showed that, after one instance in which officials were in contact with Trump’s team, boxes were moved in and out of the room.
[Oops: See why lawyers like Philbin and Eisenberg were smart to extract themselves? Trump doesn’t want lawyers to give him advice. He wants lawyers to do his bidding and this tends to get them into trouble.]
[OMG they are still retaining and refusing to return classified documents !!]
The investigators also learned that documents were stored elsewhere (not just in the storage room).
[Another lie!!!]
August 5, 2022: Based on evidence that Trump still concealed government records at Mar-a-Lago, a federal judge approved a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago allowing the investigators to search areas other than the storage room. From the redacted affidavit and request unsealed on August 26, we learned the following:
-
-
- Probable cause was based on “a broad range of civilian witnesses” — and DOJ noted the court itself has previously concluded concerns about those witnesses’ safety and privacy are not “just hypothetical.” [In other words, there were real concerns that Trump would attempt to intimidate these witnesses.]
- The affidavit confirms that the documents were stored in various locations around Mar-a-Lago and that none of these locations was an approved storage facility for classified material. [Question: Who told the FBI where this stuff was stored?]
- The affidavit states that there is probable cause to believe evidence of obstruction will be found at Mar-a-Lago.
-
Phase 3: Search of Mar-a-Lago: August 8
August 8, 2022: The FBI executed the search of Mar-a-Lago and seized: 33 boxes, containers, or items of evidence which contained over 100 classified records, including classified at the highest levels. In the storage room alone, FBI agents found 76 documents bearing classification markings (This is more than twice what was turned over to FBI agents in May.)
During the search, the FBI found documents in Trump’s bedroom, office, a first-floor storage room at Mar-a-Lago and a “container in a closet” in Trump’s office.
Three classified documents were located in the desks in the “45 Office.”
[This makes it really hard for Trump to say he didn’t know about the documents or that they were planted.]
How sensitive were the documents seized?
Two people familiar with the search said the information is “among the most sensitive secrets we hold.”
From a leak, which could only have come from Team Trump, we learned that the FBI was searching for (among other things) documents related to nuclear weapons.
Despite all of this, Republican leaders rallied around Trump and demanded that Garland speak and release the search warrant and related documents. They attacked the DOJ as engaging in political intimidation and motivated by partisan animosity, unnecessarily “raiding” the home of a former president. Senator Lindsay Graham “insisted” that the FBI “lay their cards on the table as to why this course of action was necessary.” Sen. Ted Cruz Tweeted, “RELEASE THE WARRANT. The American people deserve to see it. NOW.” Etc.
PHASE 4: THE AFTERMATH
GARLAND MAKES A PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE SEARCH WARRANT IS RELEASED
August 11, 2022, in the morning, just before Garland made his announcement: a person close to Trump reached out to a DOJ official to pass along a mafia-style threat from the former president to Merrick Garland: The person wanted Garland to know that Trump had been checking in with people around the country, and people were “enraged” by the search. Trump said “the country is on fire” and wanted to “reduce the heat.”
August 11, 2022, early afternoon: Merrick Garland made a public announcement. You can watch it here. He announced that, in response to attacks against the integrity of the DOJ and FBI, he filed a motion in court to release the warrant. Trump would have a chance to challenge the motion.
August 11, 2022, 2022, evening: Trump announced that he would not oppose the release of the documents. (For an answer to why Trump did something so seemingly insane, see this blog post (which contains a more complete sequence of events from those few days, followed by analysis.)
August 11, 2022: Just before 3:00, Trump leaked the search warrant to Breitbart and Fox (Breitbart did not remove the name of the FBI agents, thus setting them up for harassment). A copy of the warrant is here.
August 23, 2022: Trump reportedly told his lawyers to get “my” documents back.
August 23, 2022: Trump filed a lawsuit demanding a special master on the grounds that documents seized were covered by executive privilege. [Me = 🤦♀️]
August 30, 2022: The review is largely complete.
August 31, 2022: Because Judge Cannon granted Trump’s special master, much of the evidence the DOJ gathered is help up with the special master. The DOJ appealed to the 11th Circuit, and after winning a preliminary injunction allowing them to continue their criminal investigation (minus the documents tied up with the special master) and asked for an expedited appeal.
September 5, 2022: Judge Cannon in the special master case issued an injunction forcing the DOJ to stop its criminal investigation.
September 21, 2022: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeal granted the DOJ’s request to overturn the injunction and allow the DOJ to continue its criminal investigation.
In October 2022 (date unknown), Kash Patel, the guy who said that Trump declassified all the documents and that he was there when Trump did it, was called to testify before a grand jury. He took the Fifth Amendment. The DOJ gave him derivative use immunity. Here is what that means:
Use immunity is solid immunity for anything Patel says truthfully, but it is not blanket immunity from prosecution.
It immunizes Patel for his statements, which therefore means he can’t take the 5th because he is not being compelled to be a witness against himself. The prosecution can still build a case against him from evidence entirely walled off from his statements. It’s hard to do, but possible. If he commits perjury, he loses his immunity and can be prosecuted for his statements.
This is a sign that the prosecutors are not interested in indicting Patel. They want his truthful testimony. They’re going after someone else and that someone can only be Trump.
It’s also a sign that the DOJ wants to flush out Trump’s bogus “declassified” defense now.
(A lot of headlines are making it sound like Patel entered a cooperation deal, or he got blanket immunity. This isn’t a “deal.” It was forced on him. On the other hand, the smartest thing he can do at this point is to cooperate.)
On October 28, 2022,we learned that one of the top national security prosecutors, David Raskin, was added to the team investigating the documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Early November 2022, Kash Patel testified again before the grand jury. Of course, we don’t know what he said, but we can assume he didn’t take the Fifth.
December 7, 2022: After the FBI indicated that it believed Trump still retained classified documents, and a federal judge told Trump’s legal team to make sure that the subpoena from March had been fully complied with, Trump’s team hired an outside team that searched other Trump properties and found at least two classified documents in a storage unit in West Palm Beach, Florida.” (This story is sketchy and odd. The information we have appears to be from Trump’s team.)
Also in December: Trump’s lawyer Parlatore appeared before the grand jury for roughly seven hours in December.
December 8, 2022: The Special Master case is scheduled to be dismissed.
The DOJ persuaded a federal judge in a sealed hearing to force Trump’s lawyers to give the names of the people who retrieved the documents. (Obviously the DOJ didn’t buy the story Team Trump gave out.)
January 10, 2023: We learn that DoJ has (or will) questioned Trump team that found more classified documents. (They are doing this to document lies. Potential defendants lie to cover up stuff and lying can help prove obstruction. (Also, of course, the more lies you can document the easier to prove that the detention was willful.)
February 10, 2023: Trump’s legal team turned over more materials with classified markings and a laptop belonging to an aide to federal prosecutors in recent months, including an empty folder marked “Classified Evening Briefing.” Sources told CNN that a Trump aide made copies of classified documents his lawyers discovered in December in boxes at Mar-a-Lago before the documents were handed over to the Justice Department. Apparently the aid did not know the documents were classified.
February 14, 2023: Apparently federal investigators tried to get testimony from Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, which is always tricky because of attorney-client privilege. When Corcoran asserted this privilege, the DOJ asked a federal judge to invoke the crime-fraud exception, which says you can’t invoke the privilege to cover a crime in progress or a crime in which the attorney participated. (For more on that, see this explanation.)
March 21, 2023: A federal judge ruled that the crime-fraud exception applies and Corcoran must testify. Mr. Corcoran had to give the government what is likely to be dozens of documents related to his work for Mr. Trump as well as return to a grand jury on Friday to answer questions he had previously sought to avoid with assertions of attorney-client privilege.
March 24, 2023: Evan Corcoran testified before the grand jury. Also on this date, we learned that in December, one of Trump’s lawyers, Tim Parlatore, voluntarily testified to the grand jury about the classified documents. (I left this on the timeline on the date we learned about it to emphasize that we often learn about things that happened much later.)
April 12, 2023: Federal investigators are asking witnesses whether former Trump showed off to aides and visitors a map he took with him when he left office that contains sensitive intelligence information. (In other words, if Trump did show classified material to others, this would obviously makes things worse.)
May 3, 2023: We learned that in recent weeks, DOJ prosecutors have been asking questions about the handling of surveillance footage from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after the Trump Organization received a subpoena last summer for the footage.
Investigators previously asked about a text message from Nauta to Calamari Sr. and subsequent conversations about the surveillance footage. The Justice Department questioned Nauta months ago about the handling of the boxes, and he told the FBI about being directed by Trump.
The question seems to be whether there was tampering with the surveillance cameras in an attempt to obstruct the investigation. As a general rule, you can assume that people don’t tamper with video surveillance footage if they didn’t do anything wrong.
May 4, 2023: The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents have obtained the confidential cooperation of a person who has worked for him at Mar-a-Lago, as part of their effort to determine whether Trump ordered boxes containing sensitive material moved out of a storage room there as the government sought to recover it last year.
In other words, this is the coverup of the crime.
Also reported: Prosecutors believe Mr. Nauta, Trump’s valet, failed to provide them with a full and accurate account of his role in any movement of boxes containing the classified documents.
In other words, Nauta didn’t tell the whole truth. Oops.
And, um gaps in the video footage: Prosecutors have also issued several subpoenas to the Trump Organization, seeking additional surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, his residence and private club in Florida. . . and prosecutors have questioned a number of witnesses about gaps in the footage, one of the people said.
And, last but not least: One of the previously unreported subpoenas to the Trump Organization sought records pertaining to Mr. Trump’s dealings with a Saudi-backed professional golf venture known as LIV Golf, which is holding tournaments at some of Mr. Trump’s golf resorts.
May 17, 2023: The National Archives has informed Trump that it is set to hand over to the DOJ 16 records that show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president, according to multiple sources. Archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote to Trump, “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records.”
May 17, 2023: One of Trump’s lawyers in the stolen documents investigation and the January 6 investigation, Timothy Parlatore, withdrew from representation. He says he left on good terms with Trump and continued to believe the DOJ was behaving unethically in its investigation of Trump.
May 20: Parlatore went on CNN and said that his departure was spurred by “irreconcilable differences with Boris Epshteyn, another lawyer who has been working as something akin to an in-house counsel for the Trump, hiring lawyers and coordinating their efforts to defend Trump.” He said that “Epshteyn hindered him and other lawyers from getting information to Trump, leaving the former president’s legal team at a disadvantage in dealing with the Justice Department.” He also said that Epshteyn was “undermining” him.
For Parlatore to go on TV and discuss aspects of the case is a shocking ethical violation, which raises the question of why he is doing it.
May 22, 2023: The Guardian obtained copies of the detailed notes Corcoran kept about his conversations with Trump. The notes included descriptions of:
-
- When Trump was put on notice that he could not retain any classified documents after he was subpoenaed for their return last year
- How Corcoran told Nauta about the subpoena before he started looking for classified documents because Corcoran needed him to unlock the storage room.
- How Nauta had offered to help him go through the boxes. Corcoran declined and told Nauta he should stay outside. Going through around 60 boxes in the storage room took longer than expected, and the search ended up lasting several days.
- Times when the storage room might have been left unattended while the search for classified documents was ongoing, such as when Corcoran needed to take a break and walked out to the pool area nearby.
- Trump’s facial expressions and reactions whenever Trump and Corcoran discussed the subpoena.
“The unusually detailed nature of his notes is said to have irritated Trump, who only learned about them after the notes themselves were subpoenaed.”
The real story here throwing the blame to Nauta. Also, odd the notes include descriptions of Trump’s facial expressions. My guess: Corcoran is covering his ass.
Taking the May 17, May 20 and May 22 stories together, it appears that the finger-pointing has begun: Whose fault is it that documents were not handed over? Quite obviously it’s Trump’s fault, but right now his lawyers and Nauta seem to be pointing fingers at each other.
The ideal situation for a prosecutor: Enough evidence of a crime in hand so that the witnesses and potential defendants begin pointing fingers at each other.
Teri-you’re the best. Thanks for this timeline!
good chronology. Note that this list what appears to be the same grand jury subpoena as served on April 13 and on May 11. Clarify?
Trump’s team received two separate subpoenas in mid may, three days apart? (11th and 14th) Is that typical, or is that a possible error in reporting by the Post?
> August 11: Just before 3:00, Trump leaked the search warrant to Breitbart and Fox (Breitbart did not remove the name of the FBI agents, thus setting them up for harassment).
Wasn’t this August 12th?
This was a goof. He referred to the subpoena as happening on the 11th and the Washington Post said the 14th. I fixed the problem, thanks.
Done!
Very clear, and, in my opinion, very damning
Since there is no defense for what he has done, do you think that his remaining lawyers are trying to set up some kind of reduced capacity defense? The timeline shows Trump’s awareness of what he was doing and intention to do it. Surely only somebody completely out of touch with reality would actually do something like this after being told time and time again, even in court, that he can’t do this.
Stealing from the American people is icing on the cake for TSG. Time for exile ? Guam, Vieques, and Palmyra: https://g.co/kgs/ftGjy4
Thank you so much for this. Thrilled to come across your writing. Excellent.
It looks like that, doesn’t it? But no, I don’t think so. It appears that Trump is directing this and the lawyers are doing his bidding. Trump’s concern is to get the Republican Party to line up behind him and he’s actually succeeding at that. I also think that Trump views this the way he views civil litigation without understanding the different power balance between the government and the target of an investigation.
Why did Trump have all this super-secret material in the White House at all? Even when he was president, that was mishandling or worse.
Correct.
I say he should get the Philip Nolan treatment.
Isn’t there a concern that Trump might have had these files copied?
Good summation Teri. It appears to me that Mr. Trump wasn’t satisfied with getting away with obstruction of justice while he was in office. So he thought what’s a little espionage? What was it that Adam Schiff said about him? You can not constrain him, he did it before and he’ll do it again! Worst President of my life.
So, any speculation on *why* Trump would do all this? What good does having these docs do him? The closest I see is the comment about him being a pack rat and his calling them “mine”, which suggests that it’s just personal pathology. My wife thinks he wanted to be able to sell them to foreign interests, but I’ve not seen that elsewhere. In fact, I’m not seeing any talk about this elsewhere, which is surprising.
To take our cue from the court filings: Two of the statutes listed on the search warrant were obstruction of justice statutes, suggesting that he took them to obstruct official investigations. We know that he is also accused of destroying documents, so he’s being investigated for taking and destroying documents that might suggest (or prove) criminal liability.
Where he slithers, he leaves a trail. Please, oh State. Smite the enemies of the Constitution!
Your well-done info a lot to absorb. Will be back. Thanks. Good, important work.
I think it’s also important to take Trump’s psychological pathology into account here. It’s well-known that Trump is a pathological narcissist. As such, there is absolutely no way he would allow his lawyers to use a reduced capacity defense. To him, this would be an admission of weakness, something his pathology would never allow. Especially for how it would damage him among the MAGA faithful. His ego would never allow him to play a role the way Vincent Gigante did.
Former Presidents are ordinary citizens and have no right to executive privilege at *any* time; only the current executive does. That executive privilege extends to communications of former Presidents, but that is in order to protect the *government*, not any individual:
https://www.justsecurity.org/78904/no-former-presidents-cannot-assert-executive-privilege-at-least-not-meaningfully/
Thank you Teri, for this useful timeline and discussion. Very clarifying.
Christina Giardina termed Trump to be the “worst president of my lifetime.” I would say that it’s in the nation’s history if it weren’t for Lincoln’s successor Andrew Johnson, who, along with other damage enabled Jim Crow and made all the evils and injustices of racism a part of our ongoing history to this day. This, along with a great deal of additional damage. But the jury is still out. Trump may historically succeed in destroying the democratic system of governance we have enjoyed.
He’s obsessed with “immunity”. He saw Roy Cohn get it after three mistrials. He took the documents to blackmail the government into not pursuing him further. It’s a protection move.
If that was among his motives, I don’t think it will ultimately save him.
My first thought, as your wife’s, also. He doesn’t think beyond “how can I profit from this?”
A true Mafioso mindset. From his first day in office to his last, he grifted the whole time.
Looks like the cat with the canary. Hand in the cookie jar. You can’t get better evidence of guilt. Or grander evidence. Anyone else would get black-bagged and a one-way to Gitmo. We’ll see how the process works with this.
Great chrono Teri. Thanks
R
I presume there’s a record whenever a document receives a classified designation – not necessarily the content of the document, but it’s such a document existed. Are the folks at NARA going to be able to determine whether or not he destroyed some documents, and charge him with the destruction of those?
Two thoughts:
1) Even though the Trump years have been a nightmare in many respects, legal writing has been at its best. Some of the briefs and decisions against the election fraud lawsuits in 2020 were outstandingly written. The Justice depts response to Trump’s request for oversight is a masterpiece of prose. An exemplar of argumentation in any genre. Devastating and shocking. Reading it at minutes before midnight left me (a non-lawyer) thunderstruck. With those this too must be must be considered a masterpiece of lucidity and organization. It is such a privilege (that word) to read such wonderful writing on a historical topic unrolling before our eyes.
2) Trump’s instincts are failing him. The Republican party is still powerful enough and Trump’s domination still complete enough to provide him plausible ways to convert this from a legal question to a political one and thus to escape judgement. But his options are dwindling and really for the first time on a major issue his public histrionics aren’t resonating and he’s been unable to regain the initiative.
One burning question; why hasn’t Mar-a-lago and some of his other properties been shut down and declared crime scenes? After learning about the huge cache of stolen docs (and not just any docs) scattered all over the premises, shouldn’t the FBI have secured the place? Not to mention figuring out who has been in and out of Mar-a-lago in the last 18 months. I know you’re not in law enforcement, but your opinion is always appreciated.
R
That would be an illegal search and seizure. The Fourth Amendment limits what the government can do.
Right. Thanks, Teri. Good to know.
R
I’d argue that these documents are leverage, for various uses. Including opening doors to another country for a safe landing away from the reaches of American law. Some of them were stashed in a drawer with his passports. Classic dictator move. Trump is like Houdini, a real escape artist.
Teri. Love to hear your thoughts on the “Special Master” that Judge Cannon gave the green light to just now.
R
Are you on Twitter? I think this should work even if you’re not: https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1566819543434989570
Yes, that did work, Teri. I’m not on any social media so thanks for the work around. I still think that this violation of the law is so critical and urgent that anyone considering the “appearance of fairness” does not truly appreciate the magnitude of his actions or the danger our country is facing because of this. Astounding.
And thanks for adding this comment section. Your readers are an astute bunch and offer some interesting ideas and thoughts to your already wonderful posts. This must free up your email besides lol
R
When I reply, a lot of people can see it. I often get the same question from multiple people, so yes, this is streamlined.
Why do you think the Trump team leaked the “nuclear secrets”. Both why do you think it’s them, and why – for what purpose?
I should fix that because I think actually it was leaked by whoever informed the DOJ of what was happening, so not actually Team Trump but someone with access.
Trump, of course, never claimed to have declassified things in any of the legal documents, though public statements like that have been made on his behalf.
Now, Kash Patel, who claimed in public that Trump did declassify things, has been compelled to testify before the grand jury.
Trump’s surrogates are now claiming, not that Trump declassified everything, but that he declared all the documents to be his private documents, and therefore not subject to PRA or to classification. I think that claim has even been made in the most recent legal filings.
I think this change of tactic might have been triggered by whatever Patel said to the grand jury (I suspect Patel may have told Trump’s lawyers whatever he would have said under oath).
Just some guesswork on my part, obviously.
I forgot to add…. I think the recent filing said that Trump clearly designated these to be his private documents simply by virtue of having brought them to Mar-a-Lago. That act was supposed to have been enough, if I remember right, to indicate the intended designation.
“Donald Trump’s confession with Sean Hannity: ‘I have the right to take stuff. They paid, Nixon I think $18 million dollars for what he took.’
Then Trump quoted a law (the Presidential Records Act) that actually states he IS NOT allowed to take ‘stuff.’
• Sean Hannity’s attempt to coach Donald Trump on Mar-a-Lago documents backfires • The Washington Post • March 28, 2023 •
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/28/sean-hannitys-attempt-coach-trump-backfires-again/
I thought Kash Patel is very loyal to Trump? He now flips?