He wanted to cut a deal for Russia investigation records
When the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) approached TFG Trump in September last year to return records he removed from the White House, he offered a trade. He would exchange them for others he thought would prove “Russia, Russia, Russia” was the hoax he’d always claimed.
Donald Trump was holding the trove of stolen documents hostage, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt reveal this morning in the New York Times:
Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims.
In exchange for those documents, Mr. Trump told advisers, he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mr. Trump’s aides never pursued the idea. But the episode is one in a series that demonstrates how Mr. Trump spent a year and a half deflecting, delaying and sometimes leading aides to dissemble when it came to demands from the National Archives and ultimately the Justice Department to return the material he had taken, interviews and documents show.
Trump’s habit of taking documents back to his White House bedroom began early in his tenure and was known to NARA officials including Gary M. Stern, the agency’s top lawyer. Trump had perhaps two dozen boxes of presidential records stored in the residence as his term expired.
Dissemble, deny, and delay were how Trump instructed aides to deal with NARA. Some of the boxes, Trump told some aides, held only newspaper clippings and personal items. He told others they held dirty laundry.
By late October or early November, as Stern messaged with Trump lawyer Alex Cannon about reclaiming the boxes, Trump proposed a swap.
It was around that same time that Mr. Trump floated the idea of offering the deal to return the boxes in exchange for documents he believed would expose the Russia investigation as a “hoax” cooked up by the F.B.I. Mr. Trump did not appear to know specifically what he thought the archives had — only that there were items he wanted.
Mr. Trump’s aides — recognizing that such a swap would be a non-starter since the government had a clear right to the material Mr. Trump had taken from the White House and the Russia-related documents held by the archives remained marked as classified — never acted on the idea.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for the archives did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Cannon declined a request for comment.
Only after examining the 15 boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January did NARA realize they contained classified materials. They moved them quickly to a secured area for further review. NARA notified the Department of Justice that restricted documents had been mishandled. The Times does not report what Trumpish dirty laundry, if any, was found.
A second tranche of documents turned over in June and a third set retrieved when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August turned up more classified, Top Secret, and ultra-sensitive documents. These and others still unaccounted for are part of an investigation into Trump for which the former president may still face criminal charges for obstruction if not worse.
Since last winter Trump tried (and in one case succeeded) multiple times to pressure his attorneys to certify that he had returned all the records he’d taken. Yet documents associated with dozens of empty folders marked classified remain missing. The Department of Justice suspects Trump may still have them. Few speculate aloud that he may have transferred them to a third party as part of some other Trump “deal.”
The Times report floats the possibility that Trump simply might be holding back documents he considers “mine,” or that he’s keeping them in reserve as leverage to exchange for others he thinks will benefit him more.
This is petulant child behavior from a 76-year-old career criminal who once had his finger on the nuclear button and who hopes to again in 2025. No one except the deluded would trust Donald Trump as far as they can throw him. (Good luck with that.) Yet he retains a devoted following of cultists and groupies who believe he’s God’s Chosen One who all but walks on water.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us