Trumps Nonsensical Letter to Congress Attacking the DOJs Mar-a-Lago Case Shows He has No Defense | Dennis Aftergut | Judgment

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On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump’s former lawyers sent a desperate, 10-page letter to Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The punch line comes to its conclusion: The DOJ should be ordered to drop Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump for obstruction of justice over his 18-month stonewalling on the return of classified documents improperly held in Mar-a-Lago.

Of course, Congress has no such power. Ironically, the letter achieved something completely unintended. This effectively confirmed that Trump has no viable defense against likely Justice Department charges for Trumps obstruction.

The letter also revealed for the first time that classified documents obtained in an Aug. 7, court-approved search of Trumps country club home may include briefings by foreign leaders.

It’s hard to know what Trump is trying to achieve beyond spin. There are no crimes to be found here, the lame letter is being fought for.

His lawyers insist that Trump did not knowingly possess or keep secret documents at Mar-a-Lago. His aides were simply sloppy, the letter said, in rushing the process of leaving the White House, and Trump didn’t know the classified documents were there. Even Vice Presidents Mike Pence and Joe Biden have inadvertently obtained classified documents after their time in office.

If these arguments are a preview of Trump’s defenses to an indictment from Smith’s grand jury, Jack Smith can rest easy. The arguments are so weak that they leave any informed observer with a simple conclusion: Trump and his lawyers know an indictment is imminent and there’s nothing they can do about it but offer smoke and mirror

Like asking Congressman Turner to investigate the need for legislation to address the lack of controls over classified documents inadvertently taken by elected officials when leaving public service. Here’s the problem for the former president and his letter: Jack Smith has overwhelming evidence that contradicts Trump’s claim that his improper possession and retention of classified documents was accidental.

For example, the FBI interviewed multiple advisers who Trump said his Mar-a-Lago collection of government documents wasn’t theirs, it was mine. Claims of inadvertence are not easily reconciled with claims that he owned the materials and intended to keep them.

And that’s hardly all. The government has evidence that Trump personally reviewed the documents being taken from the White House, and even participated in the packaging. So the letters say that all his aides made a mistake.

And so are the letters that repeatedly complain that Trump is being treated unfairly compared to Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence. Neither claimed that the classified documents discovered in their papers after government service were theirs. Nor was there any delay in cooperating to restore the government papers as soon as they were discovered.

But, Trump protested on April 26, he tried to cooperate. Why was he the only one, his lawyers’ letter lamented, whose home was subjected to a non-consensual FBI search?

Trump’s lawyers never mentioned the 18 months of Trumps stonewalling prior to that finding.

Then there is the brush-off the letter provides the most striking evidence of obstruction and non-cooperation. On June 3, 2022, Justice Department official Jay Bratt visited Mar-a-Lago to demand compliance with a May 2022 grand jury subpoena for all classified documents held by Trump. Trump attorney Evan Corcoran provided Bratt with a sworn certification from another Trump attorney, Christina Bobb.

It proved that, based on information given to him as custodian of former White House records, [a] A diligent search was conducted of the boxes moved from the White House to Florida. . . , to locate any and all documents responsive to the subpoena.

That ruse, obviously intended to throw Bratt off the trail, was remarkably ill-advised, especially when combined with the slightly suspicious simultaneous behavior of Corcoran outright forbidding Bratt to examine the contents of boxes within the main document storage room.

Obviously no diligent search was done by Trump agents. The FBI found more than 100 classified documents two months later, including some in Trump’s personal desk drawer.

How does Wednesday’s letter spin the Bobbs false affidavit? It says, To be clear, the certification states that a diligent search was conducted, and all responsive documents found were not provided that the search revealed all possible materials. . . .

Coincidentally, they bypassed 18 documents marked Top Secret, 54 documents marked Secret, and 31 documents marked Confidential. I hope they don’t try that strategy in court.

In March, a federal judge applied the crime/fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege to compel Corcoran to testify to a grand jury about his conversations with Trump before writing that certification. That means Special Counsel Smith’s in camera submissions convinced the court that Trump’s conversation included evidence of a crime. It is not necessary for the prosecutor to infer that the underlying crime is likely to impede a grand jury investigation.

Trump could run into Mike Turner with a pointless letter designed to distract. But he can’t hide the coming lawsuits for blocking the return of government secrets that aren’t his.

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