It was actually @realDonaldTrump Office of Records Management which told the @USNatArchives about the boxes in the #WhiteHouse that belonged in the Archives. Read the interview with former Archivist David Ferriero in the @washingtonpost.
archive.is/2022.08.11-213…
Ferriero recounted to @washingtonpost that in the move of materials from the WH to the Archives, he noticed “those boxes hadn’t shown up yet.”
He further saw a “white banker box” with the Trump entourage as they left DC.
Ferriero claimed that the sighting of the white banker box spurred a “process” of trying to figure out if all the Presidential records had been retrieved.
But Trump was known to take “The Boxes” everywhere. They contained whatever he was interested in at the time and wanted to review (CNN). Did Ferriero not consider this?
cnn.com/2022/02/07/pol…
“He would have something in his hands when he came down from the residence and would say, ‘Put this in my boxes,’ former White House communications director Stephanie Grisham recalled.”
“For longer flights, we would have 6 or 7 boxes. He went through them when he had downtime.”
Grisham said the Trump White House “didn’t care” about records preservation. Someone else said Trump “flatly ignored repeated requests from at least two of his chiefs of staff to stop tearing apart paper.”
It is illogical that he would blatantly break the law in front of many witnesses over a long period of time. I am not a lawyer so someone else can sort that out.
Tom Fitton (@TomFitton), president of the widely respected Judicial Watch, says that Trump as POTUS “has discretion on what docs to retain as presidential records while in office.” That would seem to comport with logic.
Not everything the President touches is considered a “record.”
See Presidential Records (44 U.S.C. Chapter 22)
archives.gov/about/laws/pre…
Here is some more information about types of Presidential records from NARA.
archives.gov/news/topics/pr…
Clearly there is a certain amount of skill required in determining what is a record. The President has discretion. And the law presumes a scenario where the President is not the subject of an ongoing internal coup, with the law weaponized against him (or her) at every turn.
It isn’t just the law. The Federal bureaucracy was full of civil servants who plainly hated Trump, thought he was illegitimate and dangerous, and who were just waiting for him to be impeached.
Trump would not have survived for a day (much less succeeded in fighting swamp creatures) without going “by the book.”
April 15, 2020:
“While difficult, it is important to understand this must be done by the book.”
Q
And if you believe that Q is real, you must also believe that Q+ is really…Trump.
Here (same day) Trump thanks Q for another comment.
In a lengthy article on this story, The Federalist explains the legal framework within which Trump took documents and within which NARA challenged the taking. Remember lawyers can fight over anything and make a case.
thefederalist.com/2022/08/15/fro…
For example, the taking of the documents could be a crime even if they were unclassified.
thefederalist.com/2022/08/15/fro…
Perhaps we could meld these stories together, but whichever way you slice it, David Ferriero (the outgoing Chief Archivist of the United States, at NARA) was involved and not just a curious bystander.
thefederalist.com/2022/08/15/fro…
In his own words (official statement, February 7, 2022): “NARA pursues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts.”
archives.gov/press/press-re…
So someone tells Ferriero there are records to be gotten. NARA reaches out.
Ferriero (aghast at the “fedsurrection” that was Jan. 6) sees a Trump aides carrying a box and pursues.
Meanwhile FBI “source”says there r records to be gotten.
All by the book…of a thousand traitors.
You see that in this corrupt system, justice is impossible. Ferriero could only do his job. He could not ask if he was being set up to target the President.
Same with the FBI. Head down.
And you, a Patriot, read clickbait which tells you absolute nonsense from a legal point of view. It renders you non-credible. The ENTIRE POINT is that THE LAW WAS FOLLOWED.
https://t.co/t70YFfeAfK
“Recent press stories and social media posts …allege that NARA has been untruthful about our activities. This is not accurate.…”
archives.gov/press/press-re…
The entire point is that Trump was the legitimately elected President of the United States, but a deeply intertwined network of bad actors joined together to overthrow him on the pretext that he was insane, criminal, racist, sexist, etc.
The system is set up so that the ordinary individual cannot fight its corruption. They have an excuse at every turn. And in the bureaucracy, the #1 excuse is “I was just doing my job.”
@threadreaderapp unroll
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.