Thread by @patel_patriot

Thread

I want to say that this entire thing is ridiculous and at the end of the thread you'll see why.

It's going to be a crazy few weeks & months of news so just be sure to keep your emotions in check. Don't let the headlines get to you.

Let's begin.

I'm going to skip the first 31 counts and come back to them later because that is more in line with my point as to why the investigation never should have been started.

Let's start with 32.

1/

The entire argument here is Trump and Nauta obstructed justice by their handling of these documents being used for an official proceeding.

They allege the purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep "classified documents."

Throughout much of the indictment, they use the phrase "classified markings." Documents can be declassified yet still have classified markings and I think that is an important distinction to make and basically the crux of this entire case.

Here is the relevant USC

Count 33 and 34 are similar to count 32 and are actually listed in count 32.

All of them have to do with "obstruction of an official proceeding."

35 & 36, again falling under obstruction of justice, have to do with concealing and scheming to conceal from a federal investigation.

37 & 38 are both about false statements and representations.

They are really trying to hammer home that Trump knowingly and intentionally obstructed the investigation into his handlings of "classified documents."

But what if the investigation was bullshit to begin with?

Now for counts "Counts 1-31"

Here it lists out each of the documents that have "classification markings." Again that phrasing is so important.

Here is 18 U.S.C § 793(e)

The crux of these counts is that they claim Trump had unauthorized possession of the documents in question and then "willfully" gave or showed people not authorized. Or, he retained them and didn't deliver them back to appropriate US agency.

The key wording here is "unauthorized possession."

If Trump had truly declassified the materials then not a single thing in counts 1-31 would stand. He can legally possess declassified documents and retain them and/or show them to whoever he would like.

The rest of the counts (32-38) relate to his interactions with the team investigating him. They claim he obstructed justice in their investigation of counts 1-31.

The entire investigation into Trump started because of referral from NARA.

Here is a biggy.

In the probable cause section, the search warrant states that the boxes contain "classified information." It goes on to state they just contain documents with "classified markings."

This leads me to a question and I need some law-fags to help answer...

If you're going to determine whether Trump mishandled classified information, wouldn't you need to check if the "documents with classification markings" were indeed classified?

Trump has repeatedly said he declassified the documents. Kash Patel said the same..

Next is 7 or 8 paragraphs of redactions.

At no other point do they clarify if the documents with "classified markings" were indeed classified.

THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO CHECK because that is the entire crime they are going after him for.

If the documents with classification markings were indeed declassified, and then the FBI didn't have any probable cause.

Wouldn't everything from that point on be thrown out?

Can you obstruct an investigation that didn't have probable cause to be investigated in the 1st place?

What I'm hoping we will figure out is the truth about whether the documents in question were declassified.

If Trump and Kash are being truthful, and the FBI knew the docs were declassified, then the whole thing should be thrown out as there would be no probable cause.

End.