Thread by @BradMossEsq

THREAD: what to make of Trump having classified documents in Florida?

Everyone wants to know if this is a criminal matter, and if Trump can evade liability. The answers are: maybe and maybe. Let me explain.

First off, let's dispense with the "Trump can just declassify things" issue. While President, and up until noon on 1/20/2021, Trump had complete authority to declassify anything he wanted. No dispute. He could disseminate otherwise classified information with impunity too.

That is the privilege of being POTUS.

To actually declassify something, though, he absolutely had to take that action before he left office. He lost his authority when the clock struck noon. And to actually declassify a document, the letter of the law requires actual follow

through. This isn't me saying it: this is what DOJ and the White House conceded in FOIA litigation during the Trump years when he would tweet out declassification orders, or issue them via press statements. Unless he actually followed through with a declassification order that

went to the agency with control over the document, the agency did not treat the statements as self-executing declassification orders and insisted the documents were still classified.

So in the case of any documents that found their way to Florida, unless Trump took actual

steps to declassify those records before he left, they remained classified. Given that - per press reports and the statement from NARA - the records still retained their classification markings, there is no indication Trump actually declassified those records.

That leads us to

the next issue: how on earth did those records get into those boxes? Classified records at the White House would have been in secure areas. In theory, that would include the President's personal residence and study, if he deemed it necessary. So if he had those classified

documents sitting around the White House, it was incumbent on him and/or staff to ensure they were returned to a secure area for storage. Boxing them up and shipping them to Florida is NOT a secure transportation or storage mechanism. The fact Trump personally did not box things

up is irrelevant if the documents came from his offices. So not only did the staff potentially violate security rules and criminal provisions, but so did he.

So will he face indictment on this? Maybe. I certainly think he SHOULD, as it's no different than General Petraeus taking

classified notebooks and storing them at his unsecured house. Or Reality Winner removing a classified document and disseminating it to an unauthorized party.

The Trump records were not transported via secure means. They were not stored in a SCIF. They were unsecured in Florida.

That meets, in my opinion, the legal requirements for 18 USC 793(d) and (f).

Whether DOJ will bring an indictment will depend on numerous details, such as where the documents were originally located, how boxing them up was handled, and what steps Trump took to ensure he was

not holding onto classified records in unsecured locations. That he was not a "file clerk" is not going to save him here. Hillary Clinton was not a system administrator, but that didn't save her from an invasive FBI investigation into her e-mail server. Trump should not be spared

a similarly invasive investigation simply because he's disconnected from the details on paperwork. The moment he left the presidency, he became a regular private citizen like anyone else. He could not retain classified documents in an unsecured location at his residence. /end