Thread by @kyledcheney

👀The May 10 letter between NARA and the Trump team is extraordinarily damning for Trump team, confirms there was "special access program" level material found in files at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump ally John Solomon's team posted it here: justthenews.com/government/cou…

"The Executive Branch here is seeking access to records belonging to, and in the custody of, the Fed Govt itself...to “conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported."

justthenews.com/government/cou…

Trump allies pointed to this letter as some kind of evidence of Biden White House meddling. What it shows is officials expressing extreme alarm about national security damage based on records being held by Trump.

justthenews.com/government/cou…

The letter shows that even though NARA recovered 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago in January, FBI didn't access them until May.

"Among the materials in the boxes are over 100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages."

justthenews.com/government/cou…

The letter does more to show how Trump and his team resisted NARA entreaties than anything that has come out so far.

And this is all before subsequent tranches were discovered at Mar-a-Lago.

justthenews.com/government/cou…

NEW: The extraordinary letter shows how alarmed DOJ and NARA became about damage to national security caused by highly classified docs at Mar-a-Lago – and that was months before the Aug. 8 search recovered even more.

politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

DOJ and NARA officials discussed with Trump's team an urgent need to conducft a damage assessment about the handling of those docs, but Trump attempted to claim privilege over them, prompting a request from DOJ to Biden to authorize access to the materials politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

According to this letter, Biden delegated the privilege decision to National Archivist Debra Wall, who said the case was "not a close one," since there was no way a former president's claim could override an incunbent administration's need for the review.

politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

Trump allies touted portions of this letter that were revealed by Solomon earlier in the evening, saying it showed Biden had been involved in the process. That's a requirement of any NARA matter involving privilege, and here Wall indicate he delegated.

politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

Seven hours later and I’m still mindblown that Trump allies were touting this letter as even a little bit exculpatory. politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

Another important aspect of this letter: Trump has been on notice since at least May of the FBI’s efforts to access this material. So his motion to seek a special master following the execution of the search warrant is months — not just weeks — late. politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

ONE MORE POINT: The language about consultation with the White House shows Biden was *more hands off* with the Mar-a-Lago docs than he was with the Jan. 6 records held by NARA. In both cases, archivist consulted with OLC, but in latter Biden delegated privilege decisions to NARA.

By my count, there are at least four other letters between Trump team and NARA/DOJ referenced here:

-April 12: Letter from NARA notifying Trump of FBI concerns
-April 29: Letter from Corcoran
-April 29: Letter from NSD
-May 1: Letter from Corcoran

politico.com/news/2022/08/2…

Just tuned in to Steve Bannon's show to check in on the FBI commentary and I'm sorry to say he and John Solomon have discovered my pipeline to Merrick and Chris.