One explanation for this reclassification that I have seen offered in a few places is that DOJ set Trump up by reclassifying it, knowing that he had a copy.
This is at least partially based on the timing of Trump's back and forth with NARA and DOJ over docs stored at MAL.
I get why pple would jump to that take, but I don't think it holds up.
Here is the timeline of the Trump-NARA-DOJ.
DOJ was already involved before this doc got reclassified.
And nowhere, that I have seen, has it been argued by DOJ or NARA that Trump had docs that were reclassified. I think they would have mentioned that in the court filings somewhere by now.
Besides, the President can and DID declassify this document. It was published.
So I do not think this would be the "Gotcha, Orange Man!" trick that a few folks seem to think it would be.
So then, why has this document been reclassified?
Clues and indicators as to why are on and in the document itself.
NSICG = National Security Information
Classification Guide
So, knowing and understanding all of this, lets read the redacted and unredacted versions again.
The doc is referencing Steele and Burrows of Orbis meeting with FBI and apologizing for running to the media with the Dossier.
Steele and Burrows say they did so because they were "riding two horses," one was the FBI and one was their client.
That client, was Hillary Clinton and they chose her.
So, to RECLASSIFY this document, something MUST be going on with either Steele, Burrows, Orbis, HRC, the FBI agents at this meeting, or a combo thereof.
I've read the whole thing into a mic and that show will go LIVE tomorrow at 9:30am EST in all the usual places.
Please tell me more about the Bat Caves. 🦇
'The Special Counsel’s Office should be required to disclose all evidence relating to what the Office previously described to the Court as “temporary secure locations” at Mar-a-Lago, Bedminster, and Trump Tower and related SCIFs at “offsite locations.”'
In the past couple days, prosecutors have filed several dozen victim additional impact statements and submitted letters from the current execs of Alameda and FTX and other affiliated businesses. That letter from FTX calls bullshit on Sam's sentencing submission and how it characterizes the financials of FTX and the bankruptcy proceedings.
Defense counsel have filed letters accusing the prosecution of being mean, "hostile", their filings "disturbing" and "apocalyptic" as well as accusing them of violating Sam's 5th and 6th Amendment Rights.
They paint Sam as a well meaning, but misguided "brilliant" young man who fell victim to market forces and poor decision making.
This is a Non-Evidentiary hearing to discuss Trump's motions to dismiss based on Unconstitutional Vagueness and The Presidential Records Act, as well as replies to those motions.
These motions ONLY concern Counts 1-32 because those are the Willful Retention of National Defense Information charges.
It may last all day.
In the Unconstitutional Vagueness motion, Trump's counsel argues that Section 793 "unconstitutionally vague as applied to ...a former President operating within the framework of the Presidential Records Act (“PRA”), who
(1) acted as the ultimate Original Classification Authority based on Article II of the Constitution and under Executive Order 13526,
(2) has recourse to the executive privilege, and
(3) is entitled to immunity for his official acts."
Additionally, they argue that federal judges should not be trying to fix legislative "language chosen by elected officials"
and...
"Judicial efforts to “save” § 793(e) by attaching broad interpretations to a criminal statute in order to reach the conduct of defendants hauled into court by overzealous and politically motivated prosecutors is contrary to the Rule of Lenity. The Supreme Court recently applied this logic in three cases striking so-called “residual clauses” in the Armed Career Criminal Act, Immigration and Nationality Act, and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). E.g., United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319, 2323 (2019).
New indictment from Special Counsel David C. Weiss charging Alexander Smirnov, a Confidential Human Source for the FBI, with 1 count of False Statements and 1 count of Falsifying Records in a Federal Investigation.
"The US Justice Department said Wednesday that the FBI surreptitiously sent commands to hundreds of infected small office and home office routers to remove malware China state-sponsored hackers were using to wage attacks on critical infrastructure.
The routers—mainly Cisco and Netgear devices that had reached their end of life—were infected with what’s known as KV Botnet malware, Justice Department officials said. Chinese hackers from a group tracked as Volt Typhoon used the malware to wrangle the routers into a network they could control. Traffic passing between the hackers and the compromised devices was encrypted using a VPN module KV Botnet installed. From there, the campaign operators connected to the networks of US critical infrastructure organizations to establish posts that could be used in future cyberattacks. The arrangement caused traffic to appear as originating from US IP addresses with trustworthy reputations rather than ... in China."
Interesting that CYBERCOM is left out of this story and yet CYBERCOM Commander General Nakasone appeared alongside FBI Director Wray and CISA Director Easterly yesterday in a House Select Committee hearing that focused on cyber threats from China.