{"id":1631036,"date":"2022-09-02T11:32:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1631036"},"modified":"2022-09-02T11:33:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:33:00","slug":"deja-vu-dojs-classified-documents-narrative-feels-like-a-get-trump-trick-weve-seen-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/deja-vu-dojs-classified-documents-narrative-feels-like-a-get-trump-trick-weve-seen-before\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu? DOJ\u2019s \u2018Classified Documents\u2019 Narrative Feels Like A Get-Trump Trick We\u2019ve Seen Before"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdeja-vu-dojs-classified-documents-narrative-feels-like-a-get-trump-trick-weve-seen-before%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1631036&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Since news first broke of the FBI\u2019s raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Department of Justice has primed Americans to believe that former President Donald Trump hid classified documents at his Florida home in defiance of a grand jury subpoena. But even with leaks pushing claims that the documents seized included potential nuclear secrets, the public remains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/08\/11\/poll-voters-mar-a-lago-search-00051116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">equally<\/a> split on whether the Biden administration abused its power in targeting Trump. <\/p>\n<p>With criticism of the raid remaining high nearly a month after the FBI executed the search at the former president\u2019s home, the DOJ on Tuesday escalated its public-relations pitch by releasing several documents that seemingly establish that Trump failed to comply with the subpoena and that his representative lied to the government about the documents retained at Mar-a-Lago. While nothing is impossible, this narrative seems extremely unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>To convince the country of the righteousness of its raid, the DOJ filed three seemingly damning exhibits in the separate lawsuit Trump had filed against the United States seeking the appointment of a special master to oversee the government\u2019s handling of the seized documents. Specifically, the DOJ filed a copy of the subpoena issued to the \u201cCustodian of Records\u201d of \u201cThe Office of Donald J. Trump\u201d that directed the custodian to provide \u201cany and all documents or writings in the custody or control of Donald J. Trump and\/or the Office of Donald J. Trump bearing classification markings.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ attached as another exhibit the \u201cCertification\u201d of the \u201cCustodian of Records,\u201d which noted, \u201cbased on the information that has been provided to\u201d the custodian, she was authorized to certify that \u201ca diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida\u201d and that \u201cthe search was conducted after receipt of the subpoena in order to locate any and all documents responsive to the subpoena.\u201d The certification then noted that \u201cany and all responsive documents accompany this certification.\u201d A third exhibit filed by the DOJ depicted several sets of documents with various cover sheets showing their classification marking, such as \u201cTop Secret.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Together then, these exhibits seem to conclusively establish that Trump defied the subpoena and that either someone lied to the custodian or the custodian lied to the DOJ. And that is precisely the reason the DOJ included these exhibits \u2014 to convict Trump in the court of public opinion \u2014 as the exhibits are irrelevant to the question of the propriety of a special master. That fact alone should give the public pause, but there are other reasons to doubt the DOJ\u2019s framing of the situation.<\/p>\n<h2>It\u2019d Be Lunacy to Do What DOJ Suggests Trump Did<\/h2>\n<p>While the theory the DOJ paints seems simple enough, it just doesn\u2019t pass a sanity test. The deep state and the FBI have been hounding Trump for six years straight. First came Crossfire Hurricane, followed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s carryover of that probe, coupled with a second one for obstruction of justice. Next, the Ukrainian impeachment hoax targeted the then-president. The Jan. 6 Committee\u2019s attempt to criminalize Trump\u2019s challenges to the 2020 election remains ongoing, while state prosecutors in New York and Georgia seek to see the former president behind bars. Further, the issuance of the grand jury subpoena and the DOJ\u2019s correspondence with his attorneys establishes that Trump and his legal team know the Biden administration continues to target him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet, knowing all of this, are we to believe Trump hid documents marked as classified, rather than comply with the subpoena, and then caused the signing of a false certification?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Could it have happened? Sure. Maybe Trump was so irate at what the FBI did in 2016 with the Russia-collusion hoax, or with its <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/30\/zuckerbergs-admission-of-fbi-meddling-in-2020-election-is-even-bigger-than-it-seems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interference<\/a> in the 2020 election, that he didn\u2019t care. Or maybe he didn\u2019t think Biden would dare come after him. But logic suggests the more likely scenario is that the DOJ is spinning the story again. And while we may not yet know how, the Russia-collusion hoax <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/17\/in-latest-anti-trump-operation-doj-and-media-deploy-same-old-russiagate-tricks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">taught<\/a> us there is a how. That <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/17\/in-latest-anti-trump-operation-doj-and-media-deploy-same-old-russiagate-tricks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">history<\/a> provides another solid reason to doubt the current storyline.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A further reason to suspect the DOJ is playing the American public stems from the misleading leaks that hit soon after news of the raid broke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCBS News has learned that weeks before the search, a Trump lawyer signed a document certifying that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, according to two sources familiar with the timeline of events and the decision to seek the search warrant,\u201d the legacy network <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-mar-a-lago-search-lawyer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> shortly after the Mar-a-Lago raid. \u201cBut after the Trump attorney certified that all classified materials had been removed from Mar-a-Lago, investigators gleaned that in fact, there might still be more classified documents at the Florida residence because they had spoken with a handful of individuals familiar with where and how the documents are stored at the compound,\u201d the report continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times made similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/13\/us\/politics\/trump-classified-material-fbi.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claims<\/a>, writing that \u201cone of former President Donald Trump\u2019s attorneys signed a letter in June asserting that there was no more classified information stored at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to two sources familiar with the matter.\u201d \u201cThe letter signed by the attorney raises fresh questions about the number of people who may have legal exposure in the ongoing investigation into the handling of classified materials from Trump\u2019s time in the White House,\u201d the Times continued.<\/p>\n<p>This reporting, however, skews the reality that the supposed letter or document signed by Trump\u2019s attorney was really a \u201ccertification\u201d signed by the \u201ccustodian\u201d of the records, which represents the normal procedure in the case of subpoenaed documents. Further, the leaks presented Trump\u2019s lawyer as attesting that all classified material had been removed, when in fact the custodian\u2019s certification spoke of providing all documents responsive to the subpoena discovered during \u201ca diligent search\u201d of \u201cthe boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given that the FBI agents who meticulously searched Mar-a-Lago over a nine-hour period inadvertently swept up three of Trump\u2019s passports, those conducting a \u201cdiligent search\u201d could likewise have inadvertently missed documents with classified markings. The <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.617854\/gov.uscourts.flsd.617854.102.1_6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affidavit<\/a> filed in support of the search warrant further strengthens this scenario, by noting that the 15 boxes retrieved by the National Archives from Mar-a-Lago contained \u201cnewspapers, magazines, print news articles, photos, miscellaneous print-outs, notes, presidential correspondence, personal and post-presidential records,\u201d and that 14 of the boxes included classified records that \u201cwere unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise improperly identified.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This detail from the search warrant affidavit raises the question of the locations from which the documents marked classified were recovered. The photograph filed by the DOJ creates the appearance that the documents were clearly marked with cover sheets. Is that how the documents were found? Or did the DOJ provide the cover sheets? Were these documents intermixed with other documents, such that they could easily be overlooked?<\/p>\n<p>The recently filed exhibits also raise several other questions, both of fact and law, such as whether the Mar-a-Lago search inadvertently missed these documents. Also unknown is whether Trump\u2019s team discovered the documents before the search but after the certification was signed. If so, is there a legal duty to provide the grand jury the newly discovered records? Or did Trump\u2019s attorneys conclude the documents were not technically covered by the subpoena? Or is there some other explanation?<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s legal team has yet to address these exhibits, or the questions flowing from them, because they are not relevant to any of the pending litigation. But, as was the case with every previous get-Trump effort, the deep state seeks to convict Trump first in the court of public opinion. So it would be wise for his legal team to counter the DOJ\u2019s spin before it takes hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since news first broke of the FBI\u2019s raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Department of Justice has primed Americans to believe that former President Donald Trump hid classified documents at his Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1631036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1631036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1631036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1631036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1631036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}