They perjured themselves part 2

That Times piece on the perjury and treason of Trump and his lawyers is too dense for one post.

Investigators developed evidence that “government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department sent Mr. Trump’s office a subpoena for any remaining documents with classified markings. That led prosecutors to conclude that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the government filing said.

The DoJ said give us the documents. Trump and his people hid two thirds of the documents, and his people told the FBI “That’s all of it.” Under oath.

You have to wonder what his people were thinking. Maybe Trump had convinced them that he still had such absolute powers that the FBI would never be able to find the remaining documents, because they wouldn’t be allowed to search.

The Justice Department effort began in May, after the F.B.I. examined 15 boxes of documents the National Archives had previously retrieved from Mar-a-Lago after months of asking Mr. Trump’s representatives to return missing records. The bureau found 184 classified documents in that initial batch.

On May 11, department lawyers obtained a subpoena to retrieve all materials marked as classified that were not turned over by the former president.

How did they know there were more? Perhaps they had a list, and there was a lot missing from the list. Perhaps they just had a number, and it was a lot bigger than 184.

On June 3, his team presented F.B.I. agents with 38 additional documents with classified markings, including 17 labeled top secret.

Ok I’d love to know how that conversation went.

“Sir, this is not all of them.”

“Sorry! Here’s 38 more.”

“Sir, thanks very much, have a nice day.”

Like that? Or was there any “Why didn’t you include these in the 15 boxes we’ve already searched? What part of ‘Hand over all the classified documents’ don’t you understand?”?

At any rate, there apparently was a request or demand to check all the documents, which the Trump people refused.

But one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers present during that visit “explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained,” the filing said.

I guess the Feds didn’t have the right paperwork with them to tell Trump’s lawyer to go fuck himself, they were going to open all the boxes in the storage room.

Mr. Trump’s team also provided the department’s national security division with a written statement on behalf of his office by one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers who was serving as the formal “custodian” of the files. While that person’s name has been redacted in government filings, multiple people have identified her as Christina Bobb.

What the hell is a formal custodian of stolen files?* You can call it formal all you like but the files remain stolen.

Ms. Bobb’s statement was attached to the department’s filing on Tuesday. In it, the lawyer wrote that “based upon the information that has been provided to me,” there had been a “diligent” search and all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned.

With her fingers crossed. Cute.

So they got the paperwork and found – oh looky here what a surprise – lots more documents.

The filing noted that “the F.B.I., in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former president’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform,” a fact that it said “calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.”

Polite for “these crooks lied to us under oath.”

*It’s a term of art in subpoena-world.

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