Trump's removal of top secret government documents has no defense. There was no defense when he did it; there was no defense after they were subpoenaed; there is no defense now. Fair analysis of what happened is pretty clear:
- The National Archives found a lot of documents missing. They asked for them back. Trump gave some of them back.
- National security documents remained missing, so the DOJ got a subpoena. They removed many documents last January.
- Informants let them know that there were still documents at Mar A Lago. The FBI asked for them back. Trump or his attorneys refused.
- The DOJ got a warrant and sent the FBI to collect these top secret documents.
Spending even a fraction of a second engaging with Trumpist defenders is enough to make you lose your freaking mind. There is a tremendous amount of goalpost moving, as they ask for proof, the proof if provided up to the degree it can be when dealing with secrets, and then they complain that it's not enough.
The redacted affidavit is a great example of this. For obvious reasons concerning the content of the files and the names of the informants, large parts of the document were redacted. First of all, few affidavits are released because it tips the government's hand as to what they know and allows for witness intimidation or destruction of evidence. Nevertheless, the Trumpists have seized on the most heavily redacted pages, ignored the mounting evidence of Trump's blatant crime and possible treason and continue to scream about "defunding the FBI" and nonsense like that.
There are really very few if no good faith arguments against the FBI seizing government documents from a retired man living in Florida. Still, what we know from the past half dozen years is that his cultists will believe any shit thrown at them, if it exonerates them from the tragic mistake of elevating this narcissistic conman to the office of the presidency.
As I wrote the other day, I hope this collapses in on itself, but I worry it won't. Not enough. There is going to have to be video tape of Trump giving state secrets to Russia, and even then, 20% of American voters will still support him. Disgusting.
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