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EVIDENCE: Trump was warned by his lawyers about keeping classified docs

EVIDENCE: Trump was warned by his lawyers about keeping classified docs

EVIDENCE: Trump was warned by his lawyers about keeping classified docs

The former president appears to have ignored warnings from his lawyers, and that could undercut any defense he mounts in his classified documents case.

Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Donald Trump, has been questioned before a Grand Jury about the boxes of documents stored at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties, and about the former president’s fight to retain the material after being ordered to surrender it.

The DOJ also has around fifty pages of his notes, which are extremely detailed and include Trump’s reactions at various times — right down to his facial expressions.

Trump was reportedly very unhappy with Corcoran’s note-taking, and that’s even before it was revealed that these notes show he was amply warned that it would not be legal to retain classified documents after the government had demanded their return.

Aside from the warning, Corcoran’s notes also reveal that the documents were unsecured at points when he was performing his own search, ahead of the one carried out by the FBI.

These notes bolster the government’s case that Trump knew he was acting illegally and that there could be serious consequences for his actions with the documents but carried on anyway. The Guardian reports:

“Although ordinarily off limits to prosecutors, the notes ended up before the grand jury in Washington hearing evidence in the case after a US appeals court allowed attorney-client privilege to be pierced because judges believed Trump might have used Corcoran’s legal advice in furtherance of a crime.”

The National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) doesn’t seem to be suffering under any illusions about Trump’s knowledge that he was in violation.

A letter from acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall to the former president addresses this directly, noting that there are at least 16 records in which Trump’s advisors explain to him how and when to declassify records, according to CNN.

The method for declassification, in case it wasn’t clear to anyone, is not that the president — or ousted, twice-impeached, disgraced, and untrustworthy former president, in this case — just says so and it happens by magic.

Trump reportedly tried to assert executive privilege over these 16 records to keep them out of the hands of investigators and continues to insist publicly that documents are automatically declassified when he removes them from the White House.

Stephanie Bazzle
Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here:

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