The archives alerts 45th’s team to missing material.
Gary M. Stern, the archives’ general counsel, emails 45th’s representatives — the lawyers Patrick F. Philbin, Michael Purpura and Scott Gast — saying that the government had discovered that the original correspondence with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was missing, as was a letter that President Barack Obama had left for 45th at the White House upon leaving office.
Mr. Stern, sounding impatient, says that Pat A. Cipollone, the former White House counsel, identified roughly two dozen boxes of material that had been in the White House residence but was never transferred to the archives.
According to the affidavit [for search warrant], the archives continued to make such requests for months.
May 18, 2021
45th offers to return letters from Kim Jong-un.
Gast sends Stern a note indicating that 45th will return correspondence with the North Korean leader and asks how to proceed. Another archives official recommends that the letters be sent by FedEx, to which 45th aides object. The letters are not returned.
Stonewalling, dishonesty, lack of good faith, lying. Everything we know 45th does.
Summer 2021
45th displays the Kim letters.
45th shows off the letters from Mr. Kim, waving them at people in his office, where some boxes of material from the White House are being stored.
See above comment. No intention of complying in good faith. Taunting NARA that he got away with it by showing off the letters.
Late 2021
Archives officials warn of consequences.
Officials at the archives warn 45th's representatives that there could be a referral to the Justice Department or an alert to Congress if the former president continues to refuse to comply with the Presidential Records Act.
45th’s advisers are concerned about who can go through the documents held at Mar-a-Lago, because appropriate clearances are needed...
That's bullshit, just more stonewalling.
... 45th ultimately goes through the boxes at the club himself, although he appears not to have gone through them all.
In late December, 45th’s lawyers inform the archives that they have found 12 boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago and that they are ready for retrieval.
Jan. 18, 2022
The archives recovers sensitive material from Mar-a-Lago.
Officials from the archives retrieve 15 boxes containing presidential records and other sensitive material, along with various news clippings and other miscellanea. According to the Justice Department, the documents “appear to contain national defense information,” sometimes called N.D.I., which is protected by the Espionage Act.
...archives informs the Justice Department, which asks President Biden to request that the archives provide the F.B.I. with access to the boxes for examination. Later, when the Justice Department reviews the materials, investigators come to believe they have not recovered everything that 45th must return.
That is by-the-book cumbersome, jeezus. I assume it's by-the-book. 1) archives informs DOJ 2) DOJ asks Biden to request that the archives provide the FBI with access to the boxes. DOJ can't ask NARA to let the FBI have a look-see? DOJ has to go to the PRESIDENT? Jesus Christ.
Jan. 31, 2022
The archives publicly criticizes 45th’s destruction of documents.
The archives makes a public statement about Mr. Trump’s record-keeping practices, noting that some of the records it received at the end of his administration “included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump.”
About a week later, the archives issues another public statement about retrieving documents from Mar-a-Lago, asserting that 45th still has presidential records that should have been turned over to the archives at the end of his time in office.
Precisely one year and 11 days prior. ASS. HOLE. ASSHOLE.
Feb. 9, 2022
The archives refers the matter to the Justice Department.
The archives tells the Justice Department that a preliminary review of the 15 boxes recovered in January indicated that they contained “a lot of classified records,” including highly classified records that were “unfoldered, intermixed with other records and otherwise unproperly identified.”
Spring 2022
Investigations into the missing material ramp up.
A grand jury is seated...The F.B.I. begins interviewing several of 45th’s personal aides as well as three former White House lawyers who had been among Mr. Trump’s representatives to the archives.
By now, 45th has dug in his heels, insisting to his advisers that he has returned everything and is unwilling to discuss the matter further.
April 29, 2022
A review raises national security concerns.
The Justice Department tells Mr. 45th’s lawyers that the archives has found over 100 documents — more than 700 pages — with classification markings in the 15 boxes, and says the executive branch must assess “the potential damage resulting from the apparent matter in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps.”
45th’s team scrambles to find lawyers with appropriate classification to review the documents that were by then in the archives’ possession. Two of his representatives to the archives, Mr. Philbin and John Eisenberg, decline to get involved. 45th’s advisers call several other lawyers with the appropriate clearances to see if they will help review the materials, but they decline.
Some of 45th’s advisers have been telling him for months that he needs to return the documents. But other allies, including Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, have been telling 45th that he is entitled to keep the documents and never should have been pushed to return them. One adviser, Kashyap Patel, a former senior Trump administration official, offers a defense for Mr. Trump’s handling of the material, telling the right-wing news site Breitbart that the former president had declassified it.
Yes, I agree! That is an excellent, truly excellent defense that is sure to bring 45th closer to the Gray Bar Hotel. Please proceed.
May 11, 2022
A grand jury issues a subpoena to 45th.
45th receives a grand jury subpoena seeking additional documents bearing classified markings.
The following week, as the F.B.I. reviews the material in the 15 boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago, the agency identifies classified documents in 14 of the 15 boxes. In total, there are 184 unique documents with classification markings; of those, 67 are confidential, 92 are secret and 25 are top secret.
The markings show that some documents pertained to foreign intelligence surveillance and information gathered by human intelligence sources. ["human intelligence sources=SPIES] Some were not to be shared with foreign entities, and others were marked “ORCON,” meaning that the agency that originated the document had to approve any dissemination beyond the government entities approved to see it. [That is, only the gathering agency could approve dissemination to ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT ENTITIY. FPOTUS IS A GOVERNMENT ENTITY.]
May 25, 2022
45th defends his handling of documents.
M. Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for 45th, sends the Justice Department a letter asking that the department consider a few “principles,” including the claim that Orange mammal had the absolute authority to declassify the documents.
Which is principally, actually COMPLETELY, beyond the fucking point. These clown lawyers cannot get it through their Clown heads that the Espionage Act DOESN'T CARE HOW YOU CLASSIFY THEM. CLASSIFY THEM AS "SUITABLE FOR TWITTER". The operative language in the Espionage Act is "RELATED TO NATIONAL DEFENSE". DO YOU GET THAT CLOWNS! I HOPE NOT AND THAT YOU NEVER DO SO THAT YOUR ORANGE MAMMAL CLIENT ENDS UP IN A SECURE ZOO WITH GRAY SECURITY BARS!
June 3, 2022
The Justice Department visits Mar-a-Lago.
Jay I. Bratt, the Justice Department’s chief of counterintelligence, visits Mar-a-Lago accompanied by F.B.I. agents. The Orange mammal greets them in the dining room. According to Orange mammal’s lawyers, the former president says: “Whatever you need, just let us know.”
Mr. Bratt inspects a storage room. Christina Bobb, another of Orange mammal's lawyers, signs a written statement asserting that to the best of the lawyers’ understanding, they have turned over the remaining classified material from the White House boxes, satisfying the subpoena, according to several people briefed on the statement.
June 8, 2022
The Justice Department requests that Trump’s storage room be preserved.
In a letter to Orange mammal’s lawyers, Mr. Bratt requests that the Mar-a-Lago storage room where the classified materials were kept be secured. He also asks that all boxes that had been moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago be preserved in that room until further notice.
“As I previously indicated to you, Mar-a-Lago does not include a secure location authorized for the storage of classified information,” he writes, adding that since being taken from the White House, the documents “have not been handled in an appropriate manner or stored in an appropriate location.”
Orange mammal with bone in his brain’s team interprets that missive to mean they should put a second lock on the door of the storage room, according to his lawyers.
Orange mammal’s handwritten notes are also found on some of the documents.
They're paw prints.
June 2022
The F.B.I. interviews Orange mammal’s staff.
Members of Orange mammal’s personal and household staff are interviewed by the F.B.I.
June 22, 2022
Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage is subpoenaed.
The Orange Mammal Organization receives a subpoena for surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago and provides it. The 60-day period of footage shows people moving boxes from the basement storage area around the time of one of the outreaches from the Justice Department.
Aug. 5, 2022
The warrant to search Mar-a-Lago is approved.
Aug. 8, 2022
