“And they asked for it, they did ask for it,” Baier noted. “And then they went to DOJ to subpoena you. Why not just hand them over then?”
“Because I had boxes,” Trump said. “I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy as you’ve sort of seen.”
He went on to address claims in the indictment that he told an aide to move the boxes to other locations after telling lawyers to say he had fully complied: “Before I send the boxes over, I have to take all of my things out.”
“These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things,” Trump said. “Golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes.”
And, just to remind everyone, there were 4 months from when Trump left office to when NARA asked for everything back. Then, there were 15 months from when NARA asked for everything back and when the FBI came in to seize the documents.
Even at the most generous timeline (which Trump definitely doesn’t deserve), he had 15 months from when NARA told him to give back the documents. Trump being “too busy” for this long isn’t an excuse.
And this ignores that he had his lawyer declare that they didn’t have any documents there only to be proven wrong by the FBI.
Trump’s lawyers should definitely tell him to keep quiet (not that he’ll listen) because every interview he gives about this is going to be entered into the mountain of evidence that the government has against him.
Reality truly is stranger than fiction.
And, just to remind everyone, there were 4 months from when Trump left office to when NARA asked for everything back. Then, there were 15 months from when NARA asked for everything back and when the FBI came in to seize the documents.
Even at the most generous timeline (which Trump definitely doesn’t deserve), he had 15 months from when NARA told him to give back the documents. Trump being “too busy” for this long isn’t an excuse.
And this ignores that he had his lawyer declare that they didn’t have any documents there only to be proven wrong by the FBI.
Trump’s lawyers should definitely tell him to keep quiet (not that he’ll listen) because every interview he gives about this is going to be entered into the mountain of evidence that the government has against him.
But… his golf shirts! Doesn’t everyone store their clothing in boxes of classified documents? I mean, where else could they possibly go?
(I wonder what version of this story he’ll tell in court, I’m sure it’ll be fun to hear about.)