When Does He Run Out Of Excuses?

Just asked a former senior administration official who would be in a position to know about such a thing and they had absolutely no idea what this report is talking about https://t.co/ucEXaHdblg

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 13, 2022

Here’s the statement:

Trump has maintained for weeks that any documents still containing classified markings in his possession after he left office were previously declassified. On Friday night, the statement issued to Just the News explained exactly how that declassification occurred in his mind. 

The very fact that these documents were present at Mar-a-Lago means they couldn’t have been classified," the former president's office stated. "As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different. President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents including classified documents from the Oval Office to the residence.

Yeah, that’ll fly. The key statement there is “in his mind.” We return to Asha Rangappa:

7. It’s also dumb. OK, so Trump telepathically declassifies hundreds of docs on his way out. Then guess what? Biden can telepathically reclassify them immediately, too. See how stupid this gets? Markings would mean nothing. No one would know how to store things. It’s idiotic

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 12, 2022

It’s almost like Trump read her tweets and said: “Yeah , use that!” The argument is that dumb. Besides, nobody in government agrees with him.

CNN analyst says the intel Trump stole are so sensitive that FBI agents will begin FINGER PRINTING each document to find out who actually touched them.

— Brian McBride (@BrianDMcBride) August 12, 2022

And his excuses really don’t matter:

This is just embarrassing

1. The crimes don't depend on classification
2. Trump left with docs on Jan. 20 - he was no longer working as POTUS
3. He then "fails to deliver" docs "on demand" to DOJ (Espionage Act)
4. He exercised "gross negligence" in handling docs (Espionage Act) https://t.co/UCK3mKUnlH

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) August 13, 2022

Although they might have entertainment value:

I am going to create a running list of Trump Excuses with a date/time stamp. https://t.co/gGORzJ3EdC

— Katie S. Phang (@KatiePhang) August 13, 2022

And like this:

I’m confused: How can Trump be so sure that he declassified the evidence that the FBI planted?

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) August 13, 2022

Took a lot of advanced planning for Trump to declassify the documents that FBI agents would later plant at his home

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) August 13, 2022

Not to mention that “defense” will work about as well in court as Bannon’s efforts to create the “misdemeanor from hell” did. Trump’s excuses and Bannon’s bluster have the same power.

So the FBI planted classified evidence, but also Trump declassified that evidence that he never took, but also it's not even a big deal if he did take it because only one box was classified I mean declassified, but also even if he did have many boxes of classified documents...

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 12, 2022

I take it back; Bannon's court denied defenses actually made more sense.

Biden did, as of noon on January 20, 2021. But if Trump is so certain that he is on solid legal footing, I Double Dog Dare him to declare what he declassified, and why. I mean, it’s not secret anymore, right?

But he won’t, bc he knows if he does he’ll be arrested on the spot https://t.co/Ytf1Lj1P7p

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 13, 2022

QED.