2. I learned something new from @petestrzok today: That typically, the government does not use subpoenas to recover classified info from those not authorized to receive it. I'll let him explain why, but it has implications for potential criminal charges moving forward
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 9, 2022
4. Either 1) Trump voluntarily returns the docs, or 2) they get a search warrant to retrieve them. It seems like they tried, for over a year, to do #1. What if that fails? One imagines that then they have to keep threatening his lawyers that they will have to come and take them
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 9, 2022
6. One imagines a SW application which lists, e.g., 18 U.S.C. 793(e) -- willful failure to return national defense information. Discussed with @renato_mariotti, who pointed out that then the PC consists of all the exchanges between DOJ and Trump's lawyers playing chicken
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 9, 2022
8. So -- mischief managed. Now, does DOJ *also* need to PUNISH Trump? That's a whole different ballgame. As many have pointed out, PC for a search warrant is lower than beyond a reasonable doubt to convict -- not to mention the hurdle of indicting and prosecuting a former POTUS
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 9, 2022
Tl;dr: prosecuting possession of classified documents is not just “they were there and they were classified.” The risk to national security is the exposure of the documents. Courtrooms are not places to hide things. And the documents are the evidence of the crime. But the primary governmental concern is the documents, and when they are secured…game over.10.This isn't to say there wouldn't be a *basis* to prosecute (could be same crime listed in SW application or something else). But the *need* to do that is less pressing if impetus for the SW in the first place is to eliminate threat to nat sec and there was no other option /END
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 9, 2022
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