Why only Trump’s NARA case was referred to the DOJ for prosecution (Obama’s secret deal with NARA)
(Trump Versus the Hive, Part 26)
Why only Trump’s NARA case was referred to the DOJ for prosecution (Obama’s secret deal with NARA)
Trump’s document case went from Democratic politicians, to Democrat-funded NARA, to a predominantly-Democrat DOJ, with a Democrat Special Counsel, under a Democrat Attorney General, under a Democrat President.
How is it that Obama was storing tons of documents for a presidential library and digitization, Biden had tons in his garage and other locations, Hillary had a private email server long after her tenure as Secretary of State, Mike Pence had documents, but somehow the only one referred to the DOJ was Trump. And even the DOJ didn’t indict Trump, only the special counsel did.
The process well-illustrates how a conspiracy is not needed, when you are dealing with like-minded hive mentality adherents acting under the compulsion of one ideology. When you are dealing with people possessed by the same anti-Trump ideological entity, you don’t need any discussion, plan, or conspiracy. Winks and nods are enough, and with them, the ideological entity has found a way through the cracks in our legal system.
In the Trump document case, Democrat politicians, NARA, and the DOJ all cooperated to find crimes to charge Trump with, essentially for document retention. President Trump’s home in Mar-A-Lago was raided by the FBI for documents, but not Biden, supposedly because NARA criminally referred Trump to the FBI on this issue, but did not criminally refer Biden.
Why did NARA refer Trump but not Biden, not Obama, and not anyone else?
The NARA criminal referral of Trump to the FBI happened the same day House Oversight Committee Chain Carolyn Maloney (a Democrat from NY) sent a letter to NARA raising questions regarding Trump’s documents. Acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said it was just a “coincidence.”
House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) assembled a report on his findings.
Repeated contacts by Democrat politicians to NARA inquiring regarding the propriety of Trump’s document retention activities apparently pressured NARA. In response, NARA held a meeting regarding this matter, but invited only Democrats. Suspicious? Why would they not invite Republicans, or Trump or his lawyers, to a meeting regarding Trump’s documents, about which they had been communicating with Trump’s lawyers?
After that, Debra Wall apparently either lied or mistated facts regarding the FBI referral. In her letter of January 18, 2023, Debra Wall stated that her office had nothing to do with the referral of the matter ot the DOJ, writing, “NARA had no knowledge of and played absolutely no role in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) August 2022 search of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.”
This after she admitted the referral came from her office in 2022.
But even more interestingly, the affidavit for the warrant for the unannounced FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago private home states, under oath, that: “the FBI investigation began as a result of a referral the National Archives And Records Administration sent to the Department of Justice on February 9, 2022”… in the first paragraph!
So NARA said in 2023 they didn’t know about the DOJ involvement until after the raid, but the FBI says NARA’s referral is the reason they got involved.
NARA had been demanding Trump’s team hand over documents it had. But when Trump’s lawyers handed over 15 boxes, instead of archiving them like they claimed they wanted to, NARA handed the documents right over to the FBI for prosecuting Trump with. The FBI justified the raid because Trump’s people handed over 15 boxes of documents to NARA on January 18th containing classified information, stunningly, when that is exactly what NARA was saying Trump should do.
David Ferriero, the national archivist apparently wrote: “Because NARA identified classified information in the boxes, NARA staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.”[1]
So, by that logic, if Trump retains classified documents it’s illegal, but if he provides them to NARA who demands them, that justifies a criminal referral and raid because that’s also illegal? He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. In effect, if he didn’t hand them over, “he has documents he’s not handing over!”. If he handed them over “look at the documents he had before he handed them over!”
In the least, Trump’s return of 15 boxes shows he was cooperating, but the DOJ used his cooperation and voluntary handover of documents as basis to justify the raid and prosecution. Ironically, the reason Biden, Pence, and others were not prosecuted, is because supposedly they were “cooperating.”
Special counsels were named by Merrick Garland in both Biden’s and Trump’s document cases.[2] Trump’s special counsel was appointed in November, 2022, and Biden’s special counsel was appointed in January 12, 2023, effectively two months apart. Notice how the DOJ was all over Trump’s case, and criminal charges were already filed against Trump in May, 2023.
Some have said that Trump didn’t cooperate and that Biden, Pence and others did. But there is no time requirement under the law. Retention of classified materials is a crime, for one day. So any time difference or cooperation excuses for unequal treatment is fabricated in hindsight based on the desired result, not the preexisting legal standard.
The ideology wants Trump. So the issue is not “how do we treat them equally and consistently with longstanding policy and norms”, because that would mean non-prosecution of anyone. The question for the ideology bending the rules now is, “how do we get Trump and make it look legitmate regarding everyone else?” Of course, the ideology will prosecute Hunter if it has to, in order to get Trump. Not Obama though. And not Biden if he is a necessary part of Obama’s plans.
It gets even better.
Correspondence between former President Obama and NARA confirms Obama also stored documents unsecured at a storage facility called the Hoffman Estates facility, apparently an unsecured old furniture store. Obama said he was planning to build a library and digitize the documents. NARA gleefully agreed and complied with Obama’s requests to allow Obama to hold onto documents, store documents, and let Obama retain documents during their years-long organization and digitization process, any way Obama liked.[3]
NARA apparently covered for Obama, perhaps motivated by a $3.3 million dollar “donation” from the Obama Foundation to NARA, admitted in a letter describing this NARA-Obama deal which specifically admits the private storage and transfer of both classified and unclassified Obama presidential documents.[4] (Excerpt below)
When invetsigations unfolded, Obama’s defense was clever language, that even though his records were at Hoffman, an unsecured facility unrelated to NARA, they were under the (mythical legal fiction of) legal and physical custody of NARA…while unguarded at Obama’s furniture store.[5] This $3.3 million is apparently bribery to allow Obama to get away with classified documents policies that allow the documents to be in reality under Obama’s control and access after his presidency. How else could Obama digitize them.
The main difference between Obama storing documents at his warehouse and Trump storing documents at Mar-A-Lago was that NARA gave permission to Obama to call Obama’s storage “under NARA legal and physical custody”. Maybe they also had a key. Of course, the DOJ has no interest in pursuing Obama for apparently the same exact thing they are prosecuting Trump for. Still, NARA, who referred Trump to the DOJ, was being paid (off) millions by the leader of Trump’s political opposition. Is it any wonder they referred Trump to the FBI and covered for Obama?
It’s not even as simple as Obama knowing how to play the system; having his documents at a warehouse with the “excuses” that he was planning to put them in a presidential library, and planning to digitize them. Obama was also clever enough to have a letter he wrote, confirming an agreement, whereby the legal fallacy that while they were in Obama’s warehouse, NARA had legal and whatever other fictitious imaginary custody. Obama was also smart enough to incentivize NARA with $3.3 million dollars.