Running out of ideas, former president Donald Trump has come up with a new explanation for why he kept so many classified and top secret documents at his Florida home 18 months after his presidency.
Taking to his social media site on Sunday, Trump claimed yet again to have done nothing wrong, while attacking President Joe Biden for the discovery of classified papers at his home and an office he used in Washington DC.
In a three-part rant — oddly tagged by page number — Trump laid out his grievances and demanded the case against him be dropped.
“What Biden did was wrong, but he was given a reasonable and stable Special Counsel who is sane, inclined not to make waves, friendly with RINOS, and is not known as a flame-throwing lunatic or a Biden hater,” Trump wrote, seemingly complaining about the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Hur to investigate the Biden papers.
Trump then tried a novel argument that Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach home, is so secure that it didn’t matter that classified documents were taken there after his presidency.
“What I did was RIGHT, Secured documents in a secured place, lock on the doors, guards and Secret Service all around, security cameras working. Mar-a-Lago is essentially an armed fort, and was built that way in the 1920’s, with High Walls & structure to serve as the Southern W.H…”
He added on “Page 2”: “I was President of the U.S. and covered and protected by the Presidential Records Act, which is not criminal and allows and encourages you to talk to the NARA, which we were, very nicely, until the FBI, who it is now learned has been after me for years without pause or question, RAIDED Mar-a-Lago, a stupid and probably Illegal thing to do.”
“As President, I have the right to declassify documents, Biden did not,” Trump claimed.
President Biden has made no such claim that he declassified any of the documents found at his home and at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. A “small number” of documents were found, dating from Biden’s time as vice president to President Barack Obama.
Trumo concluded his rant by complaining about the special counsel assigned to investigate him.
“Special “Prosecutor” Jack Smith, however, is a Trump Hating political Thug…” and adding on “Page 3” with: “The Boxes Hoax Case against me should be dropped immediately. I have done nothing wrong!”
More than 300 classified documents with classification markings, including some marked “top secret”, have been retrieved from Trump’s home since he left office in January 2021.
While there are similarities between the two cases, the number of documents, the circumstances in which they were discovered, and the reaction from the respective Trump and Biden teams are all very different.
The Biden team immediately alerted the White House counsel’s office, who in turn contacted NARA, when those documents were found. In contrast, the Trump team was less forthcoming, with months passing by and a protracted battle to retrieve further documents.
Additionally, there is no indication that Biden had any knowledge of the existence of the documents and they were quickly turned over without any attempt to delay or hide the discovery.
