Trump’s Document Drama
Terry H. Schwadron
Feb. 11, 2022
All week, we’ve been hearing stories about how Donald Trump routinely ripped up government documents crossing his desk, scattering the pieces on the floor only for merely mortal staff members to have to gather and paste together anew.
That’s what the law governing presidential documents requires.
The news was that the National Archives had retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that had been improperly taken from the White House. Whether Trump had taken them in violation of law or out of some more innocent, if incorrect desire to hold onto mementos was left specifically unclear on all sides.
In any case, in the court of popular opinion, removing some unripped-up documents, including letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un and a welcome note from predecessor Barack Obama, seemed a bit down the no-no scale from, say, allegations of coordinating and encouraging the actions leading to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and an insurrection against his own and our own government.
But now comes a disclosure in The New York Times, based on reporting sources, that the archivists have discovered what it believes to be classified information among those documents. That hikes the seriousness of this contained dust-up considerably, and will have the likely effect of prompting a Department of Justice investigation that The Washington Post told us already had been a maybe. The Post separately reported from sources that at least two documents were labeled top secret.
Apart from law, this is exactly the stuff that got Trump all hot and bothered on the 2016 campaign trail when Trump fingered Hillary Clinton as being overly loose about control over e-mails and information that months later were declared classified.
As we recall, that gave rise to the “Lock Her Up” chants at Trump’s rallies. I’m waiting to hear the same now, should these documents contain classified data.
Document Drama
There is creepiness in all this document drama.
At the very least, this is a neatly contained story about the hypocrisy of saying one thing and doing another. At the worst, it is about the number of people in White House security circles who have absolutely no trust that Trump would not be sharing classified information with foreign entities for personal gain.
It’s a reminder of how Trump, who keeps saying not only that he never lost the last presidential election because of Democratic rigging, but wants to be president again, views the job. The multiple reports of Trump ripping up documents illustrates a disdain for the law and reflects his longstanding habit of not wanting any record of his actions for accountability.
Axios reported details of a new Trump book by Times reporter Maggie Haberman that includes the tidbit that staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet, believing that the president had flushed pieces of paper. Trump denies this.
The story gets a little hazy quickly, because, as Trump showed even while in the White House, he had to power to de-classify information virtually on the spot. He did so, for example, in publicly releasing particularly on issues like the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia or in using a highly classified spy satellite image of an Iranian missile launch site and distributing it on Twitter.
From The Times account, during Trump’s administration, top White House officials were deeply concerned about how little regard Trump showed for sensitive national security materials. John F. Kelly, former chief of staff, tried to stop classified documents from being taken out of the Oval Office and brought up to the residence because he was concerned about what Trump may do with them and how that may jeopardize national security, reported The Times.
No Clear Way Ahead
Truth and understanding here are slippery. No one is talking. And even once we accept all the circumstances, there will remain a question about what to do about them.
The National Archives had asked its inspector general to look at what was in the 15 boxes, and then there was outreach to the Justice Department for guidance. An inspector general is required to alert Justice to discovery of any classified materials found outside authorized government channels.
The boxes sent to Mar-a-Lago are reported to include documents, mementos, gifts and letters, even articles of clothing. Among the documents was the map Trump drew on with a black Sharpie to demonstrate the track of Hurricane Dorian heading toward Alabama in 2019 to back up a declaration he had made on Twitter that contradicted weather forecasts. Not classified.
If there was material now considered classified, it is unclear whether Trump had declassified any before he left office. Naturally, any such document itself would have been ripped up. Out of office, Trump cannot declassify information.
Under law, Trump was required to leave the documents, letters and gifts in the custody of the federal government so the National Archives could store them. Trump says he was “under no obligation” to return materials to the National Archives.
When it was Hillary Clinton under review, the intelligence community’s inspector general had made a national security referral to the F.B.I., prompting the investigation of Mrs. Clinton — and Trump used it as a political cudgel.
Trump, his staff, son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and daughter Ivanka used personal email accounts for work purposes, just as Trump accused Hillary Clinton of doing.
Just what Justice does with all of this is also a mystery. Attorney General Merrick Garland already is under pressure to look at Trump’s role and that of his inner circle in connection with the Jan. 6 riot as well as other issues. Garland has made clear he would like to avoid cases with obvious political overlay, even while saying he will prosecute without regard to who is involved.
Maybe they all can Scotch-Tape a proper investigation here.
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