Presidential Records Act

I don't do this often. Actually, up until this moment, I've never done it at all.

But I decided to take former President Donald Trump up on his particular plea as he stubbornly tried to explain his claim that he could retain boxes and boxes of top secret and confidential records that he stole from the White House after his term ended in January 2021.

"I can declassify them," asserted Trump. "They're mine. When I declassify them, I can do whatever I want with them according to the Presidential Records Act. You can look it up." 

Okay. So I did. I went to Google, typed in "Presidential Records Act," and this is what I found:

§2202. Ownership of Presidential records

"The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records; and such records shall be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter."

That seems pretty clear cut. If you read further, there's a section describing management and custody of records. A sitting president can dispose of records, usually going through the National Archives and Records archivist, although there are specific procedures to follow with Congress. Trump said he could declassify material simply by thinking about it. That procedure is not found in the PRA.

You can see for yourself (see here). Happy reading.

Even though the PRA is United States Code, it does not carry the weight of any enforcement. That's probably why it wasn't referred to in the 37-count indictment against Trump. What does carry the weight of enforcement is the Espionage Act of 1917, particularly the section regarding the retention of classified documents. A total of 31 of the 37 counts are filed under the Espionage Act. Each count is worth 10 years in prison if Trump is found guilty of any of them.

Trump insists the PRA allows him to keep presidential documents, whether they are classified or not. Apparently, he doesn't appear to be able to read or to understand what it is he's reading when he does read. And that's why, in part, this entire sorry episode could have been avoided if he had simply returned the documents to the National Archives when NARA asked for their return. It's that simple.

But he didn't. My guess is that perhaps it has something to do with an apparently underdeveloped brain that only understands doubling down on confrontation with curious moments of projection, confession and cognitive dissonance. It's the same underachieving brain that ran the country for four years.

•   •   •

 I had another laughable moment when I read the comments of a Trumper who wondered why we don't wait for evidence anymore.

Ahem. Well, we do. The evidence is gathered by the special prosecutor and presented to a grand jury, a collection of the defendant's peers, who then vote to decide whether or not to prosecute the case. That's how it works. And that's what happened. It's the system that's the bedrock material of our country's democracy.

It's my understanding that many Republicans have not bothered to read the 37 counts because, well, why should they? It's clearly nothing more than the political persecution of "the best president we've ever had." Right?

But just in case you haven't read the 37 counts, here they are: (see here). Happy reading.

The parts that really bothered me were the ones that included words like "nuclear", "military" and "foreign countries." You know, those eyes-only words. Not the words you want to see strewn across the floor of a bathroom in Mar-a-Lago. You know Mar-a-Lago, right? It's Trump's vacation resort for Chinese spies. (See here).

This guy is reckless, careless, clueless and incredibly dangerous with our national security.

•   •   •

The 37-count indictment against Trump has ignited some elements of the GOP (GOP used to be an acronym for Grand Ol' Party. Now, in my mind, it stands for Grievance is Our Platform) to complain about a perceived two-tier justice system that offers one set of rules for Democrats and another set of rules for Republicans. 

All you have to do is look at Hillary Clinton and the missing 30,000 emails for proof. All you have to do is look at Hunter Biden and his laptop. All you have to do is look at the Biden crime family and the bribes they've accepted. (Note: Trump and his father, Fred, have been arrested three times between them. A crime family?).

Never mind that two separate attorney generals under Trump (Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr) could not find evidence to prosecute Clinton, try as they might. Never mind that the FBI is led by Trump-appointed director Christopher Wray.

Nevertheless, both the FBI and the Department of Justice are seen as complicit in maintaining this supposed two-tier system and thus many Republicans seek to defund the FBI and restructure the DOJ. Presumably in their image. All because they lost an election.

Bwa ha ha ha.

It's all rather cynical.

My theory is that Republicans are still reacting to Richard Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal 50 years ago. It's a moment engraved into American history and there's no expunging it and how could this happen to Republicans anyway because we don't elect criminals to high office? Surely, it can't happen again, can it?

Can it?