Legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said Friday that former President Donald Trump might have sold classified documents that were found missing from dozens of empty folders with classified markings that were retrieved by FBI agents who searched his Florida residence last month.
"The most reasonable inference is that Donald Trump disposed of those classified documents after unlawfully taking them from the White House," Kirschner said in a video posted on YouTube. "To what purpose did he put them? Did he sell them to America's adversaries? Did he use them to blackmail people? Did he use them to leverage a favorable business deal in some country or another? We don't know yet."
Friday's unsealed inventory list, that showed what the FBI retrieved during their search at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, included a total of 48 empty folders with "classified" banners. The inventory list also included empty folders labeled "Return to Staff Secretary/ Military Aide."
"I suspect we will learn exactly what Donald Trump did with those classified and military documents," Kirschner said. "But one thing I do know...is there is no legitimate argument. There is no persuasive argument. There is no compelling argument against arresting Donald Trump promptly."
FBI found 43 EMPTY classified documents folders in Donald Trump's office at Mar-a-Lago. Perhaps Trump should be arrested, Mirandized & interrogated about what he did with our national security information? #JusticeMatters https://t.co/NCp4gqaeNu — Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) September 2, 2022
Kirschner said in a tweet on Friday that "things just went from bad to worse to unfathomably dangerous" after the empty classified folders were found. Meanwhile, former U.S. attorney Harry Litman tweeted that the ex-president might have "riffled through the classified docs to see what he had."
"This undoes the image of just scooping them up along w/ shirts and M&Ms and keeping them in boxes," he added.
Even the best case scenario with the empty folders is that Trump (almost certainly – who else would have the gall to do it?)— riffled through the classified docs to see what he had. This undoes the image of just scooping them up along w/ shirts and M&Ms and keeping them in boxes. — Harry Litman (@harrylitman) September 2, 2022
Additionally, the inventory list that was unsealed showed other items taken from the White House that FBI agents recovered during their raid, including government documents with and without classification banners, clothing items, articles, and books.
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who ordered the unsealing, is currently considering a request by Trump's lawyer to have a special master appointed to oversee the review of the documents that were retrieved in the raid.
Trump has repeatedly said that he didn't do anything wrong by keeping those documents, while his office said that he had a "standing order" to declassify those documents, an explanation that former Department of Justice (DOJ) official Mary McCord doubted, saying that he had no authority to do so after leaving office, according to Reuters.
The ex-president and his allies have denounced the Mar-a-Lago search, which was carried out after the approval of Attorney General Merrick Garland, and suggested that it was politically motivated.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comment.
Tattered_Reason on September 5th, 2022 at 06:00 UTC »
Of course he did. His best defense is that he kept them as leverage against being charged for his other crimes or for bragging rights. Yes, sure, he is severely mentally ill and irrational, but he is also a life long grifter, everything he does is transactional. What happened to the contents of the empty folders? He sold them already!
Pauly_Walnutz on September 5th, 2022 at 05:35 UTC »
If Trump did sell some of the top secret documents and as a result some secret service assets lost their lives he should be charged with accessory to murder and locked up for the remainder of his life
Huplescat22 on September 5th, 2022 at 04:54 UTC »
If Trump actually did that, and thought that he could get away with it, it would have to be one of the stupidest things ever. But, of course, that doesn't put it outside the realm of possibility.