This reporting by ABC news means one of two things: 1) either Donald Trump is a lot farther gone mentally than we have been heretofore led to believe, or 2) He has zero comprehension of even the basics of national security or what his job was regarding same. Or both is more likely the answer. The latest breaking story this Monday afternoon is that Trump aide Molly Michaels has revealed that he used to use classified documents as scrap paper and give her to-do lists on them.
As described to ABC News, the aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters.
The notecards with classification markings were at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 — but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators.
When Michael, who was not present for the search, returned to Mar-a-Lago the next day to clean up her office space, she found the documents underneath a drawer organizer and helped transfer them to the FBI that same day, sources told ABC News.
The sources said Michael also told federal investigators that last year she grew increasingly concerned with how Trump handled recurring requests from the National Archives for the return of all government documents being kept in boxes at Mar-a-Lago — and she felt that Trump’s claims about it at the time would be easy to disprove, according to the sources.
Then, as if this isn’t damning enough, when it came time for Michaels to testify about classified materials kept at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said to Michaels, “you don’t know anything about the boxes.” And that is mobspeak for what, we wonder? Nicolle Wallace and Andrew Weissman kicked that one around.
This well may lead to a third charge of obstruction of justice, as you just heard. This case is heating up. All Trump’s cases are heating up. Here’s what some legal experts had to say about this one.
2/ Michael also told feds:
"When the FBI first contacted her for an interview as part of their investigation last year, she notified Trump about the request. In response, he told her, 'You don't know anything about the boxes.'"
via @KFaulders @MLevineReports @alex_mallin
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 18, 2023
4/ Knowledge, intent. And a credible direct witness.
ABC also reports: Trump wrote Michael notes (to-do lists) on the back of briefing notes with classification markings.
But legal significance of that may turn on whether pre or post his term in office.https://t.co/zXKP30DApT
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 18, 2023
Again, oh my God. Knowledge, intent, and a credible direct witness. Get the orange jumpsuit ready in an extra-large, please.
What gets me is that to the “mind” of Donald Trump a grocery list and a classified document are one and the same. I think that even a five-year-old child could probably understand the word “secret” and know that papers could vary in value. This is a stunning revelation, even for Trump.
— imaginary bar (@imaginarybar) September 18, 2023
You can’t make it up. You simply can not make this stuff up.
Quite frankly I’m surprised his assistant did not tell Smith the turd emperor used the classified docs as toilet paper.
Maybe he did!
he had a thing for flushing documents. so yeah
Jesus, take the wheel!
That’s about the size of it. How much weirder can this get?
I wonder if judge Loose Cannon has access to the discovery. After all, prosecutors started handing it over within days after the arraignment and it included a “road map” of the prosecution so she might have gotten a look from them as they pressed their argument for a trial as early as December. Maybe not then since she didn’t grant it and pushed things to next May but lately she’s giving small indications she’s might have done about as much as she can to help her buddy Trump. Tidbits like this, perhaps as part of a sealed response to her kicking up a fuss about Smith’s team continuing to investigate to strengthen their case might be showing her the case against him is worse than she ever thought. To the point where SHE might have to worry about getting sanctioned. Just a thought.
As I understand it, Micheal is a witness in both the Georgia and federal case, which brings up an interesting legal question: Can evidence and testimony given in one trial be used in another when there is overlap? It looks like this is going to be an issue very soon.