August is H-bomb month, historically. The United States dropped two of them in August of 1945 and World War II ended. This August the DOJ dropped an H-bomb on Trump world by executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago upon Mandarin Mussolini, as his former lawyer Michael Cohen refers to Donald Trump.

The fallout rages, just like it did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The latest panic stricken statement from Trump was read aloud on Fox News by one of Trump’s cronies, former Hill journalist-turned-propagandist John Solomon. Raw Story:

On Friday evening, Trump’s organization reportedly gave an exclusive new statement to far-right writer John Solomon, who proceeded to read it on-air on Fox News. Solomon is one of Trump’s representatives to the National Archives and Records Administration, along with Kash Patel.

“As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different. President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents including classified documents from the Oval Office to the residence,” Trump admitted, even though some of the documents recovered are supposed to remain in a SCIF or “Secure, Compartmentalized Information Facility.”

Oh yeah, we can all relate to that. That’s like a police officer taking drugs and contraband out of the evidence locker at the station and bringing it home. Uh huh. And of course, it gets worse.

“He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” the unnamed spokesperson said.

That would mean that all of the documents in question are now in the public domain.

“The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated by the president, needs to approve of declassification is absurd,” the statement falsely claimed.

The president does not have the power to unilaterally declassify nuclear weapons information.

You, too, can be a nuclear physicist and have access to Top Secret weapons documents. Donald Trump has made it so. I think the next fundraising email will read: MAGAS, be the first Trump supporter on your block to be the last Trump supporter on your block. Build your own bomb, or better yet, ask the Saudis to build you one, we gave them the directions. Ask Jared, he got $2 Billion for it. 

I know this is going to get stranger still, because it always does, but how I cannot even begin to imagine.

 

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20 COMMENTS

  1. Did he run this past his lawyers? Probably not, because that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. There is a process. There’s no such thing as a standing order to declassify if you take it from one room to another. Just how stupid are the MAGAts that they would believe this and how stupid is John Solomon for delivering this manure? I guess Ron White was right, “You can’t fix stupid.”

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  2. Wasn’t he unemployed when he took the documents b/c the American people had fired him ? And did he mention this standing order to the FBI/DOJ when they came looking for the documents ? Too bad for him it doesn’t matter whether they’re declassified or not.

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  3. What? I thought you said they were planted by the feds. How do you declassify planted evidence especially if you don’t know what they planted? Do your supporters EVER THINK?

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  4. There ARE (or have been for Presidents not named Trump) protocols for highly classified documents in the WH. Yes, it’s one of the most secure (from attack) buildings on the planet but a LOT of people work there. And visit people who work there. Everyone down to custodians and cooks gets vetted of course but the fact remains you don’t just leave shit were someone brining in a Diet Coke can see it. Especially upstairs in the residence! And, lest we forget Trump was known to have highly classified material out in the fucking dining room at Mar A Lago where his club guests could see them, and hear him talking about the stuff!

    Imagine if Obama had done such a thing! Really, imagine the conservative OUTRAGE that would have spewed forth! And most Democrats would have been pissed too and therein lies the difference.

    A President can (and Trump as we know did) override those who tend to such things and grant a security clearance to someone (say his son-in-law) who doesn’t qualify. That much is true. But classified documents are another matter. Presidents can’t on their own decide certain types of materials declassified. There is a procedure that has to take place. Trump of course didn’t give a shit about rules and the reasons (good ones!) for them. He did WTF he wanted whenever he wanted and that was that.

    But this time he’s gotten his saggy ball-sack caught in the meat grinder. It’s sure looking like Garland isn’t the least bit afraid of the “big bad Trump” and these are serious crimes. Multiple crimes in fact, committed with complete knowledge beforehand. Trump figured he could make up his own rules on the matter regardless of the laws and the resulting procedures established to ensure compliance with those laws.

    Look, like everyone else I was frustrated as hell with Garland and the DOJ but it now seems like they’ve been diligently working to where we are now, and finally letting on to both Trump and the public that he’s a subject, if not already a target (there are legal distinctions between the two but neither is a good position to be in) of a serious as hell CRIMINAL investigation. This bullshit about “standing orders” is just that – bullshit spewed straight out of an ass that is also shitting ragged chunks of broken bricks. At this point Trump and his fluffers are trying any and everything to stuff the shit back into the goose.

    However, if this gets into a courtroom where facts and the law are all that matters Trump, and others (that business about fingerprinting those classified docs is I think pretty interesting – one wonders how many people are having panicked conversations with high priced lawyers this very second?) are fucked.

    I know how fucked people were when during nighttime “sweeps” of Naval office spaces when I stood duty at the Pentagon even a single sheet marked top secret was unsecured. Left in a desk drawer, or in a cabinet that was supposed to be locked but wasn’t. Security clearances were yanked first thing in the morning and careers were DONE. And yes, charges were filed although I think most got pled down to discharge under less than honorable conditions, but with a felony on that person’s record. This is far, far worse.

    I shudder to think how much of that stuff has been sold or traded. DOD and the intel services have known for a very long time in general what was taken and have surely taken steps, hugely expensive I might add to mitigate the damage. But some of it can never be undone. What are our allies supposed to think? Yes, they know we have a sane, highly competent President again trying to put things back in some sort of order but they can also see the all too real possibility that in just two years we could have a worse version of Trump in the WH.

    We are still a major player in the affairs of the free world, but the news this week is a stark and devastating reminder to the rest of the free world that the United States of America is no longer fit to hold the position of clear leader of the free world. Maybe someday, when Trump, Trumpism and what the GOP has transformed itself into is reduced to batshit crazy irrelevancy in a couple of generations our position might be restored. But I’m not holding my breath.

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    • I think world leaders are waiting to see how the mid-terms shake out. We should hold the Senate w/ a possible gain of 2-5 seats. If we can hold onto the House, I think that’ll go a long way to convince the world that we haven’t lost our minds. I hope that all the talking heads that keep saying it’s a foregone conclusion that the rethugs will regain the House, have egg on their faces after the election.

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      • Hate Silver says we might end up.with as many as 60seats in the Senate but Rs could get up to.axtotal.of 270. We need the House even if we barely squeak a majority.Fingers crossed c that overturning Roe makes,a huge difference and we keep it. Women are well and truly pissed,,and UT doesn’t look.like that poll takes that into account. Women need to.vote blue as if their lives depend on it,because woman still fertile may find they do..

  6. We all know that Trump has no bottom. So what are his supporters going to say when, not if, but WHEN the next shoe drops and we find out that Trump has ALREADY sold classified documents for money? We’ve all been watching this train wreck for seven years now. We know exactly where it will end. You can bank on it. We will find out that Trump sold classified documents, and his defense will be that since he unclassified them himself, he had every right to sell them. Once again, not even a question. It’s going to happen. So what do his supporters do then?

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  7. Emptywheel points out that the really interesting part of this is the stuff about “Any evidence of the knowing alteration, destruction, or concealment of any government and/or Presidential Records, or of any documents with classification markings.”
    Also, the warrant covers everything from 1/20/2017 through 1/20/2021. So his *entire* term.

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