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August 19, 2022
With the bungled raid on Mar-a-Lago by Voldemort Garland’s minions, we must turn off the valve on his gaslight and blow away the stench being spread by the lamestream media. To do this, we must unequivocally declare that words actually have meanings. As John Adams said at the Boston Massacre trial, “Facts matter, and facts are stubborn things.”
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Bill Clinton’s famous prevarication of, “It depends on what the meaning of “‘is’ is” notwithstanding, the Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear with Heller, McDonald, Dobbs, and Bruen that the meanings of words in law are those that the authors of the law would have understood, not some later permutation preferred by the Left. That’s why we should question the Lawfare blog’s insistence that “The FBI has clearly developed significant evidence of criminal activity at Mar-a-Lago related to the handling of classified material, and government property more generally.”
Lawfare’s take is not surprising given that it is a lefty organization. But inquiring minds want to know the Truth. And no, I’m not talking about Trump’s social media organization that still doesn’t have a web app. I’m talking about the word “truth” and what it actually means.
Image: Trump and Melania leave the White House. YouTube screen grab.
“Truth” is a verbal representation of what is or what has happened. Truth does not care whether you believe it or not. It will not argue with you. It will simply hit you between the eyes when you ignore or deny it enough times. For example, if you have no income and you keep spending money, eventually your credit card will be rejected. It’s not complicated; it’s just a fact. It’s not my truth or your truth. It is the truth. In this vein, we must consider the seizure of documents from Mar-a-Lago. There are four classes of material.
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The first is the simplest. Donald Trump works at Mar-a-Lago while he’s there, so he has created work-related documents. Those are properly his and should never have been taken. They aren’t covered by the Presidential Records Act and aren’t classified security documents.
Second are his passports. As president, he had both a personal and a diplomatic passport. Those are his unless he is required to surrender them by a Court or the State Department. No such orders have been given and, should he be required to surrender them, the Mar-a-Lago raid would look like kicking over a sand castle on a beach.
The third class is security-related documents. Here’s where things get interesting. If Trump took classified documents with him and did not store them properly, then it is possible to suggest that there might be a securities violation.
But…
In 1988, the Supreme Court, in Navy v. Egan, declared that the President’s control over classified documents is absolute:
The President, after all, is the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” U.S.Const., Art. II, § 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant.
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This is also a direct reference to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
In short, the Constitution granted President Trump complete authority to classify or declassify anything he wanted. No one had any legal authority to question him. He was not required to follow any procedure. His standing order that any materials he removed from the Oval Office were deemed declassified was both fully effective and unquestionable. He had “plenary authority.”
As Trump attorney and adviser, Kash Patel, noted, “He can literally stand over a set of documents and say these are now declassified and that is done with definitive action immediately.” This is not opinion. It is the truth. Not my truth. The truth. The Constitution requires it.
There is only one possibility regarding any materials taken from the White House before noon on January 20, 2021. Unless Donald Trump rescinded his standing order, all those documents were, in fact, declassified the moment they left the Oval Office. Thus, any Espionage Act charge relating to documents at Mar-a-Lago is bogus. As President Trump said, “All the documents were declassified.”
The only possible way that Trump could have possessed classified documents would be if he removed them after Biden was immaculated. But Donald and Melania left the White House around 11:00, and there is lots of news coverage to confirm that fact. He hasn’t been back since.
Of interest, Marine One flew in and the Trumps flew out on it moments later. Neither Donald nor Melania had anything in their hands other than the other person’s hand. As for the movers, they are required to be gone with all the outgoing President’s belongings, mementos, and whatever before noon. Put bluntly, if Trump didn’t get it out of the White House by noon, he didn’t have it at Mar-a-Lago, and that means that any papers fell under his standing declassification order. Game, set, and match.
The final question is whether Trump had documents that the Presidential Records Act says belong to the National Archives. While that’s possible, 45 has been very cooperative on that count. When the movers took things out of the White House, it’s quite likely that they scooped up some items that fit into that description. On an earlier DOJ visit to Mar-a-Lago, some of these things were identified and handed over without objection. And as The Donald has noted, all they had to do was ask. He’d be happy to return anything that fit the bill. And that brings us to a key consideration.
Attorney General Merrick “I’m only enforcing the rule of law” Garland apparently dithered over authorizing the raid for weeks. If national security was at issue, why wasn’t he knocking on Trump’s door within a few days after January 20? It’s now over a year and a half later. For National Archives issues, a simple phone call would work. Trump’s personal work and passports don’t fall under any form of request or excuse. So, what’s going on?
I can’t read the alleged mind of anyone on the Left, so here comes my best guess. Sleepy Joe’s puppet masters realized that their attempt to use the January 6 circus to paint Trump as an insurrectionist was failing. So, they needed to find a way to soil him so badly that his base would reject him. “Under investigation” would be the magic words. But they forgot a key item.
First, as I’ve noted above, Trump did nothing illegal. Second, they tried multiple investigations. Russiagate flopped. Then, an investigation into a routine phone call resulted in a sham impeachment. Finally, when bad actors crashed Biden’s Electoral College party, the Left gave Trump credit. But in every case, the Left failed.
Donald Trump loves America. He didn’t need the money. He endured the endless slings and arrows of the feckless Clockwork Orange hoodlums. And he keeps coming back for more. He is the essential leader that America must have, and real Americans see it. Yes, many dislike his mean tweets but accept that he fights for them, unlike the Left who use “Fighting for You” as a meaningless mantra.
And that’s the truth.
Ted Noel MD is a retired Anesthesiologist/Intensivist who podcasts and posts on social media as DoctorTed and @vidzette. His DoctorTed podcasts are available on many podcast channels.
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