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The National Archives has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether former President Donald Trump unlawfully handled government records.
The request followed the news this week that Trump had to turn over 15 boxes of documents he had improperly brought to Mar-a-Lago from the White House. Those materials reportedly included purported “love letters” (Trump’s words) from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, a map Trump infamously marked up to support his incorrect prediction of Hurricane Dorian’s path in 2019, and potentially classified documents.
And honestly, who knows what happened to those documents in the year’s time they were at Trump’s sleaze palace, a hub for seedy patrons and subpar food? For all we know, he may have chewed them up, or spread them out on a table so dinner guests could gawk, or maybe he merely left them in the room where he once danced a jig with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement Wednesday, Trump told The Washington Post that it was a "great honor" to work with the National Archives and that he had arranged for the “transport of boxes that contained Presidential Records in compliance with the Presidential Records Act.”
Whatever the scenario, the National Archives’ discovery provides an opening for Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has vowed to depoliticize the Justice Department after years of Trump putting his thumb on the scale.
I’ve always found Garland’s vow to depoliticize the DOJ somewhat understandable on its face and completely unfeasible in practice.
As "The ReidOut" guest and former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said on the show Wednesday night: Trump’s mishandling of classified documents could be Garland’s best bet yet at holding Trump accountable without seeming explicitly political.
Kirschner said Trump likely violated a law known as 18 U.S. Code 2071, which prohibits the “concealment, removal or mutilation” of federal documents. As Kirschner noted in his conversation with Reid, the crime is punishable by either a fine or three years in prison. And — notably — offenders are barred from holding office in the future.
Personally, I’ve always found Garland’s vow to depoliticize the DOJ somewhat understandable on its face and completely unfeasible in practice. At a time when the Republican Party — led by Trump — is waging an assault on democracy, it’s foolish to think any methods of holding its leaders accountable will be seen as anything but political.
But Trump’s flagrant disregard for the law — generally, but certainly in this case — gives the attorney general an opportunity to pursue some form of justice against Trump while maintaining an outwardly apolitical stance.
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