What's Trump Hiding: Place Your Bets!

11 August 2022, 09:08 PM

What documents did Donald Trump skip off with that were so important that he refused to give them up when asked nicely?

I think it's tough question. It can't be anything embarrassing or incriminating. If that were it, why abscond with them rather than toss them into a fireplace?

So it must be something with monetary value. In written form. Where having a copy would not do him any good.

I think he scurried off with letters he received from other world leaders, like Kim Jong Il, Putin, Bolsenaro, Duarte. He was planning to sell them at auction and keep the money. Or maybe just frame them because they're so cool.

Anyone else have a guess?

11 August 2022, 09:20 PM

wtg

WaPo has an exclusive that says the documents relate to nuclear weapons.

Reader mode should work for non-subscribers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...nd-trump-mar-a-lago/

This would explain a lot, including Garland putting the ball back in TFG’s court.

11 August 2022, 09:32 PM

rontuner

Ah, secrets to be sold as a future bank account...

Why wouldn't he??

11 August 2022, 09:48 PM

Cindysphinx

I'm not sure the "nuclear weapons" theory makes sense.

If he wants to keep the nuclear codes or something, he could make a copy and return the original. This would still be illegal, but he could have done that a long time ago and law enforcement wouldn't know he had the copy.

I feel like it is something that only has value if it is the original.

11 August 2022, 09:49 PM

Cindysphinx

Oh, and I suspect Trump doesn't want the warrant released. But he can't say that. So he might say he wants the warrants released AND the affidavits upon which they were based to be released. In this way, he would be calling the FBI's bluff because they probably can't unseal the affidavits because those likely contain classified material.

11 August 2022, 09:59 PM

Doug

Well, from what I’m reading on the interwebs, I think it must be Hunter Biden’s laptop.

11 August 2022, 10:07 PM

wtg

Is Trump says no, can the judge still decide to unseal the warrant? That’s what the WaPo article says is an option. Also that sensitive/classified parts of the warrant could be redacted.

I just can’t see how love letters from KJU would prompt the DOJ to go to search warrant kinds of lengths. It had to be important materials.

11 August 2022, 11:37 PM

Cindysphinx

I think the judge could unseal over Trump’s objection, but I doubt a judge would.

I’m not a criminal lawyer, but I would think doing so over Trump’s objection could be considered reversible error by another court on the ground that it tainted the jury. Or something.

Let’s see. What argument could Trump’s lawyers make?

I will guess, “My poor client has been through enough, your honor. First a bunch of jackbooted thugs rifled through his safe — his safe, for gods sake — and now they want to prolong his suffering by releasing the warrant?

:: clutches pearls ::

11 August 2022, 11:53 PM

Mikhailoh

My moneys on either Jimmy Hoffa or Roswell aliens.

12 August 2022, 09:00 AM

QuirtEvans

He might have taken nuclear secrets that he intended to sell to ... Russia? Or just give to Putin?

And the reason he didn't make copies ... I'd guess that even the people who worked for him might have blanched at that.

Asha Rangappa pointed out yesterday that Trump, when President, did NOT have sole authority to de-classify nuclear materials or signal intelligence. Nuclear material, as one example, requires the Department of Energy to agree to the declassification.

12 August 2022, 09:34 AM

wtg

Even really smart people do totally crazy stuff.

Nixon didn't destroy the tapes. Speculation is that he thought a) there was nothing there that would harm him and/or b) he wanted them because he thought they had value to him in the future. Here's what he said:

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/0...tapes-and-other.html

I could see TFG following a similar crazy line of thinking, if it turns out he did take the docs. As far as he's concerned, anything he does cannot possibly be wrong. He's demonstrated that thought process for his whole life.

Meanwhile, TFG is doing what I expected he would do:

quote:
Late Thursday night, Trump said on social media that he agreed the document should be made public. In another post early Friday, he called the nuclear weapons issue a “hoax” and accused the FBI of planting evidence, without offering information to indicate such a thing had happened. Trump said agents did not allow his lawyers to be present for the search, which is not unusual in a law enforcement operation, especially if it potentially involves classified items.

12 August 2022, 12:38 PM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
My moneys on either Jimmy Hoffa or Roswell aliens.

I was thinking Sasquatch but it's the same idea.

12 August 2022, 12:49 PM

CHAS

Garland calling Trump's bluff

12 August 2022, 02:23 PM

Mary Anna

I think it has something to do with Saudi Arabia--probably nuclear secrets, either ours or those of Israel or Iran or Iraq. There was enormously fishy stuff going on related to Saudi Arabia for his entire presidency, by Trump, Jared, and various other flunkies.

What I'm not certain about is why he needed originals. (Are we sure that it's originals that the FBI was after) It seems like a copy or a photograph of nuclear secrets would be good enough, right? Quirt makes a good point that he might have had trouble getting a lot of people to make those copies, but there are enough lunatics in his circle that I believe that somebody would have done it.