Trump inadvertently explains why the indictment against him is perfectly legitimate
Jack Elbaum
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You can always rely on former President Donald Trump to say something that makes your head turn. And he did just that last night during his hourlong town hall with Sean Hannity. He inadvertently explained why, even by his own standard, the defense he is using against the 38-count indictment related to alleged mishandling of classified documents just doesn’t work.
While discussing the recent indictment, Trump claimed that he is innocent because “I’m totally covered by the Presidential Records Act,” which, according to the National Archives, “states that any records created or received by the President as part of his constitutional, statutory, or ceremonial duties are the property of the United States government and will be managed by NARA at the end of the administration.”
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So his stance is clear: the Presidential Records Act allowed him to keep the documents.
But, ironically, while discussing President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal just minutes later, he said that it was a real issue because “You’re only covered by the Presidential Records Act if you’re president” — and Biden was not president.
But neither was Trump during the document dispute. We know that Trump retained a significant amount of classified material after he was president and even admitted to it on tape while showing it to someone who didn’t have a security clearance. Consequently, by Trump’s own distorted standard and understanding of the Presidential Records Act, his defense is wholly inadequate. He claimed that he is covered by it, but then said that one is only covered by it if he is president at the time — which Trump was not.
It must be noted that this entire conversation about the Presidential Records Act eschews the actual issues at play in his case. He was not charged with a violation of the Presidential Records Act and he is completely twisting what it actually says. The reason this episode matters is, again, that it features Trump explaining why, even by his own standards, the defense he is using doesn’t work and, by extension, why the indictment against him is legitimate.
The only way he could try and spin this to seem consistent is if he said he meant that the person need not be president at the time, but rather had been president in the past. But the implication, then, is that he believes presidents can literally take any documents after their terms, including classified ones, even though that’s specifically what the Presidential Records Act prevents — not allows. The fact remains that he laid out his defense and then contradicted it no more than a few sentences later.
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So thank you, former President Donald Trump, for proving your critics exactly right. Of course your defense is hollow and the indictment against you is perfectly legitimate. Nobody is surprised by that. It is time to step aside and allow a more competent and less sleazy candidate to beat Biden in 2024.
You have already done more than enough to harm not only yourself, but the country too.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.