End of the line
Well, for once, Eric Trump was right: There was nothing in Donald Trump’s safe, but the FBI didn’t leave Mar-a-Lago empty handed. According to New York Times, they left with “a number of boxes.” As NYT reported, this investigation has been going for a while. Trump has prided himself on breaking norms, but this time may have legal and political consequences. The National Archives started the investigation when it discovered that Trump took documents with him that belonged in the Archives. This investigation has nothing to do with Trump personally; it is the Archives’ job to ensure presidential records are safely stored, and they are bound by law to do so.
NYT reported that both the National Archives and the DOJ tried to work with Trump to return what he stole, but he stubbornly refused. Trump may be a former “president,” but he is not above the law. He broke the law when he determined to take records with him that did not belong to him. In Trump’s mind, this has all been part of “a coordinated attack” between the FBI, the New York attorney general, and the Fulton County district attorney. Seriously? These three entities do not work together, nor do they know what the others are investigating. They would all have to spend hours trying to coordinate such a ridiculous scheme, but Donald Trump is nothing if not ridiculous. Trump’s lawyer, Christina Bobb, received a copy of the warrant, and according to her, it was a search for “presidential records or any possibly classified material.” What Trump thought he could do with those records is a mystery other than speculation by Charles Leerhsen, a ghost writer of one of Trump’s books, “Trump: Surviving at the Top.”
Leerhsen has publicly spoken out that he believes Trump took the records “to sell as presidential memorabilia.” Trump’s son Eric, of course, denies such a thing, claiming that Trump “typically saves documents and keeps extensive records of press clippings, pictures, notes from his children, letters from his ex-wife, and more.” So, if we are to believe Eric, his father is a hoarder. What is otherwise the point in saving the things Eric claims his father saves? According to Newsweek, Leerhsen would disagree with Eric, telling that periodical: “If there’s a grift to be grifted, he’s gonna grift it. He has this very basic sense that he might be able to pawn it off on someone.” That sounds more likely. Trump has spent most of his life grifting people, from failing to pay contractors who did work for him to creating the phony Trump University. He can try to pawn that wrongdoing off on others, but a 2017 investigation into Trump University revealed that Trump was at the root of creating this phony “school.”
Trump is coming dangerously close to pulling his last grift. He has violated the law with these records, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly said that “no one is above the law.” Does this mean Garland will charge and indict Trump? It sure looks like he’s heading down that road.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years