Donald Trump’s been caught stealing
The National Archives just officially confirmed that Donald Trump took classified documents with him on his way out of the White House and stashed them at Mar-a-Lago, and it’s been referred to the Department of Justice.
There were numerous media reports about this over the past week, but this is the first official confirmation from the National Archives itself. This makes it official, and puts it in the hands of criminal investigators and congressional investigators.
Before anyone yells “DOJ will do nothing,” keep in mind that according to earlier reporting on this story, the DOJ has instructed the National Archives Inspector General to investigate the matter internally. In such cases, if it’s definitively concluded that criminal activity did take place, the Inspector General would then make a criminal referral to the DOJ.
Notably, when the January 6th Committee made a criminal referral against Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress, the DOJ indicted and arrested him three weeks later. Point being, there is a procedure for these things, and this DOJ has already shown that when the procedure results in a legitimate criminal referral, it is indeed willing to indict. Wherever this scandal and probe is going, it’s not “nowhere.”
