(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Criminal Case Against Citizen Trump Is Fairly Simple [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-08-14 In federal cases, prosecutors generally pursue indictments versus information charges utilizing a court or magistrate. Indictments are produced by a Grand Jury who hears the evidence and decides whether an indictment for a crime is warranted. This will be important with regards to timing of any indictments of Trump. It appears that there has been a Grand Jury impaneled for awhile now because a subpoena for the documents at Mar-A-Lago was issued by such an entity earlier this year. It could be that Trump was keeping the documents because he understood, probably via his legal representation, that the possession of this material is a crime. Giving them back doesn’t remedy the legal jeopardy, any more than if you stole someone’s property and ended up returning it. It’s is still a crime. Some categories of documents carry a stiff penalty, up to 20 years per document set, or incident. When he became a private citizen, removing these documents constitutes a theft. From reports, it seems Mr. Trump was afforded the benefit of the doubt and consideration that it may have been a mistake or inadvertent. Over time it appears the FBI came to the conclusion this wasn’t the case. These documents don’t belong to him any more than the rental car you used on a vacation belongs to you. If you drive it home and refuse to give it back, you will be committing a crime. A Fairly Simple Case When it comes to the search on Mr. Trump’s home, simplicity as it applies to the facts and circumstances is not hard to get to. It’s fairly straightforward. That he is a former president may necessitate a more rigorous planning stage due to the media coverage and political backlash, yet the case is what it is. It is pretty much the same process as it would be for anyone who had done something similar. 1. It’s illegal to take things from the White House as one leaves. Even a stapler must be accounted for. These are the property of the American people. 2. There are a number of laws regarding removing classified documents and mishandling them. Documents that if they fell in to the wrong hands could undermine the security of America, or get sources killed is a serious crime with long jail sentences. 3. Lying about having classified documents and withholding them after they have been subpoenaed by a grand jury is an obstruction of justice, a crime. 4. There is a process for declassifying documents. There is no magic phrase a President can say to accomplish this. This may be litigated by the defense but it will likely fall. 5. None of the three criminal statutes cited in the warrant are dependent on the documents being classified. 6. Trump’s attorney was on site during the search and there is a closed circuit camera system that recorded every aspect of the search. This was a clean search and seizure by any standard. If you did any of this you would be charged with a crime. Trump is a private citizen just like you and me and he will be charged and indicted. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/14/2116607/-The-Criminal-Case-Against-Trump-Is-Fairly-Simple Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/