Trump’s 2016 Campaign Promise to Protect Classified Information During His Administration Goes Viral
By Alex GriffingAug 15th, 2022, 2:30 pm
959 comments




A clip of then-candidate Donald Trump vowing to protect classified information during a 2016 campaign stop went viral on Monday as critics called out the hypocrisy surrounding the issue and the former president.


“On political corruption, we are going to restore honor to our government. In my administration, I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law,” Trump says in the clip from a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina on August 18, 2016.

Trump’s attacks on his then-opponent, Hillary Clinton, and her alleged mishandling of classified information featured prominently in his 2016 campaign and even led to him strengthening laws regarding classified information.

“Hillary Clinton put her emails on a secret server nobody knew about except for the man that was giving the Fifth, remember? What ever happened to him? Where is he? What happened to him? Where did he go? He pled the Fifth. Never heard – that’s the end of him…She put her emails on a secret server to cover up her pay-for- play scandal in the State Department,” Trump raged at another 2016 campaign stop in September of 2106 in Philadelphia.

On January 18, 2018, Trump signed S. 139 into a law. The bill, which Trump supported, edited 18 U.S. Code §1924, which originally read:

Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.

Philip Bump in the Washington Post explains all the various maneuverings around the law but notes the end result was that Trump increased the punishment for mishandling classified information and made the violation a federal felony. The law now reads that those convicted of violating the law “shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.”

The search warrant executed during the raid of Trump’s residence, released on Friday, confirmed that the FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, which could indeed be a violation of the very law Trump strengthened.


The clip initially shared by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski was quickly retweeted and commented on by pundits across the media, many of whom roasted the former president.

Here are a few examples:




Andrew Weissmann

@AWeissmann_
·
Follow
Oops. . The below (and many other like it) are admissible at a criminal trial to show his knowledge of laws Re classified info.









andrew kaczynski

@KFILE
August 2016




11:44 AM · Aug 15, 2022







Asha Rangappa

@AshaRangappa_
·
Follow
It's like a game of Clue except he tells us the crimes he plans to commit in advance









andrew kaczynski

@KFILE
August 2016




11:12 AM · Aug 15, 2022



S.V. Dáte

@svdate
·
Follow
"I am going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law."









andrew kaczynski

@KFILE
August 2016




10:21 AM · Aug 15, 2022

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/t...rmation-during-his-administration-goes-viral/

 

Trump Team Drops Email Proving FBI Wrongly Seized Passports After Media, DOJ Attempted to Mislead Public with Spin

Drew Angerer/Getty Images
PAUL BOIS15 Aug 2022

Donald Trump’s legal team demolished the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) media spin that denied having the former president’s passports in their possession following the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago last week.

On Monday, former President Trump claimed on his social media site TruthSocial that the FBI “stole” his passports during the raid that shook the political world last week.

“In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” he said. “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”

As Breitbart News noted, the passports were “not independently itemized on the FBI’s property receipt of the 28 inventory items federal agents seized.”

“The warrant, which Attorney General Merrick Garland says he approved and was signed by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, did not state that they could take Trump’s passport,” the report noted. “Typically, the government needs a separate court order to seize someone’s passport, even temporarily.”

According to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, a DOJ official said the former president’s passports were in their possession, one of which presumably would have been a diplomatic passport.

“According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home,” O’Donnell announced on Monday.

https://twitter.com/NorahODonnell/s...passports-media-doj-attempted-mislead-public/
Shortly after Norah’s post, Taylor Budowich, the former president’s communications director, shared an email from Jay Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division, confirming that three passports were seized in the raid and that they would be returned to the former president soon.

“We have learned that the filter agents seized three passports belonging to President Trump, two expired and one being his active diplomatic passport. We are returning them, and they will be ready for pick up at WFO at 2 PM today,” the email to Trump’s attorneys read.

https://twitter.com/TayFromCA/statu...passports-media-doj-attempted-mislead-public/

Norah O’Donnell amended her initial statement in light of the new information.

https://twitter.com/NorahODonnell/s...passports-media-doj-attempted-mislead-public/

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Donald Trump warned about the “tremendous anger” brewing in the country following the raid on his private residence.

“There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country—at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times,” Trump said.

 

It's common for them to withhold info when it could compromise an investigation.

But hey, you go right ahead and throw your childish temper tantrums because you don't get your way...

 

LOL, you and the general seem to be the one's running around stomping your feet while throwing your childish temper tantrums... I'm just enjoying the show.

Seems this raid thingy is not going the way you wanted....

 

What is so fucking hilarious about that is they are quoting a CBS news report that is suddenly the gospel. And I would have to see the actual video not anything Breitbart reports. That is a joke in and of itself. Which is why he never links his souses, He's too embarrassed,

From what I am seeing there is a much simpler explanation. The people doing the search did believe the passports fell under the warrant but upon further review they decided they didn't and returned them.

 

Did everyone forget that, as with all Presidential documents, it is always people from the NATIONAL ARCHIVES that PACK and then SHIP all of the boxes in question to Mar A Largo.. Shouldn't the National Archives be explaining why and how, so called "CLASSIFIED","SECRET" OR "TOP SECRET", BTW there is no such thing as an "ULTRA SECRET" classification, documents ended up going to Florida???
Also, the warrant and so called receipt is really irrelevant, what really needs to be released is the AOCP or Affidavit Of Probable Cause. That's where shit gets real but don't hold your breath... Even though it's part of the public record, the DOJ is in NO HURRY to release it...

 

No excuse for the FBI lying about not having Trump’s passports..... Or why they took them in the first place.

 

Proof?

Who said there was?

 

He is a fucking flight risk end of!

Thinskin

 

Is that why the FBI gave them back??

 

While I totally thank you for parroting a Lindsay Graham talking point, that was shut down a few days ago. Keep up.

 

It is nothing short of amazing how detached from reality and uninformed you are. And there is really no excuse for being so incredibly uninformed. Surely you have google and could look it up.

The whole issue is Trump did not hand his presidential records over to the National Archives as required by law. Trump stole all those records and documents from the American people. And when the National Archives determined Trump had stolen more than 30 boxes of presidential records they demanded he return them. And Trump did hand over 15 boxes of records and documents. But when the National Archives began to inventory and catalog them they found documents that were so highly classified they were not even supposed to be looking at them. So the National Archives called in the FBI who is required by law to investigate the security breach,

Then it was the FBI demanding Trump hand over everything he took because both the National Archives and the FBI knew Trump was still in possession of stolen records and classified material. And again Trump went through the motions of handing over some records and both he and his lawyer lied and said he had handed over everything.

The FBI knew better so a grand jury investigating the security breach subpoenaed all the records Trump stole. And again Trump lied and said he had handed over everything. The FBI even sent the director of counter intelligence down to Mar a Lago to explain how serious this security breach was to convince Trump and his lawyers to hand over the records and documents they knew Trump was hiding in one of the most unsecure locations in the country. Mar a Lago also known as "spy central."

The FBI was then informed Trump was hiding some of the most highly classified material the country has including documents on our nuclear weapons program. They were also informed Trump was destroying some of the records. So the FBI had no choice but to get a search warrant to stop the national security threat.

They removed another 10 to 12 boxes of documents and records some of which were marked TS/SCI which means they are so top secret they are only supposed to be viewed in a SKIFF. There is no possible way material that top secret is supposed to leave the government's hands.

And treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans that screamed for years Hillary Clinton belonged in prison for having classified material on her private server are now trying to make up excuses and give a free pas for having TS/SCI documents in the basement of Mar a Lago.

 

Excuses?
No, american hater.
The point is, we know from 5 and 6 year old investigations that Hilary had TOP SECRET documents on her server, and she knew she had them, and she lied about it, and she got caught, and we know the Russians saw at least some, if not all of her e Mails, and in the end the FBI and DOJ gave her a pass.
Fine.
Now the same basic allegations are being made against Trump, mainly that he took TOP SECRET documents, and knew he had them, and lied about it, and got caught, and if the issues are so closely similar as all that, then Trump ought to get the same punishment Hilary got. Unless, you know, the decision was political and not legal.

Now, you been stamping your foot and insisting that Trump has given the Russians TOP SECRET documents, but we don't know that russia has seen any of it, cause even though they SAY they have, it doesn't make sense for them to reveal that if true. See, one does not reveal what secrets one has or how they got them. One will feed propaganda out if one sees some advantage.
So, while the Russians say they have seen Trumps secrets, that's a great indication they haven't. And lets note, they never said they saw Hilary's secrets but we know they did.

Now hop to, american hater, you're running behind on your wrong story postings. Your handler is going to be pissed.

 

I don't think the press needs this suggestion from John Bolton. I would bet news outlets are already filing FOA requests. And you talk about havoc and chaos. They are essentially saying the government has to hand over the most highly guarded secrets the nation has so they can publish and broadcast them. That is the national security nightmare Trump has created


John Bolton tells media to call Trump's bluff and file FOIA requests for all documents he says he declassified

Matthew Chapman
August 16, 2022



John Bolton (Screen Capture)


On CNN Tuesday, former national security adviser John Bolton demolished the idea that former President Donald Trump secretly declassified the highly classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago country club — some of which may be nuclear secrets — and pointed out that if these documents really are declassified, the media should call his bluff and file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain them in unredacted form.

"The president said he had to take classified materials to his residence, and therefore he declassified them by doing that," said Bolton. "Look, nobody's worried about unauthorized people in the residence quarters at the White House. If there are unauthorized people there, we have got a problem a lot more serious than documents being compromised. Moreover, if this existed, there had to be some way to memorialize it. The White House counsel had to write it down. Otherwise, how would people throughout the government know what to declassify? You don't declassify a document just as to Donald Trump. If a document is declassified, it is declassified. And no such recordkeeping system existed. And I think this is just a sign of how worried the president's advisers are about the nature of the problem he's in right now."

"A 'fiction,' you called it," said anchor John Berman.

"Yeah," said Bolton. "If he has declassified hundreds, maybe thousands of documents that he took to the residence because he worked very hard on this at night as we all know, over four years, the media should be filing Freedom of Information Act requests for all documents declassified by Donald Trump pursuant to this standing order. I'd love to see what gets produced."

RELATED: Morning Joe says Trump could lose more Fox hosts after Mar-A-Lago search: 'The news is going to get worse'

"And we know from seeing the receipt of items taken from Mar-a-Lago that there was a box labeled as SCI — sensitive compartmented information," continued Berman. "Can you think of any reason a former president would have to have sensitive compartmented information in his residence?"

"No," said Bolton. "Look, in a normal administration a president is quite likely to write memoirs. He'll want and deserves access to highly classified information, arrangements are made for former presidents and indeed for former cabinet officers who leave under happy circumstances, that SCIFs are set up that they can go to and look at this classified information. I don't think there is any explanation that carries any weight whatever, why Trump just didn't follow the normal procedures, except he thought he wasn't subjected to procedures."

Watch the video below or at this link.



https://www.rawstory.com/john-bolton-trump-documents/

 

Clinton's Handling of Classified Information - FactCheck.org

"We now know from the FBI investigation that:

• More than 2,000 of the 30,490 emails Clinton turned over to the State Department contained classified information, including 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained classified information at the time they were sent or received. (Most emails were retroactively deemed to contain classified information by the U.S. agencies from which the information originated.)
• Some of the emails containing classified information “bore markings indicating the presence of classified information,” contrary to Clinton’s claims that none was marked classified. Comey did not provide a specific number.
• “everal thousand work-related emails” were not turned over to the State Department in 2014, but were recovered by the FBI. Comey said “three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received.”

Among those several thousand work-related emails that were not provided to the State Department, Comey said, “three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received; one at the secret level and two at the confidential level. There were no additional top secret emails found.”
​

Well, no, not quite, american hater. The factcheck.org post didn't discuss Russian hacking. But we do know from other sources that the Russians did indeed have access to anything of Hillary's that they cared to see, including every one of her e Mails on that home brewed server of hers;
Clinton practically handed her email password to the Russians (nypost.com)

"The Russians didn’t hack into Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, as others have reported, according to a very reliable source of mine who has connections with US intelligence agencies.
They didn’t have to.
Clinton was so careless when using her BlackBerry that the Russians stole her password. All Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gang had to do was log into Clinton’s account and read whatever they wanted.

They had to be laughing their butts off. So you can add the Russians to the list of people who know bad and personal things about Clinton that the Democrats will wish remain hidden.

FBI Director James Comey said a few weeks ago that Clinton had been “extremely careless” with her e-mails, but he added that he didn’t think the server she’d been using had been hacked by “hostile actors.”

But Comey also said it was unlikely the FBI would be able to find such evidence if a hacking had occurred. He added, “It is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”

Clinton countered by saying that Comey was just speculating about a hacking. “If you go by the evidence, there is no evidence that the system was breached or hacked successfully,” she said.
My source says he’s “absolutely 100 percent sure” on what he told me. “I know it to be fact.”

What’s in any e-mail account? Stuff about your personal life, including embarrassing conversations. In Hillary’s case, speeches and details about the payments. Clinton Foundation secrets. The Russians, I’m told, got it all.

Comey and Clinton could, then, honestly say the server wasn’t hacked. But he never addressed the point — and may not have known — that the Russians had an easier way to get Hillary’s vital information by simply logging in to her account.

So let’s assume the worst — that Putin knows everything that Hillary did for years by having someone sign in under her password and read her mail. What does he do next? He could, of course, release the 20,000 or so e-mails that Clinton thought had been erased and stir up the November election.

Putin is welcome to give them to me. But he’ll probably go the usual route — WikiLeaks.

Or he could hold some back so he can blackmail President Clinton if she wins.

My continuing point is this: The Democrats should pick someone else. Too many people know too many bad things about Hillary. And someone is going to let loose before November."
​

Russian Who Claims Hillary Clinton, DNC Email Hack Gets 14-Year Sentence (newsweek.com)

And Shooter just found a pretty extensive explanation of the whole Clinton server scandal. Lengthy, but revealing.
What the FBI Files Reveal About Hillary Clinton’s Email Server - POLITICO Magazine

"While in three of the email chains at least one paragraph was marked with only a (c) for Confidential and contained no additional classification markings, others supposedly contained much more highly sensitive information. According to the FBI’s analysis, conducted in conjunction with other government agencies, eight of Clinton’s email chains should have been Top Secret and 37 were Secret. Seven of the emails, all of which were forwarded to Clinton by Jake Sullivan, were associated with what the government calls a Special Access Program, a highly sensitive project subject to even stricter security precautions. As the FBI investigated, there was no consistent pattern to the supposedly classified emails—some came from career State Department officials, some came from presidential appointees, some from Foreign Service officers and some from other elected officials."​

FBI Seizes Hillary Clinton’s E-mail Server -- Scandal Enters a New Phase | [site:name] | National Review

So, american hater, it would seem you're the one lying.

So, are you ready to reverse course and agree that Clinton's violations are similar enough to Trump's that they both ought to get the same deal?

 

Two problems with this:

1. Clinton already went through her ordeal with the FBI. They found no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information, and that is a matter of public record. You can evolve beyond 2019 now.

2. The law for mishandling information is different now. Trump saw to that. Even if she would have been found guilty of anything, which she wasn't, she still wouldn't have gotten the same treatment.

 

Good! If he runs, he can't run for office, and it just adds more fuel to the "he's guilty" fire!

 

@RatMan84
What changed was the penalties for violation of the law.
The elements to prove a violation of the law remain essentially unchanged.
Hillary got a pass.
Shouldn't Trump then expect a pass?
Or is this a political thing, not a legal one?

 

Re: Hilary getting a pass

 

@shootersa
This whole charade is anything but a legal thing, but of course you already know that.... I can't wait to see how all these armchair lawyers and pudding pundants react when the result is the same as the impeachments...