[Serious] If Trump is indicted or charged, will he be convicted?

[The Architect Of Fate]

I must say the funniest part of this whole affair has been Trump's defenses, particularly the idea Trump can declassify things in secret, and therefore he did nothing wrong there are of course multiple issues.


1. What's the difference between a president who steals classified documents and then later lies that he declassified them and one who declassified them in secret? Setting aside the yet unproven assertion that there was a standing order that no one seems to recall and has never been mentioned up till this point. It's all very convenient....




2. Even if he can declassify them that doesn't mean he gets to destroy them as the Presidential Records Act makes clear. If Trump has the permission from the Archivist to destroy them let's see the document .... 

• Allows the incumbent President to dispose of records that no longer have administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value, once the views of the Archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal have been obtained in writing.
  

https://www.archives.gov/presidential-li...8-act.html





3. It says nothing about him being allowed to keep documents at his club. Again the act makes it pretty clear 

• Establishes in law that any incumbent Presidential records (whether textual or electronic) held on courtesy storage by the Archivist remain in the exclusive legal custody of the President and that any request or order for access to such records must be made to the President, not NARA.
  

• Establishes that Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.
  

https://www.archives.gov/presidential-li...8-act.html



4.  Trump loses the power to declassify documents once he leaves office and the new president gains the power to reclassify them Biden has made it pretty clear he supports the Archive getting the documents back.




Lastly, all the legal talk overlooks the simple fact that this is freaking odd. If Trump was acting above board why the heck wouldn't he just go through the normal process every other president did? Some of his sycophants have excused this as him writing his memoirs as if Trump has ever written anything himself or they have tried to say he was after souvenirs. Yeah because when i think of souvenirs I think of classified nuclear documents.......