[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.......

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Whether Trump will be convicted largely depends on what he’s eventually charged with. If he’s charged with mishandling classified documents, a conviction is all but certain. If he’s charged with treason, not so much.

Boru

[Rev. Rye]

Nuclear documents which are among the very few types of documents that (according to the Atomic Energy Acts) Trump can't just declassify by fiat.

Apparently, according to J. William Leonard, former ISOO director, Trump could have potentially declassified the majority of classified documents with all the ease of Obi-Wan Kenobi waving his hand and saying "these aren't the droids you're looking for". But nuclear documents, he can't do that except maybe if the Department of Energy allows him to do so. Maybe.

[Jehanne]

Everyone repeat after me, "It's a witch hunt, it's a witch hunt, it's a witch hunt".

Now, the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” was actually typed out on a typewriter by Stanley Kubrick's secretary, who was quite the loyal employee!

[Rev. Rye]

Jehanne, I swear, your replies keep slowly getting more and more tangentially related to anything. Is there something odd going on in your head? It’s okay if there is.

[Jehanne]

Right now I am getting ready to go to work, and, so, am thinking about the software tests and scripting changes that I am going to do this morning and why I can't capture some specific messages from an embedded controller that I am testing in SIL even though it is generating CAN traffic.

Other than that, the above post was a joke -- I was mocking DT.

[Mister Agenda]

Nuclear documents which are among the very few types of documents that (according to the Atomic Energy Acts) Trump can't just declassify by fiat.

Apparently, according to J. William Leonard, former ISOO director, Trump could have potentially declassified the majority of classified documents with all the ease of Obi-Wan Kenobi waving his hand and saying "these aren't the droids you're looking for". But nuclear documents, he can't do that except maybe if the Department of Energy allows him to do so. Maybe.

And Biden could reclassify them with the same mind trick, if that's so.

[TaraJo]

If it were any other politician or well connected wealthy person, I'd say with 100% certainty that he won't be declared guilty at all.

But Trump is different.  He's done a lot of thing that no other politician or billionaire would ever dream of doing.  Besides the outrageous things he says on "news" or on Truth Social, he's done a lot more things that could easily be considered criminal.  January 6, for one, and the documents that were seized at Mara Lago secondly and his relationship with Putin third.  

Even then, I think he'd almost certainly get away with it except that he has a bad habit of stiffing his lawyers and good lawyers don't want to touch him.  

He'll still probably get away with it, but instead of having 100% certainty of it, I'd say I'm more along the 75% sure he'll get away with it.  

That being said, whether he gets away with his stunts or not, I wish the democrats were better at capitalizing at all the bad press Trump is bringing to the republican party.

[Anomalocaris]

I think in the end, he will be convicted.    But that miss the point.    He need to be convicted and cast forever into dungeon while he is still the leader of Republican Party, and command the deeds and adoration of his followers.  

Then his conviction would mean something, that justice does not cower before mob rule where justice most need to show its courage to confront live villain at the height of his malevolent power, and does not only tentatively and hesitantly emerge to beat the corpse of the villain when the power of the villain is gone and with it and most vital benefit of justice has fled.

[Nay_Sayer]

He'll be convicted and right after I'll be receiving my winning check from PCH.

His hands are in way too many pockets for him to ever see a day in jail.