(Liberty Bell) – Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday, just before he was arraigned on 37-counts related to alleged mishandling of classified documents, to make the case that important information was not presented to the federal grand jury before the DOJ decided to indict him. Not surprising. We know this whole farce is an assault designed to pull Trump out of the 2024 presidential race, as the left is desperate to avoid a rematch between him and President Joe Biden, knowing full well that not even cheating will get him a victory this time.
Not after the extremely poor performance he’s put on since taking over the Oval Office in Jan. 2021.
“THE GRAND JURY WAS NEVER TOLD ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT OR THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, BOTH EXONERATING!” Trump declared in the post, according to Randy DeSoto of The Western Journal.
During a speech that was delivered over the weekend in Georgia, the GOP presidential candidate — who is enjoying the top spot on virtually every poll in the nation leaving other folks who have tossed their hat in the ring for the nomination in the dust — also made a reference to the Clinton “socks case.”
“They also don’t mention the defining lawsuit that was brought against Bill Clinton,” he stated during the address, “and it was lost by the government — the famous socks case that says he can keep his documents. They don’t mention that.”
For those who might not know what Trump is referring to, the “socks case” is a 2012 Judicial Watch, Inc. v. National Archives and Records Administration case.
“The case centered on 79 audio recordings Clinton had in his possession, including interviews he gave to historian Taylor Branch throughout his time in office, Reuters reported,” DeStoto wrote.
“Branch published a book in 2009 based on the interviews titled, ‘The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President,'” he continued. “In an interview with GQ magazine that year, Branch noted that Clinton ‘squirreled away the cassettes in his sock drawer.”
“In 2010, Judicial Watch sued the National Archives to gain access to the tapes, which Clinton had designated as personal records and therefore did not turn over to the Archives in accordance with the Presidential Records Act,” the report said.
Amy Berman Jackson, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pointed out in her opinion that the complaint from Judicial Watch made the claim that the interviews on the tapes were over a variety of presidential matters.
“These included such issues as the potential firing of then-CIA Director James Woolsey, foreign policy decisions such as military involvement in Haiti and the potential relaxation of the U.S. embargo of Cuba, telephone conversations with foreign leaders and a phone conversation Clinton had with Secretary of State Warren Christopher about the volatile situation in Bosnia,” the WJ article divulged.
Ultimately, Jackson ruled against Judicial Watch in the case, going on to state that even if she were to agree with the group that Clinton should have turned the tapes over to the Archives, no solution for the problem was available for the court to grant.
“The [Presidential Records Act] does not confer any mandatory or even discretionary authority on the Archivist to classify records,” Jackson commented in the opinion. “Under the statute, this responsibility is left solely to the President.”
On Friday, Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, spoke with Reuters and told them that Jackson’s opinion shows that Trump does indeed possess the power to designate various documents as personal records.
“The strong opinion from the court says the president has prerogatives that cannot be second-guessed,” he asserted during the conversation. “These are not presidential records,” Fitton continued. “These are personal records.”
Thirty-one counts against the former president allege that he violated the Espionage Act, which is focused on the mishandling of classified documents pertaining to national security. The indictment brings up an interview from July 2021 when a book author chats with Trump about a potential military operation that never materialized.
DeSoto revealed that “Trump told the writer that what he was telling him was off the record and still classified. But Trump may have had another reason for not wanting the writer to include the information in his book, because he has also stated that he had declassified all the records in his possession.”
Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan from Ohio made an appearance on CNN Sunday where he remarked that the 1988 Supreme Court case, Department of the Navy v. Egan, is what is controlling the precedent for the handling of classified documentation.
Jordan explained that the former president “said he declassified this material. He can put it wherever he wants. He can handle it however he wants.”
“That’s the law. That’s the standard. And [special counsel] Jack Smith can do all this, 37 different counts, whatever he wants to do, but that doesn’t change the standard,” the congressman added.
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