Former President Donald Trump’s comments during a weekend rally about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago may be “admissible evidence” in court, legal experts say.
Trump lashed out at the FBI during a rally in Miami on Sunday over the “very famous raid on Mar-a-Lago,” which he described as “the document-hoax case.”
Trump claimed the court-approved search “violated my Fourth Amendment rights” and is “something that’s never been done to another president.”
“No other president’s ever done this,” he said. “Presidents leave, they take things, they take documents, they read them. Nobody else has ever gone through this.”
Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that past presidents have “taken” documents with them after leaving office. The National Archives and Records Administration issued a statement debunking his claim last month, explaining that the National Archives took custody of all presidential records and “securely moved those records to temporary facilities” before moving them to presidential libraries. Claims that “indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office… are false and misleading,” the statement said.
New: The National Archives and Records Administration calls Trump’s claims about Obama, Clinton, Bush and Bush supposedly taking presidential documents “false and misleading.” pic.twitter.com/zxuMskXDRD
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 11, 2022
Legal experts said that Trump’s comments may amount to an admission of illegality.
“Here’s Trump apparently admitting to illegally taking top secret documents when he left the White House,” the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said on Twitter.
Here’s Trump apparently admitting to illegally taking top secret documents when he left the White House pic.twitter.com/MEdnpPT3Z5
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) November 7, 2022
Conservative attorney George Conway said the comments could be “admissible evidence,” suggesting a drinking game for every time “he says something self-incriminating” at a rally.
“Keep talking. Keep confessing,” wrote national security attorney Bradley Moss, a frequent Trump critic.
Legal experts also called out another comment from Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“Every other president takes their documents. I’m the only one. I can’t have a document,” Trump complained during a rally in Latrobe before falsely suggesting that other presidents took and kept their documents in unsecure facilities.
“Did Trump just admit to taking top secret documents he was not supposed to have?” CREW said on Twitter.
Did Trump just admit to taking top secret documents he was not allowed to have? pic.twitter.com/ykKt5Nbqnc
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) November 6, 2022
Conway responded to the video of Trump’s comments by posting a photo of Miranda rights, which note that “you have the right to remain silent.”
https://t.co/Rnac6UPB9N pic.twitter.com/xhG5DWDE0s
— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) November 6, 2022
Trump has claimed that former President George H.W. Bush “took millions of documents to a… bowling alley/Chinese restaurant” with “no security and a broken front door” and claimed that Bill Clinton “took millions of documents from the White House to a former car dealership in Arkansas.”
“All of these Trump claims are false,” CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale wrote last month, citing a National Archives statement confirming that the agency “securely moved these records to temporary facilities that NARA leased from the General Services Administration near the locations of the future Presidential Libraries that former Presidents built for NARA.”
“All such temporary facilities met strict archival and security standards, and have been managed and staffed exclusively by NARA employees,” the agency said.
Dale added that there is “no equivalence between Trump’s handling of presidential documents and those of his predecessors.”
“In the others’ cases, the presidential documents were in NARA’s possession and stored securely and professionally,” he wrote. “In Trump’s case, the presidential documents found in haphazard amateur storage at Mar-a-Lago were in Trump’s own possession, despite numerous attempts by both NARA and the Justice Department to get them back.”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy