Politics & Finances

Trump Defends Keeping Classified Documents, Accuses Past Presidents of Doing the Same

Trump Defends Keeping Classified Documents, Accuses Past Presidents of Doing the Same

At an Arizona gubernatorial rally on Sunday, October 9, former President Donald Trump defended keeping classified documents, erroneously accusing other past Presidents of doing the same.

Trump was supporting candidate Kari Lake (R).

Trump, clearly equal opportunity in his finger pointing, accused both Barack Obama (D) and the late George H.W. Bush (R) of keeping documents that officially belonged to the United States government.

In a claim that has been fact-checked and debunked, the divisive former POTUS said that Obama had over 33 million pages of documentation moved to a furniture store in his native Chicago. 

The National Archives also previously refuted this claim, confirming that 30 million pages of unclassified documents were transported to a "secure federal facility" in the Chicago area. 

Business Insider reported that after Trump took aim at Obama, he accused Bush -- who passed away in 2018 -- of storing documents in a bowling alley turned Chinese restaurant. 

Trump said he "took millions and millions of documents to a former bowling alley pieced together with what was then an old and broken Chinese restaurant. They put them together. And it had a broken front door and broken windows. Other than that it was quite secure."

Trump gave a similar speech on Saturday, October 8 in Nevada, where he was campaigning for Republican candidates Joe Lombardo and Adam Laxalt. 

That appearance prompted a reply from Jeb Bush, former Florida Governor. The eldest Bush son took to Twitter to say, "I am so confused. My dad enjoyed a good Chinese meal and enjoyed the challenge of 7 10 split. What the heck is up with you?"

Trump, despite his high-profile appearances lately, is facing a legal mire regarding his own potential mishandling of classified documents. 

Recently, a federal court ruled that the the U.S. Department of Justice can lift a hold on documents obtained during the FBI's August 8 raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago property.  This news comes soon after Trump returned to his Florida residence.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, in fact, specifically addressed Mar-a-Lago in her comments the State of New York's $250 million fraud lawsuit against the businessman, saying that the property "generated less than $25 million in annual revenue. It should have been valued at about $75 million, but it was valued at $739 million.”

Furthermore, this new ruling comes on the heels of the Department of Justice releasing a 36-page report relating to the now-infamous occurrence at Trump's Florida home. In the document, the DoJ confirms that Trump "likely obstructed" a government investigation with intent.

Following the release of the report, Trump retained former Florida solicitor Chris Kise, who has close ties to both Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and Senator Rick Scott (R).

DeSantis is a frontrunner for the 2024 Republican Presidential nod if Trump does not run again. 

Previously, the Washington Post reported that the FBI executed its search warrant after "federal authorities grew increasingly concerned that Trump or his lawyers and aides had not, in fact, returned all the documents and other material that were government property, according to people familiar with the discussions."

Trump has reportedly threatened to cause "big problems" if he is indicted, which seems to be increasingly likely by the day.

It is important to note that the legal issues outlined here are not directly connected to the ongoing 2020 Trump election fraud probe in Georgia or the Allen Weisselberg plea deal.

What do you think about Trump's accusations against other former U.S. Presidents?

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Rebekah Barton

Rebekah Barton

Rebekah's search engine optimization career began completely by accident as a college student. Over the course of her career so far, she has "grown up" with the SEO industry, from writing content while juggling classes to managing her own teams of writers and overseeing SEO strategy in subsequent roles. She is excited to bring her passion for high-quality content to CountingWorks, Inc.

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