Trump sought to obtain FBI documents proving Russiagate was hoax

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Oct 2022 08:40
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The former US President's attorneys are backing down as it becomes evident that the government has the authority to retrieve the documents Trump brought with him to his home without offering anything in exchange.

Former US President Donald Trump (AP)

Former US President Donald Trump has tried to accuse Joe Biden and the "sleazy Democrats" of attempting to bar him from running for office again by using a Justice Department investigation into his potentially illegal storage of piles of government papers at his Florida estate, and has declared that the president can declassify sensitive documents "just by thinking about it."

Trump allegedly instructed his attorneys to submit a proposal to the National Archives Administration suggesting to give back the classified records at his Mar-a-Lago residency in return for records definitively proving that the FBI faked its disastrous 2016 investigation into charges of coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

According to a New York Times report based on interviews and documents, Trump believed the National Archives was keeping materials corroborating the fake Russiagate charges concealed from him. He allegedly did not specify which papers he desired in exchange for the Mar-a-Lago materials, but just stated that there were documents that may expose FBI malfeasance.

Trump's attorneys were believed to have backed down once it became evident that the government had the authority to retrieve the documents Trump brought with him to his home without offering anything in exchange.

The former President spent nearly three years of his presidency defending himself against outrageous, and now debunked, claims that he colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election, claims made by the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Obama administration, and the FBI in the final weeks and days of his presidency.

To "prove" he was not in cahoots with the Kremlin, Trump hired a slew of Russia hawks, signed off on a slew of anti-Russia legislation and sanctions, sent armaments to Ukraine, closed Russian consulates, and bombed Syria.

Trump brings Supreme Court into DoJ and classified document quagmire

Former US President Donald Trump submitted a request on Tuesday to the Supreme Court opposing the Department of Justice's review of the classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida by the FBI.

This comes in light of the most recent update when an appeals court agreed last month that the DoJ could pursue its review of the documents, a hit for the Trump legal team.

According to the appeals court, Trump provided no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive material and opposed the thought or possibility of his "individual interest in or need for" the approximately 100 documents with classification markings that were seized by the FBI in its raid on August 8.

The raid led to Trump facing a criminal investigation over potential violations of the Espionage Act and additional statutes relating to obstruction of justice, as well as the destruction of federal government records, according to the search warrant executed by FBI agents at the former President's home.

The order from US District in Florida Judge Aileen Cannon prohibited investigators from examining the documents as she agreed to have a "special master" or an independent arbiter per Trump's request on September 5.