A handful of documents found by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago were so sensitive that even a senior Justice Department official didn’t have authorization to see them.

  • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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    24 hours ago

    Some of this information was available but read the entire article. It’s very good reporting on just how clear Trump’s intent to break the law was, the extreme sensitivity of the documents, and the clear lies Trump told in response to the raid and demands. Just an example excerpt:

    Olsen’s minders then told him about a fourth stack of documents, stored in a separate safe, explaining that only one agent in the field office was approved to handle them. Each of the documents in the safe bore a ticket with coding that described its unique handling instructions — above and beyond the strict approvals for highly sensitive top-secret and sensitive compartmented information.

    Olsen got on the phone with his counsel to read the codes aloud, one by one, to determine if he had permission to view them. Some of the documents were so restricted that top Justice Department security officials reacted with surprise to the code names: They had never heard of them before. Some involved special access programs that required the president or a cabinet member to grant approval to view.

    The documents that Trump did not turn over - after repeated requests were ignored, after turning over the initial boxes, the false “complete” folder of additional documents, showing the FBI the room with other boxes that was staged after they moved out other incriminating documents - were documents so sensitive that infosec policy required the acting president or cabinet member to personally authorize any request to view them.

    If Trump “authorizes” the DOJ to settle his frivolous lawsuit related to the FBI raid, it will be a criminal openly stealing public funds in retribution for catching him red-handed after he repeatedly lied to police, and for nearly but not even making him face consequences. It gives me a headache how corrupt, unethical, and immoral that would be.

    • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      The fact that every level of law enforcement has failed so utterly in this regard is the most damning reason for a wholesale restructuring and rewriting of our legal codes and governing system. It is unconscionable to be a part of such a broken society.

      • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Yes, you are totally right. I would like to add that the rule of law, when it comes to money, has been broken from the foundation of the US.