Mar-A-Lago Raid

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Looking through this thread, I would be entirely unsurprised if Trump got away with all this with a slap on the wrist at best. Trump has been getting away with blatant crime after blatant crime his entire life. First because he was rich, then because he was president, and at this point because his supporters would try (again) to take over the country by force if Trump was actually made to answer for his crimes. If there was any sense Trump would've been spending the rest of his life in prison LONG before he actually managed to somehow become a presidential nominee.

What does the man have to do to actually not get away with a crime? Murder his own children on national television and parade their corpses through the streets? The Mar-A-Lago raid is just another in a long LONG list of crimes and he's probably going to get off scot free with this too. Even though even some of Trump's supporters are going "WTF TRUMP!?!" with this.
Most of trumps life was about weaseling his way out of responsibility for things.
 

Bedinsis

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What does the man have to do to actually not get away with a crime? Murder his own children on national television and parade their corpses through the streets? The Mar-A-Lago raid is just another in a long LONG list of crimes and he's probably going to get off scot free with this too. Even though even some of Trump's supporters are going "WTF TRUMP!?!" with this.
The thing that made Milo Yiannopoulis lose support was expressing support for paedophilia. So probably something like that.

Although there is a vast difference between being a professional provocateur and an ex-elected official.
 
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Avnger

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The thing that made Milo Yiannopolis lose support was expressing support for paedophilia. So probably something like that.

Although there is a vast difference between being a professional provocateur and an ex-elected official.
No, I think you're about right there. The only two things that could actually get his cult to turn on him at this point would be, to quote a former Louisiana governor, "getting caught with a dead girl or a live boy."
 
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BrawlMan

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Even though even some of Trump's supporters are going "WTF TRUMP!?!" with this.
Those mindless pawns have no ground to stand on. They got crappy standards to begin with it. The fact this is the one thing that makes them begin to question their love and support of their "god/messiah", shows how much of a joke they are, and have huge double standards. They can still get fucked and wild stomped in the groin a million times with spiked cleats.
 
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thebobmaster

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And the mess just keeps getting worse.


Basically, the detailed inventory shows that these classified documents were not only not secured, but mixed in with clothing, newspaper clippings, and various gifts. In other words, about as unsecured as you can get. What emails?
 
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SilentPony

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And the mess just keeps getting worse.


Basically, the detailed inventory shows that these classified documents were not only not secured, but mixed in with clothing, newspaper clippings, and various gifts. In other words, about as unsecured as you can get. What emails?
Silly liberal, its only illegal when the Democrats do it. Republicans are the party of law and order, meaning they obey no laws and they get to order you around.
Also don't forget all the secret document folders that were empty. Hopefully they're just misplaced and Trump wasn't already selling them for debt relief. But lets be real. He's already sold a bunch of them for debt relief.
 
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Hades

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So Trump fans, can you tell us why a president would steal up to 11.000 classified documents and why this is totally normal?
 

SilentPony

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So Trump fans, can you tell us why a president would steal up to 11.000 classified documents and why this is totally normal?
Oh OH! I can speak for them as they're not overly concerned with the complexities of life.

Ahem.​

"TRUMP DIDN'T STEAL ANY DOCUMENTS THEY WERE UNCLASSIFIED HILARY'S EMAIL FBI DEEPSTATE FAKE NEWS INVESTIGATE TOWER 7 OBAMA WAS BLACK LETS GO BRANDON!"
 

twistedmic

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So Trump fans, can you tell us why a president would steal up to 11.000 classified documents and why this is totally normal?
I’ll take a crack at their reasoning- He was President, he was allowed to take then and do whatever he wanted with them.

Besides, (insert non-Republican name here) stole even more.
 

SilentPony

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I’ll take a crack at their reasoning- He was President, he was allowed to take then and do whatever he wanted with them.

Besides, (insert non-Republican name here) stole even more.
Funnily enough from my understanding, even if that was their argument, its an invalid one. The president doesn't have absolute power to declassify, he has "near absolute power". First, Trump’s power to declassify ended with his presidency. Secondly Biden has power to reclassify any documents he took. And third, there are certain materials that presidents cannot classify and declassify at will. One such category of material is the identity of spies or covert operations being conducted. The Atomic Energy Acts of 1946 and 1954 produced an even stranger category of classified knowledge. Anything related to the production or use of nuclear weapons and nuclear power is inherently classified, and Trump could utter whatever words he pleased yet still be in possession of classified material. Where are our nuclear warheads? What tricks have we developed to make sure they work? What do we know about Russia's systems and nuke locations? This information is “born secret” no matter who produces it, and can never be unclassified.

But of course its the party of "law and order" meaning that law doesn't apply to Trump, and that's an order.
 
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tstorm823

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So Trump fans, can you tell us why a president would steal up to 11.000 classified documents and why this is totally normal?
" Federal investigators also retrieved more than 11,000 non-classified government documents"

I thought you might need some help reading that one particular word. The number for some sort of classified marking was fewer than 100, and the being marked as such doesn't really tell us what they are. I've seen some say online that a daily brief of the president's planned movements and security detail is considered highly classified information, but it's not exactly stealing government secrets for Trump to have a record of where he went 2 years ago. I'm not saying that's what the papers are, I'm not claiming to know anything, but that sort of thing seems more likely than Trump selling nuclear secrets or giving away CIA assets to the Russians, as the internet is quite wildly speculating.

What strikes me as the dumbest part of this argument is the confidence with which people make their claims. I hear people say things like "no president has stolen documents like this!" and I think "Really?" Like, how do you know how many leftover papers Obama has from his presidency? Most past presidents get regular updates on ongoing classified information, they probably have new stuff in their homes. But I'm not gonna pretend I know how that works. And then on the right, you get the "there are no rules for the president, Trump could do whatever he want with classified information", and I'm like "really?" How is half the internet suddenly experts on handling of government secrets? Where are all the "we don't really know anything"s?
 

Bedinsis

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How is half the internet suddenly experts on handling of government secrets? Where are all the "we don't really know anything"s?
They presumably remain silent, since they don't know anything and thus don't have anything to add. Other than "we don't really know anything", which is hard position to get up in arms about.
 

tstorm823

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They presumably remain silent, since they don't know anything and thus don't have anything to add. Other than "we don't really know anything", which is hard position to get up in arms about.
I think your logic is backwards. Do you think people put their opinions on the internet because they believe they have something meaningful to contribute, or do you think people want to put their opinions on the internet first, and figure out what they are specifically to that end? Especially the "influencer/entertainer" type person, they're not keeping silent whether they think their contribution is meaningful or not.
 

Bedinsis

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I think your logic is backwards. Do you think people put their opinions on the internet because they believe they have something meaningful to contribute, or do you think people want to put their opinions on the internet first, and figure out what they are specifically to that end? Especially the "influencer/entertainer" type person, they're not keeping silent whether they think their contribution is meaningful or not.
I am not speculating on the psychology of people that are putting their opinion on the Internet. I am speculating on the people that aren't.

For the record, I have chosen not to comment on the most recent developments because I honestly don't know if those are a big deal, though @Dalisclock 's personal experience in post #252 was helpful.
 
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Silvanus

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How is half the internet suddenly experts on handling of government secrets? Where are all the "we don't really know anything"s?
Oh, it ain't sudden. Half the internet was deeply concerned about how Hillary Clinton's server usage could compromise American national security over 4 years ago.

Different half, mind. The difference being that Clinton's server didn't actually contain anything classified.
 

SilentPony

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Oh, it ain't sudden. Half the internet was deeply concerned about how Hillary Clinton's server usage could compromise American national security over 4 years ago.

Different half, mind. The difference being that Clinton's server didn't actually contain anything classified.
Keep in mind Trump stealing and selling national secrets is an actual crime, whereas Hilary's thing was a political move.
 

tstorm823

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Different half, mind. The difference being that Clinton's server didn't actually contain anything classified.
" From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent. "

Tell me again what the difference is?
 

Gordon_4

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Oh, it ain't sudden. Half the internet was deeply concerned about how Hillary Clinton's server usage could compromise American national security over 4 years ago.

Different half, mind. The difference being that Clinton's server didn't actually contain anything classified.
That technically isn’t true. All government material is subject to classification, even that rating is ‘Unclassified’. However, unclassified does not mean you can ignore the rules and regulations for storage and dissemination of the material: unclassified just means that the information has been assessed as having minimal impact to the reputation, security and operation of the home (or a foreign) government and the parent department from whence the information sprung if it was released. There is still the doctrine of ‘need to know’. You know the saying “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”? Information security works the same way: just because Person A is rated to top level, that doesn’t automatically give them the right to view all material at that rating or even below it in fact. Generally they will be able to view material directly relevant to their job, with anything broader requiring requests, justifications and approvals.

No government information, no matter how innocuous, had any business being stored on a mail server in an airing cupboard, or mixed in with personal documents in a basement. Both of these things are grossly negligent handling of information and should be, or should have been, prosecuted very vigorously.
 

Silvanus

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" From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent. "

Tell me again what the difference is?
Well, there's a bit of a key difference that isn't quite clear from that passage-- those designations was made afterwards. Most documents determined to contain classified information were not marked classified until the FBI investigation. A few were (my mistake), though they were also apparently not clearly marked as such, lacking the headers and footers they should've had.

That technically isn’t true. All government material is subject to classification, even that rating is ‘Unclassified’. However, unclassified does not mean you can ignore the rules and regulations for storage and dissemination of the material: unclassified just means that the information has been assessed as having minimal impact to the reputation, security and operation of the home (or a foreign) government and the parent department from whence the information sprung if it was released. There is still the doctrine of ‘need to know’. You know the saying “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”? Information security works the same way: just because Person A is rated to top level, that doesn’t automatically give them the right to view all material at that rating or even below it in fact. Generally they will be able to view material directly relevant to their job, with anything broader requiring requests, justifications and approvals.

No government information, no matter how innocuous, had any business being stored on a mail server in an airing cupboard, or mixed in with personal documents in a basement. Both of these things are grossly negligent handling of information and should be, or should have been, prosecuted very vigorously.
Well sure, I'm not arguing that what she did was wise. Just that those who wanted her jailed for this are being tremendous hypocrites now in acting like it's no big thing when Trump does it.

And... well, for my intents and purposes, I think it's fair to consider "unclassified" and "not classified" to be synonyms.