Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that former President Donald Trump committed a “form of grand theft” by having government documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, FL.
Anchor Poppy Harlow said, “This newly released letter from the National Archives from back in May illustrates this month’s long back and forth with the Trump team and them about these documents, and it also shows the delays from former President Trump’s team on returning them. ”
She asked, “This letter tells us a whole lot about the documents first retrieved from the National Archives back in January and the delay and the back and forth over all of this. What does this teach us that is critical?”
Speier said, “I think there is a lot it teaches us. It teaches us we should recognize Donald Trump for who he is. Everything is about him. Everything is about money. Nothing is about the country. I’m really disappointed that some of my Republican colleagues are tripping over themselves, trying to protect him. This is a form of grand theft. These documents don’t belong to him. The Presidential Records Act requires all documents, whether they’re classified or unclassified, that they are the property of the government. So his argument that he declassified them, which is false, and even his attorneys haven’t used that argument in the newest filing seeking a special master, but even above that, they don’t belong to him.”
She added, “And I think we have to look to the countries that he has cozied up to while he was president, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China. Two of those countries are our greatest enemies right now. They are our greatest adversaries. And the fact that he’s taken this classified information that can’t be anything that you would want to frame because it is focused on our sources and methods, and it talks about our greatest secrets. So, you’re only going to take that if you want to use it for some purpose. So I think this criminal investigation is exactly what should be taking place.”
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