In the last week and a half (or so) I pondered publicly whether St Sen (and now GOP Cand. for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano would like to amend his comments about the recent raid on Mar-a-Lago by the Department of Justice.
This was Mastriano's statement:
The raid on Mar-a-Lago was an unprecedented assault on the fundamental norms of the American legal system and represents an outrageous weaponization of America’s tools of justice against political opponents of the current regime in Washington, DC.
And a few days later, he said this to WTAE:
"It's really heartbreaking what's happened to our country. What happened in Mar-a-Lago this week here is unprecedented. Even CNN expressed concern about it — it is that bad though. Delivering subpoenas to some of my colleagues in Harrisburg this week as well, I mean it's very oppressive," Mastriano said regarding the seize of documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
"It's very chilling and it's not anything to take lightly. We have to stand firm though, I think it's all about really intimidating us — well, first trying to keep Donald Trump from running again in 2024, he's running. I look forward to that. But they need the rest of us to shut up and be compliant and not to ask questions," Mastriano continued.
And this is, perhaps, why Doug should amend his support of the twice-impeached former president:
The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.
In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.
And:
Mr. Trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021, according to multiple people briefed on his efforts, before turning them over.
300 documents with classified markings in multiple boxes that he went through himself.
Lock him up.
But wait, there's more:
Aides to Mr. Trump turned over a few dozen additional sensitive documents during a visit to Mar-a-Lago by Justice Department officials in early June. At the conclusion of the search this month, officials left with 26 boxes, including 11 sets of material marked as classified, comprising scores of additional documents. One set had the highest level of classification, top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
As I wrote earlier, that "sensitive compartmented information" material is treated one way and one way only:
Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) is information about certain intelligence sources and methods and can include information pertaining to sensitive collection systems, analytical processing, and targeting, or which is derived from it. Access to SCI is only granted to individuals who have a need-to-know, have been granted a Top Secret clearance by Personnel Security (PerSec), and are approved by the Department of Commerce’s Intelligence Community granting agency, and only upon completion of a separate Nondisclosure Agreement, the IC Form 4414.
Information that has been determined to be SCI may only be stored and used in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). SCIFs have specific construction requirements, and their subsequent accreditation is separate from those for Controlled Areas and is coordinated by the Department’s Special Security Officer (SSO). [Emphasis added.]
And yet there were documents marked SCI (or its equivalent) stored in a non-SCIF in Mar-a-Lago.
Lock him up. Lock him up.
And finally:
On June 22, the Justice Department subpoenaed the Trump Organization for Mar-a-Lago’s security footage, which included a well-trafficked hallway outside the storage area, the people said.
The club had surveillance footage going back 60 days for some areas of the property, stretching back to late April of this year.
While much of the footage showed hours of club employees walking through the busy corridor, some of it raised concerns for investigators, according to people familiar with the matter. It revealed people moving boxes in and out, and in some cases, appearing to change the containers some documents were held in.
Does Doug Mastriano still think that this is all part of a plan to make him (and his fellow-travelers) compliant? And not a serious national security investigation into Trump's mishandling of some of the nation's most sensitive documents?
Lock him up. Lock him up. Lock him up.
