Sunday, conservative talker Mark Levin criticized the justification used by the Biden Justice Department and its allies to pursue former President Donald Trump over classified documents that led to an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.
Levin walked through the difficulties federal prosecutors would encounter if they continued down this path.
Transcript as follows:
LEVIN: If you’re going to commit a crime, do you keep the video cameras in your home on 24/7? I don’t know. Would you? It seems kind of stupid, doesn’t it? Or would you do it in front of the Secret Service? I don’t know. That seems kind of stupid, doesn’t it?
Well, that’s what you’re expected to believe. My God.
We got the affidavit. It’s fascinating. It is unbelievable. Look, look.
Oh somebody knows how to use a magic marker and a ruler and there they are, but we have seven sentences. Let’s see if we can figure out what’s taking place.
Oh, look at this. I’m the senior legal analyst of this show right here and they keep moving the ball and they keep leaking. They want absolute secrecy.
Let’s start with this point. If I’m wrong, and the other side is right, how is it that Hillary Clinton is still walking on the earth free? She should be getting 50 life consecutive sentences for her violations of the Espionage Act.
How is it that Jim Comey is still walking on the face of the earth free? Same with him.
We know Hillary had a server in her home to gather information, including classified information. That violates the Espionage Act. There is simply no question about it.
And when confronted with it, was her home searched? Was there a search work? I don’t seem to recall, do you? Did 30 FBI agents go to Chappaqua? I don’t think so. Gee Willikers.
And I seem to remember her lawyer, David Kendall had a big role in deciding what the government would and wouldn’t see. Oh, and that we had hammers on iPhones and bleach software and all the rest of it. Obstruction? Oh, of course not. It’s Hillary. And she wasn’t even President, except in her mind. So, she didn’t even have the protections attendant to a President.
What about James Comey? The head of the FBI, a lawyer, former US Attorney Southern District, he would know the law, wouldn’t he? I think so.
Well, didn’t he take documents with him? I think he did. Some of them classified. I think they were. Did he leak them? He leaked some. My goodness.
Shouldn’t he be doing time, too? Maybe in the same prison these days where women are men and men are women. But no, James is out there making money. He’s on TV. He’s just fantastic.
What the hell is going on here?
Everybody, the media. Oh, what’s in the affidavit? What’s happened here is disgusting and I see they are attacking Trump. It’s always Trump. It’s not his enemies. It’s not the government. It’s always Trump’s, no matter how we prove that the FBI or the Intelligence Services, the Democratic Party and the media are corrupt as hell.
No matter how many times we go through this, it is Trump.
It is Trump, you see, he took documents and well, you should know better than that. Take documents home with him.
Let me walk through this quickly.
Former President has the legal right to access any and all of the documents created during his presidency, classified or otherwise, period.
The second before he left office, by his very actions alone in taking documents he could be said to have declassified them. Are you sure about this, Mark? I’m certain about it.
In fact, this was discussed at some length in 2017 when he handed certain information classified to the Russian Foreign Minister, not because Trump is a spy, because he thought it was no big deal. So the former President cannot be charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for this reason, and more, including Article II Section 1 of the Constitution, the very first sentence, he is the executive branch and he is the Commander-in-Chief.
Subordinates can’t tell him, “You didn’t fill out this paper.” Agencies can’t tell him. And so in 2017, like today, once the President acts a certain way, it is assumed by his actions that something can be declassified. At a minimum This is a constitutional issue, right?
So, why would the Department of Justice open up this bag of worms? Why would it do that?
Now, imagine if a President or ex-President could be charged with endless debates over bureaucratic processes followed or not followed, and the impact that would have on the ability of any President to actually be President and do his job.
Yes, I took little notes to make sure I get this right.
Now, among other reasons, as well, this is why many of us argue that a sitting President cannot be indicted. Obviously Trump here as a former President, but that gets back to my earlier point about interpreting a President’s actions upon his departure.
Oh, I’ve heard some Republicans and Democrats say, “Where’s the evidence? Did he cross this?” Because they’re not constitutionalists. They’re like former Federal prosecutors, professors of this side of the other, political operatives.
Listen to me because these are the challenges should the Department of Justice be so outrageously foolish to proceed on the path they are on.
Now, we get to document possession, that issue. Under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, there are no penalties, none, and no enforcement mechanisms, none.
The point is the second after the President leaves office, he is not subject to criminal charges or penalties if he has documents or other information that he secured or took while he was President one second before he left office.
The Act anticipates negotiations, that is the Presidential Records Act, between a former President and the Archivist related to the nature of the information, whether he thinks it’s private or not private, the disposition of the information, whether he thinks it’s classified or declassified. This is a process, a process.
That said, other than the boxes seized by the FBI, obviously, millions of – – listen to me, millions and millions of pages of records created in the Trump administration, are controlled by the Archivist. So, we’re talking about a relative few here.
This fact and the fact that there have been lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations over the remaining boxes for some time, as well as voluntary access to the former President’s home where the FBI went, found the boxes, were shown the boxes, looked in the boxes, and by God, I don’t know why if they say, “Wow, look at that. That’s super-secret, super-duper-secret.” They didn’t just take it.
They could have, but this belies the absurd claim that Trump stole government property or obstructed the Archives somehow or had criminal intent. They’re negotiating.
Indeed, the former President was out of office only 12 months when this issue publicly arose in January to February about boxes that became known. That’s a very short period of time. Sometimes negotiations have gone on for years. Certainly, no reason to pull a search warrant trigger. Not if there was some sudden urgency in controlling these documents.
There were many ways to obtain them without resorting to the criminal process. Why is there a criminal grand jury in place? And when was at empaneled? And it’s the same US Attorney in Washington overlooking January 6 with a grand jury who is looking over the National Archives issue with a grand jury.
Suspicious? I am.
It’s shocking that a Federal grand jury in Washington has been empaneled in the first place. Not to mention spies and others at Mar-a-Lago according to — oh, this affidavit. Secretly leaking to the FBI. What’s going on here?
Even if it is believed that documents are being moved or destroyed, the FBI had the power to remove them via subpoena enforced by a subsequent Court Order if necessary. You go in there in June, and you go, “Holy mackerel. Look at these documents. We got this and that. We’ve got — let’s go back to the Judge and get another subpoena.” But they didn’t have to get another subpoena or Court Order, as far as we know, based on what we know right now. Why? Because nobody stopped them. Nobody stopped them.
Now, if there is actual evidence something was destroyed and real probable cause, and the government truly believes that a crime was committed by somebody, then go to a real Judge, not a Master and seek an arrest warrant. But what occurred here was the issuance of a general warrant, which is clearly unconstitutional. We have a whole history in this country of this, in violation of the Fourth Amendment that needs particularity.
And if they knew which documents they were looking for, then the language that they put in the proposed search warrant and signed off by this Master, they had to know that they were issuing a general warrant.
It enables the government to grab everything — everything on site for a period of nine hours. They were looking and looking, even searched the former first lady’s clothes closet. Wow. We know they hid those super-duper secret documents there, don’t we?
That’s why at least in part, this indicates the use of a pretext to search for information related to other matters like January 6. It is no accident that the same U.S. Attorney is overseeing both investigations.
Also, why was it a matter of such constitutional consequence heard by a Master, not an Article III Senate confirmed Federal Judge? And if there was some kind of urgency, Attorney General Garland has a funny way of showing it. He was slow to authorize the seeking of a search warrant. He took two or three weeks to noodle over. “What should I do? I’m going after parents. I’m going after people who oppose abortion. I’m going after State Legislatures. I refuse to enforce the law on the border. I’ve got so much to think about.” And once secured, the warrant wasn’t executed for three days or so.
Again, this is why there is speculation about the government’s actual intentions.
Now, when you consider what Hillary Clinton did, and Jim Comey and that’s not it, they’re not the only one and they weren’t President, and they weren’t former Presidents and how they were treated, versus how this former President is treated. Now you can see what’s going on here. It’s another disgusting ruse over documents. Seriously?
Over documents, seriously? Over documents the FBI could have gone in there and just taken without a search warrant? And now you have former Federal prosecutors — I’ve had about enough of them. They are really a dime a dozen, all over cable, all over network TVs: “He clearly violated the Espionage Act. It’s obstruction. He stole the documents. Yes, he’s sure did.” They have no damn idea what the hell they’re talking about.
This is an assault, an assault on Trump and his supporters, an assault on the Republican Party, an assault on our country.
Unless Hillary Clinton and Jim Comey do life sentences for what they did, right? How many violations of the espionage did they commit?
They don’t have the protections of a former President then you know exactly what’s going on here.
Once again, they go at it.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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