Bizarre, Lawyering, Politics, Society

Humpy Dumpty Duty: Trump Regularly Rips Up Documents, Requiring Staff To Tape Them Back Together To Comply With Federal Law

Denslow's_Humpty_Dumpty_1904440px-Official_Portrait_of_President_Donald_TrumpThere is an interesting new story about a bizarre practice by President Donald Trump who reportedly rips up material given to him despite the duty to preserve the documents under the Presidential Records Act.  Two staffers have recounted how they were required to spend considerable time taping the documents back together to stay in compliance with the PRA.  They reportedly complained about the duty for people making $60,000 a year.  They were suddenly fired.  This Humpy Dumpty duty raises some serious questions of federal violations.

Many years ago, I wrote an academic piece on Presidential Records Act, which called for expanded claims over presidential documents.  See Jonathan Turley, Presidential Records and Popular Government: The Convergence of Constitutional and Property Theory in Claims of Control and Ownership of Presidential Records 88 Cornell Law Review 651-732 (2003). The premise of the piece challenged the view of presidents that they own such documents.  Obviously, ripping up the documents is the ultimate claim of personal ownership.  Staffers called it Trump’s “storage system.”

Many of these documents are treated as historical records under the PRA.  They are to be handed over to the National Archives for preservation. If this account is true, there are serious questions of the violation of the federal law — just as deleting emails or other records would constitute such a violation.

Solomon Lartey, 54, worked for 30 years for the government and described the difficult task of putting these documents back together.  Reginald Young Jr, a senior records management analyst, also confirmed the bizarre duty. He was also suddenly fired.

288 thoughts on “Humpy Dumpty Duty: Trump Regularly Rips Up Documents, Requiring Staff To Tape Them Back Together To Comply With Federal Law”

  1. Big Deal. the tearing ensures they, probably drafts, will not be used the tape complies with the law. Any leaked can be easily identified. As for the staff? No problem if you don’t want to do what is required of the job take a hike.

    I did much the same thing in a lowly battalion job for just that reason. If the Old Man wanted to review the first attempts they were available. Then he got to start the bonfire (contents of burn bag.)

    Sounds like left overs from the previous regime or part of the Fourth Branch.

    1. All right Michael. As a Trumpster, you can’t have it both ways: meaning that you can’t criticize Hillary Clinton for her handling of emails, but then excuse Trump for destroying documents he doesn’t like.

      I don’t know why the taxpayers should have to pay someone $60K a year to tape together documents torn up by Trump. What not just give him photocopies in the first place? That aside, just more proof that he doesn’t understand the job.

      1. Well, when Republicans do it, it’s OK, but if a Democrat does it, it is a crime. Isn’t that the idea?

      2. but then excuse Trump for destroying documents he doesn’t like.

        Because tearing up invitations and newspaper clippings is just like setting up a toilet server and having your IT aide using bleachbit and hammers to destroy hard drives in order to frustrate FOIA requests looking into your pay-for-play schemes,

  2. NRA WELCOMED SUPPORT FROM RUSSIANS

    SHADOWY PUTIN ALLY ATTENDED CONVENTIONS

    In a weeks-long exchange of letters with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, NRA General Counsel John Frazer disclosed that the group accepts foreign donations, but that none has been used in elections and that Russian contributions and member dues totaled $2,500 in 2016.

    In April, Frazer cut off the exchange without divulging any of the group’s so-called “dark money” donors, who are allowed to contribute anonymously and can further shield their identities behind shell companies. It is unclear whether the group has traced the sources of all of those funds.

    Of the $30 million the NRA reported spending to support Trump, more than $21 million was spent by its lobbying arm, whose donors are not publicly reported.

    Two NRA insiders say that overall, the group spent at least $70 million, including resources devoted to field operations and online advertising, which are not required to be publicly reported.

    NRA officials first forged a relationship with Torshin, a close Putin ally, and his protégé, Maria Butina, in 2011. Soon, Torshin helped Butina start a Russian gun rights group called Right to Bear Arms. In 2016, upon Trump’s election as president, Torshin tweeted that he and Butina were the only Russian lifetime members of the NRA.

    For five years, Torshin flew to the United States to attend the group’s annual conventions, culminating in the 2016 affair in Louisville. Torshin briefly met Donald Trump Jr. at a dinner during the event, but failed in efforts to arrange a private meeting with Trump.

    Months earlier, in December 2015, Torshin and Butina’s gun rights group hosted an NRA delegation led by NRA board member and former President David Keene for a week of lavish wining and dining in Moscow.

    During their visit, the NRA group met with Rogozin, who served as the deputy prime minister overseeing Russia’s military industrial complex for seven years and previously was Russia’s ambassador to NATO. Late last month, Putin put him in charge of the Russian space program.

    Rogozin is a far-right nationalist who has “extensive ties to the Russian arms industry” that he managed and “is deeply hostile to the West,” said Mike Carpenter, who was a Russia specialist while a senior Pentagon official in the Obama administration.

    Another Russia expert, Atlantic Council fellow Anders Aslund, was flabbergasted that the NRA delegation met with Rogozin.

    “I can’t understand the NRA meeting with Rogozin since he was sanctioned in 2014,” he said. “ It’s so embarrassing.”

    Edited from: “Web Of Elite Russians Met With NRA Execs During 2016 Campaign”

    McClatchy D.C., 6/11/18

    1. Thanks, 5 PM for calling our attention to this.

      Story tells us that NRA tried to minimize support from Russia when inquires were made by Senator Wyden. But when Wyden wanted asked about their ‘Dark Money’ contributions, the NRA went silent.

      1. You are welcome. Russian money to the NRA to Trump. What’s the Russian word for laundromat?

        1. What’s the Russian word for laundromat?

          DNC. Clinton Victory Fund. Clinton Foundation.

          Or, the Obama Administration, take your pick:
          To access the rials, Iran wanted to convert them briefly into dollars and then Euros.

          The majority report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation says that the US Treasury, at the instruction of the US State Department, granted a license to convert the $5.7 billion briefly into American dollars so it could be converted into euros. The exchange was legal, the report notes.

          Officials at Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control asked two US banks to work as intermediaries and execute the transaction, but they declined, citing concern over potential regulatory backlash and a ding to their reputations.
          https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/iran-united-states-bank-exchange-republicans-report/index.html

            1. Your reading comprehension is a bit off.

              Given the fact you’ve not indicated how, perhaps this sentence was what you were referring to?

              The exchange was legal, the report notes.

      1. The Red Army Choir is one thing, but those around Putin and the oligarchs, quite something else.

    3. GUNS DON’T KILL THE PEOPLE BEHIND THEM DO.

      Does Peter Hill know anything? I doubt very much. Guilt by association is his favorite meme. The NRA is a good organization and supports the proper use of guns. The Russians have thrown money everywhere especially in the direction of the Clintons.

      Here is Obama’s study on guns.

      “The full study can be found online here:
      http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=18319&page=R1
      Let’s look at some highlights, shall we?
      1. Most gun deaths in the US are due to suicide, not violent crimes with guns or accidental shootings. This is a sad statistic, but again, this goes back to mental healthcare, not guns.
      “Between the years 2000-2010, firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.” [Source]
      2. Mass shootings account for a negligible amount of crime in the US. In fact, mass shootings are one of the rarest forms of violent crime in the country.
      “The number of public mass shootings of the type that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School accounted for a very small fraction of all firearm-related deaths. Specifically, since 1983 there have been 78 events in which 4 or more individuals were killed by a single perpetrator in a day in the United States, resulting in 547 victims and 476 injured persons.” [Source]
      3. This one is probably our favorite. The study admits that self defense is a common occurrence and happens at least as much violent crimes involving guns. This is a direct busted myth to the anti gun argument that guns are almost never used for self defense.
      “Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence […]. Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.” [Source]
      4. Furthermore, on self defense, if you carry a gun and fight back against a violent assailant, you are less likely to be killed or harmed than someone who decided to fight back and employ another self defense tactic or weapon.
      “Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns […] have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies.” [Source]
      The study isn’t completely pro-gun, as you wouldn’t expect a truly unbiased study to be and does include some statistics and postulations theorizing different ways gun ownership could be a bad thing.
      Overall, the results of this study are surprising, considering who ordered it. Make sure to share this one.”

      1. More Kellyanne pivot nonsense. Nice hat, by the way.

        this is to “but what about Benghazi!!” allan

        2. More Kellyanne pivot nonsense.

          I’ve got it. Mark M. is Natacha’s demented little brother

  3. The very least of his problems, so what, and somebody thinks now Congress will do anything? Just put it on the other stacks of violations. Just like everything else Trump, nothing to see here.

    1. Just put it on the other stacks of violations.

      You do realize there are many people like myself that are looking for violations, right? I voted for him knowing he had to be on a short leash. I knew he was not going to get away with anything. With that being said, share what stacks of violations have occurred. Be prepared to explain how they are violations of the law and more specifically, how they compare with previous administrations.

      I’ll wait.

      1. I will not do your homework for you. But since I have no faith that your habits will change, how about on the bottom of the stack the Emolument Clause.

        1. how about on the bottom of the stack the Emolument Clause.

          Aaaannnndddd? Certainly you’re not going to cut/paste the constitution into this thread one post at a time. What about the Emolument Clause? What Charges? And if that’s on the bottom, then What Else is on top of that? Come on FishWings, my 10 year old can do what you’re doing. That’s why it’s a good idea to restrict his use of social media platforms.

      2. @OLLY June 11, 2018 at 1:00 PM
        “You do realize there are many people like myself that are looking for violations, right? I voted for him knowing he had to be on a short leash. I knew he was not going to get away with anything. With that being said, share what stacks of violations have occurred.”

        Let’s hope that Trump didn’t fire the two staffers because they were reassembling the documents he tore up to conform with the requirements of the Public Records Act, and that he’ll soon replace them with people who are willing to do the scotch-taping without complaint.

        If he doesn’t immediately replace them or assign current staff to pick up after him in order to honor the law requiring retention of federal documents, that failure will constitute part of a pattern of disregard for transparency, a much more serious example of which is the secrecy shrouding Trump’s drone program, in which the people torn up can’t be taped back together:

        “President Trump is outpacing his predecessor in the number of U.S. drone strikes abroad and has made it easier for the CIA to use the craft to eliminate targets, according to a new study released Thursday — but specialists warn the use of the unmanned killing machines remains shrouded in secrecy with rules of engagement that haven’t been publicly explained.

        “The comprehensive report from the nonpartisan Stimson Center examined U.S. drone policy since Sept. 11, 2001, and found that the steady rise in the frequency of drone strikes during former President Barack Obama’s tenure has continued since Mr. Trump came to power. During his eight years in office, Mr. Obama authorized roughly 550 drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other nations in which the U.S. wasn’t explicitly at war.

        “In just his first 12 months, Mr. Trump green-lighted at least 80 strikes in those countries and ‘is on pace to surpass the strike tempo of both of his predecessors, which perhaps signals a great willingness to use lethal force,’ the survey says.

        “The figures do not include military action in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. has [had] a formal military presence for more than a decade, and the strikes in countries such as Yemen and Somalia are typically overseen by the CIA, not the Pentagon.

        “Analysts argue that one reason for the uptick in the use of drones could be the Trump administration’s relaxation of the rules governing drone strikes.The administration reportedly has lessened the certainty required about a target’s whereabouts before launching a drone strike, and has declared parts of Yemen and Somalia to be areas of ‘active hostilities,’ which allow greater flexibility in the use of drones.

        ” ‘The Trump administration appears to be rolling back initial, albeit limited, efforts to increase transparency in the U.S. drone program, which impedes the ability of the public to assess whether the use of drones is appropriate and responsible and to hold the government accountable for any mistakes or wrongful killings resulting from the use of drones in lethal operations,’ wrote Rachel Stohl, managing director at Stimson who oversaw the drone study. ‘A lack of transparency also undermines the legitimacy of the U.S. drone program and the policy underpinning it, and implies that the United States has something to hide.’ [Emphasis added]
        https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/7/donald-trump-outpacing-barack-obama-drone-strikes-/

        I have no idea to what possible “legitimacy” Ms. Stohl may be referring.

  5. Crisis at the National Archives
    By Thomas Lipscomb
    June 10, 2018

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/06/10/crisis_at_the_national_archives_137241.html

    Excerpts from article:

    “In the middle of directing the difficult task of transferring the historically important records of the Obama administration into the National Archives, the archivist in charge, David Ferriero, ran into a serious problem: A lot of key records are missing.”
    ———–
    “And yet the accumulation of recent congressional testimony has made it clear that the Obama administration itself engaged in the wholesale destruction and “loss” of tens of thousands of government records covered under the act as well as the intentional evasion of the government records recording system by engaging in private email exchanges. So far, former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Lynch and several EPA officials have been named as offenders. The IRS suffered record “losses” as well. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy called it “an unauthorized private communications system for official business for the patent purpose of defeating federal record-keeping and disclosure laws.”
    ————
    “What good is the National Archives administering a presidential library, like the planned Obama library in Chicago, if it is missing critical records of interest to scholars? And what’s to prevent evasion of the entire federal records system by subsequent administrations to suit current politics rather than serve scholars for centuries to come?”

  6. “Lartey said the papers he received included newspaper clips on which Trump had scribbled notes, or circled words; invitations; and letters from constituents or lawmakers on the Hill, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.”

    Trump went rogue and tore up insignificant scraps of paper, probably viewing the cost to store them wasteful.

  7. One of his colleagues, Reginald Young Jr., who worked as a senior records management analyst, said that during over two decades of government service, he had never been asked to do such a thing.

    “We had to endure this under the Trump administration,” Young said. “I’m looking at my director, and saying, ‘Are you guys serious?’ We’re making more than $60,000 a year, we need to be doing far more important things than this. It felt like the lowest form of work you can take on without having to empty the trash cans.”

    “I was stunned,” Lartey told Politico. “I asked them, ‘Why can’t you all tell me something?’ I had gotten comfortable. I was going to retire. I would never have thought I would have gotten fired.”

    If your expecting to cruise into retirement the best advice is to just do your damn job, collect your salary and not bitch and moan things are not as comfortable as they once were. And if they want you to empty the trash cans, do it you sniveling twit.

    1. My impression as well, Olly. Just do what it takes to get the job done and stop looking down at the cleaning staff. I hate it when people don’t have respect for all types of work……

      1. Riesling,
        Humility is in short supply these days. An employer pays someone $60k a year with full benefits and nearly zero chance of ever getting fired and you have the temerity to complain about having to do mundane work? This guy needs to spend a week with Mike Rowe doing work that pays far less than $5k a month to give him a reality check.

    2. Spot on Olly! I would happily empty wastebaskets, dust and vacuum offices for 60K plus benefits! =)

      1. That is what happens in socialized states. The leaders and those that work in government are looked enviously upon by those that actually have to pay their salaries.

    1. TBob,- Jamarl did a good video on this – first 12 minutes

      Trump Fights For U.S. Sovereignty (Changes to NAFTA ISDS); Media Focuses On Personality Spat

  9. Whoa!! Way much over-reacting.

    My wife has the same work habit. She reads the document and “processes” it; then she rips it in half and throws it in the wastebasket. Why? 1) That’s how she knows she processed the doc; 2) It is positive feedback to her that she’s completed a task; 3) It fits in the wastebasket better.

    For crying out loud people. Trump likely has the same habit and, after 10,000 repetitions over decades, its a hard habit to break.

    Geez o’ Petes. You guys would overreact to finding out that Trump flushes after every pee.

      1. The law doesn’t matter to Trump. It’s a characteristic of his narcissism [the law doesn’t apply to him]. Didn’t you mention the Manhattan mafia? Enough said

        1. The law doesn’t matter to Trump. It’s a characteristic of his narcissism [the law doesn’t apply to him].

          Bwahahahahaha! Oh no, a president with an ego. That’s never happened before. What evidence do you have that demonstrates he doesn’t care about the law or that it doesn’t apply to him? Because he tears up paperwork and someone has to tape it all back together? Records retention doesn’t end with the president. It’s not as though he’s running these papers through a shredder, or hoarding documents for his future library to avoid FOIA.

          1. Ego and narcissism are two different things.

            He has clear disdain for the law.

            1. He has clear disdain for the law.

              No, he has clear disdain for lawfare. Of course you should have no difficulty identifying the laws President Trump has violated.

              I’ll wait.

          2. Olly,

            Curiously your ‘voice’, in these thread comments, always sounds like a character from an old western movie; that town bully who leads a mob to the jail where they expect to lynch the sheriff’s prisoner. The sheriff, of course, will come out with his rifle and say, “No one’s touching this man until he gets a fair trial”.

            Then the bully, played by you, responds with something like, “We know he’s guilty, Sheriff. Bring ’em out or we’ll burn him alive in jail”.

            But no sooner do you say that when the sheriff bashes your mouth with the butt of his rifle!

            1. Wow! Now hold on a one cotton-picking minute Sheriff. Are we watching the same movie? In your movie I’m the bully? Huh!? I believe you’re watching a Twilight Zone episode, because in this thread’s scenario, I would be the Sheriff, Trump would be the prisoner, and I’m defending him against the irrational mob yelling “We know he’s guilty, Sheriff. Bring ’em out or we’ll burn him alive in jail”.

              Are you and 5PM sharing computer time?

              1. No, Olly, you got the story wrong.

                Trump is the cattle baron trying to drive out homesteaders. And that man in jail shot the cattle baron’s thug when they tried to burn a homesteader’s farm.

                And Olly, the mob you’re leading, happens to be the cattle baron’s ranch hands who’ve been drinking in the saloon all night.

                1. LOL! Too late Peter. You blew it on your first draft and your 2nd story doesn’t fit the thread. Now it just sounds like a script made up by 5th graders, with my apologies to 5th graders.

                2. “And Olly, the mob you’re leading”

                  Olly, listen to the story form rationalizations from Peter Hill who can’t even show respect for a man who is dying (Blog on Krauthammer) and a friend of our generous host. This is the type of garbage one assumes comes from an uneducated Antifa type that can’t even throw a punch correctly but will gang up on a solo man or woman or hit them on the head from behind with a large iron lock.

                  1. Allan,
                    Even when I explain to them I too want to hold this administration to the rule of law and ask them to provide evidence of violations, they produce nothing. When their evidence is of torn papers, scotch tape and whiny employees doing work beneath their station, I know they’ve lost their collective marbles.

                    1. Olly, they say very little and know less. Peter Hill writes a good number of long posts and is able to say almost nothing. They seem to have no historical memory or understanding of the law.

    2. Did you even read the post? The day glo bozo isn’t a shift leader at Jack-in-the-box; he’s playing the role of President of the United States and leader of the free world. Moreover, there happens to be a law which specifically prohibits the destruction of the documents which the buffoon ripped up. Pro tip: reddit is down the hall, thanks for playing.

      this is to selfie

  10. This Humpy Dumpty duty raises some serious questions of federal violations.

    Well this must be a first; a subordinate is required to do some lame-ass task because his boss made his workload icky. Oh the horror! I’m pleased to know there are people within this administration concerned about the law (federal records retention). But leaking about it should get you bum-rushed out the door. What’s next on JT’s concern about President Trump? Is he still getting more ice cream than others or does he demand the toilet paper is under rather than over?

    If you really were serious about federal violations, then what is going on with the Awan/DNC/DWS investigation?

    1. Olly said, “But leaking about it should get you bum-rushed out the door.”

      Lartey was fired on March 23rd, 2018. Young was fired on April 19th, 2018. The story was published yesterday, June 10th, 2018. Neither of them were fired for leaking because neither of them leaked.

      1. L4D is enabling David Benson – If they were doing such a great job taping the documents back together, why did they get fired? Document assemblers are hard to find.

        1. Cute, Paul.

          Yeah, that’s how cynical Trumpers must get to make any sense of his aggressively stupid behavior.

          1. Peter Hill – it is a serious question. If they are doing a good job at re-assembling the documents, why did they get fired?

            1. How many Fortune 500 companies would tolerate executives who make a habit of ripping up vital documents and expect assistants to reassemble them?

              If an article like that made The Wall Street Journal’s front page, regarding the CEO of ATT, for instance, that CEO would probably be gone before the day was out.

              1. You’re joking, right? It’s not as though President Trump was using his staff as a humidor. These are salaried employees earning $5k a month to do a job for a “corporation” wasting billions on far more significant things than scotch tape and “uncomfortable” employees.

                You people have completely lost your collective minds if you think this is an issue.

                1. “You people have completely lost your collective minds if you think this is an issue.”

                  They never made sense. They are partisan hacks that know extremely little.

                  1. “They never made sense. They are partisan hacks that know extremely little.” -Allan

                    Says the guy spewing Allanonsense.

                    1. Anonymous your words don’t register and wouldn’t even if you had a brain.

              2. Peter Hill – what is the problem with printing out a new copy?

                1. Don’t ask me. The fact that the old copies have to be taped together indicates it’s not as simple as printing out a new one.

              3. You sir clearly do not know how stupid and annoying the behavior of CEOs can be!

        2. Paul,
          You’re not supposed to ask that question. You’re just supposed to assume the firings were unwarranted because it was within Trump’s administration. It probably went something like this:

          Director of Records Retention (DRR): Hello, White House? Yeah, we’ve got a couple of employees here concerned about having to tape together pieces of paper the President tore up.

          WH: Did you say employees?

          DRR: Yes

          WH: Are they being paid on time with full salary and benefits?

          DRR: Yes

          WH: One moment please…(elevator music)

          WH: DRR, the President wants you to tell them “thank you for your service and you’re fired.” Hire their replacements pronto and double the order on scotch tape.

          1. I doubt their complaints went farther north than their immediate supervisor. The HR functionary who formally terminated them works for a unit of the Executive Office called the ‘Office of Administration’. Here’s the chain of command:

            President >> WH Chief of Staff >> Dir, Ofc of Administration >> COO, Ofc. of Adminitration >> internal department head, operating division, Ofc. of Administration >> Messrs. Lartey and Young. It’s a reasonable wager the Director of the Office of Administration could pick them out of a police line-up, but that’s all. Unless one of them ran over the Chief of Staff’s foot in the EOB parking lot, he doesn’t know them from a cord of wood.

            I suppose it’s possible they were terminated completely arbitrarily and unfairly. I’ve seen that, but I’ve never seen it at the behest of a supervisor or manager who didn’t know the employee in question and have it in for them for some ignoble reason. Alternatively, they had performance problems they’ve known about but are unwilling to discuss with the reporter. That they were terminated by a higher-up for objecting to the scut work they were given is possible but also the least plausible of several conceivable explanations of what happened.

            Given their age and their specific resume, they do have my personal sympathy.

        1. Paul ya think? Sessions totally disengaged, DWS’s bro head of the office, the various data those Paki siphoned off Dims – and possibly Reps probably went right to Pakistan. To be used for blackmail? DId they get useful intel about national security? We’ll never know. Now this smacks of COLLUSION.

          1. Autumn – maybe they were smart enough to dupe the harddrive.

            1. Paul Becerra, now the CA AG who took Kamala Harris’ place gave them a fake copy. Then refused to give them the real files.

              Luke Rosiak: There was a second hack that occurred the same week that the DNC was breached. The same week that Wikileaks started putting up those DNC emails the House of Representatives Inspector General briefed authorities that there was this ongoing hack by Pakistanis who the Democrats hired as IT guys. Ordinarily they would have been arrested on the bat obviously but, think about it, that Russian narrative that they just decided to start pitching that very weak, you know how tenuous it is, how backed by nothing it is. You throw into the mix arrests by Pakistanis hired by Democrats and unvetted for a similar hack at an identical time the narrative about Russia would have been impossible to secure… What the Democrats did here was treason. They allowed the United States t continue to be hacked by these guys so they could spin this Russian narrative…

              …The DOJ under Jeff Sessions is covering up a scandal that exposes the entire Russian narrative as a hoax. It is in Jeff Sessions’s power to demolish this Russian narrative and once and for all charge the Pakistanis with hacking Congress and exposing Democrats hypocricy and negligence. He has a list of witnesses and his FBI is refusing to interview them… They have all the goods. It’s in the server logs. This case is open-and-shut. And Jeff Sessions is refusing to bring the charges.

              Sessions need to go – he’s covering for the Deep State

              1. This “Deep State” entity which you have publicly named seems ominous. It appears that through your dogged and indefatigable sleuthing you have uncovered a nefarious cabal of ne’er-do-wells, seemingly hell-bent on eradicating our ‘Merican way of life, our love of chips and salsa, or to fluoridate our precious bodily fluids, or some such other dastardly deed. Spot on Inspector, and well done.

                this is to “Inspector Clouseau at your service, madam” autumnic

                1. Marky Mark Mark – Autumn does not have precious bodily fluids, you twit. Didn’t you watch the movie?

    3. Haha. Excellent. Please post something about the “Sandy Hook” conspiracy or the bodies of alien visitors which the government is hiding from us; neither of which I can find in the reputable news sources. Thanks, I’ll hang up and listen.

      this is to “the guy collecting my trash seems to be wearing a disguise” olly

  11. Sounds very suspect to me. Why not just reprint the document from it’s electronic format?

  12. Over the years Congress has delegated many responsibilities to the executive arm under the assumption that the president was, at least, sane. But we now have a madman, a member of the Manhattan Mafia to boot, at the helm of the ship of state. So how long until the rocks?

      1. There is no ‘job at hand’ other than attempting to craft a flimsy excuse to indict or impeach the President. Mueller’s let the cat out of the bag with the slew of indictments this far: Manafort’s business dealings, Russian internet trolls, and process crimes.

    1. There have been weird signs that something is wrong. Remember how he had to use two hands to drink from a glass and water bottle [he looked like a toddler]. His intermittent slurred speech [which the doctor attributed to dry mouth from antihistamine – which is BS]. His vacant stares that looked like a confused old man shuffling around in a nursing home. At least two videos capturing his having to be redirected when he appeared to not know what was going on. And then there are his long term profoundly disturbing character disorders.

      And, on top of that, he has clearly decided that if he’s going down, he’s taking everything down with him. I pray for James Mattis every day because he is certainly the most sane, ethical one in Trump’s gang of incompetent and corrupt toads.

          1. Since the patient is showing more insight into his situation, we’ll probably plan on discharging him later this week. 🙂

        2. “My observations are sound, informed, and accurate. Yours aren’t”

          All the insane say that, 5PM

      2. Trump needs to cut out his Diet Coke habit. In case no one has told him yet, the Diet Coke is pickling his brain.

        2. @TBob June 11, 2018 at 10:47 AM
          “Trump needs to cut out his Diet Coke habit. In case no one has told him yet, the Diet Coke is pickling his brain.”

          There’s evidence that aspartame does exactly that to the brain and other organs, thanks to its conversion in the body to formaldehyde. I hope those reports are untrue that Trump consumes 12 Diet Cokes a day, especially if he’s drinking them from aluminum cans:

          “Formaldehyde Poisoning from Aspartame

          “In 1997 there was an increase in aspartame users reporting severe toxicity reactions and damage such as seizures, eye damage and vision loss, confusion, severe migraines, tremors, depression, anxiety attacks, insomnia, etc. In the same years, Ralph Walton, MD, Chairman, The Center for Behavioral Medicine showed that the only studies which didn’t find problems with aspartame where those funded by the manufacturer (Monsanto).

          “Given the agreement amongst independent scientists about the toxicity of aspartame, the only question was whether the formaldehyde exposure from aspartame caused the toxicity. That question has now been largely answered because of research in the late 1990s. [Emphasis added]

          “The following facts shown by recent scientific research:

          “1) Aspartame (nutrasweet) breaks down into methanol (wood alcohol).

          “2) Methanol quickly converts to formadehyde in the body.

          “3)Formaldehyde causes gradual and eventually severe damage to the neurological system, immune system and causes permanent genetic damage at extremely low doses.

          “4) Methanol from alcoholic beverages and from fruit and juices does not convert to formaldehyde and cause damage because there are protective chemicals in these traditionally ingested beverages.

          “5) The most recent independent research in Europe demonstrates that ingestion of small amounts of aspartame leads to the accumulation of significant levels of formaldehyde (bound to protein) in organs (liver, kidneys, brain) and tissues.

          “6) Excitotoxic amino acids such as the one which is immediately released from aspartame likely increases the damage caused by the formaldehyde.”

          http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/embalm.html

          “Aluminum Cans
          “Beer and soft drink cans are made exclusively from aluminum. Since these beverages are often highly acidic, even one beer or cola drink per day can lead to aluminum toxicity in susceptible individuals over a period of time.”

          http://www.arltma.com/Articles/AlumToxDoc.htm

          1. While you’re at it, Ken, we need to hear more about the thermite and WTC7.

            1. @Insufferable Philodoxer June 11, 2018 at 4:16 PM
              “While you’re at it, Ken, we need to hear more about the thermite and WTC7.”

              Sure thing. Here’s a side-by-side comparison video of two buildings brought down by controlled demolition, one of which is WTC Building 7:

              https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=side-by-side+comparison+of+WTC+7+collapse+and+controlled+demolition&&view=detail&mid=4E3E33CBAF151DDE9DA44E3E33CBAF151DDE9DA4&rvsmid=5C86D8C51B2951CCA58A5C86D8C51B2951CCA58A&FORM=VDQVAP

              And here’s a photo of super-explosive nano-thermite chips found in the WTC buildings’ dust:

              “Figure 9. Dr. Niels Harrit leads an international team of scientists that documents the finding of red-gray nano-thermite chips in four independently-collected WTC dust samples. This material ignites and forms the iron-rich spheres that were so abundant in the dust.”

              http://www1.ae911truth.org/en/affiliate-marketing-program/899-what-was-the-molten-metal-seen-pouring-out-of-the-south-tower-minutes-before-its-collapse-steel-and-iron-or-aluminum-andor-lead.html

              1. Oh dear. I studied this collapse. WTC 7 was hit by large pieces of WTC 1. These started fires because of the diesel fuel illegally stored in the building. The fire could not be fought because other falling pieces destroyed the water mains.

                1. David, a number of blogs back I posted a quote from a paper on the WTC written by you and several co-authors on exactly this subject. Following that quote Ken, our local conspiracy theorist, who doesn’t know how facts are created and thus jumped to conclusions, started calling me Professor ..?. ( I forget the name which may have been a grad student.) I never corrected Ken on this because he so frequently posts impossibilities. I figured I would wait some time to correct him and demonstrate how poor his ability to gather facts is.

                  What puzzled me is that you either didn’t remember the name of your co-author or remember the paper. You had plenty of comments on the blog where the quote from the paper was posted and plenty of other opportunities when Ken continued to call me by that name, Professor ..?. You were around at these times and posting. If the name was a professor colleague I would have thought you would have remembered so I wondered if you were the professor and the other name was a grad student. I also wondered why you didn’t immediately pick up Ken’s error or if you thought I could be such a person why you didn’t say hello.

                2. @David B. Benson June 12, 2018 at 10:25 AM
                  “Oh dear. I studied this collapse. WTC 7 was hit by large pieces of WTC 1. These started fires because of the diesel fuel illegally stored in the building. The fire could not be fought because other falling pieces destroyed the water mains.”

                  Oh, dear. Were you clutching your pearls as you wrote this, DB? 🙂

                  The Grenfell Tower fire in London provides a good example of what has always happened to tall steel-framed buildings when they catch fire, but are not wired with explosives. Here’s what it looked like during the fire:

                  ibtimes.co.uk/grenfell-tower-fire-pictures-major-blaze-engulfs-24-storey-block-flats-west-london-1626190

                  Here’s what it looked like after the fire was extinguished:

                  http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-inside-grenfell-tower-after-deadly-fire-2017-6?r=UK&IR=T

                  Here’s what WTC Building 7 looked like after some small office fires:

                  https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=video+of+wtc+7+collapse&view=detail&mid=DCB634A3DEBB326EA888DCB634A3DEBB326EA888&FORM=VIRE

                  Can you spot the difference between the Grenfell Tower and WTC 7 collapses?

                  Take your time. Watch the two “collapses” more than once if you need to.

      3. Remember how Trump kept sniffing throughout his debates with Hillary? How odd was that..??

        1. not really if you’ve read what John Podesta wrote March 22. 2015 (thanx Wikileaks!!)

          ” People tell me that Hillary is acting ‘like a retard’ since her head injury. Frankly, considering her normal behavior, I’m surprised anyone noticed! (this is a joke!) Have someone talk to her doctor and see if there’s anything he can give her.

          Also, I’ve noticed she’s had an ‘odor’ lately. It reminds me of a combination of boiled cabbage, urine and farts. I’m guessing it’s either connected to her fall or simply the fact that she rarely bathes. Outside of encouraging her to take a shower once in a while, I don’t know what to do about this. — any suggestions would be appreciated.

          –sent from my iPad–
          john.podesta@gmail.com

          Apparently she smelled very “ripe” so it would make sense that folks in vicinity would recoil.

      4. Mattis “sane and ethical”? We need to get out of Syria – why should our troops remain there? we are not welcome there and the Donald wants to bring them home.

        Mattis: Leaving Syria Without Making Progress Would Be a ‘Blunder’
        Assad would ‘exploit’ vacuum left by ending US presence
        Jason Ditz Posted on June 8, 2018Categories NewsTags Mattis, Syria

        Speaking at NATO headquarters of Friday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis reiterated his opposition to the idea of withdrawing US troops from Syria. He said any withdrawal before progress was made would be a “strategic blunder.”
        James Mattis

        Mattis’ position reflects those of a lot of top US cabinet officials, who have resisted President Trump’s talk of a quick withdrawal. He argues that the UN peace plan necessitates an ongoing US military presence.

        On the one hand, Mattis suggests leaving too soon could give “the terrorists the opportunity to recover.” On the other hand, he also says that leaving would be exploited by the Assad government and its supporters.

        This again sets out the US position that the UN plan necessitates regime change in Syria, something other supporters say is not the case. It also suggests a more or less permanent US presence in Syria, since there is virtually no chance the US will impose a favorable outcome.

        Instead, Syria looks to be going the way of other major US wars, an open-ended situation short of success in which officials simultaneously are unable to come up with a plan to “win,” but will resist any pullout so they never completely lose.

    2. “The Donald is mad.”

      The Donald is mad at stupid people so don’t be stupid, David.

            1. David Benson owes me two citations after three weeks, one from the OED. – I think your eyesight is failing.

    1. Good post, 5 PM.

      Ever notice how Nutchcha is always the voice of disinterest?

      Every day Nutchacha is telling us, in the most smug and cynical terms, to ignore something that deserves urgent attention. Which make you wonder ‘where’ Nutchacha is.

  15. Why are you recycling ‘news’ stories from the extensions of the DNC press office which are supposedly derived from anonymous sources but which may be fabrications tout court?

    1. The sources are Solomon Lartey and Reginald Young Jr., per the article which you obviously did not read.

      1. The story is dated June 10th, 2018 (yesterday). Lartey was fired on March 23rd, 2018. Young on April 19th, 2018. Maybe Nii couldn’t find anything else in the story to complain about. Ordinarily Nii would have complained about Lartey and Young’s salaries.

      2. Fair enough. About this pair, it’s a trifle unbelievable that the president issued an instruction to dismiss two clerical employees he’d almost certainly never set eyes on who occupied positions four or five layers distant in the administrative hierarchy. It’s also a trifle unbelievable that these two clerical employees were dismissed without an explanation or any understanding of their performance issues. The last time a personal acquaintance told me he’d been fired without explanation, I was in a group of people who all had to bite their tongue to avoid asking about his erstwhile supervisor’s opinion of his drinking habits. Dear man, but as alcohol-steeped as any functional adult I’ve known.

        1. Lartey and Young suggested in the Politico article that they were fired for complaining about the work of taping Trump’s documents back together again being beneath the dignity of their pay-grade. They may be right as to the cause of Trump’s executive action against them. I’m not sure that they’re right about the presumed dignity of their pay-grade, though. Maybe they never heard that country and western song “Take This Job and Shove It.” Oh! I forgot. They were both close to retirement. Old folks are not supposed to get uppity about their job requirements anymore.

  16. For some odd reason…if this is true, this is the action that makes me lose the most respect for Trump for some reason. My reasoning was that, behind close doors, he was doing his job and not acting like the character he portrays in the media and on Twitter. But now, he’s just wasting resources and obviously doesn’t know how to act properly in a professional capacity. I gave him the benefit of the doubt previously.

    1. For some odd reason…But now, he’s just wasting resources and obviously doesn’t know how to act properly in a professional capacity.

      You’re right, that is an odd reason.

      Word on the street is President Trump puts his pants on two legs at a time. He’s insane I tell ya. Impeach already! sarc off/

      1. Haha well, I was kinda like “yea he’s ridiculous but it’s just an act to get votes…” and that he gets shit done behind close doors. But now I just Kinda think he’s an ass all-around.

        1. But now I just Kinda think he’s an ass all-around.

          I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

          If Congress wants to impeach him for being an ass, they may not have a quorum after recusals.

        2. @Tom R June 11, 2018 at 10:40 AM
          “Haha well, I was kinda like “yea he’s ridiculous but it’s just an act to get votes…” and that he gets shit done behind close [sic] doors. But now I just Kinda think he’s an ass all-around.”

          I don’t know what an “ass all-around” is, but considering the destructive power Trump has at his fingertips, what you should be concerned about is the poor impulse control that this behavior suggests.

          1. about is the poor impulse control that this behavior suggests.

            Actually, what it suggests is that he didn’t value the paper in question and it never occurred to him that retaining it was useful or required. Their specific examples were newspaper clippings and invitations.

  20. “Many years ago, I wrote an academic piece on Presidential Records Act….”

    Lawd, an academic paper. Do those have any real life application other than add yet another notch to a writer’s very long and dry CV?

    How about some real news, JT. Youre a leader. Lead us on the real life issues that are impacting, nay, gripping Americans. Tell us how Justice works in America because frankly, by a cursory look at your blog, as well as the MSM, Americans are EXHAUSTED of the negative, sensational, fake news.

    Enough of the shrill “news”

    2. Ramos, if you don’t like Turley go back to Infowars.

      Problem solved…

Comments are closed.