A recent post by Donald Trump on his social media must have read like an awareness that he could be criminally prosecuted.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
Eric Holder/Obama’s protégé, specifically “Prosecutor” Jack Smith (he’s not Jack Smith), didn’t see what I did wrong in the “box hoax” (Mar-a-Lago raid) or with other What makes a president different, including the fact that a president is protected by the Presidential Records Act, the Clinton Socks case, etc. Now “Smith” is snooping on my perfect phone call to Georgia middle school. The state government is challenging the corrupt presidential election results and I have every right to do so!
Trump’s post has all the classics. Trump claims he did nothing wrong and that the boxes he stole and the classified documents found in his office were a hoax, a wild twist on the law. The Presidential Records Act does not protect former presidents from stealing classified information.
Ex-presidents shouldn’t be throwing around Presidential Records Act Because “The Presidential Records Act (PRA) changes the legal status of Presidential and Vice Presidential materials. Under the PRA, the official records of the president and his staff are owned by the United States, not the president. “
The Presidential Records Act does not mean what Trump thinks it means, nor does mentioning it mean what Trump thinks it does.
The former president had good reason to attack the special counsel. Smith appears to be piecing together the pieces into a broader Trump conspiracy to overturn the election and the underlying crimes committed.
Trump is rumored to have spent his time worrying about the investigation, and his attack on Smith was the first public indication that criminal prosecution was a real possibility.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a congressional correspondent for the White House Press Fellowship and PoliticusUSA. Jason has a BA in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, specializing in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Association of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association