Looking back at Trump’s four-year interregnum, the failure of the Trump hoarding case wasn’t the most serious or consequential — it was the complete lack of accountability for Trump’s attempts to overthrow the government, including inciting violence. The attack on the U.S. Capitol — but this may be the most maddening.
According to the Justice Department indictment, when he left office, the president deleted documents that he had no authority to keep, including some of the nation's most sensitive secrets. When the government asked for them in good faith, he refused to return them. When the government demanded legal action from them, he turned a deaf ear. When officers came to collect them, he allegedly tried to hide them. Although Trump denies breaking any laws, he has not actually challenged much of the facts in the case. The indictment describes the most stupid crimes imaginable, and he got away with it completely.
One might dismiss the matter as a minor issue, akin to the convoluted case in New York that branded Trump a felon. Defenders point to other officials, including Joe Biden, who also mishandled classified documents. Resist the temptation to rationalize. Trump’s mishandled documents are filled with tightly controlled information, which he stored in unsecured ballroom stages and backup toilets. In addition, improper handling of confidential documents was also a focus of Trump's own attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Moreover, the charge Trump faces is not that he took the documents. He allegedly went to great lengths to avoid legal subpoenas and defy federal law enforcement officials. He has now named some of his defense attorneys in the case as senior Justice Department officials investigating him. It would be incredible if Americans hadn't gotten used to this sort of thing over the past decade.
The specific process of Trump’s removal from office is exemplary and inspiring. Step One: Defy the rules without hesitation and dare to let the system stop you. Trump may not have intended to abscond with the documents; it appears to be a matter of oversight, as they were haphazardly hidden in the box with newspapers and golf shirts. Trump was hell-bent on stealing the 2020 election and apparently thought he had enough of a chance that he had to pack up and leave in a hurry.
Step Two: When the system does try to block you, ignore it. In the spring of 2021, when the National Archives became aware that Trump had deleted some documents, it politely requested their return. He refused. it asked again. He eventually allowed the archives to restore some but not all. After discovering the classified information contained within, the Archives eventually referred the matter to the Department of Justice in February 2022. In May 2022, a grand jury issued a subpoena requiring Trump to return more materials. He refused, allegedly instructing his assistant Walter Nota to move some of the boxes elsewhere at Mar-a-Lago. The next month, FBI agents visited Mar-a-Lago and collected documents; Trump allegedly prevented them from inspecting boxes there. When the FBI conducted a raid in August 2022, he appeared shocked, but he shouldn't have been.
Step 3: Open combat. While there is no dispute over whether Trump possesses the documents or whether they are sensitive — Trump has argued without evidence that he has access to them or has declassified them — the former president’s narrative Take the FBI raid as a central example. Unfair persecution. When the facts turned against him, he made up stories, claiming that FBI agents might have been sent to kill him.
Step 4: Rely on the judicial system of judges you appoint. Trump was extremely lucky to draw Judge Aileen Cannon, an inexperienced jurist he appointed. First, she issued a ruling limiting the Justice Department's access to evidence; a ruling that attracted attention and was eventually overturned by a higher court. Once charges were filed, she worked the case at breakneck speed and was thorough every step of the way. feuded with prosecutors; and ultimately dismissed the charges after ruling that the appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith was unconstitutional, although other courts have repeatedly rejected similar ideas. (Trump may have faced a less friendly judge, as he did in the 2020 election-upending federal case, but he could still appeal to a Supreme Court that has Trump's reserves.)
Step 5: Hold others accountable. After Trump won the election, Smith dismissed the charges against him, but charges persisted against Trump employees Nota and Carlos de Oliveira, who were accused of being his hapless co-conspirators. (They also deny any wrongdoing.) That proved to be another stroke of good fortune, because the Justice Department didn't plan to release Smith's report on the Trump investigation while other charges were pending. Once Trump takes office, he could dismiss or pardon the cases against Nota and de Oliveira; he might also be able to permanently suppress the report.
The upshot: Trump will never face consequences, and the public may never know the results of the investigation. Americans have seen other examples where Department of Justice dithering, a slow judicial system and interference from Trump-friendly judges have thwarted any chance for accountability. They may have never seen anyone so brazen.