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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   24828 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 6, 2024

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The use of the classified cover sheets in that photo does many things

  1. It provides a lot more visual impact than just classified documents with markings.

  2. It gives the impression that it would be obvious to anyone who casually looked in the box that it had classified documents. This is important because "knowingly" is an element of some of the charges.

  3. It effectively substitutes the FBI's CLAIM that the documents were classified for the actual evidence of classification.

  4. Since the classification markings on the pre-printed cover sheets didn't have to match those on the documents, it provided the impression that the documents had perhaps a higher classification level than they did. For instance, the NPR story claimed one of the cover sheets said "UP TO HCS-P/SI/TK", leading them to believe Trump had documents related to HUMINT. I thought at the time this was odd, you don't put "UP TO" on your caveats. But it makes perfect sense for a placeholder that might be used for a wide range of documents you might find. And given that, there might well have been no HUMINT at all; the placeholder is not evidence.

  5. Since the narrative accompanying the photo in court filings did not reveal that the cover sheets were added by the FBI, it constitutes an attempt to prejudice and/or mislead the court (as well as the public)

It provides a lot more visual impact than just classified documents with markings.

This is true, and probably isn't ideal, but it is not a huge issue. Maybe prosecutors shouldn't do things for 'visual impact', but they do, and at any rate the conduct of Trump and his lawyers at various legal proceedings has been 100x worse.

It gives the impression that it would be obvious to anyone who casually looked in the box that it had classified documents. This is important because "knowingly" is an element of some of the charges.

Pretty sure the documents themselves have clear classification markings on them?

It effectively substitutes the FBI's CLAIM that the documents were classified for the actual evidence of classification.

To the public, maybe? The claim is true, though, and it's not evidence to the courts, though. If those documents weren't actually classified when trump was President, Trump's lawyers would be all over that.

Since the classification markings on the pre-printed cover sheets didn't have to match those on the documents, it provided the impression that the documents had perhaps a higher classification level than they did.

Do you actually think this made a difference in anyone's reaction to this case? And, again, the courts are considering the actual documents and their classification levels. Here is an article going over the actual documents and their classification levels and contents. I do not think the cover pages were materially misleading given that.

Pretty sure the documents themselves have clear classification markings on them?

Even if this is the case -- and we in fact do not know that -- it would only be noticed by examining the document. Just casually looking in the open box would not make it obvious. There's a reason cover sheets are very noticable like that.

To the public, maybe?

And to the court, at the time.

The claim is true, though

How do you know? At this point you have only the FBI's say-so.

Do you actually think this made a difference in anyone's reaction to this case?

Yes, there was in fact a lot of screaming about "OMG nuclear secrets" and "OMG HUMINT, Trump's getting our spies killed!"

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