If the Federal Bureau of Investigation is going to be roving the countryside looking for presidential documents, then Barack Obama’s residence must be next. By now, you all know about
I mean, you're spamming like Miura after 73 hours straight of Newsmax and about three lines of cocaine, and your shrieking contempt seems especially high-pitched.
Fox News and the Trump team are pointing to former president Barack Obama's library possessing 30 million documents. But the two situations have basically no resemblance for a host of reasons.
Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.
- Jonathan Swift
"About 33,000 pages of documents are involved, according to the National Archives, which runs the library.
Under the Presidential Records Act, such records can be withheld for up to 12 years after a president leaves office. However, at the 12-year mark, those broad restrictions fall away and the once-secret presidential papers are generally subject to disclosure. For the Clinton files, that milestone came and went in January 2013.
"It’s not entirely clear who’s responsible for the delay, since the release process involves the library and National Archives headquarters, as well as lawyers for the former president and Obama.
Unlike collections in other hands, the withheld files at the Clinton Library are under the control of the federal government."
"After several days of queries, a National Archives spokesman said Tuesday evening that some — but not all — of the previously withheld records have been approved for release. "
This is significantly different than what Trump is supposedly accused of doing by going around the National Archives and storing them on his personal property, illegally.
Property and withholding the documents from release is ok if it’s stated that the docs are “under the control of the national archives”. Sounds completely different.
It's not when it's the national archives being the holders
Aug 12, 2022, 5:02 PM
at a sanctioned repository run by the national archives versus the holder being a private citizen refusing or uncaring to turn over classified documents at the behest of the national archives. It's a pretty clear distinction. You can have issues with how long it takes to have the documents available to the public, but that's a different issue. The issue regarding Trump's case is clearly different than Obama/Clinton.
From National Archive statement explaining the difference with Obama's documents (and it can be applied to the Clinton example as well)...
August 12, 2022, statement
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA). NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area where they are maintained exclusively by NARA. Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area. As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.
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