Early this morning, right-wing journalist John Solomon posted on his website a letter dated May 10 from Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist of the United States, to Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for former president Trump. Just why the Trump camp leaked the letter is unclear because it is a damning revelation of the extent of the stolen documents and Trump’s refusal to return them.
I just finished reading Debra Steidel Wall’s letter. She sets out the complete history of the attempts to regain the documents stolen by Donald Trump. What nefarious plans he had in mind will, with time, come to light. He’s a traitor. As Heather said in her talk today, if any of us had even one page, we would be in prison. The wait will be long, but I try to have confidence that the rule of law will take the day.
There is an annoying thought that keeps surfacing when I read the accounts of how many documents and the sensitivity of what 45 stole from us, The People. AND…..WHAT THE HELL he was doing for the 48 months or so, before leaving office??? Was he buying and selling sensitive intel as soon as he stepped into the Oval Office? I get sick to my stomach just trying to wrap my mind around the enormity of what this criminal has done to our country…..
Here is some background about Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist of the US from her hometown newspaper.
‘Mattituck native named deputy archivist at National Archives’ (excerpts)
‘Debra Steidel Wall was just a young teenager when during an eighth grade trip with her class at Mattituck Junior High School she first set eyes on Washington, D.C.’
‘On June 3 she was named the deputy archivist of the National Archives, the No. 2 position in a federal department that has 3,500 employees, 44 locations throughout the United States and 10 billion paper documents.’
“On that eighth grade field trip, that’s when I said ‘I want to live here. I want to come back here and be part of this,’” said Ms. Wall.’
‘Wall last Thursday, at the end of her first week in her new position.’
‘Ms. Wall graduated from Mattituck High School in 1984. She was raised on Little Neck Road in Cutchogue by her parents, Fran and Steve Steidel. Her father was a Suffolk County Police Officer and her mother was a teacher at the Ecumenical Nursery School at the Advent Lutheran Church in Mattituck. Her parents now live in Punta Gorda, Florida.’
‘After leaving Mattituck, Ms. Wall studied history and government at Georgetown University, and then studied film in graduate school at American University, while working summers at the former Fishermen’s Rest restaurant in Cutchogue.’
“When I first got here, I had no idea what the archives were. I was thinking of doing journalism or politics or something like that,” she said. “I thought I was interested in politics, but what I was really interested in was public service. I did my senior thesis on film history, and the archives has many films. Silent films were my specialty.”
‘Ms. Wall began her career at the National Archives in 1991 as an archivist in the motion picture, sound and video unit of the archives, and over the past 20 years has worked in nearly every aspect of the organization.’
“I always managed to have opportunities. In almost any work you’re doing, you can find the part of it that makes change,” she said. “I went from trainee work into policy, information technology and data standards, then into more policy in the chief of staff role for the past four years. I’m 45. I’ve been here 20 years, but around here that’s kind of a newbie. We have a lot of people who are very dedicated to the mission and stay here for their entire career.”
‘But even in the relatively short time she’s been with the National Archives, the nature of access to information has changed dramatically.’
“A lot of the stuff we have is unique. In the past, if you wanted something you’d have to send us a letter and ask what we have.
‘Now we have all of our descriptions on the internet, 72 million records have been archived and we’re open 24 hours a day,” she said. “We really need to change our culture. We’ve been a fairly traditional place. Up until a year and a half ago, we had policies that wouldn’t let us go to Facebook or Flickr on our work computers. Now we have a group of people who work for us who are using Flickr and Twitter as a way to engage people and get feedback from our users. We’re trying to stay at the forefront. In a very short time, we’ve become the leader in government.”
‘Ms. Wall said that most of the department’s new hires have an innate understanding about the way information has changed and, along with it, the methods that the National Archives’ customers use to access information.’
“The agency’s biggest challenge is electronic records. We have material that’s on floppy disks or Betamax video,” she said. “Our requirement is to keep electronic records for the life of the republic, so we have to upgrade that.”
“We run the presidential library system throughout the country. We run the federal register, which publishes government documents. We run the government’s security classification program, which is a pretty big deal. We also make grants to state and local archives,” she said.
‘Ms. Wall serves directly under David S. Ferriero, the 10th archivist of the United States.’
“Debra is passionate about the Archives’ mission and history,” he said in a press release announcing Ms. Wall’s appointment.’
‘And she’s also a kid from Cutchogue who, once upon a time, took a long class bus trip to Washington that changed her whole life.’
Just to say, a sincere and heartfelt ThankYou to All.
GoodCop BadCop on MDI. The Bar Harbor Police Chief and Captain who authorized my painting chalk graffiti in front of Leonard Leo's estate, asserted rank over the Mount Desert Sergeant who threatened me with charges of Criminal Mischief. I have heard this indirectly from a reporter. As well as that there may have been improprieties in the Hancock County DA's office signing off on charging me.
Activists on MDI rallied around me, as did so very many of you all here. I am grateful and touched by your kindness, good will, and good humor. And just so you know, while the world was focussing on the gift of 1.6 billion more tax free dollars to Leonard Leo, the man himself was pissed over a political cartoon and corrupting the local law enforcement to suppress my civil rights. it was bullying and you all had my back. ThankYou! The reporter asked whether I intend to continue? Ha.
The Gospels ask: What profits a man to gain the world and lose his soul? Leonard Leo answers, over 1.6 BILLION more tax free dollars.
In addition to rank stupidity, think grifting and criminal behavior, raw bestiality and craven racism - and flagrant Germanic fascism: Austrian Adolf Hitler’s fascists and gestapo took charge of the text books and curriculum in Germany and elsewhere as the Third Reich rolled through Europe, installing hundreds of concentration camps, and several crematoriums, rounding up Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and enemies of the state to kill them all, think Governor DeSantis and watch Florida’s wealthy and elite reelect this bastard as they distinguish themselves, rolling in their manifest ignorance and intolerance.
Just what will it take for people to wake up???? TFG is a criminal…plain and simple! I have been mortified and disgusted since the day he was elected .
And on top of all this good news, the Democrat won the NY-19 CD special election to fill a vacancy 51.9-48.3 in a +4-R district that Biden won in 2020 by 50% - the Democrat outperformed Biden after Trump won by 51-44 in 2016. As Steve Kornacki said, if this was a Red Wave year, that would have been a snap win for the Republican in a district like that. Matthew Dowd said it shows there is no red wave, no blue wave, but a lot of "cross currents" which means IF WE GET OUT AND WORK that Democrats can hold the House. This election was a true bellweather in a bellweather district.
And the victory was due to DEMOCRATIC TURNOUT - which approached 2018 levels.
It shows the puerile and narcissistic attitude of Trump that he would claim the documents as “mine”. As if that’s all he has to do to legitimately have possession, control and ownership over them. It’s just mind boggling that this man was ever the POTUS, and it’s extremely frightening to think he could be again.
"The New York Times reported last night that Trump resisted returning the documents, calling them 'mine'."
Oh, that's just perfect. Donald says the highly-classified U.S. government documents are simply his. To me, that indicates a desperate attempt to hold onto the documents. When you're down to the delusional justification of keeping the classified documents by saying they're "mine," then we know that trump has run out of legal ammo for this issue . Maybe he should be waterboarded to get the truth about all the laws he broke during his presidency.
Thanks for the notes tonight, HCR — ‘shocking’ inadequately registers my actual sustained disbelief re: extent of transgressions at MAL (and resistance to ameliorating Any of it). He truly is a most noxious weed.
Deeper and deeper the evidence of Trump's abuse of office comes forward. Will the remaining Republicans who say that the democracy is in trouble start convincing their friends and kin to listen to the truth? Despite his grif to raise money everything keeps coming out that he is so guilty and merely playing the aggrieved law avoiding person they all knew him to be when they cast a vote to stick it to the so-called establishment in 2016 and elect a Donald Duck. When will their cognitive dissonance finally start to crumble? In not now, I fear, never.
“These reviews will be conducted by current government personnel who…are sensitive to executive concerns.”
In other words, TFG ain’t the president anymore, thus has neither privilege nor power over documents generated by the executive branch at any time.
Possession of government property is direct evidence of theft. Possession of classified government documents is direct evidence of espionage. Period. If they found those documents in my house, I would be in jail.
Trump should have been arrested the day the search was conducted.
I guess I've become so guarded against hope over these last 5 or 6 years… How do we know he (TFG) hasn't already done all the damage and already reaped the 'rewards' he was seeking; via selling info. or somesuch? And won't 'escape', perhaps literally, yet again?
I am calmed by Heather's statement today during the live chat, that TFG was behaving as if truly cornered.
I just finished reading Debra Steidel Wall’s letter. She sets out the complete history of the attempts to regain the documents stolen by Donald Trump. What nefarious plans he had in mind will, with time, come to light. He’s a traitor. As Heather said in her talk today, if any of us had even one page, we would be in prison. The wait will be long, but I try to have confidence that the rule of law will take the day.
There is an annoying thought that keeps surfacing when I read the accounts of how many documents and the sensitivity of what 45 stole from us, The People. AND…..WHAT THE HELL he was doing for the 48 months or so, before leaving office??? Was he buying and selling sensitive intel as soon as he stepped into the Oval Office? I get sick to my stomach just trying to wrap my mind around the enormity of what this criminal has done to our country…..
Here is some background about Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist of the US from her hometown newspaper.
‘Mattituck native named deputy archivist at National Archives’ (excerpts)
‘Debra Steidel Wall was just a young teenager when during an eighth grade trip with her class at Mattituck Junior High School she first set eyes on Washington, D.C.’
‘On June 3 she was named the deputy archivist of the National Archives, the No. 2 position in a federal department that has 3,500 employees, 44 locations throughout the United States and 10 billion paper documents.’
“On that eighth grade field trip, that’s when I said ‘I want to live here. I want to come back here and be part of this,’” said Ms. Wall.’
‘Wall last Thursday, at the end of her first week in her new position.’
‘Ms. Wall graduated from Mattituck High School in 1984. She was raised on Little Neck Road in Cutchogue by her parents, Fran and Steve Steidel. Her father was a Suffolk County Police Officer and her mother was a teacher at the Ecumenical Nursery School at the Advent Lutheran Church in Mattituck. Her parents now live in Punta Gorda, Florida.’
‘After leaving Mattituck, Ms. Wall studied history and government at Georgetown University, and then studied film in graduate school at American University, while working summers at the former Fishermen’s Rest restaurant in Cutchogue.’
“When I first got here, I had no idea what the archives were. I was thinking of doing journalism or politics or something like that,” she said. “I thought I was interested in politics, but what I was really interested in was public service. I did my senior thesis on film history, and the archives has many films. Silent films were my specialty.”
‘Ms. Wall began her career at the National Archives in 1991 as an archivist in the motion picture, sound and video unit of the archives, and over the past 20 years has worked in nearly every aspect of the organization.’
“I always managed to have opportunities. In almost any work you’re doing, you can find the part of it that makes change,” she said. “I went from trainee work into policy, information technology and data standards, then into more policy in the chief of staff role for the past four years. I’m 45. I’ve been here 20 years, but around here that’s kind of a newbie. We have a lot of people who are very dedicated to the mission and stay here for their entire career.”
‘But even in the relatively short time she’s been with the National Archives, the nature of access to information has changed dramatically.’
“A lot of the stuff we have is unique. In the past, if you wanted something you’d have to send us a letter and ask what we have.
‘Now we have all of our descriptions on the internet, 72 million records have been archived and we’re open 24 hours a day,” she said. “We really need to change our culture. We’ve been a fairly traditional place. Up until a year and a half ago, we had policies that wouldn’t let us go to Facebook or Flickr on our work computers. Now we have a group of people who work for us who are using Flickr and Twitter as a way to engage people and get feedback from our users. We’re trying to stay at the forefront. In a very short time, we’ve become the leader in government.”
‘Ms. Wall said that most of the department’s new hires have an innate understanding about the way information has changed and, along with it, the methods that the National Archives’ customers use to access information.’
“The agency’s biggest challenge is electronic records. We have material that’s on floppy disks or Betamax video,” she said. “Our requirement is to keep electronic records for the life of the republic, so we have to upgrade that.”
“We run the presidential library system throughout the country. We run the federal register, which publishes government documents. We run the government’s security classification program, which is a pretty big deal. We also make grants to state and local archives,” she said.
‘Ms. Wall serves directly under David S. Ferriero, the 10th archivist of the United States.’
“Debra is passionate about the Archives’ mission and history,” he said in a press release announcing Ms. Wall’s appointment.’
‘And she’s also a kid from Cutchogue who, once upon a time, took a long class bus trip to Washington that changed her whole life.’
***
https://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2011/07/mattituck-native-named-deputy-archivist-at-national-archives/
Just to say, a sincere and heartfelt ThankYou to All.
GoodCop BadCop on MDI. The Bar Harbor Police Chief and Captain who authorized my painting chalk graffiti in front of Leonard Leo's estate, asserted rank over the Mount Desert Sergeant who threatened me with charges of Criminal Mischief. I have heard this indirectly from a reporter. As well as that there may have been improprieties in the Hancock County DA's office signing off on charging me.
Activists on MDI rallied around me, as did so very many of you all here. I am grateful and touched by your kindness, good will, and good humor. And just so you know, while the world was focussing on the gift of 1.6 billion more tax free dollars to Leonard Leo, the man himself was pissed over a political cartoon and corrupting the local law enforcement to suppress my civil rights. it was bullying and you all had my back. ThankYou! The reporter asked whether I intend to continue? Ha.
The Gospels ask: What profits a man to gain the world and lose his soul? Leonard Leo answers, over 1.6 BILLION more tax free dollars.
Spread the word!
In addition to rank stupidity, think grifting and criminal behavior, raw bestiality and craven racism - and flagrant Germanic fascism: Austrian Adolf Hitler’s fascists and gestapo took charge of the text books and curriculum in Germany and elsewhere as the Third Reich rolled through Europe, installing hundreds of concentration camps, and several crematoriums, rounding up Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and enemies of the state to kill them all, think Governor DeSantis and watch Florida’s wealthy and elite reelect this bastard as they distinguish themselves, rolling in their manifest ignorance and intolerance.
The right always ends up pushing me further left.
Just what will it take for people to wake up???? TFG is a criminal…plain and simple! I have been mortified and disgusted since the day he was elected .
And on top of all this good news, the Democrat won the NY-19 CD special election to fill a vacancy 51.9-48.3 in a +4-R district that Biden won in 2020 by 50% - the Democrat outperformed Biden after Trump won by 51-44 in 2016. As Steve Kornacki said, if this was a Red Wave year, that would have been a snap win for the Republican in a district like that. Matthew Dowd said it shows there is no red wave, no blue wave, but a lot of "cross currents" which means IF WE GET OUT AND WORK that Democrats can hold the House. This election was a true bellweather in a bellweather district.
And the victory was due to DEMOCRATIC TURNOUT - which approached 2018 levels.
Take heart!
It shows the puerile and narcissistic attitude of Trump that he would claim the documents as “mine”. As if that’s all he has to do to legitimately have possession, control and ownership over them. It’s just mind boggling that this man was ever the POTUS, and it’s extremely frightening to think he could be again.
"The New York Times reported last night that Trump resisted returning the documents, calling them 'mine'."
Oh, that's just perfect. Donald says the highly-classified U.S. government documents are simply his. To me, that indicates a desperate attempt to hold onto the documents. When you're down to the delusional justification of keeping the classified documents by saying they're "mine," then we know that trump has run out of legal ammo for this issue . Maybe he should be waterboarded to get the truth about all the laws he broke during his presidency.
Thanks for the notes tonight, HCR — ‘shocking’ inadequately registers my actual sustained disbelief re: extent of transgressions at MAL (and resistance to ameliorating Any of it). He truly is a most noxious weed.
Deeper and deeper the evidence of Trump's abuse of office comes forward. Will the remaining Republicans who say that the democracy is in trouble start convincing their friends and kin to listen to the truth? Despite his grif to raise money everything keeps coming out that he is so guilty and merely playing the aggrieved law avoiding person they all knew him to be when they cast a vote to stick it to the so-called establishment in 2016 and elect a Donald Duck. When will their cognitive dissonance finally start to crumble? In not now, I fear, never.
“These reviews will be conducted by current government personnel who…are sensitive to executive concerns.”
In other words, TFG ain’t the president anymore, thus has neither privilege nor power over documents generated by the executive branch at any time.
Possession of government property is direct evidence of theft. Possession of classified government documents is direct evidence of espionage. Period. If they found those documents in my house, I would be in jail.
Trump should have been arrested the day the search was conducted.
I guess I've become so guarded against hope over these last 5 or 6 years… How do we know he (TFG) hasn't already done all the damage and already reaped the 'rewards' he was seeking; via selling info. or somesuch? And won't 'escape', perhaps literally, yet again?
I am calmed by Heather's statement today during the live chat, that TFG was behaving as if truly cornered.
Oh these tidbits are so relieving to my recently distressed state of mind.
Stupidity rules Trump Inc.