David, I have no military or DoD experience. I know first hand as a street cop the importance of the "chain of evidence" and the requirements there for recordkeeping, prosecution, and appellate retention of materials.
To see those images from Mar a Lardo chilled me to the bone. That isn't just mishandled evidence (in my career, such a vio…
David, I have no military or DoD experience. I know first hand as a street cop the importance of the "chain of evidence" and the requirements there for recordkeeping, prosecution, and appellate retention of materials.
To see those images from Mar a Lardo chilled me to the bone. That isn't just mishandled evidence (in my career, such a violation would have been grounds for termination and prosecution), that is OUR NATIONAL SECRET DOCUMENTS lying next to a gold plated commode. The number of National "assets" that have been killed since fpotus left office is high, and I am sure there are more that have not been made public. The impacts on our national security cannot be understated.
[Edit 11:03 PM CDT] We have not yet heard any allegation that the former president sold top secret information, or traded secrets for future considerations, or any other act besides the careless and probably illegal handling of classified documents. But what we don't know might hurt us. If he had handled the documents in a different way, for example by keeping them in a secure facility, with continual surveillance, armed guards, and other standard national security protocols, we still would not know whether or not he sold national security information to the Soviets, I mean Russians, or anybody else. If he wanted to sell a particular juicy bit of intel to Russia, he probably would have been unable to do it from the White House, due to security protocols in place there. The only way he could accomplish it would be to take a bunch of stuff home with him, scatter it all over the place, to make it look like he was just a hoarder, and then hand over the particular thing he was selling to an individual during a business trip, or some spy-type scenario. Determining which thing was compromised would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, or worse. It would be a bad, suspicious look for anyone, but way worse with this guy. [end edit:11:33 pm CDT, 8 May 2024]
Ally, I would like to believe that most people, upon being briefed about the importance of careful handling of sensitive information, would take it seriously and follow the stated protocols. However, the tffg tornado does not care about the destruction it leaves in its wake. So, two things: he should be punished because he violated critically important rules pertaining to national security; and he should be punished to make it clear to everyone that this is very serious business.
David, I have no military or DoD experience. I know first hand as a street cop the importance of the "chain of evidence" and the requirements there for recordkeeping, prosecution, and appellate retention of materials.
To see those images from Mar a Lardo chilled me to the bone. That isn't just mishandled evidence (in my career, such a violation would have been grounds for termination and prosecution), that is OUR NATIONAL SECRET DOCUMENTS lying next to a gold plated commode. The number of National "assets" that have been killed since fpotus left office is high, and I am sure there are more that have not been made public. The impacts on our national security cannot be understated.
[Edit 11:03 PM CDT] We have not yet heard any allegation that the former president sold top secret information, or traded secrets for future considerations, or any other act besides the careless and probably illegal handling of classified documents. But what we don't know might hurt us. If he had handled the documents in a different way, for example by keeping them in a secure facility, with continual surveillance, armed guards, and other standard national security protocols, we still would not know whether or not he sold national security information to the Soviets, I mean Russians, or anybody else. If he wanted to sell a particular juicy bit of intel to Russia, he probably would have been unable to do it from the White House, due to security protocols in place there. The only way he could accomplish it would be to take a bunch of stuff home with him, scatter it all over the place, to make it look like he was just a hoarder, and then hand over the particular thing he was selling to an individual during a business trip, or some spy-type scenario. Determining which thing was compromised would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, or worse. It would be a bad, suspicious look for anyone, but way worse with this guy. [end edit:11:33 pm CDT, 8 May 2024]
Ally, I would like to believe that most people, upon being briefed about the importance of careful handling of sensitive information, would take it seriously and follow the stated protocols. However, the tffg tornado does not care about the destruction it leaves in its wake. So, two things: he should be punished because he violated critically important rules pertaining to national security; and he should be punished to make it clear to everyone that this is very serious business.