Continuing the discussion from A Perfectly Reasonable Amount of Schadenfreude about Things Happening to Trump & His Enablers (Part 1) - #10006 by JohnT.
Previous discussions:
Trump is so pathetic even one thread can’t contain how much of a loser he is.
I recall some back-and-forth over the “perfectly reasonable” designation, but: yes. No one thread of 10,000 posts can possibly contain all observations about the pathetic nature of Trump, still less those about his little friends.
Rudy gotten charged yet?
If so, no news of it has broken yet.
But fear not. I’m guessing that Rudy will play an even larger role in Part 2 of this thread than he did in Part 1.
This Yahoo News article doesn’t make it sound like it’s especially fertile ground although there are certainly options:
It’s been less than a week since the complaint was filed, so I’d be surprised if anything happened that quickly.
He"s leaking too much electrolyte to hold it charge.
What’s going on with the Stormy Daniels hush money payment trial? Wasn’t there like 34 felony charges. I haven’t heard a word.
The legal system is very, very slow indeed.
I recently contributed some expert analysis as part of a criminal case that led to the arrest of an individual (I don’t have to testify or anything; I just had to ensure that some of the key details of the case were expressed clearly and accurately in the documents to the court). The case is unlikely to see the inside of a courtroom before late 2025 at the earliest, or to have an outcome before 2027.
Law & Order makes it all look so zippy but, civil or criminal, it’s a long slog.
As I recall, the next court date was set for December.
Thanks Gyrate and EllisDee.
And … 
"The National Archives has informed former President Donald Trump that it is set to hand over to special counsel Jack Smith 16 records that show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president, according to multiple sources.
In a May 16 letter obtained by CNN, acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall writes to Trump, “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records.”
Summary - Claims from PAB and lawyer that he can do anything he wants with classified documents including declassifying them in his mind are contrary to established protocols - and he knew it.
Maybe he changed the protocols in his mind.
I don’t understand why it even matters whether he knew he wasn’t following protocol or not. I always thought that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Especially willful ignorance. Even if he hadn’t known the proper procedure, he should have known as President.
Establishing intent is very important. The prosecution wants to prove that he knew what we was doing was wrong.
I’ll let one of our more legally attuned dopers explain mens rea in more detail.
Why did the National Archives not bring this up earlier, like as soon as Trump made his ‘declassify by thinking about it’ claim?
I’m not a lawyer but I love comics. Here is a very informative and entertaining explanation of mens rea by a comic artist who is also a former prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office.
I’ve heard this is because they are going after more serious charges now, possible violating the espionage act. This new evidence is not necessary for proving willful retention. That is already a slam dunk, but this opens up bigger charges.
Also if this comes up in front of a Jury its good to be able to say, “According to this document even Trump acknowledged that you can’t just declassify documents with your mind, so that defense is dead.”