Crime

Trump Has Us So Exhausted That We Basically Shrug At His Daily Violation Of Federal Law

You realize this paper ripping story is a violation of law, right?

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(SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Two days ago, Politico ran a funny story about the guys who have to tape Donald Trump’s documents back together. It’s kind of an Onion story. Even Politico’s headline is a bit whimsical: “Meet the guys who tape Trump’s papers back together.” That sounds super human-interest-y.

Apparently, President Trump has a “habit” of ripping up every piece of paper that comes across his desk. So a couple of poor sops have to root through his trash and Scotch tape the documents back together and send them to the National Archives…as required by the Presidential Records Act.

Ha ha ha. Old Trumpy. He sure likes to shake things up and keep all the pencil-necked geeks on their toes:

White House aides realized early on that they were unable to stop Trump from ripping up paper after he was done with it and throwing it in the trash or on the floor, according to people familiar with the practice. Instead, they chose to clean it up for him, in order to make sure that the president wasn’t violating the law.

Can I try some alternate headlines?

PRESIDENT SHREDS OFFICIAL U.S. DOCUMENTS DAILY, FEW PRESERVED AND RECONSTRUCTED

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TRUMP VIOLATES LAWS MEANT TO STOP NIXON

MADMAN DESTROYS EVIDENCE OF CRIMES WHILE LAW ENFORCEMENT DOES NOTHING

I mean, I get it. I’m tired too. Trump is ripping families apart, it hard to have any outrage left over when he rips papers apart. There’s also a sense that the less “evidence” that that Trump Era even happened, the better. The people most likely to care that Trump is violating federal law are also the people who most want to pretend that Trump isn’t real and this is all some kind of nightmare that we will wake up from.

We’re exhausted. Trump has exhausted us to the point that he can rip up documents that belong to us — rip up our history and our ability to have a full accounting of what went on here — and all we can do is shrug. Even the Politico story focuses on the people trying to put the records back together (a task that they can’t possibly accomplish fully and completely), instead of focusing on the man who is violating the law… or his ACCOMPLICES in the White House who know this is going on, yet do nothing.

John Kelly? Sarah Huckabee-Sanders? Kellyanne Conway? These people know the President is in violation of federal statute. But instead of stopping him they do nothing. Later, they will expect to have jobs and go to brunch without drinks being thrown on them, and they’ll wonder why some people can’t “get over it.”

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People say that there are no “penalties” in the Presidential Records Act, so nothing can be done, even if he is violating it. THE PENALTY IS IMPEACHMENT! The Presidential Records Act EXISTS because Nixon destroyed at least part of his tapes that he claimed executive privilege over. In his aftermath, the PRA was promulgated to make clear that a President had a responsibility to preserve official documents so that the American people have a record of his time there. The clear implication is that failure to do so would be an impeachable offense, a violation of the President’s Oath to “faithfully execute” the Office of President.

At the very least, the destruction of documents, SPOILAGE OF POTENTIAL EVIDENCE, should outrage the American people to the point where doing it was political suicide.

But we’re exhausted. And the President does so much ill-s**t on the reg. And Republicans can’t be expected to defend the United States against this President anyway. So, hey, let’s follow Trump around Singapore like he’s the Pied damn Piper because that’s what is on “the show” this week.

Politico told us that Trump constantly violates a federal statute designed to prevent presidents from lying about the history of the country. Nobody cares. Nothing matters. Brought to you by the same media-industrial-complex that promulgated 80 gabillion faux-balance Hillary Clinton email stories in 2016.

We are a weak and decadent people who deserve every bit of horror Trump is dishing out.

Meet the guys who tape Trump’s papers back together [Politico]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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