Rounds Statement on Indictment of Former President in Federal Court
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) issued the following statement on the indictment of the former president in federal court:
“Regardless of your political position or perspective, the news of another indictment against the former president should concern all of us. American citizens look to our leaders and our justice system to have integrity – and that integrity is once again being called into question.
“The indictment that has been unsealed contains multiple charges against the former president for his role in retaining classified documents, some of which were highly classified.
“As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I receive classified briefings multiple times per week. It is unacceptable that sensitive information, which could undermine our national strategy and security, has been treated so carelessly by current and former members of the executive branch.
“At the same time, I am concerned about the Department of Justice’s decision to pursue this case against the former president at a time when our current president has also admitted to the possession of classified documents while out of office.
“The unprecedented action of indicting in federal court a former president, who is also a current candidate for president, cannot be taken lightly as it is inherently political and will have a lasting impact on our nation. The burden of proof is on the Department of Justice to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The former president should be considered innocent unless proven guilty.”
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I mean, when you’re caught on microphone saying that you’ve kept highly sensitive materials about our nuclear readiness, when you never should have, your goose will be cooked no matter who you are.
Will he run for Governor?
Rounds tried to have it both ways – almost 3 ways and he made no one happy and he has made himself look like he is a politician.
I’d rather see him say what he really thinks of Trump and be genuine.
Genuine is the key. Love Trump or hate him but at least speak your mind.
I think he addressed the situation fairly and from all sides. It’s supposed to be about the law not personal preference.
How do you get to define genuine when you won’t even sign what you wrote? Cowards always have the biggest mouths.
Fools focus on ad hominem attacks on anonymity, and shy away from the substance of the argument.
i heard “only an idiot would pick a fight with trump while everyone else is beating him down anyway. i think i’ll just defend my party like a good republican should.” clearly.
Or, instead of taking a hot take like everyone else, Rounds is taking a more measured and thoughtful approach.
It’s an approach is based in reason and logic, and not the overly-emotional and illogical approach that is becoming commonplace from both Republicans and Democrats today.
It’s false equivalency thrown in as a distraction.
Biden and Pence have similar issues, but Trump is an entire different class. Continuing to be knowingly deceitful isn’t comparable to quickly copping to an (egregious) oversight.
Equating the two different situations should be intellectually embarrassing, but too many are too far down the ideological rabbit holes to notice. Some, like Matt, take the intellectually stunted approach of always taking what they think is the central stance simply as a way of signaling their neutrality and with it an entitled sense of being above the fray. In reality, their neediness to be superior belies a willingness to circumvent reality to achieve that end.
However, in deifying centrism, they’ve completely lost sight of the fact that objective and centrist aren’t synonymous.
And the fact that you had to devolve to insults just proves my point about emotion over logic.
Thanks for playing.
Yet you’ve stilled failed to address the fact that Pence and Biden notified NARA, while Trump lied to them. Then Trump went on tape admitting that he knew he broke the law and lied about it.
Thing 1 ≠ Thing 2.
You’re supporting an equivocation that they are.
That is mistaken at best and knowingly perpetuating a deliberate lie at worst.
Ex President Trump’s problem is that, he apparently does not believe the laws that apply to the other 300 million of us apply to him. That is going to be a difficult position for his lawyers to defend.
He was recorded, they have that recording, and his followers will still argue for him. Just watch.
His followers are the very sheep they accuse democrats of being.
Rounds for governor needs to happen.
Yeah, we don’t need another EB-5
We don’t need another Common Core either. Rounds was a mediocre governor at best.
No it doesn’t. I like Mike but he had his time. We don’t need a governor in his mid-70s anymore than we need one as president.
All the other breaches of trust would have likely been looked past had Trump returned everything when he was asked. He screwed himself and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he kept those to use for his own personal gain. The guy is a crook.
I’m just going to pick a nit with Senator Round’s statement on this.
Former President Trump isn’t so much in trouble for POSESSING classified documents. 31 charges are for Willful Retention of National Defense Information. (You can read the inditement yourself at https://www.scribd.com/document/651859695/TRUMP-Indictment or any one of 10,000 other sites that have the official document.)
These charges are specifically for keeping the documents once you know that you have them.
We know that he knew he had them, because the National Archive requested these documents, and a Grand Jury subpoenaed them, and there was a search warrant that found them, including some that were in his desk.
The documents being classified, while important in the grand scheme of things, isn’t central to the charge. They could have been declassified, but if they were still considered National Defense Information, he had to turn them over when requested.
(see 18 U.S.C 793(e))
Had he turned them over as soon as the National Archive requested them, this wouldn’t be a thing. The fact that he did NOT, and submitted a sworn affidavit to the court is what is going to sink him.
When Biden and Pence found documents – as far as all publicly available evidence has shown – their lawyers immediately alerted the National Archive and the FBI, and fully cooperated with those agencies when they asked to search their residences. They allowed them to search all of their properties without any subpoenas or warrants. They can easily say that they did NOT willfully retain any documents.
NOW – We absolutely need to fix the transition process when a President, or Vice President, or Secretary of State, or leaves office. There needs to be a MUCH more robust system to check documents and papers. Pick some third party that’s whole job is do do this kind of transitional check. Have it be some group under either the Legislative or Judicial branch – i.e. NOT under the executive branch. And have another group check congress, and another group check retiring Justices. The way we currently do it is obviously broken and needs to be fixed. And we can’t trust any branch of government to police itself.