08-17-2022, 04:17 PM
“It’s not theirs, it’s mine,” several advisers say Mr. Trump told them.
I have been suspecting that if you look at when people in the past have been charged under the same laws that they almost always resorted in a plea of guilty to a misdemeanor, then it seems like Trump would be facing something similar - although he would probably have a hard time pleading guilty to even a misdemeanor (only losers plead guilty), so...
But if it is true that the FBI/DOJ have several witnesses that can attest to Trump saying things like the quote above when being told he had to turn the documents over, then I think that clearly shows his intent was to break the law and that probably takes it out of misdemeanor into felony territory. If the quote above is true, I think Trump could be in for some real trouble.
If he turns out to be in real trouble over this, then the question of why he held onto the documents so long would be hard not the really wonder about. It would be a huge irony that Trump who is masterful at never leaving a clear trail back to him as the decision-maker would have left this clear of a trail on this because of vanity. "It's not theirs, it's mine," could just be an ego driven thing. I doubt, though, that keeping those documents was only about vanity.