Today the Justice Department is asking U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C. to hold Trump’s Florida office in contempt for noncompliance with a May subpoena demanding the return all the classified documents he may still have. The Washington Post notes that the request is "a sign of how contentious the private talks have become over whether the former president still holds any secret papers."
At issue is Team Trump's refusal to appoint a "custodian of records" who is also willing to swear that all classified documents have been returned to the federal government. The Post reports that DOJ "has repeatedly sought an unequivocal sworn written assurance from Trump’s team that all such documents have been returned," to no avail.
It should be noted that the worth of a sworn assurance from Trump would depend on the retail cost of his printing paper. A month after the May subpoena Trump's legal team swore it had indeed returned all relevant material to Justice. A subsequent FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago residence gave the lie to that assurance.
Then, a bit earlier this month, an "outside team" of legal gumshoes hired by lawyers for the once and future charlatan in chief found yet more items marked classified at a West Palm Beach storage unit owned by said charlatan. As for any other missing documents, Trump's lawyers say they won't swear to what they don't know.
Yet here is the passage that really caught my eye - and, for once, compelled some sympathy on my part for Trump's recalcitrant attorneys: "[They're] wary of making any claim under oath based on Trump’s word alone," observes the Post.
I, for one, cannot imagine the heartache of a lawyer working for a client who has blueberries, ketchup and lies on his cereal every morning.
As has become customary in the American judicial system, even if Judge Howell grants DOJ's request to hold Trump Inc. in contempt, the principal miscreant will suffer no more than a fine, in this case, a daily fine. Which, of course, he laughs at. "Hey, it's just money, which I swindled chumps out of to begin with" is Trump's philosophy. "But I'll always have my freedom. So go blow."