A document filed by the Justice Department in the continuing series of challenges by Donald Trump’s legal team as they bail water on the Titanic trying to delay the inevitable, prosecutors released a list of documents the two sides are disputing, with Trump claiming nine documents including pleas for clemency that can only be issued by the President of the United States are not documents of the government, but instead his personal correspondence.
As the New York Times reports, the Justice Department noted the six clemency packages were by definition government documents. “Those requests were received by plaintiff in his capacity as the official with authority to grant reprieves and pardons, not in his personal capacity,” it wrote.
Among the other material: two documents relating to immigration policy and an email sent to the President by someone studying at one of the military service academies. The two parties agreed to the status of six different documents, but Trump’s lawyers argue that the nine in question were personal records under the Presidential Records Act, which states records kept by the person in the office of the President unrelated to his official duties as President may be kept by a former office holder. Clearly, Trump would not had received the letter from the academy student if he were not President, nor would Donald John Trump been discussing immigration policy while eating a taco bowl.