dmallord
Humble Hobbit
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2020
- Posts
- 5,338
Good job!18 USC 1924;
(a)
Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.
That's the statute. But could it possibly be applied in Biden's case?
Did Hur determine that Biden knowingly removed such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location?
The bold words are the key ingredients to the matter. You might get @HisArpy to proffer an opinion. Though he is not an expert on military classifications/handings. He is a frequent source here.
Laws and statutes are funny sometimes. They seem crystal clear on the surface, yet they are hard to apply because they require people to interpret them.
You seem to look at this as 'shall be imprisoned' but not look at the 'intent element' or 'knowingly kept' elements.
Hur felt he couldn't prove that Biden knowingly or intended to retain the documents. Those documents were among papers spanning many years of relocations during Biden's numerous government roles. Recall that both Biden and Trump, at one point, claimed others packed those boxes, and he had no knowledge of their contents. Biden invited the FBI to search his home. One can assume a criminal wouldn't knowingly invite such an action if he knew he had documents stashed there. Thus, the imprisonment and other elements of the statute were not applicable.
End of story.
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