Since the start of his successful 2016 campaign for President, former President Donald Trump routinely targeted former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over the email scandal that's plagued her since 2014.
Like Secretary Colin Powell before her and multiple Trump administration officials after, Clinton used a personal email server to conduct official government business, which Clinton's critics claimed violated the U.S. Code's rules on the retention of classified documents. After Clinton's chief of staff—Cheryl Mills—and two attorneys pored over the personal emails to turn relevant ones over for preservation, Mills instructed the server operators to reduce the email retention period to 60 days, which resulted in the deletion of around 30 thousand emails believed to be obsolete.
Trump soon began claiming that Clinton had deliberately deleted incriminating emails and a new Trump slogan was born:
"Lock her up!"
Trump supporters started chanting the phrase at his infamous campaign rallies, and would do so for years. Even long after defeating Clinton in the 2016 election, Trump repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories about the email server, while still embracing the "lock her up" chants four years into office, sometimes even adapting it to other female politicians.
Now, the National Archives has retrieved multiple boxes of Trump Administration documents being improperly kept at the former President's Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a report from the Washington Post. Trump's team has denied any malicious intent, claiming the boxes consist of gifts and letters, including some from North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Trump has frequently bragged about his "love letters" with Kim in the past.
The news comes on the heels of another Washington Post report that Trump repeatedly ripped up documents and that Trump staffers would put other documents in "burn bags" to be destroyed, both of which are violations of the Presidential Records Act.
After years of Trump citing 30 thousand deleted emails as a justifiable reason for Clinton's imprisonment, social media users responded with variations of the chant that helped define the 2016 election.
WTF, he did what no other President ever did and still no consequences!!! Lock him up!!! https://t.co/NpTyXOUWdT
— Janice Gindel (@jgindel) February 7, 2022
Lock him up. https://t.co/Zi3w4ADmUY
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) February 7, 2022
But
Her
Emails
Lock this mf'er up. https://t.co/X1GnAWrYOW
— Venus Jade 🔪 (@Venusjade) February 7, 2022
Sounds illegal. Maybe lock him up. https://t.co/JWz6O0mtpw
— 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕝𝕖 𝔹𝕠𝕓 (@Greatunclebob) February 7, 2022
Lock. Him. Up. https://t.co/PIZq8Dq3If
— @MandaGator (@MandaGator) February 7, 2022
People said the development was yet another example of Trump and his allies considering themselves above the law.
When I was in WH Counsel we briefed everyone on these laws.
The notion that any President would repeatedly ignore legal warnings is mind boggling.
It’s not a small thing-it’s the chief law enforcement officer declaring himself completely above the law. https://t.co/y57l08ctCq
— Ian Bassin (@ianbassin) February 6, 2022
The key to the stories about Trump's serial violation of the Presidential Records Act is that he was repeatedly told he was breaking the law, but he kept doing it.
Same was true of the Hatch Act. His whole administration's attitude was that obeying the law was optional.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) February 7, 2022
Trump was warned, over and over and over again, that it was illegal to destroy documents.
And he still kept ripping them up.https://t.co/LKrEVZfWfj
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) February 7, 2022
Clinton never did get locked up, and Trump almost certainly won't either. Clinton did, however, testify for hours regarding the emails and other controversies.
Trump is unwilling to do the same.
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