Pompeo must prove he complied w/ Federal Records Act by collecting & preserving interpreter notes

[MelissaB]

News: A Trump-appointed judge ruled Wednesday that @SecPompeo
must prove he complied with the Federal Records Act by collecting and preserving interpreter notes from Trump's meetings with Putin.

Link to tweet

Pompeo is being sued for records of Trump’s meetings with Putin. A judge will hear the case.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being sued over allegedly failing to preserve official notes about President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a court ruled on Wednesday that the case could move forward.

That means Pompeo must either provide evidence he complied with the Federal Records Act, which requires the State Department to collect and preserve interpreter notes, or else argue that he is not obligated to do so.

Democracy Forward and American Oversight, two progressive watchdog organizations, filed the lawsuit in June after public reporting emerged claiming that Trump had collected notes from interpreters and directed them not to discuss the contents of the meetings. The court filing called it “unusual, and in some cases extreme, measures to conceal the details of these meetings.”

Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump-appointed judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, rejected the government’s efforts to dismiss the case on Wednesday.

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article238281008.html#storylink=cpy

[gratuitous]

1. Is there a penalty if State didn't preserve those records?

Is there a penalty if Pompeo tells the judge to go suck an egg? I'm guessing the black letter of the law is so compelling that even a Trump appointed judge had to rule that the Secretary has an affirmative obligation to preserve these records. But to this point in this bandit administration, they haven't been too concerned about subpoenas or court orders or any calls to do their jobs from the other two branches of government.

Nobody gets fined, nobody goes to jail, and nobody sees these records, which were probably deep-sixed a long time ago. Whaddyagunnadoaboudit?

[malaise]

2. Everyone is waking up

He'd better comply or prison awaits

[gratuitous]

3. I'd like to believe that's true

When the Trump facade crumbles, it will happen FAST. There are definite cracks and some stuff has fallen off the walls, but it's still holding together well enough to let Trump keep skating. Keep the pressure on.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. oh I hope you're right and he's BUSTED

[spanone]

5. Obstruction of EveryThing

[Frustratedlady]

6. In all my years of living, I can't remember an administration which has had to be directed on how to

operate by judges. It seems we have one court order after another. Of course, the administration rejects or appeals most of them, but still...

It's like having a naughty two-year-old who plain and simply cannot be controlled. Now, through demands for loyalty, you can add Trump's cohorts who lie and conceal as badly as their leader. This whole thing blows my mind.

[erronis]

7. I can so relate to that two-year-old analogy. You can't reason with them. And it's really hard

to control the situation.

Most 2yo's grow up and some become good mature adults and have to deal with their own children.

This particular one is apparently stunted in the the 2-4yo brain development. But with lots of money from daddy and temper tantrums this one has almost destroyed the US system.

So where do the (r)epuglicons fit in? Are they also just rich 2-4yos? Or are they still juveniles looking to maximize immediate profit/pleasure?

[bucolic_frolic]

8. I'm sure there are and will be bad Trump judges

but it does seem a few are willing to comply with the law. There's not much holding them back because their conduct would have to be egregious to be removed from the bench, but they have to be aware they are in a lifetime job and to some degree must go along to get along. Not rocking the boat is a lot less stressful.