Mar-a-Lago Gets Its Boxes Back

The return of documents to the White House from Mar-a-Lago is the kind of full-circle so ironic as to be worthy of Shakespeare. The FBI is returning records that it seized at the Palm Beach manse during a search at the 47th president’s home in 2022. It seized 33 boxes. Special Counsel Jack Smith would eventually charge Mr. Trump with more than three dozen crimes, though his case floundered and was dismissed when Mr. Trump won reelection.Now Mr. Trump declares that the documents returned to the Sunshine State “will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library.” And maybe even as the core of that collection. Mr. Trump celebrated on Truth Social that “The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes that Deranged Jack Smith made such a big deal about.” Mr. Trump’s counselor, Alina Habba, explains that “These are President Trump’s things … they needed to be returned.”Not known are the contents of those boxes that were loaded on to Air Force One and flown down to Palm Beach. Mr. Smith’s indictment contended that secret records were mixed with presidential memorabilia and that Mr. Trump and his employees conspired to thwart efforts by agents to recover the documents. Mr. Trump insists that he “did absolutely nothing wrong” and was incensed by the search of his wife’s and son’s bedrooms.All of this is a stunning turn of events for a case once considered the strongest of the four criminal ones arrayed against Mr. Trump. Mr. Smith’s indictment was festooned with images of the same boxes that now are heading south. One of the case’s skeptics, though, was Judge Aileen Cannon. She first appointed a special master to supervise the government’s collection of evidence, though that order was overturned by the 11th United States Appeals Court.Judge Cannon also appeared to take seriously Mr. Trump’s contention that his possession of the documents was permitted by the Presidential Records Act. That made Mr. Smith see red. Judge Cannon, though, was not finished. Over the summer, she ruled that Attorney General Garland’s appointment of Mr. Smith was unlawful because it was unmoored from statutory authorization or confirmation by the Senate. She also dismissed the case’s charges.Judge Cannon’s ruling survives and is law in the Southern District of Florida after America dropped its appeal following Mr. Trump’s victory over Vice President Harris. Judge Cannon’s bold reading of the law — she judged a Supreme Court precedent seemingly allowing the appointment of subordinate prosecutors to be non-binding — could one day find support at the high court. The jurist has also blocked the release of Mr. Smith’s Mar-a-Lago report.There is no knowing how Mr. Smith’s case would have played out before a jury, since the glide path to a conviction envisioned by the special counsel was blocked by the Florida jurist. The return of the boxes is a reminder of the presumption of innocence and the importance of due process to the conviction of anyone, let alone a former president who, while in office, possesses the absolute power to declassify documents, no matter their contents.We carry no brief for Mr. Trump, but the record of the cases against him has contributed to a belief among the American people that justice has become political. Then again, too, there is the retention of documents by, say, President Biden. A special counsel, Robert Hur, elected not to press charges. The return of the boxes to Mar-a-Lago could be a reminder — for Mr. Trump’s allies and his foes — that Mr. Smith could have pursued a similar course.

Mar-a-Lago Gets Its Boxes Back

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