Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents at his Florida resort a “storage issue.”
“This is really at its core a storage argument that they’re making,” Rubio said. “I don’t think a fight over storage of documents is worthy of what they’ve done, which is full-scale raid.”
The Florida senator also claimed that the Justice Department was improperly spilling the beans about the probe to damage Trump and his MAGA followers politically.
“Generally, when the federal government is investigating someone, they won’t even acknowledge it’s there is an investigation. They won’t even talk about it,” he said in an interview with a Miami TV station on Sunday.
He even suggested prosecutors were lying or distorting information to make Trump look bad.
“They’re actually leaking information that may or may not be true, they’re putting out pictures, making it look like there are all these papers thrown around, classified information,” Rubio asserted.
According to the National Archives and the Justice Department, Trump took more than 10,000 government documents, including hundreds of classified documents, when he left the White House last year.
The former president returned some of the documents voluntarily and returned some more when issued a subpoena.
But hundreds more were still stashed at Mar-a-Lago. The FBI obtained a search warrant, and on Aug. 8, federal agents seized several boxes filled with documents, including some that are considered among the nation’s most closely held secrets.
Contrary to what Rubio suggested, the probe is a serious criminal matter.
Some liberal political pundits mocked Rubio for making light of the investigation.
“Ah yes, a storage issue just like spying is a nosiness issue,” tweeted Molly Jong-Fast.
Rubio is the ranking GOP member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, making his flippant remarks about the mishandling of classified documents all the more disturbing.
“This is like saying I can go look at the painting in the museum. So when I take it home me and the museum now have a dispute over storage,” tweeted Josh Marshall, editor of Talking Points Memo.
———
