Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside

Donald Trump’s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders. These tactics—exposed by a Newsweek review of thousands of pages of court filings, judicial orders and affidavits from an array of court cases—have enraged judges, prosecutors, opposing lawyers and the many ordinary citizens entangled in litigation with Trump.

When Trump daily attacks Clinton over the emails, he’s laying a charge against her of doing what Trump himself has done over, and over, and over. The “missing 30,000 emails,” that Trump goes on about so often were personal emails. That designation wasn’t made by Clinton, it was made by a team of lawyers that scoured her server to determine which emails were related to her work, and which had nothing to do it—the exact same task the FBI is now conducting on the notebook that was the subject of Comey’s ill-timed, self-serving letter.



Meanwhile, actually destroying emails associated with a case? A Trump specialty.



When a government attorney finally telephoned a Trump lawyer to find out why, he was told the Trumps had not even begun preparing their answers and had no plans to do so. The Trumps also postponed and blocked depositions, refused to provide a description of their records, as required, and would not turn over any documents.

What did Trump do instead of turning over documents? He lied. He sued. He was Trump.



In the very first major issue where he was involved, a federal suit over discrimination at Trump properties, Donald Trump stalled for months. Finally, he was dragged into court.



… under subpoena, Trump appeared for a short deposition. When asked about the missing documents, he made a shocking admission: The Trumps had been destroying their corporate records for the previous six months and had no document-retention program. They had conducted no inspections to determine which files might have been sought in the discovery requests or might otherwise be related to the case. Instead, in order to “save space,” Trump testified, officials with his company had been tossing documents into the shredder and garbage.