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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Vice has a bit of a rundown about why this is so unusual.
If Trump had discussed troop movements/deployments with them during that conversation, for example, it likely would have been placed in the server it was placed in. Nothing about the conversation was remotely like that - except for Trump shooting himself in the foot politically, then using government resources to cover his tracks. That is why this is suspicious as hell.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
A procrastination in of itself
Things are classified in both ways. You get the contents of something (which could be unclassified, secret, top secret, ect...) and you get the security level of the system it’s stored on.
So you should generally be putting unclassified material on an unclassified machine, secret material on a secret server and top secret material on a top secret server, it’s both a waste of valuable space and a possibly security risk to put material at a lower classification on a server that is for material of a higher classification.
The Vice thing seems to confirm what I think, the server exists for storing seriously classified stuff that needs to be kept under extra tight control, as in tighter control than one would expect to put on the record of a presidential conversation with a foreign leader where they didn’t talk about anything super important.
Hiding something because it makes the government look bad is totally legitimate use of government resources, but something that makes an individual politician look bad is not the same thing as something that makes the US government look bad.
Edited by Silasw on Sep 27th 2019 at 6:24:16 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Outside of extremely sensitive compartments that’s not really how it works. A top secret-rated server might contain plenty of less classified information for a variety of reasons.
And I’ll add that there isn’t really any such thing as “above top secret”.
But if that’s the case that they used a server never meant to hold that kind of information, that could get them in trouble. If they just pushed information into a high-clearance server they normally had access to, that’s really not illegal.
They should have sent a poet.
A procrastination in of itself
We’re talking about it being put into an extremely sensitive compartment, so that is how to functions.
We have the quotes from the whistleblower, they directly say that the conversation was deleted from this normal storage place and moved to a server for things of a sensitive national security nature, despite the call not being of a sensitive national security nature.
Edit: You don’t just push information into a server, everything has its proper place to go and be recorded.
Let me explain this as if it was a physical letter, there is a filling cabinet somewhere titled “US presidential conversations with president of Ukraine”, that’s where this file is meant to have gone, it’s where it initially went, the White House then ordered people to take it out of that filing cabinet and put it in the double lock safe labelled “super sensitive national security stuff” even though there is nothing in the file that’s of a sensitive national security nature.
Edited by Silasw on Sep 27th 2019 at 7:11:06 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
All I’m seeing in the various articles is that it’s a high level codeword server. A codeword can have information from multiple classifications attached to it, and when it’s referring to a storage destination like it is here the information stored could be any clearance or code word itself.
My point here is that more information is needed. Simply moving this information to a more secure server isn’t actually illegal.
Edited by archonspeaks on Sep 27th 2019 at 12:12:14 PM
They should have sent a poet.
If the reason for moving the information was to hide/conceal it from others in order to obstruct the investigation of an illegal or possibly illegal act? That moves from accidently misfiling to Obstruction of Justice, it also kinda blows holes in the defense "It was just a regular call nothing of importance happened." If there was nothing wrong why was the info moved to a place where only a select, possibly loyal, few had access?
A procrastination in of itself
Moving government information from where it’s meant to be stored to where it’s not meant to be stored is very much is a crime.
The Whsitblower Complaint is out, its being read out on multiple news channels, if you need a link I can send you one. They explicitly say that the information was removed from where it’s meant to be stored and put elsewhere.
It’s not an accidental misfiling, as people were told to remove it from where it’s normally filed.
Edited by Silasw on Sep 27th 2019 at 7:19:00 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Disasturbator
I'm just waiting for the identity of the whistleblower to be leaked,it's bound to happen
New theme music also a box
I’m reading the coverage right now.
With the additional information that seems to have come out I agree that would most likely constitute a crime.
The exact nature of the server it was moved to is the only real question here.
Edited by archonspeaks on Sep 27th 2019 at 12:26:59 PM
They should have sent a poet.
Sadly true. I just hope whoever it is doesn't have too much trouble afterward because of all this.
We've seen people get death threats for far less thanb potentially being Trump's Deep Throat.
Edited by sgamer82 on Sep 27th 2019 at 1:26:19 PM
Queen of Good Things, Honest
I hope that investigation of that server comes about.
The actual moving of data is something I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's not directly connected with. My reading of the situation is that Trump regularly says things that are super-illegal to say to foreign leaders and has zero comprehension that he's even doing anything wrong.
And it's the people around him going, "Ohhhhhh nooooooo. THAT transcript needs to never see the light of day. This one too." People around Trump work overtime to try to cover his ass while Trump dumbf*ckedly continues to be cruel, stupid, and transparently criminal.
The reason I think Trump isn't directly connected to the server moves is because he clearly doesn't think he said anything inappropriate to Ukraine's President. He's stonewalled so many times over his blatant crimes, but when asked for this transcript? He's just like "BOOM, transcript, there ya go, check out how innocent I am!" Handed it over almost immediately.
Trump wouldn't have done that if he thought there was damning evidence on it. And there was damning evidence of what he did. So the only thing that makes sense is that Trump himself doesn't think that what he did was bad. He even owned up to it in interviews. Repeatedly. He is totally convinced that what he said was completely appropriate.
So I can't really see Trump giving the order to move some of his conversations to the private server. "Make sure nobody ever sees this entirely benign conversation that does not provide any sort of evidence of wrongdoing on my part. Unless they ask for it, and then I will give it to them immediately, no questions asked." That feels like an ass-covering move made by smarter people than him.
So I hope Congress is able to get access to the server. This isn't like the tax returns, which will almost surely prove to be an anticlimax. This isn't Trump hiding things for what will probably prove to be disappointing reasons. This seems like clear evidence of criminal activity that Trump is too stupid to realize he needed to hide.
My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.
Yeah, the entire thing with the server just stinks of a Revealing Cover-Up.
But then, if that's the case - why was the whistleblower complaint completely stonewalled until the dam burst?
Edited by ironballs16 on Sep 27th 2019 at 3:57:18 PM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
Because leaks and traitors are, like, really bad. In general. You let just one go uncontested, unmauled and unterrified-for-their-very-existence, and suddenly, well, you're facing three of the damned busses at once. <shrugs>
Especially if you have got loads of other stuff to hide. 
Edited by Euodiachloris on Sep 27th 2019 at 9:45:38 AM
A procrastination in of itself
It’s worth remembering that Trump didn’t release the transcript, he released the summery, the transcript is still sitting nice and safe on that server.
Though I agree with your main point Tobias, which is that the people around Trump are the ones doing the coverup.
The actual transcript and/or recording (golly I hope there are tapes) is liable to be even worse that the summery that Trump released.
Edited by Silasw on Sep 27th 2019 at 8:36:40 AM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
You just reminded me of someone's summary of how Trump has been reacting to all this.
"I'm innocent! I did nothing wrong! All the witnesses should be shot!"
From the still developing What the Fuck Just Happened Today feed:
poll/ Support for impeachment among Democrats jumped up 13 percentage points – from 66% to 79% – since the last poll. The general public is now evenly split between the 43% who think Congress should begin the impeachment process and 43% who don't. 13% of voters remain undecided. (Politico / Morning Consult)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/26/poll-support-impeachment-trump-1515012
I feel like the Republican plan is basically strangely like the "House of Quark" episode of Deep Space Nine.
The episode is about a Klingon doing incredibly shady things economically to achieve a political game. Quark has proof positive and it's horrifying. However, the whole subject is so boring and obtuse that the Klingon High Council loses interest halfway through and just lets it slide until Quark kinda-sacrifices himself.
This protected Bernie Madoff for decades.
The Republicans will try to kill this with technical details that cause everyone to zone out.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 27th 2019 at 2:11:46 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Professional Forum Ninja
... They had to trade that.
...
I thought that was just like implicit.
Never Trust
@Ultimatum: Hope that doesn't happen before they testify or I wouldn't give a nickel for their life.
Trump delenda est
The NRA still has money?
Screaming Into The Void
I'm not sure how many have since changed their policy.
Not sure if this belongs here or the impeachment thread; The New York Times went ahead and published potentially revealing details about the whistleblower.
Oh, that's real smart.
Edited by Pseudopartition on Sep 27th 2019 at 7:54:22 AM
The NRA has lost most of its money but billionaires don't go bankrupt the way normal people do.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Of course not; they make money off going bankrupt. But there's only so much you can do once the cash stops coming in. I had thought the NRA was at the point where they couldn't afford to send lobbyists to Mar-A-Lago anymore.
NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals Emails and interviews detail the extent to which the National Rifle Association helped two of Moscow's agents ahead of the election, Senate Finance Committee Democrats say.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals