I don't see how they're going to make this stick. I mean, he's the former President. He can keep records from his time in office. Hell Bush, Obama and every President before him as done it. Biden wasn't authorized to have documents, yet that shit got swept under the rug.
Of course, this might be a ploy to get rid of both Trump and Biden for 2024. Cause Joey Bag of Donuts has proven very incompetent and very unpopular.
So, it’s important to note that, while presidents generally keep some former records, there ARE several caveats.
First and foremost, documents kept from a presidency remain the property of the U.S. government and are
not transferred to the ownership of the individual (they’re considered to be on indefinite loan, and from what I remember, actually selling off government property has to be done by act of Congress). If for some reason NARA demanded that a paper or papers be returned to them from, say, Obama’s presidential library, Obama would have to comply or risk jail time.
Second thing to keep in mind is, Trump was served a grand jury subpoena requiring production of anything with classification markings, including any national defense information (thereby avoiding any claim of “but it was declassified!”). Grand jury subpoenas, at least in criminal probes, are not suggestions where one has to initiate another lawsuit and spend time to get it enforced. Failure to comply usually results in more, uh, drastic measures.
Third thing is, Biden did also fuck around, and sure it’s selective prosecution (“willful disregard” or whatever the phrase is just varies in degree; ‘negligence’ is not a legal defense), but as with pretty much everything else, the rules are different for people at the top vs worker bees.
So, from a legal standpoint, Trump is screwed; the only hope he really has is jury nullification (that is, hoping a sympathetic juror decides not to convict). Since it’s in South Florida and not DC, that isn’t out of the question, but it’s not a guarantee.
And sure, it’s a selective prosecution compared to Clinton or Biden; the problem for Trump is that, and the end of the day, he apparently DID do exactly what he’s accused of.