Obviously, ignore the nonsense Trump spews as he is just amazingly full of shit. What I am going to discuss here is what one of Trump's departed lawyers, Tim Parlatore said about how he was viewing defending Trump. It made some sense, and also explains some of what Trump himself has said in his rather off the wall manner. 

1. Trump did not "steal" the documents. According to Parlatore, the GSA comes in and packs up the offices and residences of both the president and vice president at the end of their term. So, the story on this so far in the media is that Trump held onto many documents he was supposed to return after meetings on national security issues. He took them back to his residence or the oval office while president when he was supposed to return them after these meeting but he held on to them for various reasons. So, he had these in the places that the GSA went to pack up when his term was over. The GSA does not go through the items they pack, they empty drawers, closets, whatever, into boxes, seal them, then ship them off. So, the technicality here, which Trump repeats, is he did not back this stuff up and ship it to Mar-a-Lago, the GSA did. This is why he claims he did not steal them. There likely is some merit to this argument. 

2. NARA is supposed to arrange where these boxes get shipped to. OK, this one is really interesting and I have not heard a public explanation of this yet nor have I really heard it addressed in the media. According to Parlatore, NARA arranges where the boxes that the GSA has packed go. They are supposed to arrange a secure facility that is guarded. They have supposedly done this for previous presidents and so that is why Trump talks about other presidents and that there is nothing said about their documents. The story Parlatore tells is that typically the boxes get shipped to a facility chosen by NARA and then the former president (and vice president with their stuff) have two years to go through them. If there are any classified documents among the materials then those would then be required to be returned to go back into proper storage with the government. 

3. If NARA does not tell the GSA where to ship the boxes, GSA automatically ships them to the primary residence of the president. This is the procedure they follow with the vice president because, for whatever reason, NARA does not arrange a secure facility for the boxes taken from the vice president's office and residence. In this case Parlatore claims NARA never arranged for a secure facility in Florida for Trump's boxes and in failing to do so, GSA shipped the boxes to Trump's residence, Mar-a-Lago. 

OK, so this will likely be a partial defense used for how Trump ended up with his boxes spread-out all-over Mar-a-Lago. Trump was also likely told he needed to go through the boxes (standard procedure) and determine what was his and what needed to be returned, meaning classified documents and materials. 

Other than Parlatore, I have not heard anybody else mention that NARA supposedly dropped the ball here and did not arrange for a facility where Trump's boxes would be stored. This makes sense, in that if NARA creates a facility to store the boxes they all remain in the government's care and control...hence there would be no issue with Trump returning them because if it is a NARA facility, the boxes would be in the government's possession. 

So, there is a question here of, if NARA was supposed to arrange a facility for the storage of the boxes, why didn't they? Did Trump or his people tell the GSA to ship the boxes to Mar-a-Lago to intentionally go around NARA? 

Parlatore also mentioned that this is part of why Biden and Pence committed no crimes by having boxes at their residences. It is standard procedure for GSA to ship the boxes from the vice president's office and residence directly to their primary civilian residence. Hence why both Pence and Biden had boxes with classified materials at their houses. Interesting that the vice president's boxes would not follow the same procedure of the president's boxes but according to Parlatore they do not. It comes down partially to some of the presidential materials could be used in a presidential library. 

Now, this is a defense of how Trump ended up with boxes at Mar-a-Lago if all of that information is true and NARA really failed to arrange a location to ship and store Trump's boxes. I think a further explanation of this is required. 

It does not provide any defense of what Trump did once he had the boxes. He discussed and showed classified materials with people that had no clearance to see them. He obstructed NARA and the FBI when he was notified they knew he had classified material and he refused to return it. He moved and hid boxes of materials including taking some all the way to Bedminster New Jersey. 

This explains some of what Trump repeats about all this. That he believed the boxes were his, that he believed he was supposed to go through them, basically to determine what was his and what needed to be returned. 

So, I think there could be an outcome here where they do determine Trump did not steal the classified material, it was shipped by the GSA to his house and he/his attorneys will claim this was ball dropping by NARA. However, he will be found guilty of obstruction, of attempting to retain classified materials (Espionage act), of attempting to hide and not return these materials, and likely of sharing these materials with individuals that did not have clearance to know about them. 

This will be interesting.