The indictment against Donald Trump in the classified documents case has been unsealed. It includes 37 separate counts:
The bulk of the charges in the 49-page indictment, unsealed Friday afternoon, relate to willful retention of national defense information — a violation of the Espionage Act that pertains to whether individuals broke the rules for the handling of classified documents. The charges also include conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in an investigation, scheming to conceal, and false statements. Trump aide Walt Nauta also was charged. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Here's more:
As Trump tried to avoid complying with a May 11, 2022, subpoena that required him to produce all documents with classification markings that were in his possession, Walt Nauta was the person he relied on to help conceal the boxes he wanted to keep, the indictment alleges.
....The 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information each carry a maximum prison term of 10 years. The one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice carries a maximum prison term of 20 years. Rarely are people sentenced to the maximum terms.
....When FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022, one of the most alarming documents they discovered in Donald Trump’s possession was “concerning nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” the indictment says.
....Once he realized he was being investigated, former president Donald Trump “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents,” the indictment unsealed Friday said. According to the indictment, Trump suggested that his lawyer mislead the FBI about what classified papers he still possessed and directed a loyal aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes to conceal them from Trump’s own lawyer.
The indictment is here. More to come, I'm sure.
Predictably, Republicans from Kevin McCarthy on down -- with the one exception of Mitt Romney -- are absolutely losing it and claiming that it's outrageous that the DOJ would charge a former president just because he intentionally retained critical top secret material and then committed obstruction to avoid having to return it and quite possibly also committed numerous breaches of national security. Somehow, I don't think most people, save for the most deluded MAGA cultists, are going to buy that, but flooding the zone with tidal waves of bullshit, deflection, and gaslighting is all they have, so I guess that's what they're going for.
The best part was when Smith included a bunch of quotes from Trump talking about the importance of observing rules around classified material (of course referring to Hillary), and that "nobody is above the law." Heh heh.
Asa Hutchinson has also condemned Trump. Fun fact: mishandling classified was a misdemeanor, until Trump made it a felony. Hoist on his own petard! (whatever that is; it needs to be an industrial strength petard in his case.)
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Even that sycophant Jonathan Turley has a limit, apparently:
"It is an extremely damning indictment ... this is not an indictment that you can dismiss."
"It's really breathtaking. Obviously, this is mishandling, you know, putting classified documents into ballrooms and bathrooms is -- it borders on the bizarre. ... the visual and audio tape evidence is really daunting."
That's it, I'm running for President. When my campaign is unsuccessful. I can embark on a crime spree and claim immunity because I plan to run again. How dare my opponent weaponize the Justice Department against their political rival.
Hey, it worked for Ken Paxton (until it didn't). And it's still working for Binyamin Netanyahu!
I’m sure we’ll hear, from Trump, that he’s going to testify and clear his innocent name.
I’d just like to point out that I’m more likely to testify in this case than he is.
Of course, he’s kind of already testified, hasn’t he.
Trump's own words are being used against him. He can take the stand to testify against himself. This ought to be fun.
BTW, notice how us CA people manage to make this point in our names?
Yes! I hear there was once a dude who called himself "calpundit" ...
And yet millions of Americans will still want him to be President of the United States. Amazing how foolish people can be.
If nothing else, Trump is a master manipulator. Being able to shamelessly lie in a big way is a potent tool. Sociopaths gain special powers over others because people are not used to dealing with individuals like this.
6 observations:
- Judge Eileen Cannon / Magistrate Bruce Reinhart will once again be involved in this case (header indicated in indictment) filed in the Southern District of Florida
- There was a second, known time Trump exposed classified documents: "In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, TRUMP showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation"
- By "suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena", it seems that this attorney has given specific grand jury testimony -- Tim Parlatore? That fits with what he'd said publicly after he quit the Trump team. No shame whatsoever, asking his lawyer to commit crimes, I guess because he's done it so many times previously and up until then, no one dared to refuse and share that with prosecutors.
- The exchange over Milley and the drawn up plans to attack Iran make clear that Trump showed parts of the documents to those in the room. "We looked at some. This was him. This wasn't done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff-pages long, look." [...] "Wait a minute, let's see here." [...] "I just found, isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know."
- In that same exchange, Trump reveals that he knows they're still classified and he failed to declassify them before he left office. This destroys his nonsensical (Boris Epshteyn) defense that he instantly declassified them just by saying to himself that they were declassified. It also reveals his state of mind at the time, knowingly showing classified materials to the public. "See as president I could have declassified it." [...] "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
- The indictment makes clear, with direct references, of several instances where Trump directed Nauta, his coconspirator, with both in full knowledge of the classified materials, to move things for him, in particular, to avoid scrutiny by his own lawyers.
If he gets the maximum sentence on all counts he'd get 400 years, and the maximum fine would run to billions.
What would be an appropriate penalty for a president who has done such things?
It seems to me that it must be far higher than for anyone else because of the scale of betrayal of the public trust.
The count was 38, as reported at a couple of web sites I follow yesterday, and this morning's Seattle Times reported that count on page A1.