A federal grand jury has charged Donald John Trump with 37 felony counts, including 31 counts of “Willful Retention of National Defense Information” in violation of the Espionage Act. In the remaining charges, Trump and his White House valet turned “body man” Waltine Nauta are charged with conspiring to keep the classified documents Trump took from the White House, hiding them from the grand jury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and lying to the grand jury and the FBI. (Trump and Nauta told separate lies—Trump in a false sworn certification to the grand jury and the FBI that his lawyer’s June 2, 2022, subpeona-mandated search of Mar-a-Lago had produced “any and all responsive documents”, Nauta in a lie to the FBI on May 26, 2022, that he had no knowledge of any boxes containing sensitive material being brought into Trump’s resort or where specifically those boxes were kept—and thus get separate counts of making false statements and representations, bringing the count total to 38.)
Among the most important words in the indictment are Trump’s own (I add links here to the statements the indictment cites):
- As a candidate for President of the United States, Trump made the following public statements, among others, about classified information:
- On August 18, 2016, Trump stated, “In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”
- On September 6, 2016, Trump stated, “We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. … We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified.”
- On September 7, 2016, Trump stated, “[O]ne of the first things we must do is enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.”
- On September 19, 2016, Trump stated, “We also need the best protection of classified information.”
- On November 3, 2016, Trump stated, “Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country.”
- As President of the United States, on July 26, 2018, Trump issued the following statement about classified information:
As the head of the executive branch and Commander in Chief, I have a unique, Constitutional responsibility to protect the Nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it. … More broadly, the issue of [a former executive branch official’s] security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our Nation’s most sensitive secrets long after their time in Government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access to our nation’s secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests.
[United States of America v. Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta, Indictment, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, 2023.06.08, p. 8]
These quotes aren’t mere blog-gotcha fodder. These quotes demonstrate that the defendant understood clearly why we have laws strictly protecting classified documents and then knowingly violated those laws to serve his personal interests. As evidence, the indictment presents things Trump said while showing a classified military document to a writer, a publisher, and two staff members, none of whom had security clearance, in a recorded July 21, 2021 conversation about General Mark Milley’s effort to stop Trump from provoking a war with Iran in January 2021:
34. Upon greeting the writer, publisher, and his two staff members, Trump stated, “Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show… it’s interesting.” Later in the interview, Trump engaged in the following exchange:
TRUMP: Well, with [the Senior Military Official]—uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack [Country A]. Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this—this is off the record, but—they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.
WRITER: Wow.
TRUMP: We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff—pages long, look.
STAFFER: Mm.
TRUMP: Wait a minute, let’s see here.
STAFFER: [Laughter] Yeah.
TRUMP: I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.
STAFFER: Mm-hm.
TRUMP: Except it is like, highly confidential.
STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter]
TRUMP: Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and—
* * *
TRUMP: By the way. Isn’t that incredible?
STAFFER: Yeah.
TRUMP: I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, “he wanted to attack [Country A], and what . . .”
STAFFER: You did.
TRUMP: This was done by the military and given to me. I think we can probably, right? Uh,
STAFFER: I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to—
TRUMP: Declassify it.
STAFFER: —figure out a—yeah.
TRUMP: See as president I could have declassified it.
STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter]
TRUMP: Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.
STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter] Now we have a problem.
TRUMP: Isn’t that interesting? [Indictment, 2023.06.08, pp. 15–16]
Trump said, “Any access to our nation’s secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests” to justify revoking critical former CIA chief John Brennan’s security clearance. Yet in 2021, Trump was leaking a classified document apparently to “totally win[] my case” against General Milley’s criticism.
The indictment notes that, while in office, Trump recognized that leaking classified information was shameful and illegal:
36. On February 16, 2017, four years before Trump’s disclosures of classified information set forth above, Trump said at a press conference:
The first thing I thought of when I heard about it is, how does the press get this information that’s classified? How do they do it? You know why? Because it’s an illegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves. Really ashamed.
[Indictment, 2023.06.08, p. 17
In his own words, Donald Trump ought to be really ashamed. And he and his co-conspirator Nauta ought to be really locked up. Reality Winner was sentenced to more than five years of lock-up for one count of violating the Espionage Act. Each of Trump’s counts of violating the Espionage Act carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding documents, corruptly concealing documents, and concealing documents in a federal investigation can each put Trump and Nauta in prison for 20 years. Scheming to conceal and lying to the grand jury and the FBI only bring a maximum of five years in prison.
From Senator Mitt Romney:
No official word yet on Trump’s indictment from South Dakota’s Congressional delegation or the SDGOP spin blog.
“Houston, we have a problem!”
Judge (I love you, Donnie) Aileen Cannon has been assigned the case. She could set a trial date of 2025 or, if Donnie were convicted next week, give him a harsh sentence of 2 hours of public service. Let’s hope this is corrected before the trial begins.
drumpf was indicted by a law he himself signed. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-indicted-classified-documents-felony-1805561
SD, R. Senator Johnny “Ringo” Thune, hit man for Mitch McConnell, his mentor, voted for now 41/42 year old Ailene Mercedes Cannon as lifetime FLA federal judge (as did Mike “out-for-Biden’s blood” Rounds) taking office in NOVEMBER 2020 at the last possible moment of Trump’s lame-duck presidency.
She could delay matters in Trump’s pending criminal trial on 30-40 counts of classified documents until AFTER the 2024 election. Putin would be delighted.
God have mercy. @2:12, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AeHXXgJbn28
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/its-absolutely-a-spys-dream-mccabe-on-classified-documents-at-mar-a-lago/vi-AA1clwig
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/06/10/margaret-hoover-calls-on-republicans-lack-of-leadership-sot-ac360-vpx.cnn (Margret Hoover: relative of President Hoover hosts Firing Line, a relaunch of William F. Buckley Jr.’s original show aired on PBS for 33 years. wiki)
The danger here is that this justly persecution and prosecution of Mr. Trump will enrage those insaner than most even more than the creeping wokeness does. This all goes back to when the Democrat Party failed to put up a suitable candidate for president and allowed Mr. Trump to be elected. grudznick blames Hillary for the whole mess.
Deport him now. They should all be exiled. No love for traitors. Set sail, rapist. Nobody wants that p.o.s. The Haitians might use his toupee for HooDoo.
He’s guilty. He wont suffer for it. When your politics center around the worship of one dude, any evidence of his flaws is tantamount to sacrilege.
I’m sure whatever comes out of the mouths of the Three Stooges (Dusty, Mike and John) regarding this matter will be weak sauce befitting the milquetoasts that they are. Like the German conservatives who put Hitler in power, these guys are cowards, so what they yammer about will be somewhat along the lines of Trump apologist Grudz, who, like Putin, blames Hillary for Trump’s victory. I guess Grudz would excuse Trump for his crimes because of that. Yes, Hillary had flaws and her campaign was poorly run. Her flaws, as do Biden’s, pale in comparison to those of Trump.
In 2016 many here on Dakota Free Press talked about the weakness of the Republican Party for nominating a fascist. They remain just as weak today as then. Their statements, other than Mitch Romney’s, have run from butt-licking to mush.
Felonies By Elected Officials? – Well, there’s no bigger story here than Rep. Fred Deutsch lying to a medical professional who is registered and fully legal to prescribe medication to obtain for himself a South Dakota Medical Marijuana MMJ Card.
– As I’ve documented on this blog numerous times Deutsch is a chronic liar in his public pronouncements, campaign advertising, and legislative affairs. Deutsch is attempting to do a “Trump Bump” dance on his felonious actions by lying that he was trying to “investigate” the process of obtaining an MMJ card.
– Investigating a process doesn’t include lying to a Nurse Practitioner and thus obtaining an MMJ card under illegal false pretenses. That’s a felony isn’t it, BCB? Deutsch claims he was easily granted the exemption to SD law because the process is flawed but it’s certain the Nurse Practitioner wouldn’t give him a card unless he made up a story about his pain from a previous car wreck. I’m also certain said Nurse Practitioner will testify to my assertion.
– Currently, Deutsch’s card has been revoked because he lied to obtain it.
– C’mon, Marty Jackley. Do your job when it’s difficult. That’s the definition of a proper “public servant”.
https://www.rawstory.com/we-are-not-going-to-stand-for-it-mccarthy-defends-trump-vows-to-use-jim-jordans-committee-to-target-attorney-general/
McCarthy vovs to weaponize Gym Jordan’s committee to target the AG for his work in indicting drumpf. Vapidly rabid magat bomb thrower, Mark Levin, was foaming at the mouith while yelling at the camera over drumpf’s indictment.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mark-levin-trump-indictment-secret-papers-b2354982.html
Oh this is sooo rich. We may never get to the bottom of trump’s depravity and graft.
The trumpians and government are unable to find the document trump referred to AFTER the subpoena.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/06/02/politics/donald-trump-iran-subpoena/index.html
The indictment mentions Bedminster, yet, it appears the FBI has yet to search Bedminster. Perhaps the FBI also needs to exhume Ivanka’s casket and take a backhoe to Hole #1. NARA contends that documents remain missing.
The trump cult is deranged. I understand the 2016 protest vote against clinton . . . but the republicans were FOOLS nominating trump. Since 2017 ANY support for trump is unforgivable if unrepentant.
Why is trump in love with these documents so much that he thinks he needs to hoard them?
sx123
Love?
More like retention and withholding in the classic Freudian sense, reactivated by his loss to Biden and now a fully-blown symptom as seen in his theft and retention of documents.
We must also consider that it is not simply the fact of toilet training per se but that he registered it in all likelihood as a defeat and rather than a victory. He thought he was finally getting away with something, finally getting the upper hand on his early caregivers.
In other words, it’s not love, but revenge.
I believe Trump retained the records because he believed they were worth money…millions of dollars. He’s a transactional guy.
Arlo Blunt
Money is the equivalent of excrement.
Arlo Blunt
To your point, the most “transactional” of interactions between parent and child when it comes to toilet training—which is fundamentally transactional in nature—concerns nothing but what, if not retention or release of feces?
As far as that goes, the insurrectionists of Jan 6 in their pretext of love of country were effectively also out for nothing but revenge, no different that Trump whose act of retention of documents was also an act of revenge, part-and-parcel of a retention of a fundamental psychic resentment stemming from early childhood, a retention both figurative and bodily.
grudz, you do realize that the term “persecution” implies an unjust action being undertaken – no? I guess not.
P.Aitch, I haven’t researched the legal implications for making a false statement to obtain a medical marijuana card in SD, but I would suspect the answer to your query can be found in SDCL 22-29 covering perjury and various false statements:
https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/22-29
Grudz, you are not wrong on Hillary. Unfortunately the primal male white supremacy gene that was already frayed be 8 years of a non white president was exacerbated to the breaking point by a white woman who wore pants and talked down to them as ‘deplorables’. Too much ‘progressive’ness.. and white men did what they usually do when they encounter something they dont understand, the try to blow it up with any tool at their disposal. Trump was that tool.
So now we have some exploited people who were conned or duped into falling in love with trump that want to blame Hillary.
Maybe , there were better candidates to run, but she won fair and square and then was defeated in the general election at
which time she bowed out gracefully. The voters were deluded by trump and as is the norm today , will not admit to the hoax that they
so blindly accepted. The result is a pervasive ugliness on America that continues today because of trump and his minions, no one else.
Let’s face facts: Trump saw the documents as just another way to make money. And Jared Kushner got $2 Billion from the Saudis – probably for the missing Iran invasion document and Israeli nuclear secrets. If you don’t think Trump got a cut, I have South Dakota ocean front property to sell you.
Meanwhile, MAGA is now a Cult of Personality, and no criticism of Fearless Leader is allowed.