The Trump circus has been in the national spotlight for seven years now and has given us any number of unforgettable and never before seen spectacles in public life, but none like the grand finale that Donald Trump has staged by stealing 326 national intelligence documents, 55 of them Top Secret. This series of impulsive acts of his, done over a period of time, is collectively the one that is sure to bring him down. He’s up on the high wire now and the net of his money isn’t going to save him.

Concurrent with this main event, a couple of sideshows are playing at the same time, one being the desertion of Trump by a lot of right-wing pundits, and another being the state of the GOP as they move into a critical midterm election in a mere two months. Trump has created a real three-ring circus in Washington. If P.T. Barnum was here he would say, “I was an amateur.”

Let’s focus on ring two, where yet another right-wing media pundit, this time Andrew Napolitano, formerly of Fox News, pens Trump’s political obituary in the Washington Times and predicts that “he will get indicted.”

It gives me no joy to write this piece.

Even a cursory review of the redacted version of the affidavit submitted in support of the government’s application for a search warrant at the home of former President Donald Trump reveals that he will soon be indicted by a federal grand jury for three crimes: Removing and concealing national defense information (NDI), giving NDI to those not legally entitled to possess it, and obstruction of justice by failing to return NDI to those who are legally entitled to retrieve it.

When he learned from a phone call that 30 FBI agents were at the front door of his Florida residence with a search warrant and he decided to reveal this publicly, Mr. Trump assumed that the agents were looking for classified top-secret materials that they’d allege he criminally possessed. His assumptions were apparently based on his gut instinct and not on a sophisticated analysis of the law. Hence, his public boast that he declassified all the formerly classified documents he took with him.

Under the law, it doesn’t matter if the documents on which NDI is contained are classified or not, as it is simply and always criminal to have NDI in a non-federal facility, to have those without security clearances move it from one place to another, and to keep it from the feds when they are seeking it. Stated differently, the absence of classification — for whatever reason — is not a defense to the charges that are likely to be filed against Mr. Trump.

The stable genius apparently decided in advance that his best defense, if ever caught, would be to claim he declassified the documents in question and to get his cronies to vouch for him. Ain’t it a shame that nobody bothered to read the law and determine what an act of futility that would be?

Yet, misreading and underestimating the feds, Mr. Trump actually did them a favor. One of the elements that they must prove for any of the three crimes is that Mr. Trump knew that he had the documents. The favor he did was admit to that when he boasted that they were no longer classified. He committed a mortal sin in the criminal defense world by denying something for which he had not been accused.

This, right here, is precisely why solid and reputable lawyers don’t want to defend Trump. He is simply an out of control client. No legitimate attorney needs the grief. That’s why Trump is a magnet for auditioning Newsmax hosts, what Trump calls “television lawyers,” as opposed to real legal talent.

The second element that the feds must prove is that the documents actually do contain national defense information. And the third element they must prove is that Mr. Trump put these documents into the hands of those not authorized to hold them and stored them in a non-federally secured place. Intelligence community experts have already examined the documents taken from Mr. Trump’s home and are prepared to tell a jury that they contain the names of foreign agents secretly working for the U.S. This is the crown jewel of government secrets. Moreover, Mr. Trump’s Florida home is not a secure federal facility designated for the deposit of NDI.

This is a good piece and I recommend reading the entire thing. Napolitano goes on to argue that it is “monumental irony” that Trump has called for both Julian Assange and Edward Snowden to be executed, Assange for exposing American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and Snowden for exposing mass government surveillance, when Trump himself is likely to be charged with the very same crimes.

Trump is about to find out the difference between reality and reality TV and it wouldn’t surprise me if something like #BidenShouldPardonTrump begins to trend. Recently, a few Republican strategists, impressed with Trump’s fundraising abilities right after the August 8 Mar-a-Lago raid, opined that he could “get the GOP nomination from prison.” Maybe we’re going to find out how true or not that is.

It might be a good idea to glance over to ring three and see how the RNC is faring these days with each new revelation that comes out, but I think all you’ll see is Ronna McDaniel passed out and Mitch McConnell bringing her smelling salts, while Kevin McCarthy sits there and weeps.

Rupert Murdoch pulled out early and he’s got the best of both worlds right now. Hannity and Carlson continue to defend Trump and they probably will until Murdoch decides that they need to have their own “turn the page” moment as Laura Ingraham did. To quote Ann Coulter, “Trump is done.”

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8 COMMENTS

  1. I still like it when they show the clip from the debates and TFG said he will strictly observe all laws governing classified materials and “no one is above the law.” I think he should be reminded of this on a daily basis.

    • I seriously doubt he will EVER see the inside of a penitentiary. Guess if I followed Jesus around & watched him predictably tortured & killed by the Romans, a common practice to keep people in line, and my fellow disciples told me he came back from the dead, I’d be the first to exclaim you boys are fucking crazy or suffering from heat stroke. I know I’m not lining up for the same fate UNLESS I can put my fingers into the holes they punched into his body. All this hopeful chest pounding about how NOW he’s going down is fine for believers who rely on faith. I’m a bit more hard assed concerning my beliefs. Having him guarded by secret service while he sits in his posh club under house arrest IS NOT JUSTICE by the way. That amounts to being put on double secret probation at Farber College.

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  2. What we are seeing is only the most glaring, “can be made public” aspect of treasonous behavior by Trump. Sadly (and for me infuriatingly!) Treason is actually defined in our Constitution and with virtually no wiggle room. Only Congress has the power to declare War, and since treason requires giving aid and comfort to an enemy during a time of war Trump (as have others) gets off on a technicality. That pisses me off “bigly.” I WANT to see his fat ass do a Saddam Hussein – drop through the trap door of a gallows and swing at the end of the rope until he is DEAD. After suffering through months of appeals of course – I want him to have to experience real prison life for a while before he swings. Oh well. I can at least hope he winds up in prison for the rest of what I hope will be an entirely miserable life. Even in a secure wing of a federal pen with him having the whole wing and only his Secret Service detail for company it will be miserable for him.

    Yet, if what SHOULD happen were to actually happen as in him getting the Saddam treatment I think that right up to the moment the trap door opens he simply wouldn’t believe it was really happening to HIM! A good hangman makes sure the neck breaks but death isn’t instantaneous so there would in fact be time for him to realize that he wasn’t so high and mighty after all!

    For you conservatives out there who read this and whine that I’m a Trump hater, you’re goddamned right I am. From the time he became known nationally with his ghost written Art of the Deal he seemed like some rich asshole to me. (Not all rich people are assholes I should note) Nothing, and I mean NOTHING he’s done since has given me any reason to change my view of him except to dislike him even more. It hurts that my service to this country was a fucking waste. Trump was right about that. I actually WAS a sucker to volunteer and become a Marine. Because a country in which someone as unfit (in EVERY way) to be President as Trump could even get a major Party nomination isn’t worthy of the service and sacrifice of those who (both in uniform and in civilian capacities) defend it. That’s bad enough, but I think of the scars on my father (obtained on his bomber during a mission in WWII) that he fought to keep hidden (not to mention the psychological ones I wouldn’t even begin to understand until not long before he died – I was 23 when that happened) or the wounds of others from my small midwestern home town. Or those that I saw go to Vietnam and come home in coffins. And people I’d come to know later who were wounded and even died. So that asshats like YOU could sit there and ignore all manner of reality, twist and distort and ignore objective facts to rationalize your support of Trump just to NOT have to admit you were taken in by his con job? FUCK YOU!

  3. I seriously doubt he will EVER see the inside of a penitentiary. Guess if I followed Jesus around & watched him predictably tortured & killed by the Romans, a common practice to keep people in line, and my fellow disciples told me he came back from the dead, I’d be the first to exclaim you boys are fucking crazy or suffering from heat stroke. I know I’m not lining up for the same fate UNLESS I can put my fingers into the holes they punched into his body. All this hopeful chest pounding about how NOW he’s going down is fine for believers who rely on faith. I’m a bit more hard assed concerning my beliefs. Having him guarded by secret service while he sits in his posh club under house arrest IS NOT JUSTICE by the way. That amounts to being put on double secret probation at Farber College.

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