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Don't Let Trump Distract Us From His Disqualifying Criminal Indictment

Don't Let Trump Distract Us From His Disqualifying Criminal Indictment

Within the few days, Trump has made at least five moronic, dangerous or incendiary comments. And if the past is any guide, the press and social media will be all over each of them. Some will decry his vicious allusion to John McCain's disabilities, earned in a war Trump evaded. Others will be outraged by his description of the January 6 defendants as "hostages."

He manipulates our attention and our conversation like a skilled puppeteer. Consider that with only days to go before the first nominating contests, we are not even talking about Trump's greatest legal peril — the sweeping 37-count indictment regarding willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements.

Admittedly, the Mar-a-Lago classified documents indictment is only the second-most disqualifying crime in Trump's roster — the first being attempting a coup — but it is the most open-and-shut and therefore the most ruinous.

Unlike the Washington indictment for attempting to overturn an election, the Florida indictment does not rely on untested applications of criminal statutes (e.g., was the riot an attempt to obstruct an official preceding?) or inquiries into Trump's state of mind. The questions of law and fact are straightforward.

Trump apologists will point to Biden, Pence and others who were found to have classified documents in offices or homes. But the indictment does not charge Trump for any documents he voluntarily returned after they were requested by the National Archives and Records Administration. No, he is charged only for the documents he hid, moved around, lied about, shared with a number of people lacking security clearances, kept in bathrooms, ballrooms, and bedrooms, and stubbornly withheld — even in defiance of a subpoena — from an increasingly alarmed federal government.

After the search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Trump claimed to have declassified all of these documents before absconding with them. A sitting president does have authority to declassify, though not to take documents home as trophies. There are two problems with this justification: 1) There is zero evidence that Trump ever did declassify the relevant documents, and 2) even if he had, "willful retention of national defense information" remains a federal crime under the Espionage Act, which was passed in 1917, long before the current classification system was adopted. Others who've been charged and convicted under this statute include Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner and Edward Snowden. Less famous was Kendra Kingsbury, a former FBI analyst who pleaded guilty to taking classified documents home and was sentenced in June to three years and 10 months in federal prison.

Oh, and there's one other problem with the "Trump declassified everything" argument: His own words. The indictment includes a recording of Trump flaunting one of the documents to a writer (who had no security clearance, far less top-secret) at his Bedminster club. These were "highly confidential" and "secret," he confided, adding ''as president I could have declassified it. ... Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."

That would be quite enough, but there is so much more. The indictment lays out the manifold maneuvers Trump undertook to obstruct justice. After being asked to return the documents, he instructed Walt Nauta to hide 64 of the boxes in other parts of Mar-a-Lago before letting his lawyer go through the remaining 30 — letting the lawyer believe that he was seeing the complete set. After the lawyer examined the contents and found some classified material, Trump suggested that he make them disappear. He "made a plucking motion."

The superseding indictment details Trump's instructions to several Mar-a-Lago employees to destroy security camera footage — textbook obstruction of justice.

The law is clear and easy to understand. Jack Smith has the receipts. Even Trump's allies have acknowledged that the indictment is devastating. Jonathan Turley admitted that "It's really breathtaking. ... The Trump team should not fool itself. These are hits below the water line. ... It's overwhelming in its details." Bill Barr added, "I do think that ... if even half of it is true, then he's toast. I mean, it's a pretty — it's a very detailed indictment, and it's very, very damming."

This, all by itself, is utterly disqualifying for a presidential candidate. The indictment cites two instances — that Smith can prove — of Trump revealing classified information to people not authorized to have it. God only knows how many times he did it that we have no record of.

Trump got lucky in the selection of Judge Aileen Cannon, who may be a MAGA sympathizer. But let's not lose sight of his flagrant, brazen, criminal contempt for his duty. Let's keep our focus on the people whose lives he put at risk. Let's have enough self-respect to recoil at his reckless endangerment of this country. If convicted, he deserves to do prison time. Cannon notwithstanding, he may well do prison time for this. And that, not his latest stink bomb, should be front of mind as we head into the campaign.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, "Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism," is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

At Least Two Killed In Hostage Drama East Of Paris

At Least Two Killed In Hostage Drama East Of Paris

Paris (AFP) – At least two people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a kosher grocery store in eastern Paris on Friday and took at least five people hostage, sources told AFP.

The attacker was suspected of being the same gunman who killed a policewoman in a shooting in Montrouge in southern Paris on Thursday.

A police source told AFP the suspect was linked to two brothers who massacred 12 people at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.

Sources close to the investigation said shooting had erupted at Porte de Vincennes in the east of Paris on Friday afternoon.

“It is the Montrouge shooter,” said one of the sources, adding at least one person was reported injured.

A helicopter hovered above as police swarmed to the area, asking people to remain at home.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was on his way to the scene.

This breaking news story will be updated.

AFP Photo/ Thomas Samson

Obama Administration Reviewing Hostage Policies, But Not Ransom Ban

Obama Administration Reviewing Hostage Policies, But Not Ransom Ban

By Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has ordered a review of his administration’s handling of kidnappings by terrorist organizations, the White House confirmed Tuesday, but that review does not include a reconsideration of U.S. policy against paying ransom for hostages.

The president ordered the review “over the summer” and applied it to the State Department, Defense Department, FBI, and intelligence agencies, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. The review is specifically focused on hostage negotiations, recovery and communication with family members, he said.

The president was prompted by the “the extraordinary nature of some of the hostage-takings that we’d seen this year,” Earnest said.

In August, after being held captive for nearly two years, American journalist James Foley was beheaded on video by Islamic State militants. Foley’s killing was followed by the release of similar videos showing executions of hostages Steven Sotloff, an American; and two British aid workers.

A fifth video was uploaded Sunday, confirming the death of a third American, former soldier and aid worker Peter Kassig.

Family members of some U.S. hostages have complained about a lack of coordination and clear information about U.S. efforts to recover their relatives. Some have questioned the administration’s prohibition on paying ransom when other governments — including France, Germany, and Spain — have directly or indirectly paid for the release of their citizens.

Administration officials argue that paying for hostages only creates incentive for more kidnapping and bankrolls terrorist and pirate groups.

Earnest stood by that rationale Tuesday.

“The president continues to believe, as previous presidents have concluded, that it’s not the best interests of American citizens to pay ransom to any organization, let alone a terrorist organization, that’s holding an American hostage,” he said. “We don’t want to put other American citizens at even greater risk when they’re around the globe, and that knowing that terrorist organizations can extract a ransom from the United States if they take a hostage only puts American citizens at greater risk.”

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

U.S. Journalist, Home From Hostage Ordeal, Gives Thanks

U.S. Journalist, Home From Hostage Ordeal, Gives Thanks

Boston (AFP) – A U.S. journalist taken hostage by Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria thanked those who supported him during his two years in captivity Wednesday, saying he was “just overwhelmed with emotion.”

Peter Theo Curtis, 45, made a brief statement to reporters outside his mother Nancy Curtis’s house in Cambridge, Massachusets, the morning after his return home.

“I had no idea when I was in prison .. that so much effort was being expended on my behalf,” he said. “Now having found out, I am just overwhelmed with emotion.”

Curtis, who arrived in Boston on Tuesday from Tel Aviv after having been released to UN peacekeepers, said he was taken aback by the many total strangers who came up to him to welcome him back.

“I suddenly remember how good the American people are and what kindness they have in their hearts and to all those people, I say a huge thank you from my heart, from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

The freelance journalist and author was released on Sunday, less than a week after grisly footage emerged of the execution of another U.S. hostage, journalist James Foley, by the so-called Islamic State — a separate group from the one that held Curtis.

The group has also threatened to kill a second captive American journalist, Steven Sotloff, if U.S. President Barack Obama did not change course.

And, according to U.S. media reports, the group is also holding a third American, a 26-year-old female aid worker.

Curtis’s family has said the Qatari government had repeatedly reassured them that it had not won his freedom through a cash payment, amid a growing debate over the U.S. policy of refusing to pay ransoms to extremist groups.

Washington sticks to a policy of never paying ransoms, saying that doing so would endanger Americans all over the world.

“I am overwhelmed with relief that this day has come and my son is standing beside me. But this is a sober occasion because of the events of the past week. My heart goes out to the other families who are suffering,” Nancy Curtis said on her son’s arrival Tuesday.

“I would like to thank the many public and private individuals all over the world who have worked so hard to bring Theo home.”

Curtis was captured shortly before he crossed into Syria in October 2012 and was held by the Al-Qaeda splinter group known as Al-Nusra front, according to his family.

During his captivity, media outlets had refrained from using Curtis’s name at the request of the family.

After his return to the United States, the family requested privacy.

“We greatly appreciated the support of the press while Theo was in captivity,” Nancy said.

“We now ask for some private time to adjust. Theo will be the best person to tell his story when he is ready.”

Curtis was handed over to UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights late Sunday and taken to Tel Aviv by U.S. government officials.

The Islamic State and Al-Nusra are rooted in Al-Qaeda in Iraq but the two groups have been openly at war with each other in Syria since early this year.

AFP Photo