By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist|
August 31, 2022 at 11:01 a.m. EDT
Donald Trump walked right into it. His brain trust stupidly requested a “special master” to review the documents he took from the White House — totally improper since he does not own the documents and his claim of “executive privilege” is inapposite. (Executive privilege raised against part of the executive branch, the Justice Department, makes no sense.)
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Incompetent counsel comes with a price, in this case a damning photo of scattered top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, included in a Justice Department filing on Tuesday night ahead of a Thursday hearing on the “special master” request.
The photo starkly countered Trump legal counsel’s earlier claims that all classified materials had been returned, and it showed that highly classified papers had been placed on a floor outside a storeroom. Other documents were found in desks in Trump’s office, the filing said. It also made clear that until well after the search warrant was executed, Trump had never invoked executive privilege.
ADVERTISING
As former prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted, “The location of the classified documents (in the drawer in Trump’s desk) and the fact that they were mixed in with other documents (presumably Trump’s personal property) is evidence that Trump was responsible for the willful retention of those documents.”
One line in the Justice Department filing looms large: “The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”
The filing reveals the extent of the concealment. When the warrant was executed on Aug. 8, the documents found were “more than twice the amount produced on June 3, 2022” in response to a subpoena. A telling detail might support a charge of obstructing the investigation: Trump’s counsel, while attesting that all classified materials had been returned, prohibited Justice Department representatives from looking in the boxes in June.
As Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department attorney, put it: “The Trump filings for a Special Master were a huge misstep. DOJ has used its response to disclose damning proof of a series of crimes, which it would not otherwise have been able to do. And one very compelling photo.”
Republicans are now faced with the prospect of continuing to defend the indefensible or cutting loose the leader of their cult, risking that their voters will stay home in the midterms. This is what comes from defending someone contemptuous of America’s national security interests and willing to betray our democracy to retain power.
Moreover, Democrats have figured out how to attack Republicans who fancy themselves as defense hawks but rationalize such blatant disregard for our national security and engage in hysterical, dangerous and utterly unwarranted attacks on government officials protecting our national security secrets.
President Biden, in a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Tuesday, delivered a stemwinder on crime. He declared: “Let me say this to my MAGA Republican friends in Congress. Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on the sixth” — Jan. 6, 2021. “For God’s sake, whose side are you on?” He went on: “You can’t be pro-law-enforcement and pro-insurrection. You can’t be the party of law and order and call the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th ‘patriots.’ ”
Referring to the execrable Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Biden thundered: “The idea that you turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying, ‘If such and such happens, there will be blood in the street.’ Where the hell are we?”
He reiterated: “It’s sickening to see the new attacks on the FBI, threatening the life of law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job ... There is no place in this country, no place, for endangering the lives of law enforcement. No place. None. Never. Period.”
He might have added, you cannot be pro-democracy or tough on crime if you make baseless excuses for a former president who allegedly violated the Espionage Act (among other statutes cited in the Justice Department affidavit), concoct meritless conspiracy theories that evidence was planted or dismiss ample evidence of obstruction. You cannot be on America’s side and defend Trump. Period.
For far too long, members of the lawless party have conned voters into believing the party is a valiant defender of national security and tough on crime. In truth, they defend the lifting of our nation’s most closely guarded secrets, refuse to condemn efforts to hinder the investigation and target law enforcement. By doing so, they join Trump in subverting our national security.
Columnist|
August 31, 2022 at 11:01 a.m. EDT
Donald Trump walked right into it. His brain trust stupidly requested a “special master” to review the documents he took from the White House — totally improper since he does not own the documents and his claim of “executive privilege” is inapposite. (Executive privilege raised against part of the executive branch, the Justice Department, makes no sense.)
Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
Incompetent counsel comes with a price, in this case a damning photo of scattered top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, included in a Justice Department filing on Tuesday night ahead of a Thursday hearing on the “special master” request.
The photo starkly countered Trump legal counsel’s earlier claims that all classified materials had been returned, and it showed that highly classified papers had been placed on a floor outside a storeroom. Other documents were found in desks in Trump’s office, the filing said. It also made clear that until well after the search warrant was executed, Trump had never invoked executive privilege.
ADVERTISING
As former prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted, “The location of the classified documents (in the drawer in Trump’s desk) and the fact that they were mixed in with other documents (presumably Trump’s personal property) is evidence that Trump was responsible for the willful retention of those documents.”
One line in the Justice Department filing looms large: “The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”
The filing reveals the extent of the concealment. When the warrant was executed on Aug. 8, the documents found were “more than twice the amount produced on June 3, 2022” in response to a subpoena. A telling detail might support a charge of obstructing the investigation: Trump’s counsel, while attesting that all classified materials had been returned, prohibited Justice Department representatives from looking in the boxes in June.
As Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department attorney, put it: “The Trump filings for a Special Master were a huge misstep. DOJ has used its response to disclose damning proof of a series of crimes, which it would not otherwise have been able to do. And one very compelling photo.”
Republicans are now faced with the prospect of continuing to defend the indefensible or cutting loose the leader of their cult, risking that their voters will stay home in the midterms. This is what comes from defending someone contemptuous of America’s national security interests and willing to betray our democracy to retain power.
Moreover, Democrats have figured out how to attack Republicans who fancy themselves as defense hawks but rationalize such blatant disregard for our national security and engage in hysterical, dangerous and utterly unwarranted attacks on government officials protecting our national security secrets.
President Biden, in a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Tuesday, delivered a stemwinder on crime. He declared: “Let me say this to my MAGA Republican friends in Congress. Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on the sixth” — Jan. 6, 2021. “For God’s sake, whose side are you on?” He went on: “You can’t be pro-law-enforcement and pro-insurrection. You can’t be the party of law and order and call the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th ‘patriots.’ ”
Referring to the execrable Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Biden thundered: “The idea that you turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying, ‘If such and such happens, there will be blood in the street.’ Where the hell are we?”
He reiterated: “It’s sickening to see the new attacks on the FBI, threatening the life of law enforcement agents and their families for simply carrying out the law and doing their job ... There is no place in this country, no place, for endangering the lives of law enforcement. No place. None. Never. Period.”
He might have added, you cannot be pro-democracy or tough on crime if you make baseless excuses for a former president who allegedly violated the Espionage Act (among other statutes cited in the Justice Department affidavit), concoct meritless conspiracy theories that evidence was planted or dismiss ample evidence of obstruction. You cannot be on America’s side and defend Trump. Period.
For far too long, members of the lawless party have conned voters into believing the party is a valiant defender of national security and tough on crime. In truth, they defend the lifting of our nation’s most closely guarded secrets, refuse to condemn efforts to hinder the investigation and target law enforcement. By doing so, they join Trump in subverting our national security.
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