2023-06-12 18:50:00
There was a time, not long ago actually, when Donald Trump claimed that he cared regarding the sanctity of classified information. That, of course, happened when his adversary was accused of endangering her, and that represented a useful political weapon for Trump.
Throughout 2016, he lashed out at Hillary Clinton for using a private email server instead of a secure government one. “I will enforce all laws regarding the protection of classified information,” she stated. “No one will be above the law.” Clinton’s careless handling of sensitive information, she said, “disqualifies her for the presidency.”
Seven years later, Trump faces criminal charges for endangering national security for taking classified documents with him when he left the White House and refusing to return them all, even following being required to do so. Despite the “you reap what you sow” adage in American politics, it is quite astonishing that the issue that helped propel Trump to the White House is the one that threatens to ruin his chances of ever returning there.
The indictment brought by a federal grand jury at the request of special counsel Jack Smith brings the Trump story full circle. “Lock her up,” chanted crowds at Trump’s campaign rallies, who encouraged his supporters to chant it. Now, he might be the one to be sentenced for any of the seven charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and intentional withholding of documents.
This indictment is the second brought once morest the former president in recent months, but in many respects it dwarfs the first in both legal gravity and political danger. The first indictment, announced in March by the Manhattan district attorney, accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up paying money to an adult film actress who had alleged they had a sexual relationship in exchange for his silence. The second was filed by a federal prosecutor representing the entire country, the first in US history once morest a former president, and concerns the nation’s secrets.
While Trump supporters have tried to dismiss the former as the work of a locally elected Democrat on issues that, while unseemly, ultimately seem relatively petty and occurred before he took office, the latest allegations stem directly from your responsibility as the nation’s commander-in-chief to safeguard data that might be useful to America’s enemies.
Republican voters may not care that their leader gives a porn star money to keep quiet, but will they also be indifferent to the crime of preventing authorities from trying to recover classified material?
Maybe. Undoubtedly, Trump hopes so. The Manhattan impeachment only seemed to boost his popularity ratings more than hurt him. That’s why he, right away, he claimed that the latest indictment is part of the most outlandish conspiracy in American history. It seems that, according to him, the arrangement involves a wide range of local and federal prosecutors, grand juries, judges, plaintiffs, regulators and witnesses who have lied for years to set him up, while he is the only one who tells the truth, no matter what the charges are.
“I never thought it possible that something like this might happen to a former president of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country and who currently leads by far all candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, in the 2024 presidential election polls,” he wrote on his social media, making multiple misleading claims in a single sentence. “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
So far, his grassroots supporters have continued to support him, and even some of those running once morest him for next year’s Republican nomination have criticized the investigations once morest him. But he was recently found liable for sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit, his company has been found guilty of 17 counts of tax fraud and other crimes, and he still faces two other possible indictments stemming from his effort to reverse his 2020 election loss, which triggered the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The question, politically at least, is whether the accumulation of all those indictments will one day end up influencing the Republican voters who support him, especially if a third and perhaps fourth indictment is made. At least some of his rivals for the party’s candidacy are hoping that the fatigue factor will eventually erode their support.
As for Clinton, if he felt some joy at the misfortune of others on Thursday night, he did not express it. However, both she and her allies have always believed that the fact that James Comey, then-FBI director, reopened the investigation of her email just days before the 2016 election cost her the victory that so many surveys had predicted.
Trump will try to turn this once morest his persecutors, arguing that the fact that he was impeached while Clinton was not is proof that he is being unfairly persecuted.
Never mind that the facts of the cases are different, that Trump appears to have intentionally done everything possible to frustrate authorities trying to recover the secret documents for months while investigators concluded that Clinton had no intent to break the law. It will be a useful political argument for Trump to insist that he is the victim of a double standard.
Why, following the 2016 campaign, he failed to recognize the potential political danger of mishandling classified information and was more careful regarding it is another question. But he spent much of his presidency ignoring concerns regarding information security and regulations on the preservation of government documents.
He disclosed top-class information to Russian officials who visited him in the Oval Office. He posted sensitive satellite images of Iran online. He continued to use an insecure mobile phone even following being told the device was being monitored by Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies. tore up official documents and tossed them to the ground once he was done with them, even though the law requires that they be saved and catalogued, while his aides went following him, picking up the fragments and taping them back together.
Even when faced with the consequences of his actions, he never seemed concerned. After all, he was the president and he might do whatever he wanted. Even during the investigation into the classified documents he took with him to Mar-a-Lago, he has defended himself by stating that he had the power to declassify anything he wanted with just a thought.
But he is no longer president. He will now face not only primary voters who will decide whether he has been barred from the presidency, but a prosecutor who claims he will enforce laws regarding the protection of classified information.
You will be booked as an accused criminal, and unless something unforeseen happens, you will ultimately be tried by a jury of your peers.
What a difference from his situation seven years ago.
Peter Baker is the senior White House correspondent and has covered the tenures of the past five presidents for the Times and The Washington Post. He is also the author of seven books, the most recent of which is titled The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, which he wrote with Susan Glasser.
1686600354
#accusation #Donald #Trump #documents #means
