“He’s scared s—less”
- Former President Donald Trump left the White House in January 2021 taking hundreds of highly sensitive national defense documents belonging to U.S. security agencies.
- Trump returned a few when asked, then willfully resisted a May 2022 subpoena and conspired to conceal a hundred others he retained until the FBI executed an August search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
That is why Trump, who pleaded not guilty this week, is under indictment on 37 federal felony charges. Not because he listens to idiots. Although, that is a factor, the Washington Post reveals:
One of Donald Trump’s new attorneys proposed an idea in the fall of 2022: The former president’s team could try to arrange a settlement with the Justice Department.
The attorney, Christopher Kise, wanted to quietly approach Justice to see if he could negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges, hoping Attorney General Merrick Garland and the department would want an exit ramp to avoid prosecuting a former president. Kise would hopefully “take the temperature down,” he told others, by promising a professional approach and the return of all documents.
Trump would not have it.
Trump time and again rejected the advice from lawyers and advisers who urged him to cooperate and instead took the advice of Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, and a range of others who told him he could legally keep the documents and should fight the Justice Department, advisers said. Trump would often cite Fitton to others, and Fitton told some of Trump’s lawyers that Trump could keep the documents, even as they disagreed, the advisers said.
Fitton holds a bachelor’s degree in English.
Fitton convinced Trump based on the “Clinton’s socks case” (that Judicial Watch lost!) that he could keep the documents. The argument is specious, but Trump liked the sound of it.
“President Trump has consistently been in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which is the only law that applies to Presidents and their records,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the press.
Except Department of Defense and intelligence agency documents are not presidential records and that act is not the only law that applies to presidents. (Trump is charged under the Espionage Act.) It’s a dumb argument, but one the twice-impeached, twice-indicted huckster thinks the rubes will buy the way they believed he is a self-made business genius. So Trump is clinging to it like a life ring. His cult is repeating the nonsense at every chance hoping to convince the public Trump is being singled out for persecution.
Trump is being prosecuted for obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. § 1512(k)) and for willful retention of national defense information (18 U.S.C. § 793(e)).
“There is not an Attorney General of either party who would not have brought today’s charges against the former president,” tweeted retired Judge Michael Luttig, adding, “He has dared, taunted, provoked, and goaded DOJ to prosecute him from the moment it was learned that he had taken these national security documents.”
“If even half of [the indictment] is true, then he’s toast. It’s a very detailed indictment and it’s very damning,” former Trump attorney general William Barr told Fox News on Sunday.
But Trump is slippery. He has avoided jail his entire life by being rich and famous and litigious. Even now, the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024 is betting he can avoid jail at 77 years old.
From another Washington Post report:
“He’s scared s—less,” said John Kelly, his former chief of staff. “This is the way he compensates for that. He gives people the appearance he doesn’t care by doing this. For the first time in his life, it looks like he’s being held accountable. Up until this point in his life, it’s like, I’m not going to pay you; take me to court. He’s never been held accountable before.”
Trump faces no charges for government documents he surrendered voluntarily.