Man, some days the wheels of justice move so slowly you can’t even tell if the engine is on. Some weeks, though, the wheels spin so fast it’s like you’re watching a Fast & Furious movie. Only the crimes are even more outrageous.
The week began with the shocking news that the FBI had executed a search warrant at Donald Trump‘s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He and his flunkies have come out swinging at the federal government, comparing the raid to the unlawful political persecution you’d find in an authoritarian regime (you know, the kind Trump has consistently praised throughout his political career). They said it was over nothing — and after the National Archives got involved, making it clear this was about documents Trump had taken from the White House, Trump’s people downplayed it even more. Just some documents? Who cares about that, right?
Cue the “Lock Her Up” chants…
Trump claimed the FBI’s warrant was being kept from the public because it was so illegitimate. That was his big defense. Of course, he was lying — he had copies of the warrant, he could have just shown everyone himself. There was a reason he chose not to.
Attorney General Merrick Garland knew all this and called his bluff on Thursday, agreeing to unseal the search warrant. On Friday, a judge signed off, and it became public — and things got so much worse for the ex-President than most of us expected.
Related: Did Trump Bury His Ex On His Golf Course For A Tax Break?!
The whole thing has been unsealed, and it you’re a particularly legal-minded reader, you can check it out for yourself HERE. But we’ll do our best to give you the highlights…
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What Was Siezed
The feds took dozens of items, over 20 boxes, from Trump’s office in Mar-A-Lago with rather vague descriptions, including:
- Info re: President of France.
- Executive grant of clemency re: Roger Jason Stone, Jr.
- 3 sets of “confidential” documents
- 3 sets of “secret” documents
- 4 sets of “top secret” documents
- 1 set of documents marked “TS/SCI”
That last one is the real kicker. Documents marked “TS/SCI.” What does that mean? Well, when it comes to classified documents, there’s secret, and there’s secret. The ranking goes “Confidential,” “Secret,” “Top Secret”… and ABOVE Top Secret is TS/SCI. It stands for “Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information.” It’s the highest possible level of secrecy and generally pertains to matters of national security. That’s how serious all of this is.
We’re talking about documents that can only be viewed in a secure room known as a SCIF. They certainly can’t be taken out and stored in a Palm Beach golf club.
The warrant itself does not say what’s in these TS/SCI documents, but we have a good idea thanks to a leak. On Thursday night insiders told the Washington Post the sensitive docs were related to nuclear weapons. We’ll let that sink in. Nuclear effing weapons.
There goes the defense that Trump could have declassified the documents on his way out the door. There are docs you can declassify, and then there’s stuff so Top Secret and crucial to national security that even the President can’t wave his hand and make kosher. One of those is our nation’s nuclear secrets.
What Charges Trump Could Face
So yeah… Nuclear weapons…
Just a violation of the Presidential Records Act would be a felony on its own (hilariously, that’s thanks to Trump himself who signed a law upgrading the crime from a misdemeanor). But we’re not talking about that anymore. With matters of national security and nuclear secrets involved, we’re looking at much more serious crimes.
According to the warrant, Trump is being investigated for the following:
- removal or destruction of records
- obstruction of justice
- violating the Espionage Act
The first one we’ve already been over. Obstruction — which he previously committed in regards to the Russia investigation, according to Robert Mueller himself, though he suffered zero consequences for it — is presumably for failure to return the docs when asked.
First off, just the fact the FBI found this stuff apparently means Trump committed these crimes. Just taking them is illegal.
We’re sure one of the defenses from Trumpland will soon be that it was just some documents that Trump forgot to return, but we’ll remind you that these were kept in a secure location in Trump’s office and the former POTUS would not return them despite numerous attempts over months by the NARA. No, he wanted to hold on to those documents.
That brings us to espionage.
Worst Case Scenario
What could a former President want with nuclear secrets?? Nothing good. There is no legitimate reason a private citizen, even an ex-POTUS should have use for nuclear secrets. Frankly, this is the other shoe dropping for a lot of folks who have been really paying attention to the worst accusations about Trump. We’re talking beyond cheating children’s charities, even grabbing p*****s.
As far back as February 2019 whistleblowers told the House Oversight committee they were concerned Trump was selling nuclear secrets to Saudi Arabia. Sounds like conspiracy theory nonsense, right? We’re right there with you. But as insane as it sounds, THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. You can still read the report HERE.
Why would Trump do this? Well, it’s like Eric Trump said one of the times his dad got accused of racism:
“My father sees one color: Green. That is all he cares about.”
All he cares about is money. Remember, that was said as a compliment! Would a man who only cares about money sell nuclear secrets to another nation? Say, to the Saudis??
Well, in case you didn’t hear, earlier this year Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner got an investment of $2 billion from the Saudis’ sovereign wealth fund. No one can quite figure out why. So there’s that, which you can read more about HERE.
Of course, this could mean we’re talking about more than a violation of the espionage act. We’re no national security experts, but if nuclear secrets were sold to another country, wouldn’t that be considered the big T?? Not Trump. Treason. We’re talking about treason.
If you don’t think Trump would be willing to risk the safety of our nation and the world for billions of dollars, just look at how he’s attacked — and is still actively attacking — faith in our institutions, the sanctity of our elections and the peaceful transfer of power. Even his fans have to know he’s the kind of man that puts his bank account above all things, right?
So what else did we learn?
BTW, Eric Trump Is Full Of It
Well, this isn’t exactly breaking news, but yes, we do now have proof that Eric Trump’s bluster about Daddy’s attorney not getting to look at the warrant was total B.S. As you can see clearly in the warrant, Christina Bobb SIGNED THE RECEIPTS to show she was indeed told everything the feds were looking for — and indeed taking out of Mar-A-Lago.
Don himself continues to deny everything, writing on his Truth Social account Friday morning:
“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved.”
(Just a quick fact check — 1.) The Mueller Report did not TOTALLY EXONERATE Trump of Russian collusion, it said they couldn’t find enough evidence due to all the obstruction of justice. It also found the Russians did help him — and even led to many charges against Russian bad actors. 2. ) Trump was impeached twice, that wasn’t a hoax. He just was never going to be convicted by a Senate that was half Republicans.)
He continued:
“Why wouldn’t the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyer’s, or others, present. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn’t let them get even close – said “ABSOLUTELY NOT.” Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer Steele Dossier!”
As for the accusation that his lawyers weren’t allowed to look over the FBI’s shoulders as they searched, letting civilians observe searches is not standard operating procedure ever. This is not a special case.
Trump Tries Whataboutism
You could set this to music. First Trump denies wrongdoing, then he says so what it’s not a big deal, Obama did it.
Trump went after his all-time favorite punching bag as he tried to downplay his own investigation by saying Obama took documents, too — only worse. As usual, with no basis in fact whatsoever, he wrote:
“President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!”
He claimed Obama took millions of pages of documents to Chicago and “refused to give them back.” But the National Archives and Records Administration was quick to shut down this false equivalence, saying Obama did NOT, in fact, have any outstanding documents. In accordance with the Presidential Records Act, they explained, Obama’s unclassified presidential records — note the use of the word unclassified there — are stored in one of their facilities, the National Archives in Chicago. The depository, where visitors can go to see the records — again, that’s the unclassified ones — does happen to be in Obama’s hometown. They could also have ended up in one of the facilities in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, New York, or Seattle — but that wasn’t up to the former President, as the NARA pointed out:
“As required by the PRA, former President Barack Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the presidential records of his administration.”
So no, Obama doesn’t have any records. In fact, he’d have to pay money to even get copies of them!
We wouldn’t be surprised if we hear several more defenses coming from Trump and his camp as they try to find one that sticks. We’ve learned by now it’ll definitely be enough for his base, hell they choose not to even believe whichever facts they don’t want to. Of course they’ll fall for it. But what will the federal government do? Will they really charge a former President with such serious crimes? We’ll soon find out…
[Image via 60 Minutes/YouTube/CNN/WENN.]