Yup, It Was Definitely Espionage
From yesterday's Washington Post:
From yesterday's Washington Post:
Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before an early June visit by FBI agents and a prosecutor to the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said.
And from yesterday's New York Times:
The day before a key meeting last year between a lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and officials seeking the return of classified documents in Mr. Trump’s possession, a maintenance worker at the former president’s private club saw an aide moving boxes into a storage room, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The maintenance worker offered to help the aide — Walt Nauta, who was Mr. Trump’s valet in the White House — move the boxes and ended up lending him a hand. But the worker had no idea what was inside the boxes, the person familiar with the matter said. The maintenance worker has shared that account with federal prosecutors, the person said.
The worker’s account is potentially significant to prosecutors as they piece together details of how Mr. Trump handled sensitive documents he took with him from the White House upon leaving office and whether he obstructed efforts by the Justice Department and the National Archives to retrieve them.
Mr. Trump was found to have been keeping some of the documents in the storage room where Mr. Nauta and the maintenance worker were moving boxes on the day before the Justice Department’s top counterintelligence official, Jay Bratt, traveled to Mar-a-Lago last June to seek the return of any government materials being held by the former president.
Regardless, Donald John Trump is in a whole world of hurt. Jack Smith is not fucking around and with the Grand Jury having gone silent and Trumpworld freaking out, it appears as if indictments are just around the corner. And while the 34 felony counts in New York state and E. Jean Carroll winning $5 million in defamation damages were a nice start to Trump's Year Of Accountability, it is this documents case that can really bring the pain. Because intentionally sharing classified documents is not just a crime, it's espionage. And were Donald John Trump to be found guilty of espionage, the penalty would be at least 10 years in jail with a potential death sentence if he delivered defense information to a foreign government. And we all know how Trump viewed the presidency as one big business deal over 4 years. It is much less likely to have not sold state secrets than to have sold them.
Stormy Daniels. E. Jean Carroll. Jack Smith. Fanni Willis. Merrick Garland. Five names. Five distinct cases against Donald Trump. Each looking at a different aspect of his corruption. There is no witch hunt, but instead a which hunt as Trump is in the crosshairs of five distinct investigations. Stormy and E. Jean were the appetizers, folks. Here comes Jack Smith with our first entree. And if yesterday's news is any indication, this dish will be piping hot and satisfying for us all.
Tick-tock, Donald. It's Jack Smith o'clock.
And your time is up.