It’s one thing to read in the papers about an audio file of a meeting, where Trump apparently showed our nation’s most top secret military plans to attack Iran to a group of random, unauthorized people at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J. It’s another and frankly satisfying thing to see that audio file referenced in a 37 count indictment issued by a Florida federal grand jury, charging Trump with violations of the Espionage Act.
It all makes me feel more strongly that Ford made a grievous mistake when he pardoned Nixon. Nixon committed multiple grace and intentional crimes. Trump for sure is wow worse, but we shouldn’t be trying a president for the first time with Trump.
Trump is hoping for a political solution to his legal woes. We must not fail on this count.
I can’t believe the Republicans are insisting on going down on that ship with him, but they must have a crushing defeat too. Fascism must not be allowed to take a grip here.
I fully understand why Ford pardoned Nixon. There were other essential matters that had to be dealt with and all anyone wanted to talk about was Nixon. Pardoning him was a shame but it ended the matter and avoided a couple years of the country arguing among itself and ignoring other problems that needed attention.
And Ford was a seasoned politician, not an idiot. He knew what it would do to his election chances, but did it anyway because he put country first.
In hindsight, given the increasing lawlessness of Republicans since I now think it was the wrong call. Maybe if we had those years of trauma play out we wouldn’t be where we are now.
But Ford didn’t have the benefit of 50 year hindsight.
I disagree—and Gerald Ford was perhaps a “seasoned politician” but as president he hardly lifted a finger, except to veto a whopping SIXTY-SIX bills, practically everything congress sent him, during his time in office. Only thing I can find that he did actually sign was the trade act of 1974. Also has the dubious distinction of serving as both vice president and president but was never elected to either office. So then we had an unelected Vice President,
now elevated to president, pardoning the president that had to resign…
No one has the “benefit of 50 year hindsight”—but there are those that rise to the occasion in the moment and understand the possible ramifications of their actions. Gerald Ford was not that person.
Anyone who thinks they alone know how to handle government documents should NEVER be President OR have anything at all EVER to do with our national security. He THINKS he knows everything about everything, when in reality, he knows NOTHING about anything.
One more thing: Trump clearly doesn’t understand that General Milley and the department of defense are tasked with developing contingency plans for all conceivable circumstances. It doesn’t mean that they want to attack say, Iran. It means they have to think through what an Iranian attack would entail, and the logistics involved in that. That is utterly devoid of the desire and the reason to do so.
Trump seems to think Milley having shown him the plans upon his own request meant that Milley wanted to go to war against Iran, and that this war plan would have rebutted that point, because look! Look! You gave me this war plan! Why would you do that if you were trying to claim that you were worried that I would attack Iran?!
Sigh. Mendacious and utterly devoid of understanding how all this works.
Crushing defeats at the polls and the full weight of the legal system for his crimes.
It occurred to me that perhaps he had this attack plan because he specifically demanded that Milley produce it. Milley in fact was concerned that Trump might try to start a military action of some type before he was out of office.
They review and revise those things regularly, anyway. There are always new weapons systems, tactics, political and demographic changes - all of those things demand ongoing rethinking and revision. And I promise you - the second DoD heard that TFG had that and was waving it around, that set of revisions moved to the top of the pile.
As was pointed out, the "Mar-a-Lago" multi-count indictment specifically excludes the "dissemination" clause in the Espionage Act, and the tape - along with other evidence - strongly suggests a "backup" indictment centering upon illegalities at Bedminster, NJ that SC Jack Smith can or has put before a NJ grand jury at his discretion. Just more leverage the DOJ has to convince tRump to agree to a stringent plea bargain that will effectively take him out of American politics forever...one lives in hope.
Well, the Judge is not helping. I read that Judge Aileen Cannon is blocking the request of the AG to keep certain papers from getting out. She is saying no, the press can have them. Wonder what she thinks she is accomplishing with that.
I am sure they are, but does that mean that the judge needs to cater to them? Why not let cameras in the courtroom then? I feel like she is baiting the right wing press so that they will rally people around Trump and help to raise money for him.
Of course not—I was just pointing out that they are complicit in all this, you don’t need to attack the messenger. Imagine if no one had covered the escalator descent, how much better off we would be today.
GOP presidents and tape recorders - a match made in ketchup hitting the fan. Seriously though, you know what would be SO fun? If Trump's entire legal team just walked out and he was assigned a public defender. Let him deal with THAT aspect of our legal system.
Gonna be interesting to watch those people's efforts to get security clearances. If they can't? Where is he going to find lawyers who are both: A) cleared for classified info; and B) are willing to take on this case?
I have no idea how the laws work with respect to classified information in a trial. However, it seems to me there should a way to simply have people who are cleared to view that information to verify that the document in question does contain classified information and possibly rate the seriousness of revealing it. Depending on that nature of the document, you may not even want to reveal the title, though it may be possible to very generally refer to the document with terms such as "nuclear secrets", "war planning", etc. There is undoubtedly a lot of classified information that could be declassified. However, I would bet that very few of these documents would fall into that category. I would not trust ANY Trump lawyer.
That would be one of those "Special Master" situations, I would think. Not sure how or if it would happen, but it could be the kind of workaround you are talking about. This is gonna be absolutely fascinating to watch, as we have never seen anything like this.
DJT can't help himself - he NEEDS to brag. He is so emotionally needy it is the only way he knows to get to the boost he desires.
I was sort of taken aback by the woman who giggles on the tape. Is he laughing because she thinks it's funny or is it a nervous laugh? Or is she thinking "this can't be true, it is just him bragging again."
You list all the phone calls he has that implicate him. I still want to know what he and Putin discussed in private!
And, finally, "The American electorate is going to learn, irrespective of that court outcome, just how cavalierly criminal Trump was with our nation’s secrets..." Only the fence sitters might learn. MAGAers will never believe, and a lot of us already know what a scammer he is. Let's hope enough fence sitters learn - and GOP fence sitters at that.
Prison AND a resounding primary defeat that shows complete repudiation of him and his agenda (and please, God, throw out Desantis as well)? My dream combo! 😉💙💙💙
He needs to be convicted and sent to prison. We can't just be happy with the process of accountability, we need to actually see some, as a nation, if we are to have a healthy democratic future. He was impeached, how much good did that process of accountability do us?
I too am hoping that investigator Jack Smith has more charges in the works in relation to the case in view; in fact I would not be at all surprised if he has an intricately weaved narrative that includes the Georgia case and the January 6 insurrection investigation that all ties together and will be unveiled at an appropriate time in such a manner as to create a HUGE problem for any number of Republican politicians.
That would then create a potential tsunami wave of self-interest and public disavowing of Trump, which hopefully, will provide the re-balancing activity necessary for our country to remain free from the tyranny of right-wing schemes.
At the end of the day I think it is important that everyone remembers that there is a very real and active counterintelligence aspect to this entire affair, and efforts have been ongoing for the past few years by genuinely loyal patriots within the intelligence and national security community to mitigate Trump's actions and behaviors; these are all things of which the public at large have very little access to or knowledge of due to the extreme sensitivities involved.
I think Jack Smith is superb at his game of chess. He knew well what the problems could be when he filed in Florida. My opinion only, but the Florida case may be a sacrifice move, fully intended to divert attention away to other movements on the board.
"Trump faced zero criminal consequences for any of these actions, so he only became bolder and more awful in his behavior."
See, but this is GOOD. Sure, he got away with things for which he should have been prosecuted, for which less prominent people would have been prosecuted. And that's infuriating.
But: it emboldened him. It made him all the more certain that he's bulletproof. And that made him careless and more openly boastful. He stopped believing he had to self-censor or spin everything like before. So yes, he got more awful, but he got more awful very publicly and on tape, and now there is undeniable proof of his criminality thanks to his own admission of guilt.
He got worse, his ego dug his hole even larger, and this time, we'll get him.
First of all, anyone who tries asking Kid Rock advice on foreign strategy is certifiably nuts (but we already knew that). And secondly, with what this tape alone confirms WHY WHY WHY are we still talking about letting him back into the WH? I just don't see why the GOP doesn't finally say enough is enough. They are so afraid of his supporters that they would rather see someone who has no qualms about putting our military secrets out there in the WH? It's time the right "got woke" on the dangers he presents.
It all makes me feel more strongly that Ford made a grievous mistake when he pardoned Nixon. Nixon committed multiple grace and intentional crimes. Trump for sure is wow worse, but we shouldn’t be trying a president for the first time with Trump.
Trump is hoping for a political solution to his legal woes. We must not fail on this count.
I can’t believe the Republicans are insisting on going down on that ship with him, but they must have a crushing defeat too. Fascism must not be allowed to take a grip here.
💯 Gerald Ford was a useless waste of a president, too.
I fully understand why Ford pardoned Nixon. There were other essential matters that had to be dealt with and all anyone wanted to talk about was Nixon. Pardoning him was a shame but it ended the matter and avoided a couple years of the country arguing among itself and ignoring other problems that needed attention.
And Ford was a seasoned politician, not an idiot. He knew what it would do to his election chances, but did it anyway because he put country first.
In hindsight, given the increasing lawlessness of Republicans since I now think it was the wrong call. Maybe if we had those years of trauma play out we wouldn’t be where we are now.
But Ford didn’t have the benefit of 50 year hindsight.
I disagree—and Gerald Ford was perhaps a “seasoned politician” but as president he hardly lifted a finger, except to veto a whopping SIXTY-SIX bills, practically everything congress sent him, during his time in office. Only thing I can find that he did actually sign was the trade act of 1974. Also has the dubious distinction of serving as both vice president and president but was never elected to either office. So then we had an unelected Vice President,
now elevated to president, pardoning the president that had to resign…
No one has the “benefit of 50 year hindsight”—but there are those that rise to the occasion in the moment and understand the possible ramifications of their actions. Gerald Ford was not that person.
Anyone who thinks they alone know how to handle government documents should NEVER be President OR have anything at all EVER to do with our national security. He THINKS he knows everything about everything, when in reality, he knows NOTHING about anything.
Except tax evasion, he knows a lot about tax evasion, has been doing it successfully for decades.
Or his accountant, who went to prison for him, does.
He knows just enough to be dangerous.
One more thing: Trump clearly doesn’t understand that General Milley and the department of defense are tasked with developing contingency plans for all conceivable circumstances. It doesn’t mean that they want to attack say, Iran. It means they have to think through what an Iranian attack would entail, and the logistics involved in that. That is utterly devoid of the desire and the reason to do so.
Trump seems to think Milley having shown him the plans upon his own request meant that Milley wanted to go to war against Iran, and that this war plan would have rebutted that point, because look! Look! You gave me this war plan! Why would you do that if you were trying to claim that you were worried that I would attack Iran?!
Sigh. Mendacious and utterly devoid of understanding how all this works.
Crushing defeats at the polls and the full weight of the legal system for his crimes.
It occurred to me that perhaps he had this attack plan because he specifically demanded that Milley produce it. Milley in fact was concerned that Trump might try to start a military action of some type before he was out of office.
Like I said of FB. If was I leading the DOD, I would say put that plan in the TRASH and develop a new one. A very different new one.
They review and revise those things regularly, anyway. There are always new weapons systems, tactics, political and demographic changes - all of those things demand ongoing rethinking and revision. And I promise you - the second DoD heard that TFG had that and was waving it around, that set of revisions moved to the top of the pile.
As was pointed out, the "Mar-a-Lago" multi-count indictment specifically excludes the "dissemination" clause in the Espionage Act, and the tape - along with other evidence - strongly suggests a "backup" indictment centering upon illegalities at Bedminster, NJ that SC Jack Smith can or has put before a NJ grand jury at his discretion. Just more leverage the DOJ has to convince tRump to agree to a stringent plea bargain that will effectively take him out of American politics forever...one lives in hope.
I bet Smith is holding this in his back pocket. I don’t have anything but my intuition though to go on.
Yes. There is a real wild card in the Florida prosecution, oh wait, no, its a loose Cannon. Who knows what could happen there.
I think we are seeing just the tip of the Jack Smith iceberg. There is so much more we cannot see. I sincerely hope TFG crashes into it and sinks.
Well, the Judge is not helping. I read that Judge Aileen Cannon is blocking the request of the AG to keep certain papers from getting out. She is saying no, the press can have them. Wonder what she thinks she is accomplishing with that.
The press is pushing for this too—they need their clicks and eyeballs and 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
I am sure they are, but does that mean that the judge needs to cater to them? Why not let cameras in the courtroom then? I feel like she is baiting the right wing press so that they will rally people around Trump and help to raise money for him.
Of course not—I was just pointing out that they are complicit in all this, you don’t need to attack the messenger. Imagine if no one had covered the escalator descent, how much better off we would be today.
GOP presidents and tape recorders - a match made in ketchup hitting the fan. Seriously though, you know what would be SO fun? If Trump's entire legal team just walked out and he was assigned a public defender. Let him deal with THAT aspect of our legal system.
Gonna be interesting to watch those people's efforts to get security clearances. If they can't? Where is he going to find lawyers who are both: A) cleared for classified info; and B) are willing to take on this case?
I have no idea how the laws work with respect to classified information in a trial. However, it seems to me there should a way to simply have people who are cleared to view that information to verify that the document in question does contain classified information and possibly rate the seriousness of revealing it. Depending on that nature of the document, you may not even want to reveal the title, though it may be possible to very generally refer to the document with terms such as "nuclear secrets", "war planning", etc. There is undoubtedly a lot of classified information that could be declassified. However, I would bet that very few of these documents would fall into that category. I would not trust ANY Trump lawyer.
That would be one of those "Special Master" situations, I would think. Not sure how or if it would happen, but it could be the kind of workaround you are talking about. This is gonna be absolutely fascinating to watch, as we have never seen anything like this.
Your titles have been superb of late. :)
Also, in the audio clip, did he say at the end 'bring some goats in, please?'
Cokes. The man runs on Coca-Cola like 18 wheelers run on diesl.
That's what I thought at first, also. I thought he wanted goats to eat (hide) the documents.
The sheer level of his stupidity is astounding and it is clear how much contempt he has for, not only all of us; but for our military leaders.
DJT can't help himself - he NEEDS to brag. He is so emotionally needy it is the only way he knows to get to the boost he desires.
I was sort of taken aback by the woman who giggles on the tape. Is he laughing because she thinks it's funny or is it a nervous laugh? Or is she thinking "this can't be true, it is just him bragging again."
You list all the phone calls he has that implicate him. I still want to know what he and Putin discussed in private!
And, finally, "The American electorate is going to learn, irrespective of that court outcome, just how cavalierly criminal Trump was with our nation’s secrets..." Only the fence sitters might learn. MAGAers will never believe, and a lot of us already know what a scammer he is. Let's hope enough fence sitters learn - and GOP fence sitters at that.
Agreed. And it’s the fence sitters who will help decide the election.
Prison AND a resounding primary defeat that shows complete repudiation of him and his agenda (and please, God, throw out Desantis as well)? My dream combo! 😉💙💙💙
He needs to be convicted and sent to prison. We can't just be happy with the process of accountability, we need to actually see some, as a nation, if we are to have a healthy democratic future. He was impeached, how much good did that process of accountability do us?
I too am hoping that investigator Jack Smith has more charges in the works in relation to the case in view; in fact I would not be at all surprised if he has an intricately weaved narrative that includes the Georgia case and the January 6 insurrection investigation that all ties together and will be unveiled at an appropriate time in such a manner as to create a HUGE problem for any number of Republican politicians.
That would then create a potential tsunami wave of self-interest and public disavowing of Trump, which hopefully, will provide the re-balancing activity necessary for our country to remain free from the tyranny of right-wing schemes.
At the end of the day I think it is important that everyone remembers that there is a very real and active counterintelligence aspect to this entire affair, and efforts have been ongoing for the past few years by genuinely loyal patriots within the intelligence and national security community to mitigate Trump's actions and behaviors; these are all things of which the public at large have very little access to or knowledge of due to the extreme sensitivities involved.
I expect further indictments this summer. He certainly is accelerating activity around the fake elector scheme and the grift angle.
I think Jack Smith is superb at his game of chess. He knew well what the problems could be when he filed in Florida. My opinion only, but the Florida case may be a sacrifice move, fully intended to divert attention away to other movements on the board.
My money is still on checkmate to Jack Smith.
Federal prosecutors win 98 percent of their cases. There’s a reason for that. And Jack Smith is a good prosecutor.
"Trump faced zero criminal consequences for any of these actions, so he only became bolder and more awful in his behavior."
See, but this is GOOD. Sure, he got away with things for which he should have been prosecuted, for which less prominent people would have been prosecuted. And that's infuriating.
But: it emboldened him. It made him all the more certain that he's bulletproof. And that made him careless and more openly boastful. He stopped believing he had to self-censor or spin everything like before. So yes, he got more awful, but he got more awful very publicly and on tape, and now there is undeniable proof of his criminality thanks to his own admission of guilt.
He got worse, his ego dug his hole even larger, and this time, we'll get him.
It certainly has led us to this moment, good or bad.
First of all, anyone who tries asking Kid Rock advice on foreign strategy is certifiably nuts (but we already knew that). And secondly, with what this tape alone confirms WHY WHY WHY are we still talking about letting him back into the WH? I just don't see why the GOP doesn't finally say enough is enough. They are so afraid of his supporters that they would rather see someone who has no qualms about putting our military secrets out there in the WH? It's time the right "got woke" on the dangers he presents.
It certainly speaks to the extreme disjunction of that party!
Thank you for this summary and analysis, Jay. Very illuminating!