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As you probably expected, former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday. To review, the Department of Justice had leveled 37 charges against him, alleging he violated the Espionage Act along with obstructing justice in refusing to return classified records.
Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman had ordered that there be no cameras or recording in the courtroom. However, a tipster was able to take a picture of the former president as he entered the courtroom. Following him was aide Waltine Nauta, who is being charged along with his boss. Trump did not wear handcuffs; however, it appears that maybe Nauta was cuffed to an agent.
Screenshot: @ShaneGoldmacher/Twitter.
Trump, ever bombastic, vented at Truth Social just minutes before he was to meet his nemesis Special Counsel Jack Smith:
This is the Thug, over turned consistently and unanimously in big cases, that Biden and his CORRUPT Injustice Department stuck on me. He’s a Radical Right Lunatic and Trump Hater, as are all his friends and family, who probably “planted” information in the “boxes” given to them. They taint everything that they touch, including our Country, which is rapidly going to HELL!
There was plenty of Trump energy among his followers, too:
It is getting rowdy pic.twitter.com/XMP9EKRbs5
— Naomi Feinstein (@naomifeinstein) June 13, 2023
Kari Lake also showed up, along with a guy hoisting a pig’s head on a stake.
People are now screaming “Kari Lake we love you.” pic.twitter.com/EYomm90e6z
— Naomi Feinstein (@naomifeinstein) June 13, 2023
GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy also made an appearance and promised to pardon Trump if he becomes president himself.
Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters point out how Joe Biden also had sensitive documents in his garage. And of course, there’s Hillary who as Secretary of State had a server in her bathroom chock full of sensitive documents. Not to mention the smashed phones and BleachBit software applied to make digital evidence disappear. Double standards by a corrupt DOJ! they cry.
These things are true. Moreover, whether you like Trump or not (and I do not), nearly half of Americans think these charges are politically based. While I wish Trump would just go away, I also agree that the DOJ has become politically corrupted.
But that doesn’t excuse the fact that Trump made some stupid and damning moves. As David Strom at Hot Air said: Trump’s pursuers may be the bad guys, but he walked right into their trap.
Former prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy wrote:
No one is going to say, “It makes total sense to me that he was storing the crown jewels of national defense — such as how other countries could go about attacking American military vulnerabilities — next to the toilet at a beach club.”
No one is going to say, “I can certainly see why Trump would refuse to return such top-secret intelligence to government officials, who pleaded with him for over a year to return it before finally resorting to coercive measures.”
No one is going to say, “It was so vitally important for Trump, who had no official government duties in his post-presidency, to retain possession of top-secret government intelligence reports that it made sense for him to defy a subpoena and mislead a grand jury in order to keep them.”
No one is going to say, “If a Democratic former president had done what Trump did, I’d be fine with that.
McCarthy also explained at Fox News about why this isn’t about Presidential Records, but about highly sensitive reports. Moreover, it’s the obstruction, stupid!
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who is right-wing and has defended Trump in the past, explains why claims from Trump’s allies that Trump should not be prosecuted because of the Presidential Records Act are not legitimate. pic.twitter.com/jNoYJnZXaN
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 13, 2023
Law professor Jonathan Turley also writes that this concerns obstruction:
For two years, I have said that the Mar-a-Lago charges — particularly obstruction — represent the greatest threat to Donald Trump. It remains baffling why Trump forced this issue over these documents rather than just give them all back. (He could still have gotten access to them from the National Archives.) He knew that he was unlikely to receive much deference from the DOJ. Yet, he allowed this collateral controversy to consume his campaign.
It is a head-scratcher — for typical Americans who don’t operate with a narcissistic personality. But Trump thrives on two things: publicity and chaos. So if pissing off the FBI and the Justice Department endears him more to his unquestioning base, he sees this havoc as a win for his brand.
Turley again:
Once again, however, the campaign is all about Trump. Moreover, there could be a method to the madness, as Trump seeks to try this case before the public …
Trump, based on past behavior, is likely to invite rather than avoid such fights.
So did Trump really walk into a trap from which he won’t be able to free himself? Or does he welcome it?
National Review writer Charles Cooke asked this of his readers last week as the indictments came in:
Aren’t you all tired of this crap? Don’t you want to get past it? Don’t you want to do some politics for a change? How much longer do we all have to put up with this garbage?
While this past week Dan McLaughlin, also at NR, echoed what Cooke wrote:
There are so very many things more important than the things that Donald J. Trump wants or needs to care about and fight about, and that he will drag the rest of us into caring about and fighting about. He’s now been the main character in our politics for eight years.
You want to clean up the corruption in the Justice Department? Fine, there’s a plan for that, but it’s not coming from the Trump camp. FL Gov. Ron DeSantis, DJT’s chief rival, has been working for months on a plan to dismantle the fraud in the DOJ. Here’s what he’s proposing:
-Break up/Move agencies from DC
-Fire many political/career employees
-Put “kibosh” on policing misinformation
-Reorganize Civil Rights Division
-Withhold clearances “as appropriate”
-Police local prosecutors
Imagine that — a presidential candidate with serious ideas!
And how about this? What about a president who will actually finish the wall? Or take action to cut the size of government? Maybe promote school choice, and truly champion the unborn? Increase our energy production, and balance the budget? Someone who actually gets stuff done for the nation, rather than focusing all his energy on whose ass he wants to kick next?
Is that too much to ask for?
Featured image: Gage Skidmore/flickr/cropped/CC BY-SA 2.0.
Stephen C says: In unrelated news, the Burisma Executive Who Bribed Joe and Hunter Biden Is An Asset of Russia’s Primary Foreign Intelligence Service.
“Oh, you want some documents from the National Archives, Mr. Trump? Crossfire Hurricane? Oh, I’m so sorry – nothing about that in our index, sir.”
Stay happy in your naivete, Ms. Hirsch.
Kim Hirsch says: “Stay happy in your naïveté, Ms. Hirsch.”
Pfft!
Who’s naive — someone like me who reads and sifts through various writers to make up her own mind, or someone who blindly believes whatever Trump tells them?
Taylor says: I am tired of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Two fellows one of whom is deranged and the other demented and it bodes very ill for the future of this country. Trump really writes as if he is an illiterate and Biden always was mentally challeneged.
Kevin says: The 280 pound malignant tumor is his own worst enemy. When you look at every crisis (and there are hundreds), each crisis boils down to his behavior/actions and what he did/did not do. Here’s also what people fail to realize … past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. TFG (the F85king Genius) can only do one thing … put himself above everyone else and always first. He’s raking in millions of $$$ … suffocating other republican candidates hopes to become the nominee. The DOJ charged him with 37 counts … one count for each document he held on to. They did not charge him for the hundreds of other documents that were returned. Again, he played “hide and seek” with top secret information instead of doing the right thing … simply turn over the documents when asked. (AND HE HAD MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES TO TURN OVER DOCUMENETS!!!!) Had he returned them that would have been it. A vote for the 280 pound malignant tumor is a vote for Joe Biden … TFG can’t win a general election, his unfavorables or at rock bottom with independents. If you (a conservative) want a conservative in the White House, figure out who to vote for in the primaries aske from TFG … because a vote for TFG is a vote for Biden. Your best bet to get TFG out of peril, vote for a republican who can win the White House and then they can pardon him; but of course TFG will fuck that up too.
Scott says: Color me crazy, but somehow I doubt your motives in giving advice to those not committed to the agenda you support Kevin….
Of course all your other statements about what Trump “did” are based on what the provably corrupt DOJ SAYS he did.. it’s yet to be proven… (not saying that it couldn’t be true, and the fact that biden and clinton have gotten away with far worse will NOT excuse it if it is true, just that like every other citizen, Trump is innocent until proven guilty… or is that another part of the Constitution you think should be done away with Kevin?)
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