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“U.S. prosecutors unsealed a 37-count indictment against Donald Trump on Friday, accusing the former president of risking some of the country's most sensitive security secrets after leaving the White House in 2021…
“Trump mishandled classified documents that included information about the secretive U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the federal indictment said. Trump also discussed with his lawyers the possibility of lying to government officials seeking to recover the documents; stored some documents in boxes around a toilet, and moved others around his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida to prevent them from being found, the charges said.” Reuters
The right is generally skeptical of the charges, arguing that Trump is being treated differently than others guilty of similar behavior.
“In the court of public opinion, the first question will be about two standards of justice. Mr. Biden had old classified files stored in his Delaware garage next to his sports car. When that news came out, he didn’t sound too apologetic. ‘My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,’ Mr. Biden said. AG Garland appointed another special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate, but Justice isn’t going to indict Mr. Biden…
“As for willful, how about the basement email server that Hillary Clinton used as Secretary of State? FBI director James Comey said in 2016 that she and her colleagues ‘were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.’ According to him, 113 emails included information that was classified when it was sent or received… This was the statement Mr. Comey ended by declaring Mrs. Clinton free and clear, since ‘no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.’…
“It was once unthinkable in America that the government’s awesome power of prosecution would be turned on a political opponent. That seal has now been broken. It didn’t need to be. However cavalier he was with classified files, Mr. Trump did not accept a bribe or betray secrets to Russia. The FBI recovered the missing documents when it raided Mar-a-Lago, so presumably there are no more secret attack plans for Mr. Trump to show off.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“In 2019, Trump was roundly criticized (and ultimately impeached and acquitted) for asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. And Biden wasn’t even a declared candidate yet. To many inside the country and beyond, Thursday’s indictment will appear as more brazen and even authoritarian in nature. Yes, there’s a special prosecutor and a grand jury and their vaunted independence. But in reality, special counsel Jack Smith works for Attorney General Merrick Garland, who serves at the pleasure of Biden…
“Trump’s fate should be decided by voters, not the Justice Department — certainly not the Biden Justice Department — or the courts. Based on what we know now, the underlying offense does not warrant the national upheaval that comes with charging a former president and the likely 2024 Republican nominee.”
Gary Abernathy, Washington Post
Some argue, “It is impossible to read the indictment against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and not be appalled at the way he handled classified documents as an ex-president, and responded to the attempt by federal authorities to reclaim them…
“Trump misled investigators about his possession of the documents and took actions to conceal them. But most damning is the transcript of a conversation during which Trump showed one of the documents to a reporter…
“Equally damning, particularly for someone who was and would like again to be the nation’s chief executive, responsible for the enforcement of the laws, is the evidence that Trump not only deceived the investigators and the grand jury, but his own lawyers… The country wouldn’t be in this uncharted territory if Trump hadn’t taken documents he had no right to, [or] simply complied when asked to give them back.”
The Editors, National Review
The left supports the charges, arguing that the evidence is strong and nobody should be above the law.
The left supports the charges, arguing that the evidence is strong and nobody should be above the law.
“The indictment is based on information from Trump’s own lawyers, staffers, phone records and security cameras. This isn’t the work of some insider or Trump hater who’s out to get him. And it makes clear that there was a very deliberate effort by Trump to hold on to and conceal these documents that he was going to use for heaven knows what and show to God knows whom…
“The former president directed his valet, Waltine Nauta (named as a co-conspirator with Trump), to move about 64 boxes from a storage room to Trump’s residence and bring about 30 boxes back to the storage room — without informing the Trump attorney who was supposed to be reviewing the material. On top of that, the attorney said, Trump later encouraged him to go through the documents that he did review and pluck out anything really bad.”
Maureen Dowd, New York Times
“The key difference between the legal situations of Mr. Biden and Mr. Pence and that of Mr. Trump is not politics. Rather, the difference lies in what they did once they discovered the classified materials: Mr. Biden and Mr. Pence immediately notified the federal government, turned over the documents, and fully consented to thorough F.B.I. searches of their personal offices and residences. They did not willfully retain documents that they knew they had no legal right to keep, and they certainly did not undertake elaborate schemes to mislead their own lawyers or the government…
“What about Hillary Clinton?… Announcing that no charges would be brought [against her], James Comey, the F.B.I. director at the time, stated that Mrs. Clinton and her colleagues were ‘extremely careless’ in handling classified information but that the F.B.I. had not found clear evidence that she ‘intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information.’…
“Not only is Mr. Trump on tape discussing a classified document he knew he had no legal right to possess, but he also repeatedly attempted to play a shell game with classified documents to keep them out of the government’s hands.”
Oona A. Hathaway, New York Times
“[The indictment] includes disturbing details: ‘Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,’ the onetime commander in chief says in a transcript of a recording during which he described a ‘plan of attack’ prepared by the Defense Department against a foreign adversary. His audience, according to the indictment, included a writer, a publisher and two members of his staff, none of whom had a security clearance. This was only one episode of gross mishandling of hundreds of pages of materials that included papers on U.S. nuclear programs and this nation’s potential vulnerabilities to attack…
“It is the Justice Department’s duty to assure that no person, not even a former president, is beyond the reach of the law — regardless of the discord or division doing so could sow. Attorney General Merrick Garland and his staff have cautiously followed proper protocol to safeguard the department’s independence — from tapping special counsel Jack Smith, who assembled the case, to choosing to file charges in Miami rather than go judge-shopping in more liberal environs. The presiding judge will be Trump-appointee Aileen M. Cannon, whose (eventually overruled) decision to freeze a portion of the Justice Department’s inquiry last fall set liberals aflame.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
A libertarian's take
“It is simply not true that prosecuting a former president or other prominent politician is the kind of thing that only banana republics do. Many liberal democracies have prosecuted current or former heads of state and heads of government. Notable examples include France, South Korea, Israel, and Italy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial for corruption right now. A similar fate befell his predecessor Ehud Olmert, who ended up getting convicted and serving a prison sentence…
“In a legal system where there are so many laws that a large majority of adult Americans have probably committed a crime at some point in their lives, there is always the risk that an unpopular person will be unfairly hauled into court for petty reasons. That risk also applies to political opponents of the party in power. But that doesn't seem to be what happened in this case. Moreover, the way to deal with that danger is not to give prominent political leaders impunity for their crimes, but to cut back on dubious criminal laws, and enforce norms of political impartiality on prosecutors.”
Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy
