The obvious intent of the indictment against Donald Trump was to end any chance of him being elected President in 2024. However, in their desperation to destroy Trump, those participating in this nightmare may have destroyed themselves in the process. It is important to note the difference between the John Durham investigation and the investigation by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith.
John Durham was chosen because he has a long record of being non-partisan. Regardless of what you may think of William Barr, he was careful to protect the integrity of that investigation. The result is that few challenge the findings in his report. CNN ignored them, but they don’t challenge them. There were very few leaks from the Durham investigation.
I am not a lawyer, but I have experience as a litigation manager. There is an old saying among attorneys. “If you have the facts, pound the facts, if you don’t have the facts, pound the opposition, if you can’t pound the facts or the opposition, just pound.” The most dangerous attorneys are not the ones who make a lot of noise. It is rather those who do their homework, make sure of their facts and stay focused.
The investigation into Donald Trump has been rampant with leaks. Leaks that sure appear to have come from the Special Counsel. Most recently, there are all those pictures of what are supposedly top-secret documents stored in places like a bathroom. We do not know who took those pictures. We do not know what was in those boxes. All we know that the pictures of these boxes were leaked, by the Special Counsel, in a clear effort to try Trump in the press before attempting to try him in a court of law.
There has been some absurd reporting and naïve reporting. For example, the MSM keeps talking about classified documents, but the actual indictment describes “documents with classified markings.” It may surprise some to learn that can possess top-secret document, with classified markings, without breaking any laws. I had such a document. It was marked top secret. It was the ship log from a submarine patrol where the submarine commander was awarded the medal of honor. But the mission involved happened in 1945, and it had been declassified long before it was given to me. It still would have fallen into the definition of a document with classified markings. But it was no longer a classified document. Big difference. I wonder if CNN will ever figure that out.
While there is outrage that Donald Trump had some of these documents, there is zero evidence this compromised national security. The smoking gun is where he allegedly discussed having a document with classified information while trying to impress someone. He talked about plans for an invasion of Iran that never happened and is not going to happen. While one can argue that Trump should not have discussed this document with anyone who didn’t have a security clearance, this was hardly a threat to national security.
The real risk for the DOJ and the FBI is if they cannot make this case. This is unprecedented and clearly partisan. One suspects, based on reports, that Barack Obama may have also failed to properly turn over classified documents in his possession. One knows that Joe Biden had classified documents, in his possession, stored inappropriately, and, as Vice President, he never had the power to declassify anything. Even Mike Pence was caught with possession of classified documents, but the DOJ and the FBI chose not to charge him. The standard is clear, the primary reason for indicting Donald Trump is that he is Donald Trump. It is laughable to describe this as equal justice under the law. The sole purpose of this indictment is to stop Donald Trump from becoming President again.
The sad reality is that even if Trump is convicted, few of his supporters will trust the results. By bringing this indictment the DOJ and the FBI have only exposed themselves as being hopelessly partisan. Choosing someone like Jack Smith, who is obviously highly partisan as special prosecutor was an enormous mistake. Jack Smith indicted Republican Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court vote “unanimously” to vacate that conviction, citing the use of an overbroad definition of an “official act.” Sound familiar? Jack Smith also investigation Republican Senator John Ensign, Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay, and Republican Congressional Representative Don Young. He also investigated Democrats John Edwards and Democratic Congressional Representative Allan Mollohan. No convictions.
Only Fox News noticed:
Even if Jack Smith was totally non-partisan, his record of failing to gain convictions in such high-profile cases should have strongly suggested choosing someone else. This has the appearance of him being chosen precisely because he likes to pursue high profile cases other prosecutors would probably decline.
At best, this indictment will get Donald Trump out of the race, which is the primary goal. But at what cost. We must have faith in the DOJ and the FBI to do the right thing for the right reason. That trust has been shattered and regardless of whether Donald Trump has been convicted or not, this is a lose-lose scenario. If a Republican wins, the mission will be to either dismantle these organizations or engage in major house cleaning. Even Democrats will support that, because they will fear Republicans will use the DOJ and the FBI as political arms of the Republican Party, just like the Democrats have done.
If Trump is removed from the race, and Joe Biden wins re-election with Kamala Harris as VP, few people will have any remaining confidence in the office of President of the United States. But if Donald Trump is elected, a lot of people will also have little confidence is the office of President of the United States.
This will truly be the endless summer, extremely hot, and unlikely to benefit anyone. Nice!
TDM