How to Respond to Someone Who Swears Trump's Indictment is a Politically Motivated Double Standard
The Fourth of July holiday is right around the corner. You're going to want to be ready to counter your right-wing hate media-addicted relative.
Now that the twice-impeached slumlord former host of Celebrity Apprentice has been indicted again, this time on federal charges, the āWhat about Hillary?ā jeremiads from Trump supporters and right-wing hate media are ramping up.
Yes, in Trumplandia, where everything is a ādeep-state conspiracyā and President Joe Biden is feeble, doddering, yet still a criminal mastermind, it seems since the FBI investigated Hillary Clinton over her emails seven years agoāāāand found no evidence of illegal behaviorāāāāthe former guyā should be exonerated.
They claim since classified documents were found in the home of Trumpās former vice president Mike Pence, Trump should be exonerated.
They claim since classified documents were found in Joe Bidenās home and former office at the Penn Biden Center, Trump should be exonerated.
The following are some talking points on how to respond to your right-wing hate media-addicted relative who shows up at your Fourth of July barbecue and wants to prove once and for all that Trumpās indictment is a political persecution straight out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Point 1: Clinton, Biden, and Pence were not presidents of the United States.
Ā There are three classification levelsāāāconfidential, secret, and top secretāāā and not everything approved for a presidentās viewing is appropriate for his subordinatesāāāeven if it is the VP or secretary of state.
Concerning Secretary Clinton, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who supervised the Clinton email probe, explained:
What we didnāt have was evidence that Hillary Clinton had intentionally exchanged or withheld classified information.Ā
National security attorney Mark Zaid added:
Most of the information that was deemed to be classified was actually deemed based on the content after people reviewed it, so that those who saw it wouldnāt necessarily have suspected there was anything classified in it.
52 of Clintonās email chains contained references to information āthat was later deemed to be classifiedā; only eight were ātop secretā.
Trump, on the other hand, intentionally walked out of the White House with more than 325 classified documents, including at least 60 deemed ātop secretā. The federal indictment states these documents contained CIA foreign intelligence, Pentagon plans, National Security Agency (NSA) communiques, and Department of Energy nuclear secrets, among others.
The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
And it isnāt like it was an accident.
Federal prosecutors included in a court filing a picture of documents clearly marked āTOP SECRETā or āSECRETā.
The indictment also states, unambiguously:
After his presidency, TRUMP was not authorized to possess or retain classified documents.
Point 2: Pence and Biden returned items when they were discovered. Trump refused to do so even after the National Archives requested them.
In January, when his attorney discovered 10 classified documents in a locked closet at the University of Pennsylvaniaās Penn Biden Center, they were immediately relinquished to the FBI, and Biden welcomed an investigation into how they got there. Ditto pertaining to the six classified documents found in his Wilmington, DE home.Ā
A voluntary search of former Vice President Penceās Indiana home unearthed a dozen documents his attorney turned over to the National Archives.
Trump could have done the same.
When has he ever behaved in a way to suggest he respects the law when itās applied to him?
He claimed to have ānegotiatedā with the National Archives and Records Administration ājust as every other president has doneā.
There is no kernel of truth in this.
The National Archives first asked Trump to return the records on May 6, 2021.
According to a DOJ affidavit, 15 boxes came back eight months later.Ā
May 2022, Trumpās office received a grand jury subpoena for additional missing documents, of which Trumpās attorneys turned over 38 a month later.
But that wasnāt all of them.
Trump lied to his attorney, Evan Corcoran, who attested to the DOJ everything had been returned.
Instead, Trump directed his body man, Waltine (āWaltā) Nauta, āto move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trumpās attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury.ā
Trump then claimed the Presidential Records Act permitted him to take them.
It doesnāt.
It allows for presidents to retain personal items, not classified or top secret documents.
Point 3: Neither President Biden nor the federal government have indicted Trump.Ā
While it might be a convenient fallacy to claim Trumpās indictment is all just āsenileā Joe Bidenās diabolical plan to weaponize the federal government against his political rival, the fact is Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special prosecutor Jack Smith under great pressure from last yearās January 6th commission.Ā
As part of his process, Smith impaneled a grand jury of Floridians to hear the evidence presented against Florida resident Donald Trump.
Neither Joe Biden nor Merrick Garland is involved.Ā
As justice is finally being served against the most self-serving, amoral leader this country has had in recent memory, one question remains:
Why isnāt the FBI likely to search Trumpās Bedminster, NJ golf resort?
Itās likely to find a trove of other curious items.
Maybe buried with Trumpās first wife Ivana?