It’s now 6:30 PM on Wednesday night and I’m going to wait until 8 P.M. to finish this comment because that’s the time that has been set for Trump’s legal bunch to respond to the DOJ document submitted Tuesday night accusing Trump of obstructing justice, along with noting that Trump’s attorney may have committed perjury when she swore back in June that all classified documents had been turned over to the government at that time.
Not only do I want to read Trump’s response to the DOJ, but I’m willing to take the short odds that he may actually try to claim that the documents which were allegedly found in the August raid were planted during the raid by the FBI.
To show you how bad things have become in Trump-land, this morning’s AM shock jock, whose show is always based on what the Trump PR team tells him to say, actually claimed that Trump could get beyond the Mar-a-Lago problem by reminding everyone that the FBI still needed to tell us about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Okay. I’m going to pause now and return to this comment after we see what happens at 8 P.M.
I have just finished reading the response by Trump’s legal team to the DOJ filing on Monday which explains why the FBI conducted a search of Mar-a-Lago two weeks ago. At least these lawyers didn’t come up with some nonsense about how the FBI planted the classified documents they found in Trump’s desk, among other locations in his home.
That was left up to Trump, who sent out a comment Wednesday afternoon which, of course, promoted the idea that the documents shown in the picture above were planted by the FBI during their search. He said he same thing right after the raid.
Even if the Court goes along with Trump’s request to appoint a special master to determine which seized documents should or should not be returned to Trump because they are protected by lawyer-client privilege, this whole effort to inject a third party into the dispute doesn’t change the basic issue at all. The simple fact is that nobody, President, or anyone else, can take classified documents home. That’s the reason they are classified, okay?
I happen to know something about the handling of classified government information because I was the Security Officer at Columbia University in 1984-85. In this position I was responsible for making sure that documentation about research that was funded by DARPA, the federal agency which distributes and coordinates military research funds, was properly stored and kept away from anyone who didn’t have the proper security clearance to read those texts.
The University at that time was receiving funds to conduct classified research about satellite communications and underwater mapping. Every night I had to inspect the three locations where this research was being done to make sure that all documents were properly locked away. I also had to run an audit from time to time and then file a report which contained the names of everyone who had the necessary security clearance to read or review all the sensitive stuff. I also received frequent updates from DARPA about regulations covering industrial security which I often had to forward to the faculty engaged in this research.
I am sure that these regulations are still in force. I am also sure that no such regulations were being carried out in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. But here’s the real question about the FBI raid which is really what today’s column is all about: WHO TIPPED OFF THE FBI TO THE EXISTENCE OF THE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FOUND AT MAR-A-LAGO LAST WEEK?
You may recall that when Trump first moved into the White House in 2017, he started a whole, big deal about ‘leaks’ because he had nothing better to do. So now instead of the White House leaking, the faucet is gushing down at Palm Beach, and I’m going to give you my conspiracy theory for what's going on.
I'm beginning to think that the Mar-a-Lago leaker was Trump himself. Because when you stop and think about it, he’s not going to be charged with a crime for something like this. Swiping documents that made it easier for the Russians to build an A-bomb is one thing, swiping the transcript of some telephone call to some foreign leader is something else. Was Reagan ever charged or even investigated for Iran-Contra?
The more Trump’s legal problems ramp up, the easier it is for him to delay and maybe announce that he’s quitting the 2024 race.
Think Sarah Palin’s defeat yesterday doesn’t say something about the political value of the MAGA brand?