June 2023 - The Classified Documents Case

 

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

(But looking really guilty).

 

6/13/23: Have we all had time to sit down and read the 49-page indictment filed against Donald Trump and Walt Nauta, his valet? 

(I know I have because I’m retired.)

 

Trump’s longest-serving attorney general, Bill Barr, has. On Fox News, this past Sunday morning, he ripped Don a new anus. 

 

“Then he’s toast.” 

“If even half of it is true, then he’s toast,” Barr said. “I mean, it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning. This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here – a victim of a witch hunt – is ridiculous.” 

“He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has,” Barr continued. The indictment alleged “very egregious obstruction” he added. This “whole thing came about because of reckless conduct” by the former president. 

(If you read the indictment, even parts of the titles of documents marked ‘TOP SECRET” are redacted.)

 

Even the Wall Street Journal describes the Justice Department prosecution as one backed by meticulous detail, and investigators no doubt have vastly more evidence than they have revealed so far. They present text messages from multiple witnesses, as well as Mr. Nauta. They include photographs of boxes of documents – scattered haphazardly about Trump’s club and residence at Mar-a-Lago (including at least one from Nauta’s phone, showing documents spilled across a floor). They have exact times when Nauta moved boxes about to hide them from investigators – and even from one of Trump’s lawyers. They have phone records, including the critical timing of a 24-second phone call from Trump to Nauta, just before some of the boxes were moved. 

They also know that the boxes were moved a lot.

Trump and Barr in the good old days.

 

 

Mr. Maturity explodes – again. 

As for Trump, in response to the comments of Mr. Barr, Mr. Maturity responded later that same afternoon. On Truth Social, he called his  former attorney general “weak” and “lazy,” said Barr had been “totally ineffective,” and dismissed his comments as the words of “a disgruntled former employee.” Mr. Maturity went on to insist that Mr. Barr “doesn’t mean what he’s saying, it’s just MISINFORMATION. Barr’s doing it because he hates ‘TRUMP’ for firing him. … He knows the Indictment is Bull…. Turn off FoxNews when that ‘Gutless Pig’ is on!” 

Here, a bit of perspective might help us understand why Trump finds himself in such a legal jam. First, we should note that childish insults don’t make for a defense in court, and we should also note that Trump didn’t fire Barr. Barr resigned. Even the biggest bozo who loves Trump could look that up – and figure out the former president is lying. It can also help to go back and see what Trump said about Attorney General Jeff Session, his first choice for that post. When Sessions recused himself during the Mueller investigation, Trump called Sessions “very weak.” 

Finally, we might want to consider what happened with Barr’s replacement, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who served out the last weeks of Trump’s first term in office. When Trump asked him to sign a letter, saying that the election of 2020 had been tampered with, Rosen rightly refused. Trump then set his mind on replacing Rosen with a more malleable official – but that plan was thwarted when Rosen and almost all the top department heads at the Department of Justice – many of them Trump appointees – warned that they would join Rosen in a mass resignation. 

(Really, look this shit up, if you want to understand what’s happening.) 

 

“Donald Trump should immediately withdraw as a candidate.” 

Barr, and this blogger weren’t the only ones who plowed through the indictment to see what we might learn. Trump’s old National Security Advisor also dug into the muck. 

John Bolton’s reaction? It was scathing. “Donald Trump should immediately withdraw as a candidate for president. Criminal charges are piling up around him,” Bolton explained. “If Trump truly stood for America First policies, he would support the rule of law instead of continually flouting it.” 

“Flouting” is the word for the day. 

That is, to “openly disregard,” as pertaining to a rule, a law, or socially accepted convention. To “defy,” “go against,” to “disdain.” 

Commenting on the prosecution’s case, Ed O’Callaghan, a former top Justice Department official in the Trump administration, said: “The first thing that struck me was confidence. They are sending a message with the amount of details that they put in the indictment.” 

Half the people who worked closely with Trump at Mar-a-Lago are going to have to hope they aren’t called as witnesses – or indicted later, themselves.

 

* 

IF BARR, BOLTON, and O’Callaghan are merely stating opinions, what do we know for sure, if we take the time to read this second indictment involving the former President of the United States? 

(The blogger is betting that Trump will be indicted in at least two cases this summer.) 

 

First, we learn that Trump “body man” and gofer Walt Nauta faces six federal charges – all felonies – all for obstruction of justice – for alleged efforts to help his boss hide highly classified documents in various locations (for example: on a stage, in a bathroom, and under Trump’s bed) at Mar-a-Lago. 

(The “under the bed” part is kind of a joke, but not entirely.) 

 

Thirty-seven felony counts – that’s a lot, even for Trump. 

Second, we find that Donald faces thirty-seven felony counts, including his own six for obstruction of justice. 

With apologies for removing almost all of the numbering in the indictment, here are the highlights. I have also removed the usage of “TRUMP” and other names, which the document capitalizes and puts in bold. 

For starters, we are told that Mr. Trump took highly classified documents from the White House that, 

included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign counties; United Slates nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to 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.

 

It is also alleged that the former president had no intention of cooperating fully with any subpoenas, or investigations, as he has repeatedly claimed. According to “Trump Attorney 1,” not named in the indictment, but clearly Evan Corcoran, at one point the former president suggested, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Bluntly stated, what Trump was proposing was classic obstruction of justice. 

As for Mr. Corcoran, we knew previously that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith forced him to turn over fifty pages of hand-written notes to federal investigators under the “crime-fraud” provision. That is, under U.S. law, client-attorney privilege is invalidated where new crimes or frauds may be in planning.

Mr. Corcoran.

 

We also learn how this all began – perhaps innocently enough – but became infinitely worse, the longer the former president refused to hand back the materials. And he stalled the process for nineteen months. 

In fact, when Trump whines about all of this being meant as interference in the 2024 election, he has nobody to blame but himself. He could have put this matter to rest three years ago, save for his obstinacy. 

The indictment continues: 

“Over the course of his presidency, Trump gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House.” Almost all of those materials should have been returned to the National Archives, under the Presidential Records Act, but as was so often true during his years in office, Trump was happy to flout the law. 

The word for the day! 

Then the kicker: “Among the materials Trump kept in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents.” 

 

“Not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents.” 

During his chaotic departure from the White House – with Trump essentially refusing to admit that he would have to go – the president “caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he maintained his residence. Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents.” 

There the cancer continued to metastasize. The Florida club and residence were “not an authorized location for the storage, possession, review, display, or discussion of classified documents.” Between January 2021 and August 2022, when the F.B.I. finally raided Trump’s property, events were hosted at Mar-a-Lago at which “tens of thousands of members and guests” were present. “Nevertheless, Trump stored his boxes containing classified documents in various locations … including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.”

Boxes of documents on a stage.

 

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and his team also have witness testimony that alleges the former president proved careless and cavalier in how he handled even some of the most sensitive documents. 

6.   On two occasions in 2021, Trump showed classified documents to others, as follows: 

a.      In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (“The Bedminster Club”), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, Trump showed and described a plan of attack that Trump said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. Trump told the individuals that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret.” Trump also said, “as president I could have declassified it, and, now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

 

b.     In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, Trump showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close.

By  the spring of 2022, the National Archives and other agencies had already spent fourteen months vainly trying to retrieve the documents – but Trump refused to comply. A federal grand jury in Washington D.C. had been looking at evidence for some time. Then a second grand jury in Florida was impaneled on March 9, 2023. Only then was an investigation opened, on March 30, 2022, into “the unlawful retention of classified documents at The Mar-a-Lago Club.” 

The clock had been ticking for more than a year. Trump had ignored it. Now he had no one else to blame. 

The indictment explains: 

The grand jury issued a subpoena requiring Trump to turn over all documents with classification markings. Trump endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents by, among other things:

 

a.      suggesting that his attorney falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury that Trump did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena;

 

b.     directing defendant Walt Nauta to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury;

 

c.      suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena;

 

d.     providing to the FBI and grand jury just some of the documents called for by the grand jury subpoena, while claiming that he was cooperating fully; and

 

e.      causing a certification to be submitted to the FBI and grand jury falsely representing that all documents called for by the grand jury subpoena had been produced – while knowing that, in fact, not all such documents had been produced.

 

(Here the blogger is unclear – this seems to be the Florida grand jury; I will sort it out later.) 

 

The process of recovering the classified documents proved tortuous, to say the least. And had Trump been cooperative he would likely not have been indicted. On January 17, 2022, and after months of demands by the National Archives and Records Administration, calling for return of all missing records, “Trump provided only fifteen boxes, which contained 197 documents with classification markings.” 

On June 3, 2022, in response to the grand jury subpoena, Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran “provided to the FBI 38 more documents with classification markings.” 

But the investigation had already begun and evidence showed that Trump was mishandling highly sensitive materials. 

On August 8, 2022, search warrant in hand, the F.B.I. showed up at Mar-a-Lago, and there “recovered from Trump’s office and a storage room at The Mar-a-Lago Club 102 more documents with classification markings.” 

 

Trump’s Co-Conspirator 

Next, the indictment turns to Nauta: 

9. Defendant Nauta was a member of the United States Navy stationed as a valet in the White House during Trump’s presidency. Beginning in August 2021 Nauta became an executive assistance in the office of Donald J. Trump and served as Trump’s personal aide or “body man.” Nauta reported to Trump, worked closely with Trump, and traveled with Trump.

 

Here we should not that almost no one mentioned in the indictment had any business being around documents classified, for example, as “TOP SECRET.” Nauta didn’t have clearance. None of Trump’s lawyers did. It is highly unlikely that all or even most of those who packed the boxes at the White House, who trucked them to Florida in January 2021, or moved boxes to Bedminster later, had clearance. 

In fact, we learn that at the time Trump came back to Florida to live, Mar-a-Lago had “150 full-time, part-time, and temporary employees.” 

And since the Trump Organization had often displayed a penchant for hiring undocumented workers, there’s a fair chance some undocumented worker ended up in close proximity to these boxes. 

(To be fair this is mere supposition, from the blogger, partly for fun.) 

 

The indictment notes that over the next nineteen months – with Trump refusing to give up any records, the club hosted more than 150 social events, “including weddings, movie premieres, and fundraisers that together drew tens of thousands of guests.” 

In fact, prosecutors also note that the Secret Service provided protection for Trump and his family at all times, during this period. 

“Trump did not inform the Secret Service that he was storing boxes containing classified documents at The Mar-a-Lago Club.” 

 

“Exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” 

What, then, was the biggest concern? And why would the extraordinary step of indicting a former president be necessary? 

The proper handling of sensitive documents was laid out and later clarified by a series of Executive Orders, signed by Trump’s predecessors in the White House. “An Executive Order signed on April 17, 1995, and amended on March 25, 2003, and December 29, 2009, created classifications: “TOP SECRET,” “SECRET” or “CONFIDENTIAL.” 

a.      Information was classified as TOP SECRET if the unauthorized disclosure of that information reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security that the original classification authority was able to identify or describe.

 

b.     Information was classified as SECRET if the unauthorized disclosure of that information reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security that the original classification authority was able to identify or describe.

 

c.      Information was classified as CONFIDENTIAL if the unauthorized disclosure of that information reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security that the original classification authority was able to identify or describe.

 

The indictment further explains: 14 

14.  The classification marking “NOFORN” stood for “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals” and denoted that dissemination of that information was limited to United States persons.

15.  Classified information related to intelligence sources, methods, and analytical processes was designated as Sensitive Compartmented Information (“SCI”). SCI was to be possessed, stored, used, or discussed in an accredited Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (“SCIF”), and only individuals with the appropriate security clearance and additional SCI permissions were authorized to have access to such national security information.

 

16.  When the vulnerability of, or threat to, specific classified information was exceptional, and the normal criteria for determining eligibility for access to classified information were insufficient to protect the information from unauthorized disclosure, the United States could establish Special Access Programs (“SAPS”) to further protect the classified information. The number of these programs was to be kept to an absolute minimum and limited to programs in which the number of persons who ordinarily would have access would be reasonably small and commensurate with the objective of providing enhanced protection for the information involved. Only individuals with appropriate security clearance and additional SAP permissions were authorized to have access to such national security information, which was subject to enhanced handling and storage requirements.

 

Documents under any of these classifications could be lawfully accessible “only by persons determined by an appropriate United States government official to be eligible for access to classified information who had signed an approved non-disclosure agreement, who received a security clearance, and who had a need to know the classified information.” 

 

Trump was not authorized. 

Tellingly, the indictment continues, “After his presidency, Trump was not authorized to possess or retain classified documents.” 

Under Executive Order 13526 a former president could obtain 

a waiver of the need to know requirement, if the agency head or senior agency official of the agency that originated the classified document: (1) determined in writing that access was consistent with the interest of national security and (2) took appropriate steps to protect classified information from unauthorized disclosure or compromise and ensure that the information was safeguarded in a manner consistent with the order.

 

To no one’s surprise, had they been paying attention while Trump was still in office, the former president did not bother to obtain a waiver in writing, nor did he take steps to protect the secret materials he had stacked up, for instance, on the stage in the “White and Gold Ballroom” at Mar-a-Lago. 

(Although my favorite is still the picture of boxes stacked in a gaudy bathroom with a crystal chandelier above the toilet.)

Reading material for anyone going to the bathroom?
(Reportedly, there were other boxes behind the curtain.)

 

As president, we know Donald had a habit of shredding documents, which by law he was required to preserve. At one point, we know two full-time employees of the federal government were spending their time taping back the pieces which White House aides retrieved and turned over as required. 

Then, near the end of his tenure, witnesses said Trump turned to ripping up materials and throwing them in the White House toilets. 

Prosecutors even quote Candidate Trump in an effort to make the case for indictment. That is, he was well aware of the dangers that could be involved if classified documents were mishandled. 

As a candidate in 2016, Trump made all of the following public statements:  

 

 a.      On August 18, 2016, Trump stated, “In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”

b.     On September 6, 2016, Trump stated, “We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. … We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified.”

 

c.      On September 7, 2016, Trump stated, “[O]ne of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.”

 

d.     On September 19, 2016, Trump stated, “We also need the best protection of classified information.”

 

e.      On November 3, 2016, Trump stated, “Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country.” 

 

“Any access granted to our Nation’s secrets.” 

As president, Trump issued the following statement, on July 26, 2018. At that point he was already worrying about being impeached as part of the Ukraine investigation. So he worked to curtail access to classified information for critics who had held top positions in previous administrations in U.S. intelligence. 

In the summer of 2018, he had this to say: 

As head of the executive branch and Commander in Chief, I have a unique, Constitutional responsibility to protect the Nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it. … More broadly, the issue of [a former executive branch official’s] security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our Nation’s most sensitive secrets long after their time in Government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access granted to our Nation’s secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests. 

(Read that again if you love Trump. Then it might sink in.) 

 

The indictment then follows the movement of boxes, from the day they were packed in January 2021, as Trump prepared to vacate the White House. He, Nauta, and other White House staff packed up the documents. Prosecutors note that, “TRUMP was personally involved in this process.” 

From January through March 15, 2021, some of the boxes were stored on the stage in the White and Gold Ballroom, “in which [various] events and gatherings took place.” 

Next, Nauta and others moved boxes to the business center at the resort. A person identified only as “Employee 1” later wondered if the boxes could be moved out of the center to allow other staffers more room to work. “Whoa!!” responded “Employee 2.” Trump “specifically asked Walt [Nauta] for those boxes to be in the business center because they are his ‘papers.’” “Employee 2” suggested they move boxes “into the lake room.” “Employee 1” replied that they might use “a little room in the shower where his other stuff is.” 

(So: prosecutors have plenty of witnesses.) 

 

The traveling boxes. 

In May 2021, Trump directed that a storage room on the ground floor of “The Mar-a-Lago Club” be cleaned out so that it could be used to store his boxes. This was not a secure area – although it might have been a little safer than the bathroom. “The hallway leading to the storage room could be reached from multiple outside entrances, including one accessible from The Mar-a-Lago Club pool patio through a doorway that was often kept open. The storage room was near the liquor supply closet, linen room, lock shop, and various other rooms. At one point, in June 2021, there were over eighty boxes in the Storage Room. 

On December 7, 2021, Nauta found several boxes had fallen and their contents had spilled onto the floor of the storage room. That included a document “marked ‘SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY,’ which denoted that the information on the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Nauta texted to Trump Employee 2, “I opened the door and found this…”

 

He then sent two pictures. “Oh no oh no,” Employee 2 responded, “I’m sorry potus had my phone.” 

Separately, in May 2021, Trump had also ordered some of his boxes brought to his summer home at The Bedminster Club – also not a secure location. 

The indictment continues: 

On July 21, 2021, when he was no longer president, Trump gave an interview in his office at The Bedminster Club to a writer and a publisher in connection with a then-forthcoming book. Two members of Trump’s staff also attended the interview, which was recorded with Trump’s knowledge and consent. Before the interview, the media had published reports that, at the end of Trump’s term as president, a senior military official (the “Senior Military Official”) purportedly feared that Trump might order an attack on Country A and that the Senior Military Official advised Trump against doing so.

 

We know now that the official in question was General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Upon greeting the writer, publisher, and his two staff members, Trump stated, “Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show … it’s interesting.

 

Later in the interview, Trump engaged in the following exchange:

 

TRUMP: Well, with [the Senior Military Official] – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Country A. Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. He presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.

 

WRITER: Wow.

 

TRUMP: We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff – pages long, look.

 

STAFFER: Mm.

 

TRUMP: Wait a minute, let’s see here.

 

STAFFER: [Laughter] Yeah.

 

TRUMP: I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.

 

STAFFER: Mm-hm.

 

TRUMP: Except it is like, highly confidential.

 

STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter]

 

TRUMP: Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and – 

 

***

 

(Those three asterisks above appear in the indictment, without explanation.)

 

 

TRUMP: By the way, isn’t that incredible?

 

STAFFER: Yeah.

 

TRUMP:  I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said “he wanted to attack [Country A]” and what …

 

STAFFER: You did.

 

TRUMP: This was done by the military and given to me, I think we can probably, right?

 

STAFFER: I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to –

 

TRUMP: Declassify it.

 

STAFFER: – figure out a – yeah.

 

TRUMP: See as president I could have declassified it.

 

STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter]

 

TRUMP: Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.

 

STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter] Now we have a problem.

 

TRUMP: Isn’t that interesting?

 

 

Plenty of witnesses. 

At any rate, you can see where the former president has a serious problem. He knows at the time that he’s in possession of classified information. He’s showing it around to people not authorized to see it. And there are four witnesses in the room – all likely to have already been deposed by the Special Prosecutor’s office. 

In August or September 2021, there was a second serious incident. This time Private Citizen Trump met in his Bedminster office with a representative of his political action committee, or PAC. 

During the meeting, Trump commented that an ongoing military operation in Country B was not going well. Trump showed the PAC Representative a classified map of Country B and told the PAC Representative that he should not be showing the map to the PAC Representative and to not get too close. The PAC Representative did not have a security clearance or any need-to-know classified information about the military operation.

 

So, now we know that as late as August 2022, Citizen Trump was still holding highly classified documents from the CIA, the Department of Defense, The National Security Agency, The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (a combat support agency specializing in gathering and analyzing satellite data), The National Reconnaissance Office (space-based surveillance), and the Department of Energy. In the latter case, Energy was “responsible for maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent to protect national security, including ensuring the effectiveness of the United States nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear explosive testing.” 

That’s right. He had materials regarding the safety, security, and readiness of our nuclear deterrent capability. 

With wedding guests drinking, dancing, and toasting in close proximity. Or, for added fun, consider the Chinese national arrested at Mar-a-Lago in 2019, with all kinds of passports, cameras, and secret computer devices.  

And then you can watch a clip of Kid Rock talking about seeing classified information when he visited Trump way back when, in the White House. 

(Tucker Carlson found that hilarious, of course.) 

 

Multiple warnings ignored. 

Trump, his lawyers, and representatives were contacted repeatedly, once he moved to Florida. He was told he had to give up the documents it was believed (and later proven) he had. Beginning in May 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) repeatedly demanded return. “On multiple occasions, beginning in June, NARA warned Trump through his representatives that if he did not comply, it would refer the matter of the missing records to the Department of Justice.” 

According to the indictment, from November 2021 through January 2022, Nauta and “Trump Employee 2,” “at Trump’s direction – brought boxes from the Storage Room to Trump’s residence for Trump to review.” Employee 2 even provided a picture, so that the former president could see how many boxes were stored. Trump then allegedly started going through the boxes. 

In one text, to Employee 2, Nauta said that Trump was working on one box in Pine Hall, an entry room to his private residence. “Knocked out 2 boxes yesterday,” Nauta advised. 

On November 29, 2021, Employee 2 asked for “4 more boxes.” Nauta said he’d bring them up. 

Exactly one month later – with the clock ticking more loudly every day – Employee 2 texted  “Trump Representative 1” who was in contact with NARA , to say that the “box answer will be wrenched out of him [Trump] today, promise!” 

On December 30, 2021, “Trump Representative 1” asked for clarification. How many boxes were there? Employee 2 talked to Trump, and then responded in two successive text messages: 

            12 

            Is his number.

 

The clock was still ticking. 

On January 15, 2022, there was a request from Nauta to Employee 2. Could they get new covers for the boxes? He had marked up the old covers “too much.” 

 

You could hardly have planned a dumber move. 

Then we have a bit of stunning stupidity. On January 17, Nauta gathered up fifteen boxes, piled them into his private car, and “took them to a commercial truck [company?] for delivery to NARA.” You could hardly have planned a dumber move if you were trying to get indicted. Later, Nauta made a whole series of false and misleading statements about this process – leading to Count 38 in the indictment.

Nauta with Trump.

 

Now NARA finally had a portion of the documents requested – 15 boxes – and in 14 were found classified materials. Thirty documents were marked “TOP SECRET,” 98 “SECRET.” Some documents contained SCI and SAP markings. On February 9, 2022, NARA referred matters to the Department of Justice for investigation. As noted, on March 30, the F.B.I. opened a criminal investigation. 

On May 11, with the clock now ticking loudly, the grand jury issued a subpoena for documents. 

“Trump Attorney 1” and “Trump Attorney 2” met with the boss. It would appear that Trump then decided to pick up the clock and hurl it against the wall to stop the alarm from sounding. On May 22, security footage allegedly shows Nauta entered the storage room at 3:47 p.m., remaining there for 34 minutes, and then exiting with one box. The next day, the two lawyers met with the former president, whose responses were memorialized in notes kept by Trump Attorney 1: 

I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes.

 

Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?

 

Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?

 

Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?

 

During that meeting, Trump also told a story about an attorney for Hillary Clinton. See if you can catch his drift: 

[He] was great, he did a great job. You know what: He said, he said that it – that it was him. That he was the one who deleted all of her emails, the 30,000 emails, because they basically dealt with her scheduling and her going to the gym and her having beauty appointments. And he was great. And he, so she didn’t get in any trouble because he said that he was the one who deleted them.

 

As The New York Times notes, this information comes from a lengthy voice memo Evan Corcoran made soon after the meeting. 

 

“An open book.” 

Corcoran, or “Trump Attorney 1,” if you prefer the title used in the indictment, then agreed to return to Mar-a-Lago on June 2. He would search through the boxes in response to the grand jury subpoena. 

The broken clock is no longer ticking; but the crimes start piling up. Between May 23, 2022, and Corcoran’s return, Nauta removed 64 boxes, and took them to Trump’s private residence. To wit: three boxes on May 24, and 50 boxes on May 30. That afternoon “a Trump family member” texted Nauta. 

I saw you put boxes to Potus room. Just FYI and I will tell him as well:

 

Not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have room for them. Plane will be full with luggage.

 

Thank you! 

(I know that I am really hoping this turns out to be a text from Melania.) 

 

Then, on June 1, Nauta moved another 11 boxes out of the storage room. 

The next day, before Corcoran arrived, Nauta “at Trump’s direction” returned only 30 boxes to the storage room. Trump met with Corcoran. Then Nauta took him down to the room. From 3:53 p.m. until 6:23 p.m. the lawyer searched through the boxes, found 38 documents with classification markings, and placed them in a Redweld folder. “Trump Attorney 1” asked Nauta to bring clear duct tape to the room, and then used it to seal the folder. 

Nauta then led Corcoran up to the dining room, and they discussed what to do with the folder. Corcoran suggested taking it to his hotel room and putting it in a safe. The indictment continues: 

During that conversation, Trump made a plucking motion as memorialized by Trump Attorney 1:

 

He made a funny motion as though – well okay why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out and that was the motion that he made. He didn’t say that.

 

On June 3, Corcoran contacted the F.B.I. instead. An agent met him at The Mar-a-Lago Club, and took possession of the folder (still) full of documents. For reasons unknown, but easy to guess at, Corcoran asked “Trump Attorney 3” to sign a document stating that a thorough search had been completed, in compliance with the subpoena. To keep this post shorter, let’s just say that “3” signed and said everything at Mar-a-Lago was cool, and the F.B.I. could go back to chasing bank robbers, and leave poor Donald Trump alone. Attorneys “1” and “3” then met with representatives of the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice, who had come to Mar-a-Lago. Trump joined the meeting and told the government agents that he was “an open book.” 

Okay, this is almost funny. 

(Lawyer “3” is Christina Bobb – but she is not suspected of lying.) 

 

Earlier that day Nauta and others loaded several of Trump’s boxes and flew them, with Trump and his family, north for the summer. 

In July 2022, the F.B.I. and grand jury obtained and reviewed surveillance video from the Club – and it became clear. Someone was lying. A raid followed at Mar-a-Lago, on August 8, 2022. 

Twenty-seven classified documents were turned up in Trump’s office – including six marked “TOP SECRET.” 

In the storage room, seventy-five more documents “miraculously” appeared, including eleven marked “TOP SECRET.” 

 

“With others known and unknown to the grand jury.” 

The indictment ends with a list of thirty-one felony counts against the former president, for mishandling classified documents. Some, if they had fallen into the wrong hands, would have compromised U.S. spy methods and exposed U.S. spies to danger. Others would have revealed secret U.S. methods for gathering information. Some related to the nuclear capabilities of unnamed (in the indictment) foreign countries, to their military capabilities, and intercepted communications from a foreign leader. One document laid out the  “military contingency planning of the United States.” 

Counts 32-38 accuse Trump and Nauta of conspiracy, stating that from 

on or about May 11, 2022 through in or around August 2022, in Palm Beach County, in the Southern District of Florida, and elsewhere, the defendants … did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and with others known and unknown to the grand jury, to engage in misleading conduct toward another person and corruptly persuade another person to withhold a record, document, and other object from an official proceeding

 

in violation of federal law. 

The indictment adds that, “The purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep classified documents he had taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.” 

Count 35, in particular, accuses the two defendants of lying “during a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI.” The defendants allegedly “hid, concealed, and covered up from the FBI Trump’s continued possession of documents with classification markings at The Mar-a-Lago Club.” 

Count 36 is similar, accusing Nauta and Trump of lying about “material facts,” during a grand jury investigation and a federal criminal investigation. 

Count 37 accuses Trump of lying to impede the investigation – this time by allowing Christina Bobb to make false statements about a “diligent search” of the premises, which had turned up “any and all documents” in response to a subpoena, and that they had been returned in the folder sealed up by Mr. Corcoran. 

Trump knew such statements were false, “because Trump had directed that boxes be removed from the Storage Room before Trump Attorney 1 conducted the June 2, 2022, search for documents with classification markings.” That is, he knew a diligent search was impossible – and it was impossible because he had worked to thwart it. 

The dope was flouting the law. 

Again. 

 

“Something that makes the intelligence community feel better.” 

Count 38 names Nauta alone, as having lied during an interview with the F.B.I. on May 26, 2022. 

In fact, Nauta’s lies about how the boxes were moved around (he said he didn’t know), whether or not he had ever seen them before he loaded them in his car (he said he hadn’t) and his answer to the following question were so brazen that you almost think Nauta must have study lying under a mentor. 

(I am thinking Donald J. Trump.) 

 

His interview was recorded. An F.B.I. agent asked about the boxes specifically. 

QUESTION: – do you have any information that could – that would – so it could help us understand, like, where they were kept, how they were kept, were they secured, were they locked? Something that makes the intelligence community feel better about these things, you know? 

NAUTA: I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t – I honestly just don’t know.

 

* 

And that, dear America, is how a former President of the United States and a close aide get indicted for more than three dozen felonies, combined.

As for Trump’s co-defendant, Wayne Nauta, he will have to show up in court a second time, on June 26. For some reason, he was unable to secure the services of a lawyer on Tuesday. And the man is in deep doo.

Update #1 (6/15/23): It would seem true that members of Trump’s own party, looking at the charges and evidence revealed in the indictment so far, were growing nervous. Or vomiting. Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, said he believed Donald was “scared s***less.” 

 

Hip deep in evidence. 

John Bolton, his former National Security Advisor, described it “a very powerful indictment.  It’s narrow, carefully tailored, and isn’t supposed to be a complete recounting of the evidence that the prosecution has.  You can be almost assured there is a lot more. I’d be stunned if the prosecutors aren’t hip-deep in evidence.” 

Sen John Thune (R-SD) cautioned party leaders. “Elections are generally about winning people: Independent voters, moderate Republicans. We lost three elections in a row now.” Trump, he noted, had “been an issue in every one of those elections.” 

“If this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security,” Nikki Haley says on Fox, a much harsher criticism than the response she offered before the indictment was unsealed. 

Raw Story notes: 

George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley, who has been a frequent defender of Trump but has recently acknowledged the severity of the legal threat posed by Jack Smith’s charges, appeared on Fox to address the question of how things could get worse for the former president[.]

 

…The question, according to Turley, is, “Can this get worse? Because it’s pretty darned bad,” [already].

 

“And the answer is: ‘Yeah.’ This co-defendant, Nauta, if he were to flip, could really put the lights out on the defense,” [Turley told the Fox host]. “This indictment is clearly designed to concentrate his mind again on whether he will cooperate.”

 

Turley added that the “key” for the defense team is that “they’ve got 37 counts in a 76-year-old client.”

 

“In this deluge, they’ve got to walk through those counts and not get wet,” he added. “They can’t have a single count that actually lands with a guilty verdict because these are coming with ten to 20 year maximum sentences.”

Update #2 (6/19/23): I think we can say, with supreme confidence, that Fat Donald had a less than wonderful Father’s Day weekend. 

 

Ego before country. 

First, we should note that his longest-serving attorney general, Bill Barr, appearing on Face the Nation, Sunday, toasted him once more. Trump, said Barr, “Will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests.” 

Barr went on to call Trump a “consummate narcissist,” and compared him to a “nine-year-old defiant kid, who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table,” daring his parents to stop him. “He’s a very petty individual, who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s.” Finally, Barr warned, “Our country can’t be a therapy session for a man troubled man like this.”  

Barr scoffed at the idea that the Department of Justice was hunting for witches when it decided to charge the guy at Mar-a-Lago who liked to fly around on a broom and cast spells on old ladies. “This is not a circumstance where he’s the victim or this is government overreach,” he assured host Robert Costa. “He provoked this whole problem himself. Yes, he’s been the victim of unfair witch hunts in the past. But that doesn’t obviate the fact that he’s also a fundamentally flawed person who engages in reckless conduct. And that leads to situations, calamitous situations like this, which are very destructive and hurt any political cause he’s associated with.” 

Costa asked his guest if he believed Trump had lied to investigators. “Yes, I do,” the former attorney general replied. 

Even Fox News had to admit that there were those who worked closely in the Trump administration, who came away appalled by what they had witnessed. Marc Short, chief of staff for VP Mike Pence, for example, cited Trump’s assault on the rule of law. “One of the most unseemly parts of our Admin was the pardons Trump gave to cocaine traffickers, family members, people guilty of violent crimes. It was indefensible. People giving $750K to lobbyists trying to get pardon.”

 

“But wait,” as they say on late-night TV infomercials, “there’s more.” Mark Esper also dished the dirt on Trump this weekend. Previously, we know, in a book he wrote about his time in Trump’s cabinet, Esper described a “red-faced” president who wanted to know why U.S. active duty troops couldn’t be deployed to Washington D.C. to shoot peaceful protesters. 

This would echo the report by the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, who said Trump urged him to have troops brought in to “crack the skulls” of various American citizens. 

Sunday morning, it was Esper’s turn to show up on the morning news circuit. He told Jake Tapper, of CNN, that he condemned his former boss’s handling of top secret classified documents, which led earlier this month to his indictment. “People have described him as a hoarder when it comes to these type of documents. But clearly, it was unauthorized, illegal and dangerous.” 

Esper continued: 

Imagine if a foreign agent, another country were to discover documents that outline America’s vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the United States military. Think about how that could be exploited, how that could be used against us in a conflict, how an enemy could develop countermeasures, things like that. Or in the case of the most significant piece that was raised in the allegation [Trump faces 37 counts, including six for obstruction of justice] about U.S. plans to attack Iran, think about how that affects our readiness, our ability to prosecute an attack.”

Tapper asked if Esper believed Trump should ever be reelected as president.

“Based on his actions, again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel, no,” Esper replied.

“I mean, it’s just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around.”

Also condemning the former president and current lard ass: former Congressman Will Hurd (R-Tx.), who served in the C.I.A. before being elected to office.

Hurd echoed the criticisms leveled by the former Secretary of Defense. Trump “absolutely could have put people’s lives at risk for not returning these documents. And like when I first read the indictment, it’s shocking. The fact that you have recorded audio of Donald Trump saying that he has documents he shouldn’t have, and it’s highly classified. And he’s showing it to people. Who else did he show this kind of information?”

(Good question, of course!)

 

“And so when you when you give away what your capabilities are, then your adversaries know what you can and can’t do and that’s the position that you don’t want to be in,” Hurd continued. “And to me, we would not be in this situation if Donald Trump just gave the documents back. He could have had access to them if he wanted to review them. And so, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for his own decisions.” 

John Bolton, Trump’s own National Security Advisor, also joined the fray. He called the charges against Trump as “devastating,” and said they should “end his political career.”

UPDATE: 

6/27/23: The Washington Post now has a longer tape recording, related to Trump’s refusal to give up TOP SECRET and other classified documents. 

This fuller recording makes it even clearer: Trump was not guarding highly classified materials, including secret plans if we had to go to war against Iran, and knew he wasn’t. And he didn’t care. He was showing them around at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, like trophies from an African safari.