More classified evidence found on a laptop at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
Even as DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith is subpoenaing presumptive final witness Mike Pence and putting the finishing touches on his January 6th criminal indictment of Donald Trump, we’re left to wonder about how close Smith is to also indicting Trump for espionage. Keep in mind that 95% of the criminal indictment process plays out secretly behind the scenes, so a lack of news never indicates a lack of progress.
But now we’re suddenly getting news on the Trump espionage front. CNN is reporting that Trump’s own people found classified evidence on a laptop at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and that they subsequently turned it over to Jack Smith and the DOJ. It’s not clear why this is just now being leaked to the media. But the point of view of the CNN article suggests that this information is probably coming from Trump’s own lawyers.
So what’s the deal? Why would Team Trump let the media know that even more classified evidence surfaced at Mar-a-Lago. Earlier today the DOJ reportedly searched Mike Pence’s home (with Pence’s blessing) and found at least one classified document. Pence’s cooperation with the DOJ sends a signal that he did nothing wrong in this matter, just as President Joe Biden’s ongoing cooperation with the DOJ makes clear that Biden did nothing wrong.
Trump’s lawyers may be making a feeble effort at creating the public perception that Trump is also cooperating with the DOJ, in an attempt at portraying Trump’s classified document story as no worse or different than that of Pence or Biden. But that ship sailed a long time ago. The DOJ had to forcibly search Trump’s home with a warrant after Trump lied about having no classified documents there, and then reportedly attempted to move them. That’s felony obstruction of justice, and it also makes clear that Trump purposely took the classified intel – which included nuclear state secrets – for corrupt purposes.
In any case, if Trump’s lawyers think they’re helping make Donald Trump look innocent by leaking this kind of thing, then they’re even worse at this than we thought. All they’ve done is help to put Trump’s espionage scandal back in the headlines, while pushing the Pence search out of the headlines. These people really are idiots.
