“Bravado” my ass!
Anyone who has a far-fetched explanation that makes no sense is typically a shyster. The word “shyster” is synonymous with the name Donald Trump. Now that his big mouth has gotten him in trouble, he comes up with yet another implausible explanation. He’s basically saying that he was lying about having had an actual document when he was recorded and that he just did it for kicks. According to Trump, as reported by Huffington Post, he said his words for “bravado.” He now claims that he showed nothing classified to anyone and that he was just holding up a handful of papers. Yeah, right. Trump is a braggart, which is an established fact, but the thought that he was simply “jerking someone’s chain” doesn’t play right. Yes, he loves to brag, and it is easy to see him showing things to others that he had no business showing them. He described the document in detail and told them that it was “highly confidential, secret.” Who would believe anything Trump says? He told ABC News: “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.” If he didn’t have “documents,” then what papers was he holding? Trump is full of it. He is merely backtracking because of how damaging that tape has become.
Trump’s activities at Bedminster aren’t a surprise to investigators. According to the New York Times, investigators discussed executing a search warrant at Bedminster last fall, and they did secure surveillance footage from the property. They, unfortunately, did not have enough probable cause to secure a search warrant, and instead, the top counterintelligence officer at DOJ, Jay Bratt, told Trump’s attorneys that they believed Trump continued to retain classified documents. Trump uses Bedminster as his “summer getaway,” and the indictment against him has already shown that he shuffled boxes between Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago. Who’s to say some of those documents didn’t remain at Bedminster? Take the Iran memo about which Trump bragged for example. According to CBS News, that document has not been found among the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. As such, it was not included in the 37-count indictment, but Trump’s bragging on tape was included. Where is that document? Is Trump, for once, telling the truth that he never showed it to anyone? Please. The man wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up and slapped him.
The problem for Trump with his new assertions is that both Liz Harrington and Margo Martin were present for the meeting. They could easily testify as to what they saw and heard that day, though Harrington has so far refused to even admit it is her voice is on the tape. If, however, she is asked that question on the stand, she takes the risk of creating her own criminal problems if she doesn’t truthfully testify. All this is, of course, down the road, but it is certainly something she had better think about. They all should be thinking right now. Trump can keep making up lies all he wants, but the truth will eventually come out.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years