What Donald Trump was really trying to cover up
The same reporter who exposed Donald Trump’s habit of tearing up government documents and flushing them down White House toilets speculated this week that Trump may have also stolen documents pertaining to the FBI’s Russia investigation when he left the White House.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times said that the former president had a habit of keeping materials if he thought “something was cool” or “personally advantageous.” But she added that “… it also could be that some of this material somehow relates to the [Robert Mueller] investigation into whether his campaign was conspiring with Russia,” Haberman said.
This is speculation, of course, as the FBI hasn’t said one way or the other if the stolen documents include those pertaining to what Trump disparagingly refers to as “Russia, Russia, Russia” when referring to the Mueller investigation.
Meanwhile, in Russia, in a recent broadcast of the state TV show “Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov,” host Vladimir Solovyov remarked, “I’m very worried for our agent Trump. They found everything at Mar-a-Lago, they got packages of documents. In all seriousness, they say he should be executed as a person that was ready to hand off nuclear secrets to Russia.”
The connection between Trump’s allegedly hoarding top secret documents relating to nuclear design information and his alleged willingness to hand those documents off to Russia can’t be ignored. While Solovyov’s reference to the ex-president as “agent Trump” is interesting, it does not necessarily represent Moscow’s official designation. Even so, it’s a damning thing for an avowed enemy of America’s interests to say— even if it only came from a popular TV host. Had they said it about a Democrat it would get page one banners on Fox News for weeks.
Whatever Trump took will ultimately be revealed once the DOJ has sifted through the material and decided which parts, if any, merit an indictment. The fact remains that if the secret materials turn out to correspond to any information that US intelligence sources say Russia currently possesses, it could make a strong case to support the notion that Trump sold that material to the Russians.
Should that turn out to be the case, it would be evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that a former American president is a traitor who actually sold America’s classified secrets to its most implacable enemy. It would be a revelation almost too staggering to be believed. But then, who else but Donald Trump? And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.