Politics
Trump’s Federal Indictment: Unprecedented Hypocrisy
Knowledge Nuggets:
- A federal grand jury in South Florida indicted former President Donald Trump and his personal aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, with a combined 38-count indictment.
- The charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document, concealing documents, and making false statements and representations.
- The indictment alleges the improper retention of classified documents, including defense strategies and weapons capabilities of the US and foreign countries.
- It’s also alleged that Trump and Nauta endeavored to obstruct the investigation by moving and concealing boxes of documents.
- Trump was summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami for his initial appearance.
In a historic move, a federal grand jury in South Florida has indicted former President Donald Trump and his personal aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, on a combined 38 counts.
This marks the first time in US history that a former president has been indicted by the federal government.
The 44-page indictment accuses Trump and Nauta of various offences, including:
- 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information
- conspiracy to obstruct justice
- withholding a document
- corruptly concealing a document
- concealing a document in a federal investigation
- a scheme to conceal
- false statements and representations.
Prosecutors allege that hundreds of classified documents were improperly retained at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound, including sensitive information about the United States and foreign nations’ defense and weapons capabilities. If disclosed, this information could potentially put national security at risk.
The indictment also alleges that Trump and Nauta obstructed the ensuing investigation by making false statements about possessing any responsive documents, moving boxes of documents to conceal them from his attorneys, the FBI, and the grand jury.
It further accuses them of suggesting to Trump’s attorney that they hide or destroy the documents, instead of surrendering them to the grand jury.
Federal charges against Trump and Nauta mark a significant development in the ongoing legal challenges faced by the former president.
He has already been indicted by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, and there are rumors of additional charges being sought by special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Trump was summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami for his initial appearance.
Clear Thoughts:
The hypocrisy of what is happening right now can’t be ignored.
During her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton used a private email account for official public communications rather than using a government-provided email account.
The email account was hosted on a private server located in the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, New York.
The issue came to light in 2015, and it was criticized because it potentially violated several federal laws regarding the security and preservation of official communications.
It was also alleged that the use of a private server could have enabled Clinton to hide unethical or illegal conduct.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent litigation, the State Department asked Clinton to turn over her work-related emails, which she did, approximately 30,000 of them.
Clinton’s lawyers then deleted about 31,000 emails that they determined were personal and not work-related. This action of deleting emails led to accusations of cover-up and demands for a more thorough investigation.
The FBI started an investigation into the issue in July 2015.
In July 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey announced that the FBI’s investigation had concluded that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling her email system but recommended that no charges be filed against her.
However, just days before the 2016 Presidential Election, Comey announced the FBI was reopening the investigation after discovering additional emails, causing a major political controversy.
A few days later, the FBI announced that the newly discovered emails did not change their initial conclusion, but the political impact was significant.
Clinton after seeing Trump indicted has flaunted her getting away with skirting justice posted the following on Twitter:
We claim no one is above the law. It is Crystal Clear that this is not true.
Garry R Brewster
June 18, 2023 at 7:54 pm
The hypocrisy is even trying to compare these two events, Sec Clinton acted on advice from Former Sec Colin Powell regarding the use of private email as he did, to avoid government servers, and as did Bush/Cheney on the GOP server …. some keywords in the article “potentially violating’, ‘alleged’, and ‘accusations’ to which not one led to charges from republican AG, FBI or even an issue beyond bad judgment from James Comey. Not even a republican led Congressional committee came up with anything.
On July 5, 2016, the FBI released its findings on an investigation into Clinton’s emails. Then-FBI Director James Comey said of the 30,000 emails, 113 were determined to have contained classified information at the time they were sent. Comey said 3 of those had a marking indicating they were classified, and that 2,000 more were marked as classified after the fact by various agencies.
The next day, the State Department explained what the 3 documents’ markings suggesting classified material were all about. They had to do with what is known as “call sheets,” not classified material.
Before a secretary of state calls a foreign leader, staff members prepare a guide known as a call sheet. It gives the context for the call and the key points to hit during the conversation. Early in the process, a call sheet might be marked as sensitive, but by the time it reaches the secretary, it isn’t.
Most of the information was not MARKED CLASSIFIED… the 3 that were would have been unclassified by the time it got to the secretary and the balance were NOT CLASSIFIED until after they were sent. All were bits if information, not complete documents. “Donald John Trump not only had over 300 CLASSIFIED and other government records at Mar-a-Lago, not only had TS/SCI CLASSIFIED records, he had SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAM CLASSIFIED information- those are OUR MOST SENSITIVE SECRETS … unsecured in a storeroom at Mar-A-Lago, his office closet, and in an offsite storage locker. Note that documents are still missing!
Former President Donald Trump railed against attempts by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to retrieve a trove of documents, saying “IT’S NOT THEIRS, IT’S MINE,” according to The New York Times. He admitted to having the government documents, returned half of them, withheld the balance, and provided a signed document saying all at been returned when he knew better …. Search warrant was issued, and more government and classified documents were found and secured. This clearly shows intent.
Things to consider …. Big difference to email and complete government documents … no tearing up documents, flushing them down the toilet or intentionally squirreling them away… nor lying to NARA or the FBI.
Truth Teller
June 20, 2023 at 6:55 pm
First off, that is not Killary in that pic. There’s no way. Body double or clone. The female in the pic is much younger and better looking than the old hag and Killary is known to use doubles. Second, this is the perfect example of do as I say not as I do, and that the liberal Demonrats are doing every single thing they accuse conservatives of. They will lie, cheat, steal anything from anyone and throw their own mothers under a bus if they think it will benefit them.