Michael Adkins
Donald Trump is the first former President to be indicted in a federal court. In all likelihood there will be more indictments of Donald Trump as he is still being investigated for Georgia and the insurrection. The DOJ handed down 37 indictments in this case, 31 are related to withholding national defense information, five were counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice and withholding documents and records, and two counts of making false statements regarding possession of the documents in question.
A large number of his allies, including Speaker of the House McCarthy, are in an uproar, declaring it a “dark day.” McCarthy said “it goes to the core of equal justice for all’ and lambasted the idea of indicting “the frontrunner” and professed the “House will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
In fact, failing to indict Mr. Trump for such egregious and unlawful behavior would denigrate the concept of equal justice for all. The fact that he is a declared candidate for the GOP nomination is simply not relevant. A crime cannot be excused because someone is running for the presidency. McCarthy and other GOP leaders argue that Mike Pence and John Biden were not indicted for the same offense. The difference is that both Biden and Pence apologized, cooperated, and did not lie about it. Donald Trump has never apologized. He repeatedly lied and obfuscated about having the documents. He declared he had declassified them, though he never went through the necessary process to do so. In fact, Trump publicly told a group that he “could have declassified them” but “now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.” After the initial lies and turning over boxes of classified of top- secret documents, he said that he had returned them all, only to have the FBI raid Mar-A-Lago and remove dozens of additional boxes of classified information.
Many of the documents Trump hid were labeled “top secret”, “secret,” and “confidential.” The indictment noted they were stored in, a bathroom and shower of the Mar-a-Lago Lake Club; a ballroom, his bedroom, an office, and a storage room at his Florida club and residence. The indictment emphasized the tens of thousands who wandered in and out of these areas as well as the groups and an author to whom he showed some of these documents. To the author he is quoted as saying “This is Secret information. Look at this.” The stupidity of such recklessness should be a disqualifying factor in running for office, but it isn’t. He will, however, lose significantly more support among independent voters and many traditional conservative Republicans he must have to win in 2024.
What he took and what he showed are alarming. They included information concerning the defense and weapons capabilities of the United States and foreign nations; information on our nuclear programs; the vulnerabilities of the U.S. and our allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliations in case of an attack.”
We can only speculate why the former president did it. One argument is that he was overly arrogant and vain, thinking the law does not apply to “the Donald.” We might argue it is a case of a massive ego that must constantly be fed; “Look what I have and see how important I am” he may have been thinking. I suspect there is some relevance to both assumptions. But there is another possible explanation that must not be overlooked. Nearly everything Donald Trump does is about massing wealth. Possibly he wanted to share information with his pal Putin. More likely is he wanted to give information to his Saudi buddies from whom he has already milked millions of dollars. Some of the documents concerned the military and nuclear capabilities of the Saudis sworn enemy, Iran. While Trump is legally allowed to run for office, the severity of his crimes should ward off intelligent voters.
Michael Adkins is a former Chair of the Hancock County Democratic Party.
