Indictments Seek to Hold Trump Accountable for Threatening U.S. Democracy and National Security
(several interesting videos and audio clips at the link)
Indictments Seek to Hold Trump Accountable for Threatening U.S. Democracy and National Security
7/14/2023 by Ally Dickson
Former U.S. President Donald Trump visits the Versailles restaurant after being arraigned at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Federal Courthouse on June 13, 2023, in Miami, Fla. Trump appeared in federal court for his arraignment on charges including possession of national security documents after leaving office, obstruction and making false statements. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)
As soon as next month, a grand jury out of Georgia will be tasked to consider charges against former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Sworn in Tuesday, these jurors will soon decide whether to approve indictments against Trump in the investigation led by District Attorney Fani Willis of Fulton County, Ga., which began in 2021. Already, the Department of Justice has indicted former President Trump with 37 felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, obstructing justice, making false statements and conspiring. In spite of stacks of boxes of government documents the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago, his social club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., the former president has pleaded not guilty.
“When he left office, President Trump apparently took with him a bunch of classified and secret documents,” said Leah Litman, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, on a recent episode of Ms.’ On the Issues With Michele Goodwin podcast. “The federal government basically begged him to give them back, over a series of escalating, legal coercive measures—investigating, requesting, subpoena, search warrant. And now finally since he’s still refusing to admit he did this, they indict him.”
On a recent episode, Litman and Goodwin discussed Trump’s 37 felony counts for allegedly mishandling sensitive, classified government materials and obstruction of justice
. . . .
The charges were brought on by special counsel Jack Smith, a Justice Department prosecutor and former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, who Attorney General Merrick B. Garland tasked with two criminal investigations regarding the former president:
“whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021,” and
and investigation “involving classified documents and other presidential records, as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation … in the Southern District of Florida.”
. . . .
Some of TRUMP’s boxes were moved from the business center to a bathroom and shower in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s Lake Room,” wrote Smith in the indictment. (Indictment, United States v. Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta, June 8, 2023)
“This case is not just about him taking the documents, but him refusing to give them back,” she continued. “When the federal government asked for the materials back, he basically tried to find people to hide the documents and to help him get away with this.” Documents, found in a bathroom, a ballroom and elsewhere, included information on “defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries, United States nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attacks, and plans for possible retaliation in response for foreign attack,” according to the DOJ filings in U.S. v. Trump Nauta—a reference to Walt Nauta, one of Trump’s aides.
. . . . .
“From January through March 15, 2021, some of TRUMP’s boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. TRUMP’s boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom’s stage.” (Indictment, United States v. Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta, June 8, 2023)
. . . .
Democracy and national security are going to be more than important topics in the 2024 elections and upholding accountability and countering authoritarian tendencies will run parallel.
“The worst thing you can do for a democracy is just let it slide when people try to do a coup and undermine democracy. That is how democracy dies. It is worth pursuing the fight to keep people accountable under the laws for undermining our democracy,” Litman said. Hear more from Leah Litman on the Trump indictments via “Fifteen Minutes of Feminism—The Trump Indictments: Unsealing the Federal Indictment (with Leah Litman).”
https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/14/trump-indictments-classified-documents/