Read the indictment for yourself
Don't take anyone else's word for it. Go to the source.
Before your head gets too crammed with partisan "commentary" and histrionics over Trump's 37-count indictment, take a few minutes to read the indictment yourself.
Here's the LINK.
Read the indictment.
If you have two eyes and a brain, better to go to the source than to simply rely on the opinions of others.
The indictment filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of Florida is only 49 double-spaced pages.
It isn't as if I'm telling you to read "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
There is no reason at all not to read the indictment yourself.
I read it twice, yesterday after it was first released, and again this morning.
Here's the LINK again.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't read columns or Twitter threads from attorneys who break down the indictment and explain what each portion means. But it would help you immensely if you first read the indictment yourself before reading commentary on it.
If nothing else, it will give you an understanding of what is discussed and allow you to distinguish the helpful, informative commentaries from the ridiculous ones.
It will also help you to determine which commentators actually took the time to read the indictment themselves.
Believe me, when you take the time to read it, you can spot the bullshitters a mile away. Many of them are the ones who make claims about the contents of the indictment without ever providing a link so you can read it yourself.
So read it yourself.
There were points while reading through it yesterday that my jaw was agape in incredulity.
It never ceases to amaze me how Donald Trump brings this kind of nonsense on himself.
All Trump had to do was comply with the subpoena and return the documents, and none of this would be happening.
But no, he didn't.
Instead, he had his aide (co-defendant Walter Nauta) and other staffers sort through the boxes and only retrieve some of the classified materials requested in the subpoena. Then he had one of his lawyers ("Lawyer 3" in the indictment), who wasn't in any way involved in the whole mishegas, certify for the FBI that everything subpoenaed was turned over.
"Lawyer 3" had no way of knowing that since she wasn't involved in searching the boxes and didn't even know the details of the subpoena. And as a result, she put her signature on false statements.
Then, after turning over just some of the subpoenaed records, Trump's aide (AKA his co-defendant) along with other staffers, loaded some of the documents onto the plane taking Trump and his family to Bedminster.
That was one of the sections of the indictment that sent my jaw dropping. But not the first one.
My jaw also dropped when I read the part about the boxes being moved willy-nilly around Mar-a-Lago and getting placed in the oddest locations, including on the stage of one of the ballrooms and in a bathroom.
What is it with putting classified records in bathrooms anyway?
First Hillary stuck a private email server in the bathroom closet and now Trump is stacking boxes next to the toilet.
I'll have to tell my parents that they're doing this wrong.
Forget the stacks of Reader's Digest, Dad. I don't want to read the "Laughter is the Best Medicine" column. I want to read about the CIA's intel sources in Russia!
Then there was the part of the indictment that cited recorded instances of Trump showing off classified material to guests.
In one instance, for which an audio recording is included in the indictment, Trump was meeting with the authors of an upcoming book at Bedminster in 2021.
During the meeting, Trump used a classified document as a way to lash out at a "Senior Military Official" whom Trump claimed accused him of wanting to attack an unnamed country.
To prove that it wasn't true, Trump presents a classified document he claimed was a "plan of attack" on the country in question. Telling the writers, "[T]his is off the record," Trump said of the document, "They presented me this."
Trump later tells the writers, "This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly classified. Secret. This is secret information."
He later explains, "See as president, I could have declassified it. Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
I mean, come on!
For over a year, Trump-supporting bloggers and social media "influencers" have maintained that Trump declassified everything he took with him before leaving office. And here Trump is on audio admitting that the document he was showing off "is like, highly classified" and "still a secret," and he can't declassify it now that he isn't president.
I've said before that Trump is his worst enemy. Is it any wonder his lawyers keep quitting? Who would take this guy on as a client?
Yesterday, Trump Super Fan Jack Posobiec claimed on Twitter that the audio transcript has been "debunked" because the transcript in the indictment did not include "like," before "highly classified" and did not include the word "a" before "secret."
As you can see from the portion I quoted above, Posobiec's claims are lies. This is why I am urging you to read the indictment for yourself rather than relying on the word of other people.
In another incident, during a meeting with someone from his PAC, Trump allegedly showed off a classified map of another country and told the person not to "get too close" because the map was classified.
I laughed out loud when I read that section. Is there some provision in federal law that makes it okay to show off classified documents provided the person without clearance practices social distancing?
Good grief, what a clown show.
You can make the "But what about Biden keeping classified documents in the garage?!!" argument all you want. That doesn't absolve Trump. All it does is prove that both Trump and Biden were incredibly irresponsible and reckless in their handling of classified documents.
Trump went to some lengths to avoid turning over the subpoenaed documents. So too did Hillary Clinton. In fact, Hillary went to even greater lengths, deleting emails and destroying devices to avoid complying with a Congressional subpoena.
Now, I'm not naïve.
I know that Hillary should have faced many of the same charges that Trump is facing, and she got away with it.
In July 2016, James Comey set the country on this path of two systems of justice when he unilaterally decided not to pursue a case against Hillary Clinton.
Thirty-one of the 37 counts in Trump's indictment relate to "Willful Retention of National Defense Information."
If our Justice System was truly blind, either Hillary Clinton should have been indicted for the same thing or Trump should get the same pass as Hillary.
Trump also faces six other counts: "Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice," "Withholding a Document or Record," "Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record," "Concealing a Document or Record," "Scheme to Conceal," and "False Statements and Representations."
If our Justice System upheld the law equally regardless of political party, Hillary Clinton should have faced these same charges.
So, no. It isn't that Trump is being "falsely" accused. He did it.
It's that Trump is being held to a standard of justice that a Democrat presidential candidate was not.
That is what's galling about this.
This indictment, especially coupled with the pass Hillary received, only confirms that the Department of Justice is not upholding the law equally.
Ironically, this indictment also confirms that Donald Trump didn't live up to his own standard:
What about this?
Despite his efforts to disparage them, the great agents of the FBI will gather enough evidence to convict him. If he were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment.— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 9, 2023
Now what if I told you those were actually almost verbatim quotes from Donald Trump arguing why voters would be foolish to elect Hillary Clinton in 2016? pic.twitter.com/ydeHUIyskV
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 9, 2023
Trump made some pretty compelling arguments for why Americans shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
For me, those arguments remain just as compelling today.
Why on earth would I vote to nominate someone who feels entitled to take classified documents, actively defies a federal subpoena in order to keep them, and then lies about it?
Hillary's mishandling of classified records was one of many reasons I had no interest in voting for her in 2016. Am I now supposed to pretend that it doesn't matter simply because Trump is running for the Republican nomination? Should I pull out my best Hillary impersonation and bellow, "What difference at this point does it make?!"
I don't think so.
Or perhaps you believe I should vote for Trump in the primary as some show of misguided solidarity.
You'll forgive me for wanting to put America first rather than cast a pity vote for an old fool who finds himself in a hole of his own making.
This is a predicament Donald Trump brought on himself.
Part of "taking on the Deep State" has to include having enough sense not to take actions the Deep State can then exploit to weaponize against you.
The Deep State didn't force Donald Trump to stroll out of the White House with hundreds of classified documents. He did that of his own accord.
The Deep State didn't force Trump to actively defy a subpoena to turn over the documents. He chose to do that.
The Deep State didn't force Trump to lie to the FBI (or make his attorneys lie on his behalf). That too is on Trump.
How could anyone possibly believe this blundering fool's claim that he alone will fight the Deep State? In light of this indictment, Trump's claim is laughable.
That doesn't make this indictment any less egregious given the unequal application of the law.
But it does make me even more certain that the very last person Republican voters should nominate in 2024 is Donald Trump.
I realize that for the Trump Super Fans none of this matters. They don't care. At this point, I'm not even sure that they're particularly interested in winning the 2024 presidential election.
As Jesse Kelly often tells the Super Fans who lose their marbles over his tweets, "You're in love and love gives you blinders."
Yesterday, Trump Super Fan Laura Loomer, the Patricia Krenwinkle to Trump's Manson, tweeted, "I'm voting for the guy who has the most arrests and indictments. Because that means he has actually fought for something."
Well okay then. Laura is a lost cause.
Trump once joked that his fans would never turn on him even if he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
There's no reaching these people because they are in love.
Or, to quote Jesse Kelly again:
If you still want to vote for Donald Trump in the primary, be my guest. It's a free country and you can vote for whatever candidate you choose. Hell, some people even voted for satirist Pat Paulson every time he ran one of his nutty presidential campaigns.
But if you think that Trump getting hit with a 37-count indictment is going to expand his base of support enough to defeat Biden in 2024, your love blinders are preventing you from seeing reality.
The people who already hated Trump still hate Trump while many of those who voted for Trump will look at the latest indictment and say, "No more. I've had it with this guy."
Though to be fair, many of those Trump voters had already had enough of the guy two years ago. For them, this indictment will only serve as further confirmation that their decision to kick him to the curb was the right one.
I know I keep saying this, but I want to win back the White House in 2024 and rid this country of Joe Biden and his vengeful band of Marxists weirdos. I want Republicans to retake the Senate and expand their majority in the House. I want more Republican state legislatures and governors fighting back against the Marxist hordes that seek to destroy our country.
And for the life of me, I just can't see any of that happening if Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket.
Someone who truly puts America First would have enough self-awareness to know that his mountains of baggage have made him a liability. But Trump doesn't put America First. Loyalty to him must always trump loyalty to America.
He won't go away of his own accord. Only voters can send him packing.
We can either do that in the primary while we still have a chance to defeat the Democrats in 2024, or we can wait for General Election voters to do it for us by reelecting Joe Biden.
I choose option one.