Newly free, the DOJ is now returning to what it was doing in August: investigating Trump’s retention of government documents at Mar-a-Lago, and considering whether to charge him.
You know this could have all been handled adult like, but now we truly know Donald J. Trump as never ever been an adult. He’s remained a bawling brat his whole life.
Huh. It’s not a crime to “steal” defense info and other national security information, just to hold onto it? Yet another case where our rats’ nest of laws won’t protect us, but still manage to provide lots of rat-holes and blind alleys that an unscrupulous criminal can use to evade justice.
Either indefinitely, or until the prosecuting forces give up … or a chage of administration.
How did we get here? Is this situation serving justice? What can be changed?
An excellent question…and one seldom broached. Trump aims to demoralize his opponents and, with his various tactics, essentially leads most people to toss in the towel.
Aside from the necessity of competent professionals “leaving no stone unturned”, what we can do is to show some righteous anger at his near daily affront to all norms and traditions most of us hold dear.
I think it’s a crime to take classified information. National security information is defined differently. For instance, back in the 80’s a high school kid noodled through how to build a nuclear bomb without using classified information.
The government said his school project was national security information and the kid had to turn it over to the government, even though it was compiled through non-classified sources.
In TFG’s case, it’s somewhat ridiculous, but keeping the information after being requested to give it back is an easy crime to prove.
In a somewhat similar vein, prosecutors often bring cases for breach of contract, or something that can be shown with documents, even though it’s a minor part of the crime. Because it can be easily shown. Hence, prosecuting Trump Organization for off the books benefits. The prosecutors had a chart of what they paid and should have paid.