I think the “it wasn’t me” defense is the most likely one he would use.
Trump: “I’m not a micro manager and didn’t pack the boxes or even look at them”
DOJ: “Well how about all the times that we asked for them back?”
Trump: “So arrest my lawyer, or the person that reported it. Nothing to do with me.”
Then it will be his word against a few others, and we know how that usually ends up. He squirms out again and again. This is my fear.
ETA: this is why I asked about the Supreme Court. I’m thinking at least 5 of them will say that there’s nothing in the Constitution that allows so and so and that kind of BS.
That would be great. I suspect that they won’t be welcomed with open arms. American jails are a penthouse compared to Russian or Saudi jails.
I do think that Putin at least knows that Trumps brain is nothing more than some pudding mixed with rocks. So no real advantage there. He could try to ‘ransom’ him, but I hope we just say, nothing to see here and walk away.
In such a scenario, wouldn’t the smarter move by Putin be to make a big show of treating Trump well, so as to encourage others to follow in Trump’s footsteps?
They were in his house, and he’s a grown man. If the cops found drugs in my basement, that’s all there would be to it.
It should be that way with the con man, too, but he seems to be above the law.
Most crimes do not result in criminal convictions. I’m sure presidents have gotten away with crimes before, and the republic did not fall.
This does not doom us, or anybody.
Now. a false conviction does doom somebody.
I think that punishing someone with years in prison, because they failed to declassify a paper, when that president could have easily done it, is overreaching.
Now, if he stole government property, like presidential signed letters, that would sell for thousands of dollars at auction, that could be an open and shut case. No need for months of trial time.
I’m still not understanding how trump would get SCIF documents out of the SCIF area at the WH. You can’t - or at least aren’t supposed to be able to - take those to the WH residence to look at in the evening, right? Even if you’re the president? So that argument shouldn’t work except on hard-core trumpies…right?
I sincerely hope this is already happening and will result in more indictments. If Trump goes down alone, the GOP can spin a “bad apple went too far” narrative, but if top operatives, governors and Congresspeople go down, too, the party’s over. (SWIDT?)
As for Trump himself, I don’t especially care how much time he does or where. What I care about is that all his debts get called in, leaving him and his organization truly bankrupt. No more names on buildings, no more personal jets, no more golf courses. That lack of prestige will hurt him more than any prison sentence.
So is that official Republican policy now? They feel that Republicans should be able to steal official government documents containing top secret information about the country’s nuclear secrets, and sell them to the highest bidder?
Rand Paul seriously thinks that this is OK? So if Biden sold information about Israel’s nuclear capability to Saudi Arabia for a billion dollars in his personal bank account, Rand Paul would think that’s just fine?
I’m hoping the book, when written, will fill in some of the little details of which I’m mildly curious. Like, did they rent a U-Haul? Who drove the truck down, and if he stopped for breaks, how was the truck secured? Nuclear secrets behind a padlock and roll-up door?
The Mar-A-Lago surveillance footage the DOJ subpoenaed was for a 60-day period.
I hope they also identified any foreign nationals who may have been making deals with Trump, and/or walking off with any of the classified material.
Of course, Republicans will continue to excuse Trump’s sale of top secret nuclear material to foreign agents. These politicians can, and will sink even lower than we every imagined.
There was a Republican, I don’t know who, just interviewed on CNN and his biggest problem was that the former guy’s house got raided. Secondarily he was emphatic that Merrick Garland should be bound to follow the law.
The Republican talking points must have made their way around just in time for the Sunday talk shows.
They put in an SCIF at Mar-a-Lago immediately after Trump took office.
Ironically, the existence of the SCIF at the president’s private club in Palm Beach was first revealed in a White House press briefing on February 14, 2017, to rebut criticism Trump himself had put sensitive discussions at risk.