If one fact stands out in the indictment against Donald Trump, it is how intensively the former American president interfered with the boxes full of state documents that he did not want to transfer to the National Archives, as required by law. From the indictment, consisting of 37 indictments, which special counsel Jack Smith made public on Friday, it can be concluded that the president constantly wanted to have “his papers”, as one of his employees calls them. He had them lugged from the stage of the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort to a bathroom and toilet and later to a warehouse. All those places were not equipped to house state secrets and the boxes tipped over, with the confidential documents falling to the floor.
These are documents Trump had taken from the White House after the lost 2020 election and the failed attempt to torpedo the ratification of Joe Biden’s victory. The documents come from US intelligence services and ministries and were classified as ‘top secret’, ‘secret’ or ‘confidential’. That means disclosure of its contents could pose danger, to varying degrees, to the national security of the United States. Despite this, according to the indictment, Trump has discussed them at least twice with persons who are not so-called security clearance had.
One case involved a document discussing a US attack on Iran. Trump wanted to prove at all costs that he did not come up with this idea, as “a senior soldier” allegedly claimed, but the defense top in cooperation with that soldier – according to American media, the highest commander of the US military, General Mark Milley. On July 21, 2021, seven months after leaving the White House, Trump gave an interview at his golf club in Bedminster, New York. There he spoke with a writer – according to American media of a book about Trump’s last chief of staff Mark Meadows – and a publisher, and with two of his own employees. The conversation was recorded with Trump’s approval and the prosecution has the recording.
‘Highly Confidential’
“It was he who made this, not me,” Trump says on the recording. “You have to look at everything, pages long.” Mmm, says one of his employees according to the transcript. “Wait a minute, let’s see,” Trump says again. “I just found this, isn’t it great? I am absolutely right with this.” Mmmm, says the employee again. “It is only highly confidential. Secret. This is classified information. Look here, here. You attack and…”
A little later in the same conversation, it is mentioned that the piece is still classified as a secret. “You see, as president I could have lifted the confidentiality.” Yes, the employee laughs. “It is no longer possible,” Trump said. “It’s still a secret.” Yes, his employee laughs again, “then we have a problem.”
The passage is salient not only because Trump is knowingly discussing a secret state document with people who are not authorized to know its contents, but also because he is aware that he has not “declassified” the document in question, as he puts it. himself keeps claiming that he has done it – if need be by merely ‘thinking’ that he is breaking the confidentiality.
Obstruction of justice
Trump, who is due to appear in court in Miami next Tuesday for arraignment, is suspected of roughly three crimes: illegal possession of state documents – resulting in a violation of the 1917 espionage law – of making false statements and of obstruction of justice. That last allegation, sufficiently substantiated according to a grand jury of citizens in Miami, covers the period from March 2022, when the FBI opens an investigation into the boxes. The National Archives has been trying for 10 months to recover Trump’s state documents.
From the moment Trump receives a subpoena ordering him to turn over the documents to the archives, on May 11, 2022, the narrative in Friday’s indictment changes to a long list of all the movements of the boxes. In doing so, Trump also keeps his own lawyers in the dark about the documents in his possession. His lawyers promise to look for them in Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. But Trump has his close associate, who is also listed as a suspect in the indictment, keep the boxes out of sight of his lawyers.
On May 23, 2022, Trump will meet with two lawyers in Mar-a-Lago to determine their response to the May 11 subpoena. One of the lawyers recalls Trump making the following comments:
-“I don’t want anyone looking in my boxes. I don’t want you rummaging in my boxes.”
-“Hey, and what would happen if we just didn’t answer them? Not playing at all?”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we told them we have nothing here?”
“Wouldn’t we be better off if we say there are no documents?”
Hillary Clinton associate
According to the lawyer, Trump also praised Hillary Clinton’s aide in that conversation, who had stated that he had deleted the emails from Clinton’s controversial private server. In the 2016 campaign for president, Trump had consistently emphasized the actions of Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the election. As secretary, Clinton had received and sent work emails on a private server in her home. When the FBI investigated the degree of sensitivity of those emails, it turned out that a large part had been thoroughly deleted. Trump made that a regular number at his election rallies, saying that as president he would make sure Clinton went to jail. For his supporters, that was the signal to “Lock her up”, to scan. “Lock her up!”
In the May 23, 2022 conversation, Trump speaks approvingly of that Clinton aide. Because he had said that he and not she had deleted the emails, “she didn’t get into trouble,” Trump said.
Read also: Federal indictment against Trump