How Trump Managed to Mix Grievance Politics with Plausible Deniability
Somehow, Trump’s dalliance with secret documents has left Democrats confused and bewildered.
Former president Donald Trump had no business taking secret documents from work to his home in Florida. He thought he could just issue a “standing order” to declassify everything that he took home with him, like that would be OK. It wasn’t. So he must have known it would bring trouble just by taking them. I think he did and that he was planning to use that trouble as political leverage.
The most interesting part of this story is that even if the documents were not classified and they were, Trump has no legal defense other than to rely upon the counsel of his attorneys. Here is what a former federal prosecutor had to say about Trump’s handling of the matter, from Politico, “Espionage Isn’t the Strongest Case Against Trump. It’s Simpler Than That.”, 8/14/22:
Trump’s defense appears to be that he “had a standing order” declassifying every document he brought to his residence. While I suspect Trump could find aides willing to testify that this is true, I doubt he disclosed this to the government during their months of negotiations and it is unlikely a jury would find this story convincing. Even if they did, none of the…
