Political Memes, Comics, and other Shenanigans, Part 42

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[AnywhereButHere]

[Audrey2]

23 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

This is funny but I wouldn't put it past him.

[WiseGirl]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

"Fun With Espionage"

Quote

Didn’t we all pretty much expect it to come down to treason? I mean, unless you’re in the orange cult, you saw this coming from 600 miles away. You may be surprised that it actually happened, but you still saw it coming.

My one hope is that this doesn’t wind up like the Mueller investigation. We all know Trump had help from Russia to win the 2016 election. This is a fact. It’s a fact that Donald Trump asked Russia for their help. It’s a fact his campaign welcomed Russia’s help. It’s a fact Trump read Wikileaks at his hate rallies. It’s a fact his campaign had contacts with people, at the very least, in contact with Russia. It’s a fucking fact that Trump’s campaign met with Russians in Trump Tower for dirt on Hillary Clinton. It’s a fact that during the transition, Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn were having secret talks with Russians. The only thing Mueller couldn’t establish was a connection directly between Trump and Russia.

And when Donald Trump extorted the president of another nation by withholding military aid approved by Congress in exchange for political dirt on Joe Biden, Republicans in the Senate refused to convict him.

When he attempted a coup and sent a white nationalist mob to attack the Capitol, Republicans again refused to convict him.

Just by those three crimes he got away with, there should be a nice jail cell warming up with his name on it.

We learned from the unsealing of the search warrant giving the FBI permission to search Mar-a-Lago that they’re investigating Trump for violating the Espionage Act, mishandling of documents, and obstruction of justice (which he’s done before).

But it’s Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 793, better known as the Espionage Act, which outlaws the unauthorized retention of national security information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary that’s the beef in all this. Even if Donald Trump did declassify all the documents he took to his beach house when he fled Washington with his tail between his legs, it can still be a crime.

But saying something is declassified doesn’t make it declassified. The Justice Department made that clear, even during the Trump presidency. And former presidents can’t declassify documents.

And even if Donald Trump only wanted to keep these documents as keepsakes, without any ill intention of selling, giving, or trading them to foreign nations, the mishandling of them can still be cited as harmful to our nation and be in violation of the Espionage Act.

But even if Donald Trump declassified all this stuff, why did he want it? This is something he has not explained. I don’t think he’s even tweeted, er…”truthed” a lie out about it yet, like the comparison to Obama taking “30 million documents to Chicago.”

President Obama did not take 30 million documents to Chicago. The National Archives did. President Obama has no say in how those documents are stored or handled. This is a fact. And for those goons who whatabout with the Clintons leaving the White House with government property, they didn’t take classified documents. They weren’t raided by the FBI in violation of the Espionage Act. The Clintons had confusion over what were gifts to them and what were gifts to the presidency. Everything was returned or paid for. Now, let’s hope Donald Trump pays for what he took. Taking documents containing nuclear secrets isn’t the same as taking an armoire.

When the Clintons were asked to return stuff, they returned them. There were no negotiations. They didn’t just return some and keep the rest and force DOJ’s hand to get a warrant.

But again, why did Trump have this stuff? The government retrieved 15 boxes from Trump last year, but he still had other shit. According to the FBI, they seized 11 sets of documents in all, including some marked as “classified/TS/SCI,” shorthand for “top secret/sensitive compartmented information,” according to the report. Agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents. Included in the manifest were also files pertaining to the pardon of Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime associate of Mr. Trump’s, and material about President Emmanuel Macron of France.

What was he doing with material on Macron? Was he planning to sell or give dirt on him to his political enemy, Marine Le Pen?

Trump is crying that he was cooperating with the Department of Justice and National Archives to return the stuff the FBI eventually seized. OK, but why wasn’t it already returned? Why did he still have it? Why were there even negotiations for shit he didn’t own?

Donald Trump hasn’t been charged with any crimes yet and everything mentioned in the warrant was reasons to search, not indictments. The Department of Justice may turn around later and say everything has been explained and no charges will be forthcoming. Sorry for the inconvenience. And even if they do indict Trump, there’s always the possibility a jury won’t convict him. But then again, there’s always the chance they will.

Trump’s defenders like to point out he’s a collector which is a nice way of saying he’s a hoarder. His office in Trump Tower was always cluttered to the point visitors had a difficult time walking through it without knocking shit over. He kept a pair of Shaquille O’Neal’s shoes in his office. But boxes of top-secret classified documents is something really weird to collect. This isn’t a football signed by Tim Tebow.

This isn’t stuff that landed in his office. This is stuff he intentionally took. Who accidentally takes nuclear secrets to the beach?

And quite frankly, I wouldn’t put it past Donald Trump to try to sell classified information to our enemies and put our nation in danger. Looking at all his past behavior where it was never about service to the country for Trump and just about service to himself, why wouldn’t I put it past him? He’s already proven to be a national security risk. A man died this week attacking an FBI office over Donald Trump screaming about them taking stuff he doesn’t own.

Who thought Trump’s legacy could get worse than two impeachments and sedition?

 

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

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