A shocking image in a report by the Department of Justice to a federal judge late Wednesday clearly illustrates the defeated, disgraced, and corrupt former president Donald J. Trump’s obstruction of justice, concealment/removal of vital secret documents of America and still other crimes that add up to violations of the nation’s Espionage Act and, yes, treason against the United States of America.
Yet his cult of MAGA (“Make America Great Again’) followers, a dwindling but still loud collection of a political party destroyed by Trump, keep threatening the FBI agents who enforce the laws that protect this land, the U.S. Attorney General, and others who put patriotism above politics and law above personal greed.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former Trump critic turned MAGA puppet, predicted “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted and charged for any of his many crimes against America. Graham and others openly protect a documented traitor and clearly the most criminal president in American history.
MAGA muppets predict a new Civil War and called the riot of thugs that trashed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 “patriots.” Many of them are now in prison for their crimes and many others of the more than 800 charged will follow them.
Report Glenn Thrush, Charlie Savage, Alan Feuer, and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times:
The filing came in response to Mr. Trump’s request for an independent review of materials seized from his home, Mar-a-Lago. But it went far beyond that, painting the clearest picture yet of the department’s efforts to retrieve the documents before taking the extraordinary step of searching a former president’s private property on Aug. 8.
Among the new disclosures in the 36-page filing were that the search yielded three classified documents in desks inside Mr. Trump’s office, with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence, including some at the most restrictive levels.
That was twice the number of classified documents the former president’s lawyers turned over voluntarily while swearing an oath that they had returned all the material demanded by the government.
–New York Times
Notes Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post:
One does not need a medical degree or a therapist’s license to conclude that defeated former president Donald Trump’s nutty rant insisting that he be made president immediately or the 2020 election be rerun is the sign of an unhinged personality. Under pressure from the increasingly potent espionage investigation, he might be losing his grip. For a change, you don’t hear Republicans rushing forth to support his latest insane demand.
Trump’s posting of QAnon messages and implicit threats (in increasingly unintelligible syntax) suggests that he is losing the ability or desire to control his impulsive outbursts. This is the guy whom millions of Republicans want to nominate for president.
Since the redacted affidavit was released last week, the only two defenses from Republicans are no defenses at all. The first, courtesy of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), amounts to extortion: Prosecute Trump and there’ll be blood in the streets. The second is the laughable inquiry: Is that all? It’s not “all,” because the affidavit was heavily redacted. Moreover, the notion that we are talking “just” about documents ignores that most espionage cases are about documents (or equivalent material). That’s where the secrets are.
More and more Republicans, however, are stepping back from Trump. Those running in the mid-term elections in November have scrubbed his name and/or photos from their campaign sites and have told him to stay away.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnel has pulled an $8 million ad buy from the campaign of an election denier Blake Master, endorsed by Trump after he urged violent responses by MAGA miscreants and a series of racist statements and ads.
Now-devout Trumpite Sen. Graham is drawing questions about his sanity and his devotion to the party from other Republicans who increasingly want Trump gone, for good. In the 2016 campaign, Graham said that anyone who supported or voted for the flashy former TV-show reality host and founder of many businesses that went bankrupt would “live to regret such support or votes.” He didn’t follow his own advice and is now alone, with regrets.
Graham is also under investigation in Georgia for his part in the attempt to, somehow, find “new votes” for the defeated Trump in the days following the election. If he is charged and jailed, will anyone riot in the streets?
Doubtful. Maybe he and Trump can share a prison cell. That would give us two reasons to celebrate.
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