Podcast: I Feel Snitty
Episode 233: Jack Smith vs. Jacka$$
Premiere Date: 6/14/2022
Length: 22:57 (3,441 words)
Link: https://ifeelsnitty.podbean.com/e/jack-smith-vs-jacka/
Transcript:
Welcome to I Feel Snitty, episode 233, entitled, “Jack Smith vs. Jackass.” I’m your host, Craig Rozniecki.
On June 8th, Donald Trump became the first former “president” to be charged with federal crimes, as he was indicted by a Florida grand jury on 37 felony counts – all relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after being fired by the American people and leaving office with a stubby tail between his legs. On June 13th, Donald Trump pled ‘not guilty’ to all the charges. I read the 44-page indictment last night and wanted to talk to listeners about it today.
First off, let’s just stand back for a moment here. In the past 2 ½ months, Donald Trump has been:
- Indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records at the New York state level.
- Found liable for $5 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation. It’s also been reported, due to his recent CNN town hall, Trump could be liable for up to $5 million more in damages.
- Indicted on 37 felony counts of mishandling classified documents at the federal level.
According to my math, that’s 71 felony charges for the former “president,” not to mention liability for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil suit. Odds are we’re not done here, as Trump will likely be indicted for allegedly tampering with Georgia’s voting, as well as his role in the January 6th attacks on our nation’s Capitol.
Keeping that in mind, let’s turn our attention back to the most recent indictment. I keep hearing Republicans make the egregious claim that President Biden is responsible for the indictment and arrest of Donald Trump. I find this antithetical dual-personality Trumpers have painted of Biden to be ironically hilarious. What is the one thing for which GOPers continually poke fun at Biden? His age, and more specifically the claim that he has dementia. According to the right, Biden can’t even tie his own shoes – even if they’re Velcro, let alone lead a country. YET, according to these same, I’ll be nice and call them people, they still somehow believe an allegedly senile Joe Biden can thoroughly investigate Trump’s handling of government devices; take the case to a grand jury and literally be the grand jury in order to indict Trump on 37 felony counts; write a 44-page indictment; and have the former “president” arrested – all because he’s scared shitless of a guy he beat in the 2020 election by over 7 million votes. So, President Biden may not know who he is or what day it is, but he can also orchestrate the grandest, most complicated schemes in US history. Well, guess what? Joe Biden may be a guy who can get things done, but even he can’t take the place of nine jurors to indict his former political opponent. Michael Keaton in Multiplicity couldn’t even pull off that shit. Oh, and before anyone tries telling me Special Counsel Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland are part of the “deep-state,” Jack Smith is a registered Independent, and the only people Merrick Garland ever pisses off more than Trumpers are liberals. Don’t believe me? Just go to Twitter; type “Merrick Garland” in the search box; and prepare to wash your eyes with soap, due to all the vile and vulgar language you’re about to read.
I’m also hearing Trumpers whine that, since Donald Trump is running for the 2024 presidential election, he can’t be indicted – or at the very least, it’s morally reprehensible for him to get indicted. So, let me get this straight; Donald Trump couldn’t be prosecuted while he was “president” for that very reason, and he can’t be prosecuted now, even though he’s not president, because he’s running for president. Did I get that right? Does this standard apply to everyone? If a person is facing a federal investigation, no matter how far along the investigation is, the potential defendant can announce they’re running for president, and the investigation will automatically come to an end? Yeah, that wouldn’t cause any problems…
Let’s play along for a moment,
though. Let’s say, “Okay, it’d be wrong for the federal government to undertake
an investigation on a person AFTER they announced they’d be running for
president in the coming election.” Donald Trump didn’t announce he was going to
be running for the 2024 election until November 15th of last year.
When were Trump’s attorneys first notified by the National Archives of missing presidential
records? May 6th. 2021. That’s right, a year and a half prior to
Trump’s announcement. What else preceded it? Oh, just subpoenas, surveillance,
search warrants – you know, nothing major. So, even if we went by the nonsensical
MAGAt logic of, “Well, you can’t investigate someone after they’ve announced
they’re gonna run for president,” the investigative process started long before
Trump made said announcement. And don’t give me this crap that an investigation
should automatically end when a person announces they’re going to run for
president. This kind of rationale reminds me of a story. I was once playing tag
with someone, and when I got really close to tagging him, he said, “Pause!
Pause! You can’t move anymore! You have to stop! Pause!” Yeah, do you know who
that was? My 5-year-old son. It’s just a game, and he’s kinda cute, so he can
get away with it. Donald Trump is a 500-year-old man; is the antithesis of
cute; and no matter what he may want to believe, the law isn’t a game. I’m now
envisioning him playing tag, and it’s not a pretty sight, so I’m going to move
on…
While reading the 44-page indictment, a scene from the film Dumb &
Dumber kept springing to mind, only with a minor revision. At one point in
the movie, Harry – played by Jeff Daniels – tells Lloyd – played by Jim Carrey
– “Just when I think you couldn’t be any dumber, you go and do something like
this…” After a long pause, he finishes his thought with, “…and totally redeem
yourself!” Well, while reading this indictment, that scene kept replaying in my
head, but it ended slightly differently. Harry said, “Just when I thought you
couldn’t be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally prove me
wrong!” Seriously, Donald Trump may be one of the stupidest people in recorded
history. There have been numerous series centering around dumb criminals. When
all is said and done, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see the
miniseries America’s Dumbest Criminal: Donald Trump.
Please, allow me to share with you just how dumb of a criminal Donald Trump is.
I had actually thought about reading the indictment in full, but while it may
be well-written, it’s about as entertaining as listening to Ben Stein document
paint drying.
This all started immediately after Trump left the White House on January 20th
of 2021. He had hoards of boxes transported to his Mar-a-Lago Club. Included in
these boxes were classified documents, which Trump was not authorized to
possess, since he was no longer president. Where did he decide to store these
boxes which contained classified information? A ballroom, bathroom and shower,
office space, bedroom, and storage room, of course. When I read this, I
pictured the classic board game Clue, and someone calling out “I know who
did it! Donald Trump hid the classified documents in the Ballroom because he
has a lead pipe for a brain!”
Oh, but it gets worse – much, much worse. Special Counsel Smith then notes two occasions when Trump showed classified documents to others. Even though it’s not chronological, I’m going to mention the first case last, for it’s my favorite.
Quoting Special Counsel Smith: “In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, Trump showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close.”
Like I said, the dumbest
person in recorded history. “I know I shouldn’t be doing this. I, I can’t do
this. It’s like very, very wrong and illegal, and I’m going to get into big
trouble if I do this. But, here, let me show you anyway, but like, look at it
so you can see, but like don’t look real close, so you can’t see, you know?
Anyway, again, this is highly illegal. So, yeah, here.”
Now for my favorite of the two. Yes, this one is miles better, if you can
believe that.
On July 21st of 2021, at The Bedminster Club, Donald Trump gave an
interview to a writer and publisher, who were working on a book. Here’s how
that interview started Keep in mind, neither the staffers, writer, nor
publisher had any security clearances regarding classified information:
Trump: “Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of
attack, read it and just show…it’s interesting.”
Special Counsel Smith then noted this back-and-forth later in the interview:
Trump: “Well, with [the Senior Military Official]-uh, let me see that, I’ll
show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack [Country A]. Isn’t it
amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was
him. They presented me this-this is off the record, but-they presented me this.
This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”
Writer: “Wow.”
Trump: “We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.
All sorts of stuff-pages long, look.”
Staffer: “Mm.”
Trump: “Wait a minute, let’s see here.”
Staffer: “[Laughter] Yeah.”
Trump: “I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.”
Staffer: “Mm-hm.”
Trump: “Except it is like, highly confidential.”
Staffer: “Yeah. [Laughter]”
Trump: “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack,
and-“
Trump: “By the way. Isn’t that incredible?”
Staffer: “Yeah.”
Trump: “I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he
said, ‘he wanted to attack [Country A], and what…’”
Staffer: “You did.”
Trump: “This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can
probably, right?”
Staffer: “I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to-“
Trump: “Declassify it.”
Staffer: “Figure out a-yeah.”
Trump: “See as president I could have declassified it.”
Staffer: “Yeah. [Laughter]”
Trump: “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
Staffer: “Yeah. [Laughter] Now we have a problem.”
Trump: “Isn’t that interesting?”
America’s dumbest criminal… Resorting back to the board game Clue for a moment, no one would even need to guess who did it or how it was done; Donald Trump would tell you. “Um, yeah, so, would you look at this? This is the candlestick I used to bash that guy over the head in the Hall. Isn’t that interesting? This has to be the biggest, heaviest, best candlestick the world has ever seen!”
As I already noted, in May of 2021 the National Archives had started contacting Trump’s lawyers about missing presidential records the former “president” needed to return. On January 17th of 2022, a Trump employee sent only 15 of seemingly countless boxes of documents to the National Archives. After the National Archives reviewed said documents, it found the following:
- 14 of the 15 boxes had contained classified information.
- There were 197 documents with classification markings.
- Of these, 69 were marked “CONFIDENTIAL;” 98 were marked “SECRET;” and 30 were marked “TOP SECRET.”
In
case you’re curious on the differences between the three classifications,
“CONFIDENTIAL” basically means, if the document were to get into the wrong
hands, it could cause damage to our national security; if the document is
classified as “SECRET,” its contents getting into the wrong hands could cause
serious damage to our national security; and if a document is labeled “TOP
SECRET,” the exact wording Special Counsel Smith uses to describe it is
“exceptionally grave damage” to our national security. In light of these
findings, the National Archives reported the matter to the Department of
Justice on February 9th of 2022.
On March 30th of 2022 (yes, still 7 ½ months before Trump’s big
announcement), the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the classified
documents at the aforementioned Mar-a-Lago Club. On May 11th a grand jury
issued a subpoena, requiring that Trump return all classified documents.
Trump met with a pair of his attorneys on May 23rd to discuss the aforementioned subpoena. During this meeting, Trump was reported to have said the following:
- “I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes.”
- “Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?”
- “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
- “Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
At this meeting it was eventually decided one of the two attorneys present would return to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club on June 2nd to look through any remaining documents with classification markings.
Between the noted May 23rd meeting and June 2nd, Trump ordered for 64 boxes to be moved from the storage room to Trump’s residence. On June 2nd, Trump ordered for 30 boxes to be moved from his residence to the storage room. Later in the day, as had been scheduled, Trump’s attorney looked through the boxes in the storage room – unaware dozens of boxes had been moved to Trump’s residence. In the boxes located in the storage room, Trump’s attorney found 38 documents with classification markings. Following these proceedings, Trump’s attorney notified the Department of Justice on the matter, and then contacted a third Trump attorney, asking if she could meet him at the Mar-a-Lago Club the following morning to certify his findings. She signed the certification, which read as follows:
“[B]ased upon the information that [had] been provided to her’:
a. “A diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida’;
b. “This search was conducted after receipt of the subpoena, in order to locate any and all documents that are responsive to the subpoena’; and
c. “Any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.”
Since Trump had ordered dozens
of boxes be moved from the storage room to his residence and never informed his
attorneys of this, the certification was false, and thereby not valid.
In July of 2022, the FBI reviewed surveillance of boxes being moved at the
Mar-a-Lago Club.
On August 8th of 2022, the FBI was provided a search warrant for the Mar-a-Lago Club.
During the search, the following items were found:
- 27 documents in Trump’s office (6 marked “TOP SECRET;” 18 marked “SECRET;” and 3 marked “CONFIDENTIAL”
- 75 documents in the storage room (11 marked “TOP SECRET;” 36 marked “SECRET;” and 28 marked “CONFIDENTIAL”)
Special Counsel Smith then lists the 37 felony counts. The first 31 charges are for unlawfully retaining documents regarding national defense. These include 21 documents marked “TOP SECRET;” 9 marked “SECRET;” and 1 without a specific classification. Here are a few descriptions of these very documents:
- “concerning military capabilities of a foreign country and the United States”
- “White House intelligence briefing related to foreign countries, including military activities and planning of foreign countries”
- “concerning nuclear capabilities of a foreign country”
- “concerning military capabilities of a foreign country”
- “concerning military attacks by a foreign country”
- “concerning military contingency planning of the United States”
- “concerning projected regional military capabilities of a foreign country and the United States”
- “concerning military options of a foreign country and potential effects on United States interests”
- “concerning foreign country support of terrorist acts against United States interests”
- “concerning military operations against United States forces and others”
- “concerning nuclear weaponry of the United States”
- “concerning timeline and details of attack in a foreign country”
- “concerning regional military activity of a foreign country”
The
final 6 charges are as follows: Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, Withholding a
Document or Record, Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record, Concealing a
Document in a Federal Investigation, Scheme to Conceal, and False Statements
and Representations. These charges center around Donald Trump being required to
turn over all classified documents by the May 11th grand jury
subpoena, and saying he did so, even though he had ordered dozens of boxes be
moved prior to his attorney searching through what he felt were the final
remaining documents with classification markings – resulting in a false
certification.
That is the indictment in a bigly nutshell. Donald Trump and his minions will
try to convince you that this indictment is proof of a “deep-state” in
government; that other politicians have done the same thing; etc. But, like
just about everything else Donald Trump says, that’s not true.
Trump has claimed former Presidents: H.W. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama, and
current President Biden have all been guilty of the same acts.
I’ll allow CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale to respond.
With regard to George H.W. Bush, Dale wrote:
“George H.W. Bush did not take millions of documents to a former bowling alley and Chinese restaurant. Rather, the National Archives and Records Administration took Bush’s presidential documents to this facility prior to the opening of the Bush presidential library in the same city.”
With regard to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Dale said this:
“Trump’s
claims about Clinton and George W. Bush are inaccurate in precisely the same
way: National Archives and Records Administration, not the former presidents
themselves, put the documents in temporary storage at National Archives and
Records Administration-managed facilities at the former car dealership in
Arkansas and warehouse in Texas.”
Similarly, Barack Obama was cooperative with the National Archives and Records
Administration, and President Biden has been as well. So, the comparisons
aren’t even apples-to-oranges in quality; they’re apples-to-nuclear-weapons.
Assuming Jack Smith isn’t playing around here, and I genuinely don’t believe he is, the indictment is quite damning. There appears to be solid evidence on Trump illegally retaining national defense-related classified documents in the first 31 counts, as well as evidence to showcase he attempted to mislead the FBI, grand jury, even his attorneys on the classified documents he both turned over and retained, for the remaining 6 counts. With an indictment this damning, I honestly don’t believe the prosecution needs to even find a motive. Donald Trump broke these laws, and the prosecution has the evidence to prove it. Why he did it isn’t really relevant on that front. Having said that, I’m still curious. What in the Sam hill was this guy thinking? Why? What was the purpose? I can think of a few possible reasons:
1) Trump never met a dirty deal he didn’t like, so possessing such classified information regarding the US government could provide quite the leverage to such a deal.
2) Russia seems to have something on Trump. Whether it’s video of the “golden showers” or evidence of financial fraud, he’s come across as more fearful of Vladimir Putin than Matt Gaetz is afraid of women over the age of 18. So, if that is indeed the case, perhaps Trump told Putin, “Hey, if I get you some classified info, will we be cool?”
3) The guy couldn’t let go of the fact he lost the election, and insisted on keeping a few classified documents to make himself feel important – like he was still “president.”
4) Another possibility is the guy is the stupidest son of a bitch this side of a drunken Lauren Boebert playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with an AR-15. To this point he was never held accountable by law, so why does he have to even have to know what they are, or even acknowledge they exist?
No matter the reason, the law may have finally caught up to him, and regardless of the false-equivalence, whataboutisms, and just plain hogwash he may spew, he should listen to this quote:
“In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”
Who said this? Donald Trump, on August 18th of 2016.
He also reportedly said, after Robert Mueller was appointed to lead the Russia probe, “I’m fucked.”
Yes, yes you most certainly are.
That’s it for today’s episode. Until next time, you can find me on Amazon, Podbean, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and YouTube. This has been I Feel Snitty, with Craig Rozniecki. Take care.
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