Donald Trump’s week from hell just got red hot. Reports emerged on Friday that he was suspected of violating the Espionage Act, removing or destroying records and obstructing an investigation. Separate inventory receipts show FBI agents seized a stack of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach residence and club.
Specifically, agents found four sets of “top secret documents,” three sets of “classified documents,” and three sets of “confidential documents.” Whether any of this relates to US nuclear capability remains a mystery.
On Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the FBI was looking for “nuclear documents and other items, sources say, even worse.” For his part, Trump has denied the nuclear weapons search and called the claims a “hoax.”
Earlier Thursday, Merrick Garland, the attorney general, told reporters that he had run out of money. At the same time, the Department of Justice also took to printing the search warrant and inventory list.
“Absent an objection” from Trump, the Justice Department asked the court to make both the search warrant and the inventory public. Late Thursday, the former president joined the department’s gambit. “Release the documents now!” Trump announced on Truth Social.
Now there are nuclear weapons in the air and the pungent smell of espionage possibly carried out by the former president. Jay Brat signed the documents to the Department of Justice. He heads the department’s counterintelligence and export control office.
Trump previously considered pardoning Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. Both are charged under the Espionage Act.
In his book on the Trump presidency, Fury, Bob Woodward quotes Trump as saying, “We have things you haven’t even seen or heard. We have things that Putin and Xi have never heard of before. There is no one – what we have is amazing.”
In an act of deflection, Trump also attacked the 44th president: “I keep asking what happened to the 33 million pages of documents taken to Chicago by President Obama.”
Earlier in the week, Trump announced that the FBI had tainted his safe space. On cue, his family members, the GOP and the right-wing media bashed the feds and the Biden administration. On Thursday night, they fell silent for a moment.
Until then, they did their best to paint the ex as a victim. Senator Rand Paul raised the specter of subjugated evidence. Rudy Giuliani vowed that if Trump is re-elected, the feds will come down on Biden. One Trump fundraising blast reads: “Remember, they never went after President Trump. They were always after YOU.”
This is the same crowd that continued to demand—six years after the 2016 election—that Hillary Clinton be imprisoned. Put another way, “law and order” means whatever they decide it means, like Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland. “No more no less”.
In this vein, the FBI field office in Cincinnati was attacked by Ricky Walter Schiffer just before Garland’s announcement. Law enforcement later confirmed that they had killed him. Schiffer was at the Capitol on January 6. In death, he finally caught up with Ashley Babbitt. For the record, Schieffer and Babbitt were veterans.
The Mar-a-Lago blowup helped Trump regain control of the Republican Party. With the notable exception of Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, top Republicans bowed out again: Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Mitch McConnell, Ron DeSantis, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio. The band is back.
Yet all this comes at a high price for their ambitions. The expected red wave in the upcoming midterms may have peaked. The GOP underperformed in Minnesota’s recent congressional special election. The party will now lose its natural edge on matters of national security.
Additionally, the latest Fox News poll reports that Democrats have tied the GOP in the overall vote in the House of Representatives with a total of 41%. Just months ago, Republicans led by seven points. Meanwhile, the public disapproves of the Supreme Court, which overturned Roe v. Wade by more than a three-to-two margin.
White women without four-year degrees disapprove even more strongly (60-35) than those with college degrees (54-44). The Suburban women end Roe deep with a thumbs down, 65-33. The raging culture war and Trump’s antics may even allow Nancy Pelosi to continue swinging the speaker’s gavel in January 2023.
Trump will be on the ballot this fall, even if his name doesn’t appear. Whether he will be charged is an open question.
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