CNN, a Time-Warner Company, decided to prosecute former President Donald Trump before his day in court for 54-year-old Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 37-count indictment for removing, harboring and talking in public about classified documents. CNN’s primetime host Anderson Cooper leads the Democrat’ legal attack against Trump, presenting an audio of Trump discussing classified documents at his Bedminister, New Jersey, golf resort of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley allegedly discussing attacking Iran. CNN’s brazen attempt to contaminate evidence to be used at trial by Smith almost certainly gets the audio recording tossed out so no jury ever hears the evidence. Why CNN’s puts its future on the line releasing what it says is Smith’s key piece of evidence. Since when does a credentialed news organization contaminate key evidence before trial?
CNN’s disclosure of key DOJ evidence is an outrage to Smith, unless the government’s chief prosecutor seeks to sabotage his own case. CNN’s attempt to release key evidence before Trump’s eventual trial raises disturbing questions about how evidence can be used by any news organization with an undeniable political agenda against the former president. Whether or not any of the documents Trump discussed were real or fabricated, CNN’s disclosure is an attack on the criminal justice sys\tem required to give every criminal defendants due process. “He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that something?” Trump said about Miley, audibly shuffling some papers. “ 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,” Trump said on the recording.
Whether the documents Trump talked about on the tape were classified or not, what is CNN doing taking Smith’s key evidence to be presented to a jury at Trump’s upcoming trial. How can U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon pick any jury of Trump’s peers, in Miami or anywhere else, when CNN just vitiated key evidence now in doubt for any trial. “All sorts of stuff, pages long. Let’s see here,” Trump says. “Let’s see here,” Trump says. “Isn’t that amazing?” This total wins my case, you know, except that it is like highly confidential, secret, this is secret information,” Trump said on the tape, apparently admitting he breached rules related to classified docs. CNN’s Cooper, acts like he’s on Smith’s team, wanted the public to hear the overwhelming evidence against Trump. But with prospective jurors now hearing the audio on national TV, Cannon will be forced to strike it from the trial.
If you take the recording at face value, it appears Trump violated the Presidential Records Act and 1917 Espionage Act, divulging classified information to individuals without clearance. Trump wanted to set the record straight that Miley and the Pentagon, not him, wanted to bomb Iran. Trump often accused his underlings of warmongering, including Miley and 75-year-old former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Whether the documents Trump talked about were classified or not, CNN wants to show Trump violating the Espionage Act or Presidential Records Act. “See as president I could have declassified it,” Trump said on the recording. “No I can’t, you know, but this is still ad secret,” Trump said. What appears as incriminating statements now, because of CNN, must be inadmissible evidence. What’s CNN trying to do by presenting key pieces of Smith’s case against Trump?
Whatever the government’s case against Trump, they must show he intended to violate the 1917 Espionage Ac and Presidential Records Act. Trump said in various interviews he had ownership of government records as president. Smith will have to show that Trump intended to steal or possess unlawfully government records, especially confidential docs. But Smith will also have to show that any of the classified documents taken from the White House and kept in storage at Mar-a-Lago had any potential damaging effect on U.S. national security. Old documents, classified or not, have little bearing on today’s national security. Trump’s statements about Miley’s apparent plan to bomb Iran isn’t relevant today, posing no threat to national security. What poses a threat to U.S. national security is Biden’s prosy war against the Russian Federation and warmongering with Communist China.
CNN has done everything possible to prosecute Trump’s documents case on national TV, inappropriately compromising Trump right to fair trial and due process. How can Judge Cannon to pick a jury with CNN contaminating key pieces of evidence Smith planned to use at trial? Cannon must make inadmissible any piece of evidence exposed on national TV to a potential jury. No juror with access to TV or the Internet can tell a judge in voir dire or jury selection that they’ve not seen the government’s key evidence. Does CNN think its ratings are more important than Trump’s right to a fair trial guaranteeing him due process? Trump’s claim to an absolute right to posses presidential records, whether declassified or not, goes to the heart to intent, making Trump not guilty by reason of his beliefs about presidential records. Trump received no manual about handling presidential records.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColummist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
