Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, 64, apparently told 54-year-old Special Counsel Jack Smith that he had no recollection of Trump declassifying materials packed into moving boxes and shipped from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. Democrats and the anti-Trump press act like it’s a gotcha moment, with Trump telling folks he declassified any docs that wound up shipped to boxes to Mar-a-Lago. But the real strength of Smith’s case likes not on whether or not Trump declassified anything but rather whether Smith goes after a technical violation of the Presidential Records the 1917 Espionage Acts. Democrats and the press hope to find anything possible to convict Trump of any crime to prevent him from running in 2024. Today’s CBS News poll shows that indictments have increased Trump’s popularity with Republicans, believing Trump is subject to a partisan witch-hunt.
ABC News clearly has an ax to grind supporting Smith’s prosecution of Trump on grounds that the violated the Presidential Records and Espionage Acts. Why does a credentialed media organization have an ax to grind one way or another? Isn’t Trump entitled to the presumption of innocents under the U.S. criminal justice system? Yet the anti-Trump media tries to give the DOJ and Smith more ammunition to convict Trump. When you look at the classified documents case, it’s the weakest of all cases because the documents found by the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago Aug. 8, 2022 were found in a locked basement in moving boxes. How would Trump know what was in the boxes? No one, certainly not Smith, thinks that Trump packed his own moving boxes. Nor does anyone believe that Trump went through the boxes at Mar-a-Lago to search for classified docs or anything else.
Whether or not Meadows has any recall of Trump declassifying docs found a Mar-a-Lago should have no bearing on the government’s case against Trump. Smith tries to get Trump on a technicality, since whatever docs found are completely worthless. Smith said the docs found threaten U.S. national security. What world is Smith living in? How can docs found in moving boxes threaten anyone? Does Smith think that President Joe Biden funding a proxy war with the Kremlin threatens U.S. national security? Saying that Trump threatens national security reveals for all to see that Smith has gone too far is prosecuting the ex-president for violating the Presidential Records and Espionage Acts. Whatever the FBI found in Trump’s moving boxes, they were not exposed to anyone, posing no national security threat to anyone. Smith overstates his case against Trump, revealing his own bias.
Whether or not Trump declassified docs at Mar-a-Lago, old classified docs contained in moving boxes don’t constitute a breach of the Presidential Records or Espionage Acts. Smith tries to get Trump on a technicality that he had not, in fact, declassified anything found by the FBI Aug. 8, 2022. Trump has claimed that he has a right to contents of moving boxes, whether they contained classified docs or not. Democrats and the press want Smith to charge Trump with failing to declassify docs for the purpose to charging the ex-president on a technicality. When it comes to Smith’s other charges of defrauding the government, Democrats and the press think the case is far more dicey. Looking at cases against Trump in Manhattan for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels or more recent charges of election interference in Georgia, the two cases are both fraught with problems.
Today’s CBS poll shows that Trump’s approval ratings have gone up since the four cases against him. Certainly Democrats and Republicans questioned whether a former president with 91 felony charges should run for president. Yet Republicans voters back Trump more than ever, all thinking he was framed by the government. What else can Trump backers think when the government went after him for years about a bogus Russian link to the 2016 election? Democrats and the press persecuted Trump for years even after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump March 23, 2029 of any wrongdoing in the 22-month, $40 million Russia hoax investigation. Not one media outlet, broadcast or print, admitted that they published and reported fake information about Trump’s allege ties to the Kremlin. How can anyone trust today’s charges against Trump?
Getting Meadows to admit that he did not observe Trump declassifying any classified documents found at Mar-a-Lagon means nothing in the scheme of things. Meadow’s testimony is only one piece in the classified docs story, knowing that no one had access to worthless boxes of old junk found in a basement at Mar-a-Lago. CBIS found that GOP voters don’t care about the Stormy Daniels case, Smith’s classified docs and Jan. 6 cases or, more recently, Georgia’s allegations about election interference. Smith hoped to get Trump on a technicality that classified docs were not handled in the appropriate way. No one believes that Trump knew that he had anything significant in a Mar-a-Lago basement, especially not classified docs. Smith knows that Trump didn’t have a clue what was contained in moving boxes found at Mar-a-Lago. Getting Trump on a technicality seems devious.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
