If you think a little thing like an indictment under, say, the Espionage Act, is going to slow down the Trump Train, you have another thing coming. And that thing is probably NOT democracy…
As you’ve probably heard, Donald Trump is under investigation yet again, this time for taking a bunch of classified documents with him to Mar-A-Lago when he left the White House. We’re talking the kind of seriously top secret stuff that you aren’t even supposed to remove from special rooms with armed guards. Recently we learned some of those docs contained nuclear defense secrets. SERIOUSLY.
The government seems to already have Trump dead to rights on taking the materials and lying about it — both obstruction of justice and violations of the Presidential Records Act. But considering there’s no legitimate reason for a private citizen to have those documents, why would he take them? And then blatantly lie about it? You can see why concerns are far weightier than just a worry over some misplaced papers. There really is an investigation about whether Trump violated the Espionage Act.
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It seems more than ever from his latest interview that even Trump is expecting to get indicted. And he’s trying to get out in front of it. Speaking to conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, the former POTUS declared:
“I can’t imagine being indicted. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
He made it very clear this would NOT derail his plan to run for President again in 2024. He said:
“If a thing like that happened, I would have no prohibition against running. You know that.”
Um… what?! Is there really not a rule against a person who’s been INDICTED ON CHARGES LIKE ESPIONAGE running for president?!
Well… apparently not. Felons may not be allowed to vote in many places, but the Constitution doesn’t say anything about them not being able to run for public office, including the presidency. A man named Eugene V. Debs ran for president in 1920 as the Socialist Party candidate while he was in prison for sedition — promising to pardon himself if elected. He got nearly a million votes.
This is starting to feel like the “there’s no rule that says a dog can’t play basketball” problem. In other words, it’s so obvious no one thought they’d need to codify it. That has been kind of the trend with Trump from the start though, hasn’t it. He’s the reason we learned there’s no actual law saying you have to show your tax returns, too. And that there’s no actual remedy for violations of the Emoluments Clause or other blatant conflicts of interest — or indeed a way to even charge a sitting president with crimes, apparently!
Anyway, Trump obviously kept up his declaration of innocence, telling Hewitt:
“There is no reason that they can [indict], other than if they’re just sick and deranged, which is always possible, because I did absolutely… nothing wrong.”
Man, he definitely sounds like he believes it’s coming. He’s starting to add in that idea that maybe they’ll do it anyway because they’re deranged — and something tells us his base is going to buy it.
He also added there would be “problems” for the country if he is indicted — problems “the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.” Once again, very much sounding like a threat to try and keep from getting indicted…
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When Hewitt (surprisingly) actually pointed out how some could interpret that as a call to action for his many ardent followers — who have already committed violent acts of insurrection in his name — Trump dismissed the idea, saying:
“That’s not inciting, I’m just saying what my opinion is. I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it.”
Certain people probably wouldn’t. But if we let fear of the violence a few fanatics would do guide our country, we’d be essentially run by terrorists.
[Image via Department of Justice/Fox News/YouTube.]
