Politics - News Analysis

‘IT IS OVER’: Lawyer Says Trump is Cooked, ‘THERE IS NO LEGAL DEFENSE’

Not to get all self-important, but regular readers will note that for the last two to three months, this site has noted that the cleanest, clearest case that might actually put Trump in prison was not the January 6th seditious conspiracy case, no matter how much evidence was obtained but might be the files in Mar-a-Lago. (Just one example here from May in which we said this was the most dangerous case.)

It is not like the staff at this site claim to be geniuses, but we do claim to spend our days reading stuff written by geniuses and tend to remember things. We remembered that when the classified files story broke, it was said that Trump had kept these specific top secret files in the residence at the White House. That struck us as “odd.” It was almost like Trump asserted personal ownership of those files even when he was president or that he wanted them “in his possession” at just the right time. And, of course, those same documents made it to Mar-a-Lago.

And so, if you look at it just as a “normal person.” Knowing Trump was trying to squeeze every single dollar out of the presidency, why would Trump – who has no policy or even foreign affairs interests at all – keep top secret files so close to him? And what type of files would he keep close? The answer is obviously the ones that would be most valuable – monetarily or as a debt owed – to someone else. Thus, we saw a situation where Trump was keeping some of the U.S.’s most closely guarded, most valuable, and volatile secrets without any excuse or legal justification in order to benefit himself. Spying. Selling secrets. Traitorous.

The crime is simply having the files on his residence. He can say he “declassified them” all he wants. It will be a question for the court, and given that there is a process to declassify items, and given that he didn’t declassify the documents publicly – indeed, he continued to hide them from the government, the defense won’t fly. And that’s how it was that we published in May – and many times since – that this could be the case that brings Trump down. It is “clean.” The crime is complete with possession at Mar-a-Lago. There is almost no defense. It certainly isn’t as messy as the coup attempt and, even worse? It might be just as traitorous, depending upon what Trump did or planned to do with the documents.

It is for that reason that Ron Filipowski, one of our favorite Twitter influencers, pronounced Trump’s career over.

Well, there is always a “defense.” They will try to get the warrant quashed and thus suppress the evidence. (If DOJ files charges). But we suspect that if there was ever an affidavit that was checked more times by more people for perfection, this was it.

None of us believe Trump will actually see prison. Not on this alone. IF he sold the secrets, if some of the material is still missing because it was sold and Trump has the money, then at that point, Trump becomes just another Rosenberg, and prison becomes a real possibility. Unlike the Rosenbergs, he probably will not be executed.

We are way down the road. Trump will likely never see prison, but he will likely never see the White House ever again, either. This is too much even for most Republicans. You will note that we’ve not heard angry pronouncements from Kevin McCarthy today. Indeed, even Fox News seems to be in a state of shock. Jesse Waters says that Merrick Garland is treating Trump worse than the “Unibomber,” they might want to be a little careful over there…

It is not necessarily “over.” It is more like, “This isn’t the end, but it may be the end of the beginning.” The government has its case now, and there are very few defenses. Some of us saw this coming.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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