So, What Is Trump Hiding? My guess: Selling Top Secret information to our adversaries

[Joinfortmill]

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-supreme-court-2659654655/

'Trump is scrambling to keep evidence of criminality out of the hands of the Supreme Court — here's why'

'According to MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin..."Trump has made clear he believes this Supreme Court — controlled by conservative justices, three of whom he appointed — owes him one," she added, "My hunch is that Trump’s team let Corcoran’s testimony happen because of what’s likely involved in any request to pause, much less, review a crime-fraud-related ruling: the evidence."

"Put another way, if Trump had petitioned the Supreme Court to stay Corcoran’s testimony and document production, the justices would have seen some, if not all, of what Judge Howell and the three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit have already reviewed: proof that Trump misled Corcoran and engaged in criminal conduct," she elaborated.'

[dem4decades]

1. So many accusations, yet no charges. He's above the law.

[Beastly Boy]

8. Well, it's against the law to file charges based on accusations alone.

So how does the absence of charges based on accusations make him above the law? I am confused.

[dem4decades]

9. Accusations are one thing, being above the law is another Does Individual 1

Ring a bell? That's how he's above the law.

[Beastly Boy]

13. So "many accusations" is not related to "yet no charges" which is not related to

"he is above the law"?

Ok, glad we made it clear.

[stopdiggin]

21. thank you. appreciate your efforts. -(nt)-

[Emile]

36. Until Trump is held accountable, he is above the law!

[Botany]

2. That is exactly what he has been doing with those stolen documents (I think)

Why else did he have the documents @ Merde a Logo that covered our spy satellites and you
don't think he passed that information onto Vlad/Russia especially about our satellites that are
over Ukraine and Russia. Trump is a traitor to America and I look for him to flee the country
pretty damn soon because he doesn't want to end up the Federal Super Max Prison in Colorado
for espionage.

[triron]

10. I concur.

[Botany]

19. I think the 2 billion Kushner got from Saudi Arabia was for Trump giving them our top secrets

Trump has sold out America's secrets to (I think) Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China. He was doing this
while in office and after he left office too.

[OMGWTF]

24. THIS! THIS! THIS!

Think about it.

Ivana Trump meets an untimely death (she was pushed IMHO) which gets Traitor Tot and his spawn out of a deposition because, sad.

Then she is buried in a very tacky and temporary-looking grave on his golf course, after TEN men struggled to lift her coffin which supposedly contained the cremated remains of an old woman.

And then, one week later the Saudis pull together a fake golf tournament on the same golf course.

My read is that the stolen documents were in Ivana's casket, the Saudis took them during their fake golf tournament, and gave Jerkrod $2B for his trouble.

Hanging is too good for these traitors.

[colorado_ufo]

26. Lead lined, x-ray-proof coffins are quite heavy.

Just sayin'.

[PJMcK]

38. Quite a tale you've got there, OMGWTF (n/t)

[mountain grammy]

29. Agree!

[FalloutShelter]

30. And BTW....

Now Saudi Arabia is aligned with Iran and Iran is attacking US soldiers in Syria.
Coincidence? I think not.

Russia, Iran, and China are the new axis and we need to be VERY careful.

[WestMichRad]

34. I think so too.

They didn’t give Kushner $2 billion for nothing. And since TFG was leaving office, what else could he give them in return?

[Scrivener7]

41. You mean you don't think it was because of Jared's winning smile?

[Joinfortmill]

27. I think the likelihood of Trump fleeing is very high, too.

[Botany]

46. America has had 3 people who were found guilty of espionoge @ the level Trump might have been ....

.... at and we executed 2 of them and they were the Rosenbergs and the other was FBI Agent Robert
Hansen who is doing 15 life terms back to back in the Fed. Super Max in Florence Colorado. Trump had
documents about our spy satellites @ Merde a Logo and no doubt he passed the information about the
ones we have over Ukraine and Russia onto Vlad/Russia.

[Jarqui]

3. I don't agree entirely

I too am suspicious he sold secrets and that's why the judges are acting so quickly.

But this part:
"Put another way, if Trump had petitioned the Supreme Court to stay Corcoran’s testimony and document production, the justices would have seen some, if not all, of what Judge Howell and the three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit have already reviewed: proof that Trump misled Corcoran and engaged in criminal conduct,"

What decent, self respecting lawyer would let this case go to the Supreme Court for nearly any issue and not mention that.

Trump was issued a subpoena.
Trump's lawyers signed a letter saying they had returned all the classified docs.
Folks paid Mar-a-lago a visit looking for more docs. Found some.
That was grounds for a FBI search warrant that turned up more than 100 docs.
More docs have been found after that.
Court wants to know who is responsible for the blatantly false claim in the letter - probably because more docs are missing and concerning them.
The Supreme Court would want to know that answer too.
Trump had no case.

[Scrivener7]

6. I hope this is it. The alternative is frightening.

[Qutzupalotl]

20. That fits the prima facie description of the evidence by Howell,

so this seems the most likely explanation to me. They said no more documents, then oops, more documents. Simple and straightforward, and hopefully easy to charge and prosecute.

[Walleye]

4. I think you're right he scared because he knows people have been executed for espionage

[Scrivener7]

5. And the breakneck speed on the Howell ruling suggests that if this is true,

if he is selling or has sold secrets, those secrets are exceptionally damaging and need to be dealt with immediately.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

7. Yeah,

that one caught me by surprise, it indicated to me that there is some very damning evidence because of the speed in which the ruling came down.

[DENVERPOPS]

42. You know what bugs me MCE

If it were any other citizen, esp someone in the intelligence community or military, they would have been detained until proven innocent.............Any person who is such a MAJOR risk to our TOP SECRET National Intelligence and Military Information should and would be immediately removed and isolated until everything was known for good reason.

And yet, here is this #1 individual, and his Son in law, trapesing all over the world for years, and CONTINUING TO DO SO since he left office, running around with still more retained Intel reports and briefings.....?????????????????????????

And how much more TOP SECRET INTEL they retained, and stashed at his different properties for over two years, for future grifting is still in question......

The other fact that isn't mentioned, is he may have sold (or in the case of Putin given) OTHER nation's intel they shared with us.......
No other nation could be blamed for NEVER AGAIN sharing their intel with the U.S.

Why is this #1 individual, his spawn and Jared walking around in circulation????????????

Think about this: Saudi's "give" Jared TWO BILLION DOLLARS, for an "investment" company, one that doesn't even exist as of yet???
....
One wonders, what would the Saudi's pay for complete information on every country's Top Secret Nuclear and Military information within a thousand mile radius of their country.......I think we just found out, TWO BILLION DOLLARS........

[CrispyQ]

11. Why are we just now getting breakneck speed on this case?

The Archives knew in 2021 he hadn't turned everything over. Why were they so damned slow? Why is everyone so slow? They guy is handled like a Faberge egg. He's running for president again. Our party looks weak. Our country looks weak.

[Scrivener7]

12. Jack got to it pretty fast.

[CrispyQ]

14. He sure did! Maybe he should have been AG. -nt

[Fiendish Thingy]

16. That's because he started on third base.

Thanks to Garland’s team, who became Smith’s team.

[Scrivener7]

17. .

[Fiendish Thingy]

18. The "breakneck speed" you perceive is an illusion

An illusion created by recent revelations, when previously, there was almost no public information, creating the illusion that nothing was happening.

The only truly rapid action taking place was a single event this past week from an appeals court giving just a few hours turnaround before ruling against Trump.

Add to that the fact that Trump’s crimes involve 31+ lawyers as either witnesses or co-conspirators, all with claims of EP or attorney/client privilege that need to be ruled on. On top of that, many of those lawyers have had their encrypted devices seized, devices which can take a year or more to hack into.

I highly recommend reading the emptywheel blog to clarity and perspective on all of Trump’s court cases:

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/03/24/happy-crime-fraud-exception-day-for-those-who-celebrate/

[Fiendish Thingy]

15. Nah, it's just the evidence of all his other crimes

This specific issue is about him lying to his attorneys that he had turned over all of the classified documents in his possession.

I don’t think there’s anything more complicated or nefarious at play here, just a desperate attempt to keep SCOTUS from seeing what at least six other judges have seen when they have ruled in favor of a crime/fraud exception for Trump’s attorneys.

I think Trump is afraid that if SCOTUS sees that evidence, not only would he lose that particular appeal, it would “poison” SCOTUS against him for future appeals that might be even more important.

[stopdiggin]

33. a much better read

the issue at hand is fairly straightforward - no need to dress it up as more murky and convoluted than it really is. (Although the mind numbing complexity of all the attorney-client stuff swirling around - is certainly quite real - but that doesn't mean we have to go to 'state secrets' and foreign actors.)

[kentuck]

22. You may be right?

There is probably a reason the Judge ordered Cuccinelli, Ratcliffe, and O'Brien to appear before the Grand Jury. They all had access to the most secret information. Along with Meadows and Scavino, they would have had access to whatever information Trump had access to, and maybe, someone was feeding the information to him?

[aeromanKC]

23. Death Penalty

[stopdiggin]

25. there is really no evidence

(or really even solid suggestion for) 'sale' of highly sensitive material. That part (although quite popular with some) has always been purely and plainly speculative. Weighted on the other side of the scale, is the casual bumbling incompetence of the whole scenario. Of course I'm not Trump - but if I were trafficking in state secrets to other governments .... I do think I could have conceived of something a little more efficient (and out of sight) than moving boxes stashed in a storage closet (or drawers in a personal desk?). What is suggested here - rather than high level cloak and dagger and clandestine activity - is the low level mendacity, sloth and contempt for the office that Donald Trump has long been noted for.

[Joinfortmill]

28. There is certainly that, too.

[Justice matters.]

39. hair furhair is an abject stoopid moron who's narcissism makes him think he's king of the world

he considers himself above any laws, and he manipulates the system like no other moron before him.

Always did. And look how far scot-free he has escaped all accountability so far using money to pay off his misdeeds and his crimes.

I have no doubt he passed secrets to Lavrov and that Saudi butcher of a "prince"...

[DENVERPOPS]

44. Trump,

his spawn, and Jared didn't even try to hide the most blatant and flagrant crimes they were committing. They truly felt, along with countless Republican Senators, that they would ever be caught. They had such overwhelming thoughts that they were already the tyrants of our country, that they could say and do anything with complete abandon for the Rule of Laws.....

[stopdiggin]

49. we were, of course, talking about the documents removed

from the WH (and illegally retained by TFG) ...

And many people have no doubt that there is 'higher intelligence', somewhere out in the vast universe. And it is still an act of minor insanity - to base action (or policy) upon such a 'belief'. (until demonstrated true)

(We do have direct evidence and testimony that Trump 'spilled' Israeli shared intelligence to the Russian diplomats in an early Oval office audience - proving rather conclusively that the man is a major league cretin - an intelligence and diplomatic sinkhole - in no way measured up to the job, and never had any business being there in the first place. But, as of now - we don't have anything similar - meaning real evidence or testimony - concerning the 'purloined' documents saga. And I don't think the 'speculation' concerning sale or transfer - at this point - serves any truly useful purpose. If and when we find out it bears truth ... Then we're on a completely different page.)

[republianmushroom]

31. 26 months and counting

More delays ?

[Dan]

32. In his defense, we do live in a Capitalistic system....

He’s just playing the zero sum game.

[RocRizzo55]

35. He should get the same

Punishment that the Rosenbergs got for selling secrets. Let him die a martyr. History will bear out the truth.

[usonian]

37. Encrypted devices can be opened by their owners, upon "request"

where the request involves a plea bargain or immunity of some sort.

Will lawyers flip when they see their future as Walmart greeters?

Will the SC (who have jobs for life) throw their benefactor (who was booted from his job) under the bus?

[jaxexpat]

40. But aren't the "League of Conservative SC Justices" already inoculated against factual evidence?

I thought they all had the auto-redacting-vision super power, allowing them to safely view any evidence against "conservative" persons or causes. They can peruse reams and tomes of evidence while remaining totally blind, fearlessly seeing nothing there at all, certainly nothing prosecutable. Eh?

That being the case, why would TFG care what they see? Is he afraid he's no longer "conservative" enough in their super discerning super eyes? Perhaps he's been an evil-liberal spy-bot all along, fooling us into a state of false certainty about who's who and what's what.

Just wait until next year (or the year after or so) for the thrilling and anti-climactic verdict or apology or refusal to indict or hand-slap or acquittal on all counts or a real prison sentence immediately vacated, rescinded, waived, manumitted and exhumed*.

*Yeah, I said exhumed. This is Trump, folks. We could be in O. Cromwell territory by then.

[DENVERPOPS]

47. Right there with you Jax

If I were gonna be around for another twenty years, I doubt I would live to see ANY of these most corrupt politicians ever, get even a wrist slap..............................

An attorney would know better, but I think it requires, in any trial for a criminal activity that it requires all jurors to vote guilty or it ends with an acquittal....(Think OJ) They call it jury nullification??????

And if that is true, I would think it more than likely that at least one juror would be a Republican Trumphumper.....????......

Remember that they finally nailed Al Capone for tax evasion because they couldn't nail him on all the horrific crimes of his mafia organization......Maybe they will get Trump on those tax evasion issues he is guilty of.......but anything else? he will have a MI or Aneurism long before he ever sees any punishment.............Same with McConnell if he ever makes it back to the Senate......

[jaxexpat]

48. Yep, DENVERPOPS. These days probably can't find anyone who'd enforce the statute that got Capone.

Your post made me think through a thing so bear with me. Our legal system seems unable to adjudicate highly placed criminality at any jurisdictional level with a reasonable fairness.

An observation: the more well-heeled the culprit, the more costly the prosecution. The poorer the accused, the less likely is a challenge to preconceptions from LEO's and low-level judiciary. A judicial system which routinely processes the cheapest conviction, even if irregular to the point of missing key facts, seems totally inept when prosecuting costly "trials" regarding the guilt or innocent of the accused. For Americans, the most influential case of the public successfully winning a suit against absolute power was in the French revolution. Our society has been trained to so deeply fear the legendary events of that era we've re-permitted the Louis' to stroll right into our modern civilization. Justice by and within the court system is the only buffer between civility and riot and it is weak and frail in this age.

The short defining term is corruption. From top to bottom our "olde English" law system is too unsophisticated to deal with the interface of facts, evidence, relative criminality, statutes, human fallibility, intra-agency territorialism, and regional interpretations of common statutes. Those who practice in such altitudes hold court and pass judgement over the goings on in their fiefdoms with an impunity similar to medieval lords. Were it not for GIGO, AI could probably do better. We've a justice based on slave catchers and wigged judges.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

45. There is a strong likelyhood that TFG may sold our country out

Luckily, the DOJ/Special Counsel Jack Smith do not have to prove that TFG sold secret documents to convict TFG under the Espionage Act