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A Destructive Trump Indictment. Do prosecutors understand the forces they are unleashing?
Wall Street Journal ^ | June 9, 2023 | WSJ Editorial Board

Posted on 06/09/2023 4:37:59 PM PDT by karpov

Whether you love or hate Donald Trump, his indictment by President Biden’s Justice Department is a fraught moment for American democracy. For the first time in U.S. history, the prosecutorial power of the federal government has been used against a former President who is also running against the sitting President. This is far graver than the previous indictment by a rogue New York prosecutor, and it will roil the 2024 election and U.S. politics for years to come.

Special counsel Jack Smith announced the indictment in a brief statement on Friday. But no one should be fooled: This is Attorney General Merrick Garland’s responsibility. Mr. Garland appointed Mr. Smith to provide political cover, but Mr. Garland, who reports to Mr. Biden, has the authority to overrule a special counsel’s recommendation. Americans will inevitably see this as a Garland-Biden indictment, and they are right to think so.

The indictment levels 37 charges against Mr. Trump that are related to his handling of classified documents, including at his Mar-a-Lago club, since he left the White House. Thirty-one of the counts are for violating the ancient and seldom-enforced Espionage Act for the “willful retention of national defense information.”

But it’s striking, and legally notable, that the indictment never mentions the Presidential Records Act (PRA) that allows a President access to documents, both classified and unclassified, once he leaves office. It allows for good-faith negotiation with the National Archives. Yet the indictment assumes that Mr. Trump had no right to take any classified documents.

This doesn’t fit the spirit or letter of the PRA, which was written by Congress to recognize that such documents had previously been the property of former Presidents. If the Espionage Act means Presidents can’t retain any classified documents, then the PRA is all but meaningless.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: bananarepublic; demsunited4coruption; demsunited4kickbacks; demsunitedforbribes; demsunitedforukraine; donatedonaldtrump; donatetrump; harassment; indictment; lisamonaco; monaco; persecution; presidentialrecords; trump
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1 posted on 06/09/2023 4:37:59 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Mr. Smith’s wife is a supposed filmmaker who made a slurpy film about Meshelle Obama and is a substantial money contributor to the crook in the White House.


2 posted on 06/09/2023 4:41:05 PM PDT by laconic
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To: karpov

Pandora’s Box.


3 posted on 06/09/2023 4:42:24 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: laconic

Levin said something about Monaco being behind picking him ...


4 posted on 06/09/2023 4:43:31 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: karpov
Do prosecutors understand the forces they are unleashing

Do you think they Give One G-Damn?

5 posted on 06/09/2023 4:44:01 PM PDT by workerbee (==)
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To: All

what is conclusion?


6 posted on 06/09/2023 4:44:14 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: karpov

This no talent Jack White, his black twin in New York, and his old queen Attorney General will have no public safe harbor for the rest of their lives per the hostility they will face and (unfairly) their dopey kids and family. This will NEVER “age well”!


7 posted on 06/09/2023 4:46:43 PM PDT by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: karpov
image host
8 posted on 06/09/2023 4:51:34 PM PDT by R_Kangel ("A nation of sheep will beget a nation ruled by wolves")
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To: R_Kangel

You folks are missing something. These prats are smart. They know when there’s no fight in their enemies.


9 posted on 06/09/2023 4:55:49 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (e allowed )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

WSJ. Consider the source.


10 posted on 06/09/2023 4:56:25 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (e allowed )
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To: karpov

They don’t care. Given all that’s going on in the country, they have no fear of Republicans taking power. And even if they did, Republicans don’t have the guts to use such power.

Only one man would use that kind of power, and they won’t let him gain access to it again.


11 posted on 06/09/2023 4:58:36 PM PDT by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
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To: karpov

Alea iacta est.


12 posted on 06/09/2023 4:59:23 PM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: DIRTYSECRET

They saw how easy America accepted a blatant election steal in 2020 and now they think they can do anything in broad daylight.


13 posted on 06/09/2023 4:59:57 PM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: karpov

It’s their aim here and elsewhere

Destruction

It’s almost like it’s not about leftism truly

I mean the left is now all about corporatism and billionaires and foreign wars and state surveillance

Pet projects are anything destroys Christendom and white culture

Trump is about all that stands in the way


14 posted on 06/09/2023 5:00:02 PM PDT by wardaddy (Technology is not by default an improvement )
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To: Bulwyf

Bragging authoritarian bureaucrats.


15 posted on 06/09/2023 5:01:41 PM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) My dog Sam eats purple flowers.)
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To: R_Kangel

Lol. I read this as ‘trannies’ the first time. That works too!


16 posted on 06/09/2023 5:04:11 PM PDT by Levy78 (Reject modernity, embrace tradition. )
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To: blackdog

As an Albertan, we’re in the same boat. They want us to be in a conflict so they can drop the hammer.


17 posted on 06/09/2023 5:06:12 PM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: wardaddy

It’s mostly about globalism. Total consolidation of power. The American leftists and lib causes have just been useful idiots.


18 posted on 06/09/2023 5:06:37 PM PDT by Levy78 (Reject modernity, embrace tradition. )
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To: karpov

The indictment is obviously a hit piece on Trump, when this likely could have been negotiated away. One of the best precedents in his favor are the tape recordings Bill Clinton made of his phone calls with foreign leaders, which he was ultimately allowed to keep, when he was taken to trial for keeping them.

However, the biggest question to many in court of public opinion, is why did/does Trump think he needs to keep these classified documents, such as potential war plans, in his possession in the first place?


19 posted on 06/09/2023 5:07:20 PM PDT by Golden Eagle (Ultra Conservative)
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To: ifinnegan

The democrats probably feel quite safe in a belief that the deep state will only go after their ideological opponents. Recent history has thus far sustained their case.


20 posted on 06/09/2023 5:08:48 PM PDT by Samurai_Jack (This is not about hypocrisy, this is about hierarchy!)
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