Trump’s Indictment for Jeopardizing National Security is Detailed and Devastating - Horowitz

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™

 

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Former President Donald Trump PHOTO: GoLocal

In two and a half years of nearly inexplicable reckless behavior, demonstrating no regard for national security, the truth or the law, Donald Trump well-earned his unprecedented 37-count federal indictment in which the former president is charged with breaking seven different federal laws.  

 

“Today, an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice,” said Jack Smith, speaking to the nation in the wake of the unsealing of the indictment voted upon by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida. “The men and women of the United States intelligence community and our armed forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people," the special counsel elaborated. “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”

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Among the specific charges are violations of the Espionage Act for the “unauthorized possession" and “willful retention” of national defense information, including classified documents that contained nuclear secrets, battle plans for attacks on other countries, and information on secret human sources and signals intelligence, which would have put lives at risk if it got into the wrong hands.  The former president is also charged with obstructing justice, an allegation buttressed with extensive evidence including the testimony of his own attorney, that he even lied to his lawyers in an effort to hide documents that didn’t belong to him so he could continue to hold on to them illegally.

 

In advance of the indictment being unsealed, Donald Trump predictably went to his well-worn playbook, attacking the Justice Department, Jack Smith and the Biden Administration, enlisting his allies to do the same, inciting his grassroots supporters in violence-tinged appeals, and embracing his supposed victimhood.  Over the past few days, he has repeatedly called Jack Smith a “dangerous lunatic and a “Trump-hater’, among other choice epithets.

 

While these kinds of attacks have worked for the former president in maintaining his base, they have proven ineffective with most Americans, contributing to his broad unpopularity and the belief by the majority of the nation that he is unfit to be president.  This time is unlikely to be an exception. If anything, the facts and evidence contained in this so-called “speaking” indictment as they are more broadly disseminated will cost him votes in the Republican primaries, giving his soft supporters who are open to other candidates, one more reason to look elsewhere.

 

For anyone doubting that these charges centered on serious wrongdoing or questioning the strength of the evidence assembled, 3 Conservative legal experts, William Barr, Andrew McCarthy, and Jonathan Turley, all of whom were uniformly critical of the Manhattan DA’s indictment of Mr. Trump in the hush money case, commented that this case was a very different story.

 

On Fox News Sunday, William Barr put the blame for the indictment squarely where it belongs: on Mr. Trump’s own actions.  “This particular episode of trying to retrieve those documents, the government acted responsibly,” the attorney general appointed by Mr. Trump said. “And it was Donald J. Trump who acted irresponsibly.” Mr. Barr continued, “This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous.”

 

In a column for National Review entitled, “Why Trump’s ‘Witch Hunt’ Cries Ring Hollow in Face of DOJ Indictment,” Andrew McCarthy points out that the evidence, in this case, comes mainly from his own lawyers and employees—not his enemies.    “No, the evidence comes from Trump’s lawyers, the former federal prosecutor and Fox News contributor wrote. “The people who were trying to minimize his criminal exposure and push back against his destructive tendencies. The people who were trying to help him.”

 

Jonathan Turley called the indictment “extremely damning.”  “It’s overwhelming in details,” the George Washington University law professor and Fox News legal analyst, who testified in Trump’s defense during his first impeachment trial, exclaimed on America Reports, an afternoon Fox News program. “And the Trump team should not fool itself, these are hits below the water line. This is not an indictment that you can dismiss.”

 

Whether or not Mr. Trump is found guilty will ultimately be up to a jury of his peers in South Florida.  The actions and behavior detailed in the indictment, however, are disqualifying for a presidential candidate. That is the inescapable problem this case presents the Trump presidential candidacy.


Additionally, the reckless actions detailed in this indictment aren’t a one-off or out of character for the former president; they are part of a well-established pattern of dangerous, unpatriotic and selfish behavior.   The most glaring example of that behavior will be back front and center in August when in all likelihood Mr. Trump is indicted again for his illegal attempts to overturn the results of the Georgia election, clinging to power by any means possible.  This will bring January 6th and all that let up to it back in the news with a vengeance.  And all of this is before Jack Smith decides whether to bring federal charges against Mr. Trump for his role in the insurrection.

 

Mr. Trump was the weakest possible Republican general election presidential candidate before this latest indictment and the independents and moderates he needs to win a general election, who are already resistant to his candidacy, will be further repelled by it. Even if Republican and conservative elected officials and media figures are willing to stomach someone with this little regard for national security or the rule of law at the top of the ticket, pure political pragmatism should convince them that it is time to move on.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.


 

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