Posted on 06/12/2023 9:32:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Former President Donald Trump's anger toward a single person appears to have played a key role in evidence leading to his indictment this week.
It all comes down to one person, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to multiple sources.
Trump loathed the positive coverage Milley received in the press and in books. In his post-presidency period, Trump fumed about Milley, who seemed to be portrayed as a hero, while he was cast as an insurrectionist. In one story, a July 2021 New Yorker article, journalist Susan Glasser depicted Milley's efforts in the last days of the Trump administration to keep the president from attacking Iran.
The former president began to talk regularly about Milley in 2021, dismissing him and bringing up stories that made Milley seem unintelligent and untrustworthy, according to sources. They said Trump's anger about Milley led him to be cavalier about what he said about the general, their interactions and policy decisions. It frustrated some Trump aides who noticed he would veer close to classified material in conversations.
Then, Trump started to do interviews for books.
While Trump didn't speak to Bob Woodward or me for our book "Peril," he spoke to many others in 2021 at the same time he was lashing out at Milley in private. These dynamics began to collide as the former president sat down with authors, pulling out documents and memos from the White House to make his points.
And when people came by to hear Trump talk about his presidency — and often rant about Milley — Trump aides would also record the conversations, in case they ever wanted to contest what was later written.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
“Government employees sometimes reveal classified details accidentally in casual conversations and media interviews. We may not hear about it because it’s not in the interviewee’s or employee’s interest to point it out after the fact, or he or she may not even realize it at the time.”
“In 1991, Sen. David Boren accidentally revealed the name of a clandestine CIA agent during a news conference. At the time, Boren was no less than chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.”
“Executive Order 13256 spells out who specifically may classify information.
“Authority to take certain pieces of information, say the existence of a weapons program, and classify it top secret is given only to specific individuals. They include the president and vice president, agency heads and those specifically designated by authorities outlined in the executive order.
“Procedures for declassification of materials are complicated. They are delineated in Executive Order 12356. However, the president has ultimate declassification authority and may declassify anything at any time.”
https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/what-is-classified-information-and-who-gets-to-decide/
Milley called the Chi-coms twice. Once before the election, and two days after the January 6th event. The guy is a slimy scumbag. What General would call our top enemy, and tell them I’ll give you a heads-up when we’re about to attack you.
With the exception of Matthew Whittaker (temp. AG), Trump chose poorly for AG and Dir. of FBI. Trump also chose poorly for Chr. of the JCS (Milley). Trump also chose poorly for White House Ch. of Staff.
Wow! Thank you for that information. I knew Mitch was a back stabber, but I hadn’t known to what extent. I also knew that no other President in the history of this country has had the power of the Office of President slowly attacked and taken away. If Democrats had had their way, the Executive Branch would have been totally depleted of its privileges. And all of this was done with the help of Republicans in Congress.
“over time so much information starts to be classified that it can be ludicrous.”
“Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department indicted more people under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information than all previous administrations combined.”
“before Clinton handed over those 30,000 or so emails that she decided were public records, there [were] tens of thousands of other records that she and her lawyers decided were private. They deleted them so that no one will ever know what it is that she decided no one else was going to be allowed to see.”
Biden got SEAL Team 6 killed with his leaking.
“He speaks Arabic fluently. His studies included a junior year abroad learning Arabic and taking courses at the American University in Cairo.”
“He applied to the CIA in 1980. During his application he admitted during a lie-detector test that he had voted for the Communist Party candidate four years earlier.”
“He was director of the newly created Terrorist Threat Integration Center from 2003 to 2004, an office that sifted through and compiled information for President Bush’s daily top secret intelligence briefings and employed the services of analysts from a dozen U.S. agencies and entities.”
“He serves as a consultant on world events for Kissinger Associates.”
“Brennan was present in the Situation Room in May 2011 when the United States conducted the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He called Obama’s decision to go forward with the mission one of the ‘gutsiest calls of any president in memory’. In the aftermath of the operation, Brennan said that the U.S. troops in the raid had been ‘met with a great deal of resistance’, and bin Laden had used a woman as a human shield.”
“The Atlantic has been harsher in its criticism, saying, ‘Brennan has been willing to lie about those drone strikes to hide ugly realities.’”
“According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Brennan’s comments about collateral death are perhaps explained by a counting method that treats all military-aged males in a strike zone as combatants unless there is explicit information to prove them innocent.”
“The Senate was set to vote on Brennan’s nomination on March 6, 2013. However, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul began a talking Senate filibuster prior to the vote, citing Obama and his administration’s use of combat drones against Americans, stating ‘No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt, to charge an individual, to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual. It goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country.’”
“While admitting that the actions of the CIA officers were ‘abhorrent’, worthy of ‘repudiation’, and had, at times, exceeded legal boundaries Brennan stated the CIA had also done ‘a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secured’.”
“Brennan tweeted to Trump, ‘When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America... America will triumph over you.’”
“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors’. It was nothing short of ‘treasonous’.”
“On August 16, Brennan stated that Trump’s claims of no collusion with Russia were ‘hogwash’: ‘The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of ‘Trump Incorporated’ attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets.’”
“The New York Times reported in May 2019 that the administration had not followed through on the bureaucratic process to revoke Brennan’s clearance.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brennan_(CIA_officer)
There’s a lamppost in America that’s missing its Brennan.
He should have replaced Miley with Walt Innauta.
Wow…that’s a lot of words and mental gymnastics to absolve him of all of his terrible picks and endorsements. Part of the job is being to pick the right people and delegate to them. Trump has a terrible record on that. His record of terrible picks goes at least all the way back to Cohen, Scaramucci, and probably others.
This is kind of fun. I’d love to hear who you blame Cohen on. I assume that’s not on Trump either.
may or may not
such solid grounds to be covering the issue /s
“veer close to classified material in conversations.”
So he didn’t break security, but is still charged?
Presidents have long claimed the authority to classify materials by dint of the president being the nation’s chief executive and commander in chief — the only official vested under Article II of the Constitution with “the executive power.”
And they are U.S. Supreme Court certified as having that power as a constitutional grant.
https://www.loc.gov/item/usrep484518/
Dep't of Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 526-27 (1988)
The Court of Appeals' majority stated: "The absence of any statutory provision precluding appellate review of security clearance denials in section 7512 removals creates a strong presumption in favor of appellate review," citing Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 136, 141 (1967). 802 F. 2d, at 1569. One perhaps may accept this as a general proposition of administrative law, but the proposition is not without limit, and it runs aground when it encounters concerns of national security, as in this case, where the grant of security clearance to a particular employee, a sensitive and inherently discretionary judgment call, is committed by law to the appropriate agency of the Executive Branch.The President, after all, is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." U. S. Const., Art. II, § 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant. See Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U. S. 886, 890 (1961). This Court has recognized the Government's "compelling interest" in withholding national security information from unauthorized persons in the course of executive business. Snepp v. United States, 444 U. S. 507, 509, n. 3 (1980). See also United States v. Robel, 389 U. S. 258, 267 (1967); United States v. Reynolds, 345 U. S. 1, 10 (1953); Totten v. United States, 92 U. S. 105, 106 (1876). The authority to protect such information falls on the President as head of the Executive Branch and as Commander in Chief.
The President's grant of the entirety of the Execuive power comes via direct grant in the Constitution and is plenary. E.O. 13526, Classified National Security Information, provides guidance to federal agencies on classification and declassification of information. The Office of the President is not a Federal agancy. The President does not issue such guidance to himself, and it does not bind himself or any subsequent President.
Congressional Research Service Report, Procedures for Declassifying Intelligence of Public Interest, August 4, 2022
Executive Order (E.O.) 13526, Classified National Security Information, signed by President Barack Obama on December 29, 2009, provides guidance to federal agencies on classification and declassification of information.[...]
The President has the authority to declassify documents in the public interest that originated in any department or agency of the executive branch.
Bkmk
Who was forcing him to pick scaramucci and omarosa..both bad picks.
People here absolutely refused to admit the picks were bad at the time. I got roasted when Wray was picked. Same for Omarosa. I knew what was coming with both of them. Aĺl you had to do was look at their history.
This speculation is what Costa and CBS consider to be news?
I know it’s not relevant to the topic, but Milley is a fag. I never understood the man crush Trump had on him at the beginning.
Theres no incitement evidence to add to….. Simply look at Trumps statements and actions. I think they meant, adding to the fabricated evidence manufactured to this point.
There are plenty of good people in the private sector. This obsession that only government people can work in government is utter nonsense.
If you are serious about "draining the swamp" then you bring in people from outside the swamp.
But Trump was never serious about it and never did anything about the swamp. He should have fired Milley, Wray, etc. He should have used Executive Authority to drain/damage the swamp. But, just like his promise to "lock her up" he chickened out.
Trump doesn't have the spine for the job.
...and before all the Trump cultists (not to be confused with Trump supporters) run in here and make excuses about everything and blame everyone else, forget it. The buck stops with Trump....and he dropped it. Nobody stopped Trump from issuing executive orders to drain the swamp. He did NOTHING
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