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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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To: Samurai_Jack

We are a Banana Republic.


21 posted on 06/09/2023 5:14:33 PM PDT by ActresponsiblyinVA
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To: Golden Eagle

For one, the military is now being run by The Woke. Should Trump regain power, it might be convenient to have plans, actually written by military leaders, just in case they are needed.


22 posted on 06/09/2023 5:15:40 PM PDT by coloradan (They're not the mainstream media, they're the gaslight media. It's what they do. )
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To: karpov

Do they still count the votes?


23 posted on 06/09/2023 5:22:05 PM PDT by bigbob (Q)
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To: karpov

They have gotten away with everything they’ve tried so far, so why should they stop now?


24 posted on 06/09/2023 5:22:27 PM PDT by KevinB (Word for the day: "kakistocracy" - a society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens)
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To: karpov
They understand that this is a death match, and only one party can survive.

If the Republicans don't come to see the truth of that fact soon, it won't be them that survives.

25 posted on 06/09/2023 5:23:53 PM PDT by threefinger
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To: karpov
"Do prosecutors understand the forces they are unleashing?"

The WSJ continues to be a worthless rag...
What a stupid question...

There is nothing/no forces that could or would be unleashed...
The American serfs have, over the past several decades been beaten & educated & brainwashed into abject submission...

This communist tyranny has absolutely no limits... The defacto Obama administration is still gearing up to impose far worse...

26 posted on 06/09/2023 5:25:53 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: karpov

These malignant forces have been eviscerating the American nation since the 1960s.

The 1965 Immigration Act was the beginning of the end.


27 posted on 06/09/2023 5:35:21 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: karpov
image host
28 posted on 06/09/2023 5:45:59 PM PDT by R_Kangel ("A nation of sheep will beget a nation ruled by wolves")
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To: LongWayHome

And unfortunately when the Republican party was in control of the Presidency, House, and Senate, the act was not amended or repealed.


29 posted on 06/09/2023 5:50:41 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: karpov

I am more incensed over this than I am over the Bud Light/ Dylan Mulvaney tryst.

I believe none of the charges against Donald Trump. This is all politically motivated.

Every GD Democrat President and every GD Republican President is *guilty* of the same that they accuse Trump of. Even Hillary, even Biden as VP, even Pence as VP.

SO SICK of the $*** they throw in our faces.

I know my own family will turn me in. Persecution is not only coming, it’s here. I need to be ready for that reality.


30 posted on 06/09/2023 5:50:45 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: Samurai_Jack

Yes. The liberal doesn’t think it will be turned on them hence they no longer believe in defending other’s rights.


31 posted on 06/09/2023 5:51:02 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: workerbee

*** Do you think they Give One G-Damn?***

They do not.


32 posted on 06/09/2023 5:51:56 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: threefinger

They understand that this is a death match, and only one party can survive.

If the Republicans don’t come to see the truth of that fact soon, it won’t be them that survives.


There are two camps in the “Republican” party. MAGA, which is 90% and represents the base, and the GOPe or uniparty represented by the neocon Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan types. The uniparty has nothing to fear and they largely control the GOPe. McConnell has little to fear from uniparty persecution. MAGA has everything to fear.

FWIW - DeSantis is the GOPe pick. There are a lot of people in MAGA who think he is Trump without the baggage but ask yourself who is supporting him.... looks like uniparty to me.


33 posted on 06/09/2023 5:52:33 PM PDT by volunbeer (We are living 2nd Thessalonians)
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To: ifinnegan

And they think they are now permanently in power.


34 posted on 06/09/2023 5:55:57 PM PDT by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Ignorant statement.


35 posted on 06/09/2023 6:01:28 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Trump has all the right enemies, DeSantis has all the wrong friends.)
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To: karpov

“After Johnson’s death, Rostow put his documents in a sealed envelope and gave them to the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library....the library opened the envelope in the 1990s, although some of the material has yet to be declassified.”

https://theintercept.com/2022/08/11/trump-fbi-mar-a-lago-classified-documents-lbj/


36 posted on 06/09/2023 6:05:49 PM PDT by Brian Griffin (SPENDING STRIKE: No new car/new house/additional gun - No meals out/stock buy/travel/home remodels)
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To: laconic

oh the irony of supporting Biden after making “Dark Money”! lol. naturally, wins plenty of awards:

updated 9 June: Heavy.com: Katy Chevigny, Jack Smith’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Smith’s wife is a Biden donor who helped create a documentary on Michelle Obama, federal records and her IMDb profile say...

Her IMDb profile says, “Katy Chevigny is known for Becoming (2020),” a documentary about Michelle Obama’s life...

According to Deadline, Chevigny also helped produce a film called “Dark Money,” describing it as a movie that “follows a Montana-based reporter’s investigation of one of the greatest present threats to American democracy—the influence of corrupt money on our elected officials...

Chevigny also donated to President Biden’s campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission.

She donated $1,000 each to Biden for President and the Biden Victory Fund in September of 2020. Chevigny also made multiple small donation to the Democratic platform ActBlue and made a donation to MoveOn.org’s PAC, the FEC reecords show...

According to the Nashville Aquatic Club, Smith once said: “My wife is an amazing, award-winning documentary filmmaker.”

He added:

“Her latest movie, Dark Money just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last week and she was awarded the prestigious Producer’s Award for her work in documentary film, which was very cool. Her previous movie, E-Team, was nominated for an Emmy and is on Netflix. She also recently won the award for best screenplay at the Nashville Film Festival.”...
https://heavy.com/news/katy-chevigny-jack-smith-wife/


37 posted on 06/09/2023 6:06:31 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: Maine Mariner

They gave away the greatest nation in the history of the world because they did not want to be called racist.

Pathetic cowards.


38 posted on 06/09/2023 6:07:22 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: LongWayHome

I could not agree with you more.

However, as they are giving away the country, they are still called racists.


39 posted on 06/09/2023 6:13:35 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: workerbee
Do you think they Give One G-Damn?

Not at the moment but I think they will it difficult to operate under the new rules they are establishing.

In fact they will not get a moments peace.

40 posted on 06/09/2023 6:28:19 PM PDT by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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