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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: LongWayHome

Agree...


61 posted on 06/09/2023 11:55:07 PM PDT by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.- Mencken)
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To: Republican Wildcat; central_va
“supported by Soros”

Why continue to spread this obvious lie?

Because the poster is a nasty, creepy Trump cultist who doesn't care about truth or facts. He will smear anyone who does not bow in awe before Trump.

They are really a cult

62 posted on 06/10/2023 3:02:36 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (This is the end of the Republic....because we could not keep it.)
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Trump standing next to Biden on a debate stage, reeling off Biden's theft of national security documents:
"In his garage next to his trophy car, and yet he's not charged. This guy standing next to me, he's not charged, mostly because he's not in charge, but the people that are, must be stopped, and I will stop them.

I am your only chance to stop them, because they are coming for you. And if you need proof of that, this kangaroo court indicted an ordinary aide at Mar-A-Lago simply for moving a box of papers. Think about that. They went after an average American and sought to bankrupt him through this evil. Stop it. You can stop it on Election Day."


63 posted on 06/10/2023 9:02:06 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
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To: LongWayHome

My mind reflects back to when Rush Limbaugh once mentioned that Ted Kennedy caused more damage to the USA by passing THAT act, than any other law he ever sponsored before or after it.


64 posted on 06/10/2023 9:31:02 AM PDT by Pagey ( Valerie Jarrett IS A DEMON! )
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To: Pagey

And still...80% of legal immigrants vote Democrat.


65 posted on 06/10/2023 11:01:36 AM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: Erik Latranyi

And you should look in a mirror. You are a pathetic liar. it is you who is in a cult. ugly from our own country man and women.


66 posted on 06/11/2023 6:12:58 AM PDT by alaskamomma
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To: alaskamomma
You are a pathetic liar.

No, you are the creepy cultist that LIES by claiming DeSantis supporters call ALL Trump supporters cultists.

We have all made it clear that there are normal Trump supporters who think for themselves.

Creepy Trump cultists, like you, do not think for yourself. All you do is go thread to thread calling anyone who doubts Lord Trump all sorts of nasty names.

Almost all DeSantis supporters will vote for Trump if he wins the primary, but we do not see him as entitled to the nomination. Would you vote for the GOP nominee or stay home like the other childish Trump cultists who have proclaimed so?

You support a coronation in an open primary.

67 posted on 06/11/2023 6:42:18 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (This is the end of the Republic....because we could not keep it.)
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To: LongWayHome

And much of the decline is self-inflicted. In fact deliberately self-inflicted by woke elites.


68 posted on 06/11/2023 10:33:33 AM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: LongWayHome

And much of the decline is self-inflicted. In fact deliberately self-inflicted by woke elites.


69 posted on 06/11/2023 10:34:01 AM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: PerConPat

You can thank your beloved Abraham Lincoln, GDHS.


70 posted on 06/12/2023 5:16:50 PM PDT by Segovia
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To: Segovia

Interesting comment...Just what did “Honest” Abe do, or didn’t do, that led to Trump’s indictment?


71 posted on 06/12/2023 8:15:01 PM PDT by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.- Mencken)
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To: PerConPat

He drastically re-ordered the hierarchy of the states vs the federal government, and set in motion the march toward totalitarianism.


72 posted on 06/12/2023 10:59:00 PM PDT by Segovia
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To: Segovia
Did Congress have any thing to do with this? Well, at any rate, it was a dangerous time. I've always wondered how many wars would have been fought between the various states, if the union had been lost.
73 posted on 06/13/2023 10:06:22 AM PDT by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.- Mencken)
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