Before special counsel Jack Smith released the indictment charging Donald Trump for mishandling hundreds of classified documents, speculation was rampant that the twice-impeached former president was going to be charged under the very law he signed in 2018 to toughen up misuse of classified documents. That would really have been delicious. Turns out, he’s not being charged under that law. What he is being charged under is even better—potentially 100 years in prison better.
That’s not to say that Trump’s pushing for and signing that law doesn’t make an appearance in the indictment. The indictment includes five examples of Trump doing his “Lock her up” schtick attacking Hillary Clinton over her supposed emails scandal, statements that reinforce that even when he was a candidate, Trump knew how classified documents should be handled. He campaigned on it.
This is one of the examples that’s included:
Prosecutors also couldn’t resist including this statement from July 26, 2018, because it’s a doozy.
As the head of the executive branch and Commander in Chief, I have a unique, Constitutional responsibility to protect the Nation’s classified information, including by controlling access to it…. More broadly, the issue of [a former executive branch official’s] security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our Nation’s most sensitive secrets long after their time in Government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access granted to our Nation’s secrets should in furtherance of national, not personal, interests.
How could they not include that? Yes, Trump knows what he was doing with those documents is very illegal, and he’s known it all along. He knew it when he was signing a new law increasing penalties for mishandling documents.
“No one will be above the law,” he insisted at the time. Here’s the law no one is above, including him, as it applies to this indictment:
-
31 counts under 18 U.S. Code § 793: Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information, maximum 10 years in prison, $250,000 fine
-
3 counts under 18 U.S. Code § 1512: Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, with maximum 20 years and $250,000 fine per count
-
1 count under 18 U.S. Code § 1519: Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy, 20 years maximum, $250,000 fine
-
2 counts under 18 U.S. Code § 1001: Scheme to conceal, false statements and representations, maximum 5 years, $250,000 fine
Not bad. He might not have been hoisted on his own particular petard, but this one is even better.
