Category: Espionage

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage

Trump’s Comments On Israel ‘Giving Prosecutors New Material’ To Convict Him In Classified Docs Case

With his every word about the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas terrorists who attacked the country a week ago, failed former president Donald Trump is strengthening the criminal case against him for his alleged stealing of classified documents when he left the White House.

Just this week, the Washington Post notes, Trump made the case against him even more airtight by suggesting that he has a “willful disregard for protecting national security secrets.”

During a campaign rally in Florida on Wednesday, the disgraced ex-president, who is facing 91 criminal counts in multiple jurisdictions, remarked:

“I don’t think this has ever been told. They’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s classified information.’ Maybe it is, but I don’t think so.”

The former president then proceeded to tell a story about a U.S. operation in 2020 that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force. Trump claimed that Israel was an important partner in the effort but backed out at the last minute. “We had everything all set to go, and the night before it happened, I got a call that Israel would not be participating in this attack,” Trump said. “Nobody’s heard this story before, but I’d like to tell it to Club 47 because you’ve been so loyal and so beautiful.”

Seconds later, Trump told his supporters,  “I can do whatever I want, but I did nothing wrong.”

That’s some deeply flawed logic. If you can do whatever you want, then how could it possibly be wrong? The volume of indictments against Trump certainly suggest he isn’t above the law and he did something illegal in the eyes of the Justice Department.

Even one of Trump’s former attorneys thinks the former president is making a huge mistake with his comments.

“Trump’s public statements erode his defenses enormously,” said Ty Cobb, who served as a White House lawyer in the Trump administration but has become an outspoken public critic of the former president. “Flip-flopping between ‘I had the power’ with the classified documents and “there was a process” — both acknowledge the possession of the classified documents.”

Trump has also seriously undercut his defense during interviews such as the one he gave to NBC’s “Meet the Press” just last month.

Trump kneecapped a key defense strategy his lawyers have raised in that case — that he was fighting the election results based on advice from attorneys.

Trump said in the interview that he decided for himself the election was stolen from him. “It was my decision,” the former president said, though he acknowledged he also listened to lawyers. “You know who I listen to? Myself. I saw what happened.”

Once more, it’s clear that Donald Trump is his own worst enemy and will likely be the primary reason he loses in court and winds up incarcerated for the remainder of his life.

 

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Donald Trump Espionage Foreign Policy Russia

New Questions Raised About Trump Possibly Sharing Intel Info That Led To The Attack On Israel

A 2017 meeting failed former president Donald Trump held in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, is once again in the spotlight as questions about how Israel could have been so unprepared for the Hamas terror attack are being raised, with some suggesting that intelligence data Trump shared with the two Russians may have found its way into the hands of Iran, which passed it along to Hamas to aid their planning of the deadly assault launched from the Gaza Strip.

Israel, we later learned, was the source of that intelligence, as NBC noted in May 2017:

The link to Israel was first reported by the New York Times a day after it was disclosed that Trump gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intelligence about a laptop bomb threat and revealed the Syrian city where the information was collected.

And now Senior White House Communications Adviser Andrew Bates is hinting that Trump may have been partially responsible for the Hamas attack that has left over 1,000 Israelis dead.

According to Mediaite, Bates made the claim in response to a Twitter post from former Trump administration official Stephen Miller.

That response from Bates resulted in others suggesting that Trump may be partially to blame for Hamas’ attack.

The ex-president’s niece, Mary, pulled no punches.

Soon there was a deluge of discussion and accusation on Twitter.

It’s important to note that at the moment there is no direct evidence the information Trump shared with the two Russians was used to plan the Hamas attack on Israel, but shouldn’t there at least be congressional investigations into the matter? And if a link can be proven, what additional crimes should Donald Trump be charged with?

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage National Security Nukes WTF?!

Jack Smith Has Evidence Trump Shared Top Secret Nuclear Information With A Foreign National

After he left the White House and was residing at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort, multiply-indicted former president Donald Trump allegedly shared highly sensitive information about the U.S. nuclear submarine fleet with the resident of a foreign country, according to a disturbing report from ABC News that could have serious implications for American national security.

Months after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago Club — an Australian billionaire who then allegedly shared the information with scores of others, including more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The potential disclosure was reported to special counsel Jack Smith’s team as they investigated Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the sources told ABC News. The information could shed further light on Trump’s handling of sensitive government secrets.

Prosecutors and FBI agents have at least twice this year interviewed the Mar-a-Lago member, Anthony Pratt, who runs U.S.-based Pratt Industries, one of the world’s largest packaging companies.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Pratt mentioned to Trump that he believed Australia should begin buying its submarines from the United States, which reportedly led the ex-president to divulge to vital piece of classified information: The number of warheads each U.S. sub carries and how close they can get to their Russian counterparts without being detected.

Such critical information would be invaluable to the Russian navy and the intelligence agencies of other U.S. adversaries because the information is closely held and never disclosed because doing so would dangerously jeopardize the entire American sub fleet.

Pratt then began to disseminate the information Trump told him, ABC News notes.

In emails and conversations after meeting with Trump, Pratt described Trump’s remarks to at least 45 others, including six journalists, 11 of his company’s employees, 10 Australian officials, and three former Australian prime ministers, the sources told ABC News.

While Pratt told investigators he couldn’t tell if what Trump said about U.S. submarines was real or just bluster, investigators nevertheless asked Pratt not to repeat the numbers that Trump allegedly told him, suggesting the information could be too sensitive to relay further, ABC News was told.

The former president faces decades behind bars for illegally removing and storing classified information in unsecured banker’s boxes at his Florida resort. He may also have disseminated or even sold some of the information in those documents to nations such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, both of which Trump has lavished with praise.

Can it be any clearer that Donald Trump need to be placed in custody until his trial has concluded? Every day he remains free he’s a clear and present danger to the national security of this country.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage Justice Department

Jack Smith Has A Powerful New Weapon He Can Use Against Donald Trump

 

An accusation from a former top Homeland Security Department official should have failed, twice-indicted former president Donald Trump terrified, according to an ex-federal prosecutor.

Specifically, Miles Taylor, who was DHS chief of staff in the Trump administration, writes in his new book that Trump shared secret documents related to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with reporters.

That report led MSNBC host Katie Phang to tell former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, “NBC is releasing exclusive reporting about ex-Trump aide Miles Taylor in which Miles alleges in 2018, Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, described an incident with Trump displaying to reporters classified documents related to journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death.”

“Do you think Jack Smith has already had a lead on this? I mean, we keep on hearing these things pop up here and there. We saw in the indictment about Bedminster and the writing of a book, and journalists being present, even a PAC person like Susie Wiles. I mean, is this the kind of stuff we think Jack Smith would have a bead on it already?”

“He might, Katie,” McQuade responded. “It could be valuable as what you know is 404(b) evidence; that is evidence of the person’s common scheme or plan.”

McQuade added, “And so, even if he doesn’t charge it, you can use that as evidence to show that Trump is very reckless when he handles classified information. So, every piece of evidence brings value.”

Think about it: According to Taylor, Trump was waving around classified documents that related to the possible crimes of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. That sort of information is not meant to be shared with anyone who doesn’t have a high-level security clearance.

With each day, Jack Smith’s case against Trump grows stronger. It’ll be fascinating to see the ex-president’s reaction to this latest bombshell.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage

Letter From Trump Shows How Terrified He Is Of Jack Smith

If you were wondering whether or not failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump is worried about the case being built against him by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith in the matter of the hundreds of classified documents Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago in direct violation of federal law, you don’t have to look any further than a letter he recently sent to House Republicans imploring them to save him from prosecution by passing protective legislation.

As Andrew Feinberg of The Independent reports, “Lawyers for former president Donald Trump have asked the Republican-led House of Representatives to intervene by enacting a new law to protect the twice-impeached former president from the Department of Justice probe into his alleged unlawful retention of classified documents and his alleged efforts to obstruct that investigation.”

In a letter to Ohio Representative Mike Turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, attorneys Timothy Parlatore, John Rowley and James Trusty claim the Department of Justice — the executive branch department charged with investigating and prosecuting federal crimes — is “not the appropriate agency to conduct investigations pertaining to the mishandling or spillage of classified material” and allege that the department’s handling of the probe into Mr Trump’s alleged misconduct “is antithetical to the principles of a fair and impartial search for the truth”.

That letter, according to Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor and Chief Assistant City Attorney in San Francisco, is clearest proof yet that Trump has “no viable defense” for why he kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and is worried about the criminal charges that may soon be filed against him.

In an article he wrote for Justia’s Verdict website, Aftergut notes, “If these contentions are a preview of Trump’s defenses to an indictment from Smith’s grand jury, Jack Smith can rest easy. The arguments are so abysmally weak that they leave any knowledgeable observer with a simple inference: Trump and his lawyers know an indictment is coming soon and there’s nothing they can do about it but offer smoke and mirrors.”

The biggest hurdle facing Trump, Aftergut continues, is that “Jack Smith has mountains of evidence that contradict Trump’s claim that his improper possession and retention of those classified documents was inadvertent.”

It doesn’t take a prosecutor to infer that the central crime is likely obstruction of a grand jury investigation. (Trump) can’t hide from coming charges for obstructing the return of government secrets that weren’t his.

Long story short, Trump is screwed and can expect to be indicted for having the documents in his possession, obstruction, and violating the Espionage Act. If he’s found guilty, he will spend whatever remains of his life in federal prison.

Is Donald Trump worried? He clearly is, and the worst is yet to come.