The instant Donald Trump stopped being POTUS, he lost all right to have our secrets in his possession. That’s a stone cold fact. That he took some of our most secret secrets with him to Mar a Lago? That was and is a crime even as he was doing it. It hasn’t stopped being a crime since. Exactly why Trump boxed up and stole our secrets is almost irrelevant. Ample evidence exists that he knew it was wrong but did it anyway. The Department of Justice can win a conviction of Trump based entirely on the evidence at hand. That’s without nailing down the “why” he did it. There most assuredly is a “why”. Trump was hoarding our secrets because he’s a traitor.
Putin Pays Trump
As this blog has stated many times, Donald Trump walked in the door a traitor. The Republican Party knew Trump was corrupt from the start. That did not disqualify him from running among them. Rather than attack Trump’s corruption, the Republican Party surrendered to it. They made Trump’s corruption their own. In fact, we can point to a date when that officially happened.
On June 25, 2016 – a month before nominating Trump – current GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy walked into a meeting of GOP leaders. He’d just come from a worrisome meeting about Ukraine. Russia was putting intense pressure on in it. But Russia had help – coming from America! “There’s two people I think Putin pays,” said McCarthy, “Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!” McCarthy had just come from a worriesome meeting about Ukraine. Ukraine was desperately trying to maintain its independence from Russia. Russia was actively trying to bring Ukraine back within the Russian fold. Whatever McCarthy heard in the Ukraine funding meeting prompted him to tell the second meeting that “Putin pays Trump”.
Think about that.
A Grave National Security Threat
Then think about what the Republican leadership did. (Then) Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan stepped forward and ended all discussion about Trump-the-Traitor. “Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: ‘No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here’.”
A real crime family. Think about that! Kevin McCarthy walks in and says “I think the guy we’re about to nominate would pose a grave national security threat if elected”. No one said “Whaaaaat? Kevin – are you sure about that?” Not one of them even questioned it! They accepted that Trump was compromised by Putin! Let’s be crystal clear. At that moment, the Republican Party leadership accepted that Donald Trump was a traitor.
Kompromat
What we’re going through with Trump today is monstrous. He stole secrets. Let’s be real: he intended to use or profit from them. Trump – always projecting every last bit of his criminality – complained that the FBI had even broken into his wall safe. Hmmmmmm… now, what would the projector-in-chief have been projecting this time? Take this to the bank: Trump has a “kompromat stash”. “Had” a kompromat stash. The FBI has it now. Trump without kompromat is just another old grifter working a hustle. Without the machinery of the executive branch around him? That’s exactly what Trump is.
As I said, Trump’s actual purpose is icing. He took our secrets. That’s the cake. Our news media has wondered all along about Trump’s hold on the Republican Party. If they were really journalists, they’d set out all the possible answers to the question. At one end of the spectrum, Trump is 100% innocent. He’s just a misunderstood rich boy who doesn’t like or know how to play by our rules. In the middle is some mix of innocence and guilt. The other possibility – the other extreme: Trump’s guilty.
Even our news media can’t see a way out for Trump. The law says you can’t steal our secrets yet there they were in a closet at Mar-a-Lago. I’ll go out on a limb and say that the reason he stole our secrets is 100% nefarious. He’s guilty of the one thing because he’s guilty of the other.
And he’s guilty of it all because Trump walked in the White House door already a traitor. Not a metaphorical or hyperbolic traitor. Trump is a real, honest-to-goodness traitor.
The only way out of this morass is to prosecute our way out. The rule of law would insist.