Yesterday afternoon, America reasserted the rule of law. We The People federally indicted Donald Trump for crimes he committed against us. Though we don’t formally know the exact charges at this moment, the news media has sussed out a few of them: “willful retention of national defense secrets, obstruction of justice, false statements and conspiracy“. There have also been hints of witness tampering. Retaining national defense secrets without proper authority scores as an espionage crime. That word excites our news media. It should. Espionage crimes are crimes of betrayal. Those visits started before he was POTUS – and the GOP knew it!
Our news media has known about it, too.
On May 17, 2017, Adam Entous (then working for the Washington Post) wrote a story headlined ” House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump”. Entous had heard a recorded conversation from a year before. On June 25, 2016, now- Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy exited a meeting wherein he learned Vladimir Putin was actively working to undermine Ukraine’s fragile, new democracy. He entered another meeting almost immediately – this one of Republican leaders.
The first thing McCarthy said – upon entering this meeting of Republican leaders – was “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump. Swear to God!”
In normal world, at least one person hearing such a thing would reply, “Whaaaaaaat? Kevin? How could you say such a thing? We’re about to nominate this man to be president. What makes you think our nominee is beholden to the leader of a hostile foreign power? Why, that would make him a grave national security threat – should he become president!”
No one said anything like that.
Instead there was nervous laughter. That’s why McCarthy added “Swear to God!” He was seconding everyone else’s suspicions.
For the record? No one said “Maybe we better call the FBI – just to be safe!”
But then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan did step forward. He “instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: ‘No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here’.”
“No leaks”? Of what – of the fact that the entire GOP leadership KNEW that their candidate had a giant problem called Russia?
A month later, that July, the Republican Party formally nominated Trump. The day after he was nominated, Trump famously got up on his hind legs and brayed: “Russia, if you’re listening…!”
The entire GOP leadership knew that Russia indeed was listening intently. Why wouldn’t they? Every word coming out of Trump was now bought and paid for – by them.
Consider in hindsight the remarkable gymnastics not just Trump but the entire GOP has done to deny any Trump association with anything Russia. That’s ironic considering how much the Republican Party has associated itself with Russia and Russia’s interests versus ours.
Hey, remember Maria Butina? She’s now a hero back in Russia (and deservedly so). She penetrated the NRA and various other Republican circles – using sex and every other skill she learned at spy school. Make no mistake. Ms Butina did the job for which she had trained – and succeeded handsomely.
We’ve yet to learn exactly how many Republican men Ms. Butina compromised (one way or another).
Espionage, right?
That’s one of the juicy ironies here. One of the very first charges against Trump will nail him for espionage against America. While it won’t be for one of the espionage acts that actually made him POTUS, it will open the door.
From there, it’ll be an easy hop to co-brand “treason” with Trump. That will come, too.
We also have hints that there’s going to be a second defendant named along side Trump. Hey, it’s a conspiracy. It takes at least two to do the conspiracy tango.
Who’s dancing with Trump here? Turns out (no surprise) it’s Walt Nauta – Trump’s valet. The guy who physically moved boxes cos his boss told him to. That he’s being charged suggests Nauta’s remained loyal to the boss (so far). Wait till he gets a load of what getting convicted will mean. Nauta may not be in the prosecution’s pocket yet, but he’ll get there.
Jack Smith also has part of Trump’s legal team in his pocket. That’s never good if you’re a defendant – to have your (former) lawyers ratting you out.
Now that we’re finally pulling actual threads on the ugly Trumpublican Party Christmas sweater, it’s just a matter of time before the whole horrible frock falls apart. Being criminals who believe in nothing but their own survival, they will rat each other out in buckets and then droves and then a freakin’ tsunami of contrition.
Paul Ryan seemed to have grasped in that instant – after the rest of the GOP leaders laughed nervously at the truth – how bad shit was. This wasn’t just problematic relationship, it was proof of something far worse.
With spies, once in, you’re in for good. You’ve betrayed your country. You better hope like hell we don’t find out and don’t catch you. Some places kill spies; we just put them away for a long time. The stolen docs case is but the tip of an espionage iceberg of nearly incalculable size.
Prior to the docs case, it might have taken years to get the word “espionage” thrown at Trump in a court of law. Now that it’s there, it won’t ever go away.
Just the opposite. America is about to get uncomfortably familiar with the word and what it entails and what Trump did to deserve those charges.