(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



DOJ Needs to Indict Trump in New Jersey [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-10

Jack Smith brought charges against Trump in Florida because the crimes he’s charged with were committed at Mar-A-Lago, and DOJ is required to bring an indictment in the venue where the bulk of the crimes were committed.

But Trump also committed some crimes at his place in Bedminster, NJ. In the introduction to the charges, the indictment describes two acts Trump committed in violation of the Espionage Act:

In July 2021, at . . . Bedminster . . . TRUMP showed and described a “plan of attack” that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals [who did not have a security clearance] that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret.”TRUMP also said, “as president I could have declassified it,” and “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, TRUMP showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close.

(Indictment paras 6a and 6b)

Now, Smith put these in there to demonstrate that Trump had actual knowledge that the documents in his possession were highly classified and that he had not declassified them. They also show that Trump was actually aware of the national security risks posed by these documents and that he was actually aware of at least of the procedures necessary to secure them.

But they also show something else — 18 USC 793(e):

willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation,, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it. . . . [emphasis added]

Now, Smith charged Trump under this section for willfull retention and failure to deliver on demand. But the statute also makes it a crime to show the document to anyone not authorized to see it. Trump did that, and he did in New Jersey.

So I suspect that Jack Smith, never a man to be underestimated in the subtle use of the law, put these paragraphs in there for a second purpose: to lay the groundwork for another charge of violating the espionage act, this time in the more favorable venue of New Jersey, where these crimes occurred.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/10/2174552/-DOJ-Needs-to-Indict-Trump-in-New-Jersey

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.