Finally Friday Reads: Trump Troubles

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

While we were waiting for the big January 6th Indictment, a superseding indictment popped out of the Secret Documents Case.  We can stop feeling sorry for the little guy now. It appears that Walt Nauta is the consigliere of the Mar-a-Lago branch of the Trump Family Crime Syndicate.  The details drive coffin nails through every outrageous Trump attempt at a defense case tailor-made for the public. It also demonstrated, once again, that everything Trump accuses a political rival of, he’s already done in spades.

The attempts to remove all the videotapes of the goings on at the Trump’a Giant Douche Club in Florid’uh. Anyone who has seen an aerial photo of the place knows exactly what I mean. Here’s the headline from the Washington Post. “Trump charged with seeking to delete security footage in documents case Unsealed indictment charges second aide at Mar-a-Lago and brings new counts against the former president and longtime valet Walt Nauta.”

Prosecutors announced additional charges against Donald Trump on Thursday in his alleged hoarding and hiding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, accusing the former president and a newly indicted aide of trying to keep security camera footage from being reviewed by investigators and bringing the number of total federal charges against Trump to 40.

Trump already faced 31 counts of illegally retaining national defense information, but federal prosecutors led by special counsel Jack Smith have added a 32nd to the list. That count centers on a now-infamous conversation Trump allegedly had at his golf club and summer residence in Bedminster, N.J., in July 2021, focused on what has been described by others as a secret military document concerning Iran.

In that conversation, which was recorded, Trump said: “As president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still secret.”

The new indictment also levels accusations of a broader effort by Trump and some of those around him to cover their tracks as the FBI sought to retrieve highly classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home and private club, long after his presidency ended. The indictment charges that Trump and two aides, Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, requested that another Trump employee “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”

While Trump has publicly claimed he was happy to hand over the footage in response to a grand jury subpoena, others close to him have said he was upset about it, and the indictment suggests a scramble among his aides soon after they received the demand for the footage. Prosecutors say that Nauta, Trump’s longtime valet, changed plans to travel with Trump to Illinois around the time the subpoena was sent, instead traveling to Florida to talk to other Trump employees about the camera footage. He appeared to try to keep the reason for the trip to Mar-a-Lago under wraps, the indictment says, telling others he was going there for different reasons.

David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo states the ramifications of these new charges simply. “The New Evidence Against Donald Trump In The MAL Case Is BRUTAL.”

With reporters clustered at the DC federal courthouse awaiting a possible Trump indictment in the Jan. 6 case, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team dropped a new bombshell in Florida in the Mar-a-Lago case: a superseding indictment that adds new charges against Trump himself, co-defendant Walt Nauta, and a new third defendant.

Let’s run through the top points quickly:

• • The number of counts in the indictment swelled from 38 to 42.
  • Trump was hit with an additional charge of willful retention of national defense information (now 32 counts on that charge, up from 31) for the Iran war plan document he allegedly flaunted at Bedminster.
  • The new defendant, a MAL worker named Carlos De Oliviera, was added to the existing conspiracy to obstruct justice count, so now all three defendants are charged in this count. In addition, De Oliviera gets his own false statements count.
  • All three men were charged under a new count of altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object.
  • All three men were charged under a new count of corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object.
• A sample of some of the allegations of Trump’s direct involvement in the security footage deletion scheme (these separate excerpts cover multiple days of communications and aren’t intended as a timeline):

  • 76. On June 23, 2022, at 8:46 p.m., TRUMP called DE OLIVEIRA and they spoke for approximately 24 minutes.

    78. … At 3:44 p.m., NAUTA received a text message from a co-worker, Trump Employee 3, indicating that TRUMP wanted to see NAUTA.

    87. At 3:55 p.m., TRUMP called DE OLIVEIRA and they spoke for approximately three and a half minutes.

    91. … That same day, TRUMP called DE OLIVEIRA and told DE OLIVEIRA that TRUMP would get DE OLIVEIRA an attorney.

    114. … TRUMP, NAUTA, and DE OLIVEIRA requested that Trump Employee 4 delete security camera footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.

A Straight Up Mob Boss

Here’s more from The Guardian.  “Ex-Trump lawyer says evidence against him ‘overwhelming’ in Mar-a-Lago case. Ty Cobb, who represented Trump in Mueller investigation, says classified documents case is ‘tight’ after new charges filed.”

A former Trump White House lawyer said the evidence against the former president over his handling of classified documents was now “overwhelming” and would “last an antiquity”, after new charges were filed in the case on Thursday.

“I think this original indictment was engineered to last a thousand years and now this superseding indictment will last an antiquity,” Ty Cobb told CNN. “This is such a tight case, the evidence is so overwhelming.”

…

Trump told Fredericks he will not end his campaign even if he is convicted and sentenced.

“They went after two fine employees yesterday, fine people,” Trump said. “They’re trying to intimidate people so that people go out and make up lies about me. Because I did nothing wrong.”

Cobb represented Trump during the investigation by another special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russian election interference in the 2016 election and links between Trump and Moscow. The attorney later told the Atlantic he did not regret working for Trump, saying: “I believed then and now I worked for the country.”

On Thursday, he told CNN: “It’s very difficult to imagine how Trump said that his lawyers met with Jack Smith today to explain to him that he hadn’t done anything wrong [Trump’s claim in the election subversion case], on the same day that Jack Smith produces this evidence of overwhelming evidence of additional wrongdoing.

“So this is, I think, par for the course.”

Cobb also said he was sure Trump had been advised by his own lawyers “not to destroy, move [documents] or obstruct this grand jury subpoena in any way.

“So this is Trump going not just behind the back of the prosecutors, this is Trump going behind the back of his own lawyers and dealing with two people” – Nauta and De Oliveira – “who are extremely loyal”.

Mitch McConnell is vowing to stay in office despite that moment in his speech this week where he was unable to speak and displayed odd eye movements. This is from NBC. “Mitch McConnell vows to serve his full term as Republican leader.  Concerns about McConnell’s health intensified after he suddenly stopped speaking during a GOP news conference this week, appearing to freeze, and then went silent and was walked away.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is seeking to tamp down speculation about his future and make clear that he’ll stay on the job after a health incident earlier this week.

“Leader McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues, and plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do,” a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement, which was first reported by Politico.

McConnell’s two-year term as Senate GOP leader ends in early January 2025, and beyond that it would be up to his colleagues to decide whether to re-elect him. He became the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history earlier this year.

McConnell, 81, is not up for re-election to his Senate seat in Kentucky until 2026, as he won a six-year term in the 2020 election.

Concerns about McConnell’s health have intensified since Wednesday when he suddenly stopped speaking during a weekly Republican leadership news conference, appearing to freeze, and then went silent and was walked away.

A few minutes later, McConnell walked back to the news conference by himself. Asked about his health, he said he was fine. Asked whether he is fully able to do his job, he said: “Yeah.” His office said he felt lightheaded and stepped away briefly.

Dianne Feinstein had a similar moment this week. This is also from NBC News. ‘Sen. Dianne Feinstein told to ‘just say aye’ in awkward Senate committee moment. Feinstein, 90, began delivering a speech in support of a bill during a vote Thursday, instead of the expected response of “aye” or “nay.”‘

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appeared confused during a vote on a defense appropriations bill Thursday, prompting a fellow Democratic senator to step in.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee markup of bills Thursday morning, Feinstein seemed to stumble on a vote. Instead of saying the expected response of “aye” or “nay,” she began to deliver a speech expressing her support of the measure: “I would like to support a ‘yes’ vote on this. It provides $823 billion …”

About 15 seconds into Feinstein’s speech, an aide whispered in her ear. Committee chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., then told Feinstein: “Just say aye.”

“Aye,” Feinstein said.

Feinstein, 90, was later heard voting against another measure before she was corrected and switched to “yes.”

A Feinstein spokesperson said Thursday’s markup “was a little chaotic” as members work to wrap up government funding bills before they leave for a six-week break, with senators “constantly switching back and forth between statements, votes and debate and the order of bills.”

“The senator was preoccupied, didn’t realize debate had just ended and a vote was called,” the spokesperson continued. “She started to give a statement, was informed it was a vote and then cast her vote.”

As someone who just spent the week coming to terms with her old eyes and old brain at two doctor’s appointments, I can tell you that this year has me wondering if I should stay out of the classroom at this point. I’m hoping new glasses help with the grading that seems awkward these days. I’m still waiting on the bottom line of the MRI results from Wednesday.  I’m relying on my Son-in-Law, the radiologist, to be both kind and brutally honest with me.

Both McConnell and Feinstein have served their country ably. That comes with the disclaimer that I think McConnell is not a person I could ever vote for or support. I remember Senator Byrd being wheeled in to vote for the Health Bill Cloture vote in 2009. Many of us remember Ol’ Strom from 1998.  I’m not sure we can amend the Constitution quickly to remove members that are way past their prime, but at some point, a leader should know when it’s time to retire.  Feinstein is not running for reelection and is an important vote with seniority in this Senate.  It’s just difficult for me to watch her like this, knowing what a shero she’s been to me since her days as a San Francisco mayor.  A while-timed exit just shows some class.  Donald Trump is another one that’s been showing his dotage for years.  Biden has his moments, too, but he is nowhere near these kinds of episodes. It’s just something to think about.   I’m sure it will be something to talk about in 2024.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?