As the details of the indictment against Donald Trump for the classified documents he had stored at Mar-a-Lago were released, I was flooded with Trumpian flashbacks, recollections of rumored interactions, batshit crazy stories shared with reporters like Carol Leonnig and Bob Woodward, and first-hand accounts by those who had been there like James Comey.
TV legal experts talk about “speaking indictments” that go beyond a mere statement of the charges to present a more detailed and more compelling case. But this is a multimedia indictment, offering photographs, copies of text messages, and transcribed recordings.
Those Americans who still hold onto what used to be everyday pre-Trump values, like respect for the law and a concern for our national security, might have been shocked by the outrageous carelessness and treasonous behavior detailed in the indictment. But to me, it all seemed so eminently believable. As much comedy as tragedy. Think The Three Stooges go to Mar-a-Lago—with hundreds of cardboard boxes filled with Top Secret documents. Which, because they’re Stooges, they can’t manage to properly hide.
The grand jury alleges:
“As president, TRUMP had lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government, including information from the agencies that comprise the United States Intelligence Community and the United States Department of Defense…
“Among the materials TRUMP stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents …[which] included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
“At 12:00 p.m. on January 20,2021, TRUMP ceased to be president. As he departed the White House, TRUMP caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he maintained his residence. TRUMP was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents.” (Emphasis added.)
Trump and his Republican enablers conveniently ignore the requirements of the Presidential Records Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 22) that with the end of his presidency these documents be in the possession of and stored by The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The Presidential Records Act makes it clear that Trump’s decision to take these documents with him and keep them from NARA violates the law.
At his CNN Town Hall, Trump made up his own law:
TRUMP: “I had every right to under the Presidential Records Act. You have the Presidential Records Act. I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified. Biden, on the other hand, he has 1,850 boxes. He had boxes sent to Chinatown, Chinatown, where they don’t speak even English in that Chinatown we’re talking about.”
According to CNN, here are the facts about Biden: “Unlike presidents, who are subject to the Presidential Records Act, senators own their offices’ documents and can do whatever they want with them – donate them to colleges, keep them at their homes, give them to journalists, even throw them in the trash.” They continue, “Biden consented to two FBI searches at the university – searches that did not initially appear to turn up any documents with classified markings, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN’s Paula Reid in February …”
“Pursuant to Executive Order 13526, information classified at any level could be lawfully accessed only by persons determined by an appropriate United States government official to be eligible for access to classified information and who had signed an approved non-disclosure agreement, who received a security clearance, and who had a ‘need-to-know’ the classified information. After his presidency, TRUMP was not authorized to possess or retain classified documents.” (Emphasis added.)
According to The New York Times, in a recent interview with Fox News, “Mr. Trump insisted that he ‘declassified everything.’ There does not have to be a formal process to do so, he added, because ‘if you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying “it’s declassified” — even by thinking about it.'” (Emphasis added.)
Back to “Executive Order 13526 – Classified National Security Information“:
“This order prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism … the original classification authority determines that the unauthorized disclosure of the information reasonably could be expected to result in damage to the national security, which includes defense against transnational terrorism …”
The order denotes three levels of classification, “Top Secret,” “Secret,” and “Confidential,” and it stresses:
“All original classification authorities must receive training in proper classification (including the avoidance of over-classification) and declassification as provided in this order and its implementing directives at least once a calendar year. Such training must include instruction on the proper safeguarding of classified information and on the sanctions in section 5.5 of this order that may be brought against an individual who fails to classify information properly or protect classified information from unauthorized disclosure.” (Emphasis added.)
Section 3.7 states:
“There is established within the National Archives a National Declassification Center to streamline declassification processes … There shall be a Director of the Center who shall be appointed or removed by the Archivist in consultation with the Secretaries of State, Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Director of National Intelligence.”
Some information is exempted from the automatic declassification process:
“the release of which should clearly and demonstrably be expected to: (1) reveal the identity of a confidential human source, a human intelligence source, a relationship with an intelligence or security service of a foreign government or international organization, or a nonhuman intelligence source; or impair the effectiveness of an intelligence method currently in use, available for use, or under development; (2) reveal information that would assist in the development, production, or use of weapons of mass destruction; (3) reveal information that would impair U.S. cryptologic systems or activities; (4) reveal information that would impair the application of state-of-the-art technology within a U.S. weapon system; (5) reveal formally named or numbered U.S. military war plans that remain in effect, or reveal operational or tactical elements of prior plans that are contained in such active plans; (6) reveal information, including foreign government information, that would cause serious harm to relations between the United States and a foreign government, or to ongoing diplomatic activities of the United States …” (Emphasis added.)
Because of these serious concerns, NARA stores our sensitive presidential records in a secure facility. The indictment makes a point of describing and illustrating where Donald Trump chose to store the documents he took:
“The Mar-a-Lago Club was located on South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, Florida, and included TRUMP’s residence, more than 25 guest rooms, two ballrooms, a spa, a gift store, exercise facilities, office space, and an outdoor pool and patio. As of January 2021, The Mar-a-Lago Club had hundreds of members and was staffed by more than 150 full-time, part-time, and temporary employees. Between January 2021 and August 2022, The Mar-a-Lago Club hosted more than 150 social events, including weddings, movie premieres, and fundraisers that together drew tens of thousands of guests …
“After TRUMP’s presidency, The Mar-a-Lago Club was not an authorized location for the storage, possession, review, display, or discussion of classified documents. Nevertheless, TRUMP stored his boxes containing classified documents in various locations at The Mar-a-Lago Club—including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room … From January through March 15, 2021, some of TRUMP’s boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. TRUMP’s boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom’s stage …” (Emphasis added.)
Transcribed text messages between co-conspirator Walt Nauta, Trump’s body man and assistant, and other Trump employees reveal how the boxes moved from room to room:
“On April 5, 2021, an employee of The Office of Donald J. Trump (‘Trump Employee 1’) texted another employee of that office (‘Trump Employee 2’) to ask whether TRUMP’s boxes could be moved out of the business center to make room for staff to use it as an office. Trump Employee 2 replied, ‘Woah!! Ok so potus specifically asked Walt for those boxes to be in the business center because they are his ‘papers.’” (Emphasis added.)
Later that day:
TRUMP EMPLOYEE 2: “We can definitely make it work if we move his papers into the lake room?”
TRUMP EMPLOYEE 1: “There is still a little room in the shower where his other stuff is. Is it only his papers he cares about? Theres [sic] some other stuff in there that are not papers. Could that go to storage? Or does he want everything in there on property”
TRUMP EMPLOYEE 2: “Yes – anything that’s not the beautiful mind paper boxes can definitely go to storage. Want to take a look at the space and start moving tomorrow AM?”
Bear in mind that, according to the indictment:
“The hallway leading to the Storage Room could be reached from multiple outside entrances, including one accessible from The Mar-a-Lago Club pool patio through a doorway that was often kept open. The Storage Room was near the liquor supply closet, linen room, lock shop, and various other rooms.
“On June 24, 2021, TRUMP’s boxes that were in the Lake Room were moved to the Storage Room. After the move, there were more than 80 boxes in the Storage Room …”
The indictment continues:
“On December 7,2021, NAUTA found several of TRUMP’s boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room, including a document marked ‘SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY,’ which denoted that the information in the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NAUTA texted Trump Employee 2, ‘I opened the door and found this…’ NAUTA also attached two photographs he took of the spill …
“In May 2021, TRUMP caused some of his boxes to be brought to his summer residence at The Bedminster Club. Like The Mar-a-Lago Club, after TRUMP’s presidency, The Bedminster Club was not an authorized location for the storage, possession, review, display, or discussion of classified documents.
“On July 21, 2021, when he was no longer president, TRUMP gave an interview in his office at The Bedminster Club to a writer and a publisher in connection with a then-forthcoming book. Two members of TRUMP’s staff also attended the interview, which was recorded with TRUMP’s knowledge and consent. Before the interview, the media had published reports that, at the end of TRUMP’s term as president, a senior military official (the “Senior Military Official”) purportedly feared that TRUMP might order an attack on Country A and that the Senior Military Official advised TRUMP against doing so.
“Upon greeting the writer, publisher, and his two staff members, TRUMP stated, “Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show … it’s interesting.”
The indictment then cites the following exchange that Trump engaged in later in the interview:
TRUMP: Well, with [the Senior Military Official]—uh, let me see that. I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack [Country A]. Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this—this is off the record, but—they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.
WRITER: “Wow.”
TRUMP: “We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff—pages long, look.”
STAFFER: “Mm.”
TRUMP: “Wait a minute, let’s see here.”
STAFFER: “[Laughter] Yeah.”
TRUMP: “I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.”
STAFFER: “Mm-hm.”
TRUMP: “Except it is like, highly confidential.”
STAFFER: “Yeah. [Laughter]”
TRUMP: “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and—”
TRUMP: “By the way. Isn’t that incredible?”
STAFFER: “Yeah.”
TRUMP: “I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, ‘he wanted to attack [Country A], and what…'”
STAFFER: “You did.”
TRUMP: “This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably, right?”
STAFFER: “I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to—”
TRUMP: “Declassify it.”
STAFFER: “—figure out a—yeah.”
TRUMP: “See as president I could have declassified it.”
STAFFER: “Yeah. [Laughter]”
TRUMP: “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
STAFFER: “Yeah. [Laughter] Now we have a problem.”
TRUMP: “Isn’t that interesting?”
The indictment continues: “At the time of this exchange, the writer, the publisher, and TRUMP’s two staff members did not have security clearances or any need-to-know any classified information about a plan of attack on Country A.”
Just the other day, Trump told Fox’s Bret Blair that there was no secret document, only news clippings. A more suspicious man might wonder whether Trump or an employee arranged for its permanent disappearance.
Back to the indictment:
“In August or September 2021, when he was no longer president, TRUMP met in his office at The Bedminster Club with a representative of his political action committee (the ‘PAC Representative’). During the meeting, TRUMP commented that an ongoing military operation in Country B was not going well. TRUMP showed the PAC Representative a classified map of Country B and told the PAC Representative that he should not be showing the map to the PAC Representative and to not get too close. The PAC Representative did not have a security clearance or any need-to-know classified information about the military operation.”
Trump and his supporters keep telling a story about governmental (Deep State) overreach and the surprising invasion of Trump’s private property to seize the documents. Beginning in May 2021, NARA offered Trump multiple opportunities to return these documents, and in June 2021, “NARA warned TRUMP through his representatives that if he did not comply, it would refer the matter of the missing records to the Department of Justice.” Now we know, during these unsuccessful negotiations, Donald Trump was showing these documents to people without proper clearance.
“Between November 2021 and January 2022, NAUTA and Trump Employee 2—at TRUMP’s direction—brought boxes from the Storage Room to TRUMP’s residence for TRUMP to review …
“On January 13, 2022, NAUTA texted Trump Employee 2 about TRUMP’s ‘tracking’ of boxes, stating, ‘He’s tracking the boxes, more to follow today on whether he wants to go through more today or tomorrow.’ Trump Employee 2 replied, ‘Thank you!'” (Emphasis added.)
It appears that, at some point, Trump decided which of the many documents that he had taken he was now reluctantly prepared to give back. On January 17, 2022, more than a year after he had taken them, “Trump Employee 2 and NAUTA gathered 15 boxes from TRUMP’s residence, loaded the boxes in NAUTA’s car, and took them to a commercial truck for delivery to NARA.” These boxes, we learn, contained 197 classified documents.
So the notion of a rush to judgment is absolutely absurd. It clearly took time for NARA to go through the boxes and discover that there were likely a lot more missing documents. Then, I’m guessing, it took time to engage in a series of additional negotiations. Finally, when that didn’t work, NARA got the Justice Department involved: “On May 11, 2022, the grand jury issued a subpoena … requiring the production of all documents with classification markings in the possession, custody, or control of TRUMP or The Office of Donald J. Trump …”
Some of my favorite characters in this story are the lawyers. There’s Evan Corcoran, or “Attorney 1,” whom Trump tasks with overseeing the collection and turn-over of the documents in response to the Department of Justice subpoena. It turns out that Evan Corcoran plays a far more important part in this drama than I’m guessing he ever expected. He began this assignment by making it a point to keep detailed notes about what Donald Trump expected him to do, and keeping track of what happened with the boxes and documents.
If Evan Corcoran had called Michael Cohen, Cohen would have told him to expect Donald Trump to lie to him. And, in fact, I think it took some time for Corcoran to realize that Donald Trump had no desire to give back all the document he thought were his.
On May 23, 2022, when Corcoran and “Trump Attorney 2” tell TRUMP that they will have to search for the documents to accurately certify their compliance, Trump made the following statements as recounted by Trump Attorney 1:
- “I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes.”
- “Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?”
- “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
- “Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
Then Donald Trump refers to his false impression of what Hillary Clinton’s attorney had done for her:
“[Attorney], he was great, he did a great job. You know what? He said, he said that it – that it was him. That he was the one who deleted all of her emails, the 30,000 emails, because they basically dealt with her scheduling and her going to the gym and her having beauty appointments. And he was great. And he, so she didn’t get in any trouble because he said that he was the one who deleted them.” (Emphasis added.)
When Corcoran tells Trump that he will be back June 2 for the search, Trump tells him that he is cancelling his travel plans and wants to be present, saying Attorney 2 doesn’t have to be there. Then, “between May 23, 2022, and June 2, 2022, before Trump Attorney 1’s review of TRUMP’s boxes in the Storage Room, NAUTA—at TRUMP’s direction—moved approximately 64 boxes from the Storage Room to TRUMP’s residence and brought to the Storage Room only approximately 30 boxes. Neither TRUMP nor NAUTA informed Trump Attorney 1 of this information.” (Emphasis added.)
On June 2, 2022, after Corcoran meets with Trump, Nauta takes him to the storage room where, from 3:53 p.m. and 6:23 p.m., they sort through the remaining documents:
“Trump Attorney 1 located 38 documents with classification markings inside the boxes, which Trump Attorney 1 removed and placed in a Redweld folder …
“[Then] NAUTA took Trump Attorney 1 to a dining room in The Mar-a-Lago Club to meet with TRUMP. After Trump Attorney 1 confirmed that he was finished with his search of the Storage Room, TRUMP asked, ‘Did you find anything? … Is it bad? Good?’
“TRUMP and Trump Attorney 1 then discussed what to do with the Redweld folder containing documents with classification markings and whether Trump Attorney 1 should bring them to his hotel room and put them in a safe there. During that conversation, TRUMP made a plucking motion, as memorialized by Trump Attorney 1:
“‘He made a funny motion as though – well okay why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out. And that was the motion that he made. He didn’t say that.’
“That evening. Trump Attorney 1 contacted the Department of Justice and requested that an FBI agent meet him at The Mar-a-Lago Club the next day, June 3, so that he could turn over the documents responsive to the May 11 Subpoena.”
Perhaps the plucking motion made an impression. Enter Christina Bobb, Attorney 3:
“Trump Attorney 1 contacted another TRUMP attorney (‘Trump Attorney 3’) and asked her if she would come to The Mar-a-Lago Club the next morning to act as a custodian of records and sign a certification regarding the search for documents with classification markings in response to the May 11 Subpoena. Trump Attorney 3, who had no role in the review of TRUMP’s boxes in the Storage Room, agreed.
“The next day, on June 3, 2022, at Trump Attorney 1’s request, Trump Attorney 3 signed a certification as the custodian of records for The Office of Donald J. Trump and took it to The Mar-a-Lago Club to provide it to the Department of Justice and FBI. In the certification, Trump Attorney 3—who performed no search of TRUMP’s boxes, had not reviewed the May 11 Subpoena, and had not reviewed the contents of the Redweld folder—stated, among other things, that ‘[b]ased upon the information that [had] been provided to’ her:
a. “‘A diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida’
b. “‘This search was conducted after receipt of the subpoena, in order to locate any and all documents that are responsive to the subpoena’; and
c. “‘Any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.'”
The indictment continues:
“These statements were false because, among other reasons, TRUMP had directed NAUTA to move boxes before Trump Attorney l’s June 2 review, so that many boxes were not searched and many documents responsive to the May 11 Subpoena could not be found—and in fact were not found—by Trump Attorney 1.” (Emphasis added.)
Trump supporters have consistently minimized the obvious security threats that have resulted from his decision to store these documents in spaces readily available to the public. Visitors/spies like Yujing Zhang who, as the UK Guardian reported could easily have accessed them:
“[She] was in possession of four mobile phones, a laptop, an external hard drive, and a thumb drive later found to carry malware. In her hotel room, investigators found nine USB drives, five SIM cards and a ‘signal detector’ device for spotting hidden microphones or cameras. She was found guilty of unlawfully entering a restricted building and making false statements to a federal officer, and deported to China in 2021.”
Some of the documents could easily have pointed to the identity of foreigners who have cooperated with our and our allies’ security agencies. A recent New York Times article highlights the Russian attempt to kill one of their former agents who escaped to the U.S. and helped to expose one of the their clandestine networks. He was hiding in Miami: “As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil.”
Those in our security agencies are well aware of his long history of attraction to tyrants of all stripes, and withering disrespect for those who attempt to defend our national security interests from authoritarians like Putin. These tendencies and a sloppy history with national secrets make it clear why our intelligence agencies not only desperately wanted those documents back and to discover who might have seen them.
Former FBI Director Jim Comey’s “A Higher Loyalty” and his accounts of his interactions with Donald Trump seem even more telling in light of recent events. Everything changed for Comey when the heads of our intelligence agencies picked him to inform Trump of the details of the “Russia Russia Russia” investigation and the Dossier’s allegations of possible blackmail and Russian hookers.
Comey writes:
“Before I finished, Trump interrupted sharply, with a dismissive tone. He was eager to protest that the allegations weren’t true. I explained that I wasn’t saying the FBI believed the allegations. We simply thought it important that he know they were out there and being widely circulated … He again strongly denied the allegations, asking—rhetorically, I assumed—whether he seemed like a guy who needed the services of prostitutes …
“He then began discussing cases where women had accused him of sexual assault, a subject I had not raised. He mentioned a number of women, and seemed to have memorized their allegations. As he began to grow more defensive and the conversation teetered toward disaster, on instinct, I pulled the tool from my bag: ‘We are not investigating you, sir.’ That seemed to quiet him.”
All this now seems somewhere between unbelievable and slightly hilarious considering Stormy Daniels and Trump’s conviction in the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault and defamation case. But while Comey clearly had not realized it at the time, it seems likely he was doomed the moment he mentioned the dossier. During yet another meeting, Trump was slightly obsessed over the criticism he was receiving for telling Bill O’Reilly how he respected Vladimir Putin and countering O’Reilly’s declaration that Putin was a killer by saying, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers … What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?’”
Comey notes:
“As Trump kept talking, I could see he was convincing himself of this story line and clearly thought he was convincing us, too … His assertions about what ‘everyone thinks’ and what is ‘obviously true’ wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our dinner, because he never stops talking. As a result, Trump pulls all those present into a silent circle of assent. With him talking a mile a minute, with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, I could see how easily everyone in the room could become a coconspirator to his preferred set of facts, or delusions …
“Looking at me, he said, ‘You think it was a great answer, right?’ and started to move on. I jumped on it and … before he launched into the next set of assertions to which we were all supposed to agree … I interrupted his monologue. ‘The first part of your answer was fine, Mr. President,’ I said, as he took a breath and looked at me with a blank expression. ‘But not the second part. We aren’t the kind of killers that Putin is.’
“At that remark, Trump stopped talking altogether. In that brightly lit room, with its shiny gold curtains, a shadow seemed to cross his face. I could see something change in his eyes. A hardness, or darkness … He looked like someone who wasn’t used to being challenged or corrected by those around him. He was the one who was supposed to be in complete control … And just as quickly as the glower crossed his face, it was gone. It was as if I had not spoken, and had never been born. The meeting was done.” (Emphasis added.)
And then the conversation that helped to seal Comey’s fate. Trump was fixated on saving his ally and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn, who was being investigated for his inappropriate interactions with the Russian Ambassador during the tail end of the Obama administration. Flynn was suggesting the Russians refrain from responding to American sanctions for their interference in the 2016 election because Trump would institute new policies. Comey explains:
“On January 24, as part of our continuing investigation of Russian influence efforts, I dispatched two agents to the White House to interview Flynn about his conversations with the Russians. He lied to the agents, denying that he had discussed the very topics he had talked about in detail with the Russian ambassador …
“On February 14, I went to the Oval Office for a scheduled counterterrorism briefing of President Trump … At the end of the low-energy session, he signaled that the briefing was over. ‘Thanks, everybody,’ he said in a loud voice. Then, pointing at me, he added, ‘I just want to talk to Jim … I want to talk about Mike Flynn,’ he said. Flynn, his national security adviser, had been forced to resign the previous day …The president began by saying General Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the vice president …”
Major Irony Alert. Comey continues:
“The president then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information—a concern I shared … then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, ‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot.’ He repeated that General Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the vice president. He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’
“At the time, I had understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn … I did not understand the president to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign … I only agreed that ‘he is a good guy,’ or seemed to be from what I knew of him. I did not say I would ‘let this go.’ … In a little over a month, I had now written multiple memos about encounters with Donald Trump. I knew I would need to remember these conversations both because of their content and because I knew I was dealing with a chief executive who might well lie about them. To protect the FBI, and myself, I needed a contemporaneous record.” (Emphasis added.)
Comey continues:
“On March 30, Trump called me at the FBI to describe the Russia investigation as ‘a cloud’ that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country … ‘Can you imagine me, hookers?’ In an apparent play for my sympathy, he added that he has a beautiful wife and the whole thing has been very painful to her … I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit, if we didn’t find anything, to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then reemphasized the problems this was causing him.
“Then the president asked why there had been a congressional hearing about Russia the previous week … I explained the demands from the leadership of both parties in Congress for more information … I also explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. He repeatedly told me, ‘We need to get that fact out.’ I did not tell the president, mostly because I knew he wouldn’t want to hear it, that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most important that it would create a duty to correct that statement should that status change …
“On the morning of April 11, the president called to ask what I had done about his request that I ‘get out’ that he is not personally under investigation. In contrast to most of our other interactions, there were no compliments thrown, no cheery check-ins just to see what I was up to. He seemed irritated with me. I replied that I had passed his request to the acting deputy attorney general, but I had not heard back … He said that perhaps he would have his people reach out to the acting deputy attorney general … Then he added, ‘Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal. We had that thing, you know.’
“I did not reply or ask him what he meant by ‘that thing,’ but it seemed an attempt to invoke a mutual pledge of loyalty … At ‘the thing’ we had, a private dinner in the Green Room, he was promised only ‘honest loyalty.’ Regardless, I responded to his odd effort to invoke loyalty by saying only that the way to handle it was to have the White House counsel call the acting deputy attorney general … That was the last time I spoke with President Trump.”
Trump knew Comey wasn’t prepared to play ball or do what Trump needed him to do. And so he fired him in Trumpian fashion, suddenly and disrespectfully:
“He ordered that I was not to be allowed back on FBI property again, ever. My former staff boxed up my belongings as if I had died and delivered them to my home. The order kept me from seeing and offering some measure of closure to the people of the FBI, with whom I had become very close …
“On Friday, May 12, President Trump tweeted a warning to me.”
James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
Comey continued:
“This struck me as bizarre. Was he threatening me? I had no plans to talk to the press or leak classified information … [And] it confused me when I saw on television the President saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation and learned, again from the media, that he was telling privately other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation …”
On June 8, 2017, The New York Times reported about Comey’s appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee:
“[H]e was glad that he’d continued writing memos after every conversation he had with Trump, a practice he started after their first meeting in Trump Tower before the inauguration. ‘I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting … ‘My view of that changed when the prospect of tapes was raised … Lordy, I hope there are tapes,’ Comey said at another point in his testimony.” (Emphasis added.)
A June 3, 2023 story in The New York Times notes the critical turning point in the Documents Case:
“Turning on his iPhone one day last year, the lawyer M. Evan Corcoran recorded his reflections about … representing former President Donald J. Trump in an investigation into his handling of classified documents.
“In complete sentences and a narrative tone that sounded as if it had been ripped from a novel, Mr. Corcoran recounted in detail a nearly monthlong period of the documents investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter.”
Maybe Donald Trump shouldn’t have made the plucking motion.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell then made the critical decision that Evan Corcoran needed to answer questions regarding his client’s decision to keep these documents and obstruct the ability of the federal government to take them back. Howell ruled that Corcoran and Trump couldn’t rely on the usual attorney client privilege because it was likely the two engaged in crimes, and that their conversations and Corcoran’s highly detailed notes and iPhone recordings had to be turned over to the grand jury.
So how about we call this latest episode of The Donald Trump Show “The Revenge of James Comey.” Because, it’s Corcoran’s Lordy Tapes that play a central part in the indictment and might very well bring Donald Trump to his knees.
