CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

 “[O]ne of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.” 

Donald J. Trump, 07/09/2016

The aforementioned statement (rather ironically) found itself on page 9 of the historic federal indictment, in the case of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump. The federal government, for the first time since its inception, has criminally prosecuted one of its former Executives. The 49-page, 37-count indictment is both breathtaking and unnerving in detailing the brazenness of the defendant in jeopardising the national security of the Republic. As alleged, the charges in the indictment exhibit one of the most shameful betrayals of the Nation’s trust by an elected representative: improper storage – in a country club known for its lax security – of nuclear secrets, draft plans for foreign military interventions, America’s military vulnerabilities, and a man hellbent on his refusal to return government property upon several lawful requests. 

Unlike the speculative New York prosecution, which is reliant on untested legal theories, this prosecution appears to be a slam-dunk for the Department of Justice. The contemporaneous evidence, photographic back-up and other first-hand material included in the indictment is damning. Critical intelligence was left astray in boxes in a ballroom at Mar-a-Lago that was open to club members, and regularly rented for events; others, piled up in a bathroom at the Florida country club. It is worth stressing that the so-called “White House by the Beach” has been frequently breached, including by two Chinese nationals in 2022. Who knows what foreign agent or adversary peeked at some of the top secret intel recklessly sprawled across the chambers of a country club.

The former President has been charged with 31 counts of wilfully retaining national defence information under the Espionage Act and one count of making false statements in relation to his correspondence with federal investigators and one of his own attorneys. It is pertinent to note that charges under the Espionage Act do not require the government to prove that the “national defence information” was classified. Notwithstanding, in a deeply alarming revelation, the indictment presents evidence that Trump shared a highly sensitive “plan of attack” against Iran to visitors at his New Jersey golf club in 2021, and is recorded on tape describing the material as “highly confidential” and “secret”. He further boasts that such material was not “declassified” (but he could have declassified it when he was President). In another incident, fleshed out in the indictment, the former Commander-in-Chief shared a top secret military map with a staff member at his political action committee. These materials are so sensitive, that ordinarily, they can only be viewed by vetted individuals with top secret clearance inside the confines of lead-walled rooms, without the presence of any cellular or computer devices. 

Furthermore, prosecutors allege that Trump had caused his lawyers to falsely certify a statement forwarded to the Justice Department that his legal team had executed a “diligent search” of the Mar-a-Lago grounds, and found only a few files that had not been returned to the government. After executing a search warrant a few months later, FBI agents discovered troves of documents bearing classification markings. What could have been a simple request to return government property was elevated to deception and obstruction by the actions of Trump and his recalcitrance to recognise that such documents were not personal possessions. 

If the charges in the indictment are proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, they will establish one of the most egregious failures of public duty by an American President who played fast and loose with the nation’s security and the lives of military personnel for the sake of an ego boost. All the more remarkable and stupefying that this uniquely unqualified and unstable man is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to be President. The sycophants (even most of his challengers in the GOP) are still lining up to defend the disgraced defendant against this “travesty of justice”. The United States of America remains in a uniquely perilous moment in its history, and the fever of cultism is yet to break. One thing is certain: if this federal defendant ever assumes the reins of the Presidency again, the Republic will not stand for very much longer.