For this, the DOJ charged Lavarello with unauthorized retention of classified documents and sought to put her in prison. She returned the documents to a safe at the embassy two days later but failed to return them to the secure information facility specifically. That night, she held a dinner party at which a guest discovered the classified documents and confronted her about them. Shortly thereafter, she brought three classified theses back to her hotel room. She had been conducting the research in a secure information facility at the embassy until COVID-19 shut it down. Her work drew on other scholarly research that was also classified. Embassy in Manila, where she had been researching a classified thesis. In 2020, Lavarello was on assignment at the U.S. To appreciate this, it is helpful to contrast the DOJ’s treatment of Trump with its handling of Asia Janay Lavarello, a former civilian employee of the Defense Department. In reality, however, the notion that the DOJ is selectively prosecuting Trump for political reasons is not merely wrong but the very opposite of the truth: As a matter of fact, the federal government has been affording Trump extraordinary leniency, likely as a product of political considerations. An ABC News–Ipsos poll released Sunday found that 47 percent of Americans believe the charges against Trump are “politically motivated” while only 37 percent believe they are not. Thus, conservatives contend, Trump’s indictment reflects the politicization of federal law enforcement: President Biden ordered an indictment of his top political rival as though it were a takeout meal, and the Justice Department delivered, even though Trump had done nothing more unlawful than Clinton, Biden, Mike Pence, or countless other politicians had. And we’re not going to stand for it.” Senator Lindsey Graham put the point more directly in an interview with ABC News Sunday, saying, “Most Republicans believe we live in a country where Hillary Clinton did very similar things and nothing happened to her.” Other Republicans have claimed Joe Biden is guilty of conduct legally indistinguishable from Trump’s. Trump’s indictment is “going to disrupt this nation because it goes to the core of equal justice for all, which is not being seen today. Rather, they have reverted to a time-honored alternative to justifying the unjustifiable, arguing that whatever Trump did or did not do, his accusers are politically motivated and hypocritical and that is the real scandal.Īs House Speaker Kevin McCarthy explained to Fox News on Friday, Of course, by now, Republicans are well versed in the art of Trump apologetics, so they know better than to try to defend the mogul’s actions on the merits. atomic secrets lying around his club, show off secret military plans to friends as if they were souvenirs, and then refuse to return those documents upon the government’s request. Pro-Trump conservatives are therefore faced with the daunting task of explaining why it is actually good for an ex-president to illegally keep U.S. Asked an attorney to hide or destroy any “really bad” documents that were in his possession instead of returning them to the government in compliance with the subpoena.Moved boxes of secret documents out of a storage room so his lawyer would not find them when he came to collect papers that needed to be returned to the National Archives in compliance with a subpoena.battle plans to private citizens, admitting as he did so that the plans had not been declassified. Was caught on tape showing secret U.S.Left such documents in boxes inside his Mar-a-Lago club’s ballroom, even as large gatherings were held within it.nuclear secrets, military vulnerabilities, and plans for retaliating in the event of an attack. Retained top-secret documents detailing U.S.The Justice Department charged the ex-president last Thursday with willfully retaining national security secrets in violation of the Espionage Act and conspiring to obstruct justice. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Imagesĭonald Trump has once again handed his Republican apologists an unenviable assignment.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |