Part 4
The final sentence is the new addition, “The document that TRUMP possessed and showed on July 21, 2021, is charged as Count 32 in this Superseding Indictment.” There was some confusion originally about whether this story involved a real document or whether it was more Trump braggadocio. Prosecutors subpoenaed the document from Trump, whose lawyers responded they were unable to find a document matching that description. But prosecutors have confirmed a real document was involved, and it seems likely given the date in new count 32, which alleges Trump possessed that document until January 17, 2022, around the date
he returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives, that it was found there.
Why add this new charge? Some folks have speculated it might make it easier to get the audiotape of Trump’s conversation into evidence at trial. But I don’t think that’s the reason. Even if it’s not part of a charged count, under the rules of evidence, prosecutors can introduce evidence of other crimes or bad acts to prove intent, knowledge, absence of mistake, etc. The tape of Trump acknowledging he has classified material in his possession and couldn’t declassify it since he’s no longer president make this squarely admissible whether the document was charged or not.
The document was important to charge because it wasn’t “just” a document in a box in Trump’s ballroom or bathroom, it was a document he pulled out, waived around, identified, and put in view of multiple people who lacked a security clearance. Trump’s cavalier treatment of the Iran battle plan drives home how serious his crimes are, and it’s an important inclusion among the retention counts. It’s tough for a juror to look at this kind of evidence and refuse to vote to convict because it’s not a serious crime.
Moreover, Trump
gave an interview after the first indictment was handed down, where he told Fox News Host Brett Baier it hadn’t really been a classified document. “There was no document,” he said. “That was a massive amount of papers,” and some additional nonsensical bluster. Now the government has him dead to rights, lying about it. Juries don’t like that kind of thing. All of this is designed to make the indictment strong, even in the face of a Trump-leaning juror.
Obstruction: The obstruction counts are the real eye-popper in the new version of the indictment. They are new counts 40 and 41, and they put Donald Trump squarely in the middle of efforts, laughably unsuccessful if the matter was any less serious, to destroy security video footage he wanted to keep out of the hands of the grand jury. The footage depicts movement of boxes with classified material and some of the acts of obstruction that are ultimately charged, so you can understand why Trump didn’t want DOJ to get its hands on it. Thanks to “Trump Employee 4,” a person with a moral compass and a backbone that few of the people Trump surrounds himself with ever seem to possess, Trump didn’t succeed. Employee 4 refused to destroy the video.
Next time someone suggests to you that Joe Biden did the same thing Donald Trump did and isn’t being prosecuted, remind them that Joe Biden not only voluntarily returned classified material in his possession, he never orchestrated a conspiracy with his employees to destroy security footage of his efforts to keep that material out of the government’s hands.
Employee 4 looks like a cooperating witness for the government—too much of the information contained in the indictment, especially the details of conversations, would need to come from him for that not to be the case.
What you need to know
joycevance.substack.com
