Paragraph 3 is perhaps one of the most damning statements ever made about an American president (1/x)
Paragraph 6 is pretty terrible as well, revealing the plan of attack despite revealing he knew it was classified and doing the same with a military map (2/x)
Paragraph 7 is the bottom of the slippery slope that he embarked upon by beginning his administration with constitutional violations of the Emoluments Clause. For six years since he’s been plummeting into worse illegality like this. (3/x)
Nauta’s role here is heartbreaking. When I worked in the White House, I worked a lot with the Navy staff & they are loyal to a fault. I don’t know Nauta but I blame Trump 100% for dragging him down this slippery slope. (4/x)
As I’ve been saying a lot on TV lately, Executive Order 13526 governing classification and declassification is central to this case. I oughta know—I helped write it when I was in the White House! (5/x)
Paragraph 21 of the complaint enumerates the staggering array of intelligence community agencies as to which Trump retained classified documents. My reaction: “What a nightmare!”
As Ambassador I held highest security clearances. This is so damaging to the IC and America. (6/x)
OMG, paragraph 22, this is a classic speaking indictment that also makes the case for Trump’s bad intent. It enumerates his knowledge of the importance of protecting classified information! (7/x)
Paragraph 25 is crazy too, with the pictures of Trump’s boxes literally on stage in a ballroom where public events took place! This is one step removed from leaving them on stage at a Broadway theater (& Trump’s ballroom may be more attended than some shows I’ve gone to). (8/x)
In 27, we learn Trump’s employees refer to these boxes (which contained some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets) as the “Beautiful Mind paper boxes,” referencing the mad professor in the movie. Nothing beautiful about it—this is a horror movie for national security. (9/x)
More photographs on pages 12, 13, 14 & 18 showing the evolution of the mishandling of the insecure storage of these sensitive documents. Incredibly dangerous.
Also a very effective example of the 21st century speaking indictment —a speaking indictment with visual aids
(10/x)
The most horrifying of these is the picture on p. 14 from December 2021 in which a box fell & highly classified documents poured onto the floor of an insecure room. This is insane. (11/x)
Trump is showing attack plans for another nation for the amusement and laughter of a staffer.
This is also a reference to E.O. 13526--which I wrote. Trump says that he could’ve declassified these documents as president, and now he can’t. (12/x)
Posting pages 15 and 16 again. What a devastating blow to Trump's "automatic declassification" defense. (13/x)
In #36, the special counsel goes past a speaking indictment to a shouting one.
This is snarky, but relevant to the public case that I urged him to make in my @nytopinion piece today. It's not really necessary to conviction–I enjoyed it, however. (14/x)
This whole long section that starts on page 17 and runs with paragraph 37 through paragraph 49. Devastating. (15/x)
Starting with paragraph 52, the plot thickens with the arrival of the subpoena.
The Evan Corcoran notes that show up in paragraph 54 (a, b, c, and d) are absolutely debilitating in demonstrating Trump’s intent. (16/x)
This is a simple case & Smith is treating it simply. Trump removed national defense materials he wasn’t entitled to, violating the Espionage Act
In Paragraph 58c, Nauta said “I think he wanted to pick from them. I don’t imagine him wanting to take the boxes.”
Devastating blend in this section of direct and indirect evidence proving Trump’s corrupt intent and Nauta’s facilitation. (18/x)
I feel so bad for Nauta! Very decent people can be destroyed by coming into Trump’s orbit. I’m thinking of my friend Michael Cohen. Unlike Michael, Nauta doesn’t seem willing to break off and cooperate. (19/x)
Note that I said “seven charges” in the NYT this morning. We now know that Trump faces 37 counts across those seven charges, with 31 of those coming on the first charge–the Espionage Act. (20/x)
On page 24, we get to the false certification to the FBI and grand jury. Smith is keeping it simple: lies, lies, lies, & more lies by Trump aided by Nauta.
It reminds me of the literary trope of a fool unwittingly helping an evil king (unfortunately not a wise fool). (21/x)
Omg! Trump’s play-acting at the end of 65 pretending that he doesn’t know exactly what’s in these boxes. “Did you find anything… Is it bad? Good?” And then the plucking motion… Corcoran put the knife in here. I think “plucking motion” will become a much-used phrase. (22/x)
And the payoff in this section, the actual false statements that Trump caused to be made in paragraph 69 (noted in abc) (23/x)
Page 27 is perhaps the most literary of this entire dramatic narrative because of the devastating understatement with which Smith brings his speaking indictment to a close before pivoting to charges. (24/x)
Note also the empty page at the bottom of page 27: just a silent, white space to let it all sink in.
Of course, it’s also standard drafting practice to start the counts on a new page, but Smith makes it work for him. (25/x)
Now we’re onto the counts.
Note that I said “seven charges” in @nytopinion this morning. We now know that Trump faces 37 counts across those seven charges.
31 of those are coming on the first charge–the Espionage Act. (26/x)
Looks like they picked the 31 worst documents out of the trove that Trump took.
No need to do hundreds of counts here: 31 are enough to put him in jail for the rest of his days.
& that’s before we get to the six obstruction counts! (27/x)
Once again, the utilization of keeping it simple, as we noted in our @nytopinion piece this morning
It’s 31 documents, but it is essentially one point & he has grouped them all as basically one charge (28/x)
Like the horror of paragraph 3, look at the doc descriptions here:
3 “Military capabilities of a foreign country”
9 “Military attacks by a foreign country"
14 “Military options of a foreign country”
16 "Terrorist acts;”
18 “Military operations against US forces” (29/x)
The 6 remaining obstruction counts against Trump are pretty vanilla. Again, simplicity! It’s all just different elements of the coverup. Whether withhold documents, concealing documents,... conspiracy with Nauta, it is all of a kind. (30/x)
Of course, now comes the hard part, particularly if Judge Cannon sticks here. I’ll have a whole other thread later about why she must recuse herself or be reassigned under US v Martin. (31/x)
That Martin case was in the 11th Cir., which held that the Court can reassign the case to a new judge if the old judge “would have difficulty putting [her] previous views and findings aside.” (32/x)
That and many complications lie ahead. Smith made the statement we called for in our NYT op-ed 👇
In our MAL model prosecution memo we updated last week we concluded that “a powerful case exists for charging Trump under the federal criminal statutes discussed in this.” (34/x) justsecurity.org/86771/model-pr…
Now that I have seen the indictment, I feel that way even more strongly. Trump will very likely be convicted. (35/x) justsecurity.org/86771/model-pr…
Huge shoutout to my awesome colleagues who helped me research & analyze & get my thoughts together – Michael, Madison, Allison, Jacob, Arava & Simone! (36/36)
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I am amazed at critics of the 2016 election interference trial of Trump who get the most basic facts wrong
The DA has specified intent to conceal not just one but THREE other crimes
That has been litigated, judge has accepted & all 3 are being proven to jury daily!
1/x
The DA spelled this out almost A YEAR AGO in May 2023 the Response to Trump’s Request for a Bill of Particulars
2/x
Then Judge Hellerstein of SDNY ruled in July 2023 (on the removal petition) that using federal campaign crimes as 1 of the other crimes Trump intended to conceal was NOT preempted
I’ll be sitting with my @just_security colleague @KlasfeldReports & the great @gtconway3d to LIVE TWEET. Plz follow along
Appreciate the kind words from them & others in line for my new book about the case👉 amazon.com/Trying-Trump-E…
Greetings from inside the courtroom where I count about 88 members of the press & 8 ordinary citizens who waited in line starting at 1155 pm last night!
I interviewed them all—they were like a mini jury pool & what they told me is fascinating…
2/x
But first--a description of what is happening. I and the other roughly 87 press card holders for the trial are in the overflow room, "Part 75," Room 1523, where we alone in America can watch the case on TV
The lies literally began w the very first sentence in the brief that "no former or current president faced criminal charges for his official acts" bc "the president cannot function" if such charges can be brought
That's false: the reason no other POTUS faced criminal charges is because none engaged in conduct like that of Trump
2/x
I'll go through some of the other highlights--if you can call them that--of the brief in this thread
& I have written at length about why Trump's audacious immunity claim fails, most recently for @MSNBC 👇