Last week Donald Trump became the first former president to be indicted on federal charges.
Among the charges include multiple counts of willful retention of national defense information related to documents allegedly found during an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, in 2022.
The indictment claims that Trump “gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes” that included “hundreds of classified documents.”
Though 31 of the 37 charges stem from alleged violations of the Espionage Act, the federal indictment does not claim that Trump gave the classified information to any parties which could jeopardize American security, but simply that Trump retained possession of the documents and that “the unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States.”
Carrie Cordero, who was the former counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security, told CNN that Trump has not been charged with spying, but with mishandling information.
“In this case, former President Trump hasn’t been charged with spying for a foreign government, or espionage as we normally think about it, but he has been charged with willfully withholding national defense information – which is the way that a case like this is normally charged,” Cordero said.
Trump was arrested on June 13 when he surrendered to authorities at a Miami courthouse.
On the day of Trump’s arrest at the hands of the Biden Administration, Fox News ran a caption under a split-screen feed of Biden speaking at the White House and Trump speaking in New Jersey, respectively.
The caption read, “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”
A statement from Fox News the next day said the message “was taken down immediately and was addressed.”
On June 14, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if the White House had any comment on the “wannabe dictator” phrase.
“So look, there are probably about 787,000,000 things that I can say about this, that was wrong about what we saw last night,” Jean-Pierre said. “But I don’t think I’m going to get into it.”
A member of the press followed up to confirm that the White House was declining to comment.
“I think I just commented,” Jean-Pierre said.
During his June 13 Tucker on Twitter show, Tucker Carlson described the arrest and arraignment of Trump as the “first steps in a process that is designed to put Donald Trump behind bars for the rest of his life.”
Carlson said Trump’s arrest was inevitable since February 16, 2016, when during a Republican primary presidential debate Trump publicly criticized the Iraq War and said the government lied about the alleged weapons of mass destruction.
“That’s the day Donald Trump made a blood enemy of the largest and most powerful organization in human history – which would be the federal government,” Carlson said.
Carlson said Trump’s unwillingness to further the bipartisan agenda of foreign wars has made him an enemy of both political parties.
President Biden, and his Democrat and Republican allies, and every single news anchor, Carlson said, “believe that Ukraine – that its borders, its future, its infrastructure – are all more important than the town that you live in. They sincerely think that. And it’s obvious. Everyone in power thinks that, except for Donald Trump.”
“Whatever else you say about him, Trump is the one guy with an actual shot of becoming president who dissents from Washington’s longstanding and pointless war agenda. And for that, that one fact, they are trying to take Trump out before you can vote for him. And that should upset you more than anything that’s happened in American politics in your lifetime,” Carlson said.
