Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2023
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932
Of motive and egomania
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
          WASHINGTON — People who abscond with highly classified government documents tend to do so for either ideological or monetary motives, the latter being self-explanatory. But ideological motives may be classified as (a) support of a foreign or domestic enemy, (b) belief that the government is not acting in the best interests of the nation, or (c) that the government is not acting in the best interests of humanity.
          Enter the case against former President Donald Trump. Special Counsel Jack Smith presented the case to a grand jury and that jury voted to indict Trump. Smith has a stellar reputation in legal circles and previously worked at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands investigating and prosecuting war crimes, but bringing a case against a former president, who, when president, had a legal right to access the nation’s top-secret documents, poses a unique problem.
          The overriding question is what was the former president planning to do with the documents, if anything? What was his motive? He was not stealing information. He already had legal access to it. So, this is Smith’s dilemma.
          In the realm of motives, none seem to fit. If motive (a) were germane, Trump could have given secrets away when he was president. If motive (b) was in play he would have given secret information to the press as occurred in the 1971 Pentagon Papers incident when Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified information about the Vietnam War to the New York Times. But Trump did not do that, nor would he have had any reason to undermine his own administration. Then there is motive (c), the space usually occupied by environmental or anti-nuclear zealots, and Trump certainly does not fit that mold. This leaves the monetary motive, and although Trump is undoubtedly a faux billionaire, the indictments brought against him do not raise financial issues.
          So, why did Trump take those boxes containing classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago? Why did he risk facing charges of obstruction to hold on to them? Is he behaving this way simply to satisfy his overriding ego, or is there some more sinister motive?
          He took them blatantly. He hid them, and then he refused to return them, defying a subpoena. Because he could? Or is there something more?
          Trump’s friendly relationship with Russian President Putin has always aroused suspicion, but no tangible evidence has surfaced about the relationship. And there’s no indication Trump is on a wider mission to reveal America’s secrets, which leaves us with Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr’s speculation that the ex-president defies the rules around classified documents because he can.
          He likes to wave a secret document around to impress other people, behavior that was revealed in a recorded phone conversation taped after Trump left the White House. The document, which may or may not have been real, allegedly shows that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley had submitted to then President Trump a war plan for bombing Iran – no surprise there. We probably have contingency plans to bomb many countries.
          AG Barr has emerged as an outspoken critic of his former boss, saying in an interview on CBS that Trump could have made this whole thing go away if he returned the documents when the government asked. “But he jerked them around for a year and a half.”
          Barr says that Trump’s ego is so all-consuming that he must prove he can get away with anything. Until now, that has worked for him. But Smith is a different character than Trump is accustomed to and unlikely to be moved by appeals from a former president.
          Barr gave the Justice Department high marks in their handling of Trump, saying this is no witch hunt. “In fact, they approached this very delicately and with deference to the president,” he told interviewer Gayle King. There is “no excuse for what he did here,” adding that “whether it’s a crime or not, remains to be seen.”
          In the end, if Barr is right and the only motive was ego, and nothing was divulged to those who wish us harm, Trump is going to walk. Egomania is not a crime.
 
          See Eleanor Clift’s latest book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
          Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
          © 2023 U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
          Distributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND