If Trump Goes To Trial, Expect the Worst
Court proceedings that try to prosecute senior officials for mishandling classified information suggest how Trump will behave if he goes to trial
Whatever the depths of concern Donald Trump’s past behavior raises about what may come next, it would be a mistake to underestimate how low he will stoop if the Justice Department takes him to court for his basement load of secrets. National security agencies and prosecutors share a major worry when any such case involving classified information goes to trial: how much will they need to reveal in order to gain a conviction. If a felony case against Trump materializes, they’ll face that headache in spades.
The fate of senior officials who took liberties with secrets while in office and afterwards presents a series of precedents—if not in law, in the way their cases were handled—that bear on Trump’s reckless behavior and its potential consequences. Let’s stipulate that none of them faced charges for espionage, the intentional disclosure of secrets, or other felonies that relate to crimes associated with their cases, nor may Trump. But based solely on the former president’s behavior and the lies that surrounded his effort to stiff National Archives and Justice Department officials who tried for months to retrieve the documents, their ultimate penalties point to a course that may well represent the one Trump takes.
Below is a link to my latest article on Project-Syndicate.org where I address the background to the crime and punishment scenario that may well await Trump. To be sure the case that could be brought matters a great deal in shaping how he will behave. But if past is prologue, and when Trump’s ludicrous irresponsibility is taken in account, the prosecutors who will face his defense attorneys need to do one thing: expect the worst.
Here’s the link to “Trump’s Blackmail Defense” on Project Syndicate.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-mar-a-lago-documents-counterintelligence-concerns-by-kent-harrington-2022-08