John Krull
Some people are slow learners.
No matter how many times something or someone fools them, they still leap at the chance to be conned again. They are born suckers.
It now looks as though many Republicans — specifically, those who are willing to swallow everything Donald Trump tells them — fall into that category.
A few days ago, when the former president of the United States announced that his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, had been raided by FBI investigators, Republicans were quick to attack the search as a political hit job. They threatened U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland with reprisals.
“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned,” fumed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California.
That was foolish, but it was far from the dumbest thing McCarthy said about the Trump.
That came at the beginning of McCarthy’s statement.
“I’ve seen enough,” McCarthy said.
In fact, he had seen nothing.
He just took Donald Trump at his word.
There’s one born every minute.
And this one is so desperate to be speaker of the US House of Representatives that he would buy oceanfront property in Nebraska if Trump told him it was for sale.
It turns out that the FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents — some with the highest levels of classification — and that the former president of the United States is under investigation for breaking three different federal laws, including the Espionage Act.
Trump has no good explanation for why he would have these documents more than a year and a half after he left office. This shouldn’t be surprising. Trump always has had trouble grasping that, as president, he was supposed to be the servant of the American people, not their master.
He also never did understand that government records belong to the nation, not to him personally.
Trump and his associates have attempted to offer defenses and explanations that do not speak to these concerns.
They have argued that there can be no crime because Trump declassified the documents himself just before he left the Oval Office.
There are at least two problems with that argument.
The first is that if Trump declassified the documents, there must be a record of some sort saying so. If not, they weren’t declassified.
The second problem is bigger. That is that, even if the documents were declassified, possessing them in the careless fashion Trump did likely still would be against the law. The law says it’s a violation if possession of the documents, destruction of the documents or negligent handling of the documents compromises national security.
If convicted, Trump could face up to 10 years in prison on each charge.
Does this mean Trump is guilty? No.
To get the warrant to search Trump’s property, investigators had to demonstrate that there was probable cause a crime was committed.
That sounds serious — and it is.
But probable cause is a long way from “beyond a reasonable doubt,” a much tougher standard.
That much tougher standard is the one that will apply if and when this goes to court.
Is it possible Donald Trump will be found guilty of a serious crime? Yes.
Is it possible he will be found not guilty? Also yes.
Is it possible he won’t even be charged with a crime? Yes, yet again.
The truth is that we don’t know the whole story yet. That is why proceeding with caution, resisting the temptation to rush to judgment and allowing the investigation to take its course is the most prudent posture.
But it doesn’t seem that Kevin McCarthy and his fellow Republicans much value prudence. If Donald Trump tells them the sun is going to set in the east, they will line up their beach chairs along the Carolina coast to secure the best viewing.
One born every minute.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students, where this commentary originally appeared. The opinions expressed by the author do not reflect the views of Franklin College. Send comments to [email protected].
