Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Trump’s Long History With Conspiracy Theories
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trumps-long-history-with-conspiracy-theories/

[Richard Smith]

Trump continues to surge in the latest polls despite every dirty trick by the corrupt establishment to derail democracy and a great and wide field of GOP candidates, Trump is still over 50% with a 30% lead.  In contrast, Old Joe's poll numbers are in the basement.  RFK is doing push ups and has 20% of the Dems.  Over half of DEM voters have expressed doubt about Clown Show Joe's mental and physical abilities. 

[Rick Plant]

Ex-Prosecutor: Trump Could Land Himself In Jail In Next Phase Of Documents Case
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-prosecutor-trump-could-land-160208940.html

[Rick Plant]

Ex-CIA official highlights most frightening top secret docs pilfered by Trump

Former CIA official and George Mason University Hayden Center director Larry Pfeiffer broke down exactly the types of documents former President Donald Trump was hoarding in his Mar-a-Lago stash in an article for The Bulwark — and he made it clear that Trump's actions were dangerous to national security.

The key point, noted Pfeiffer, is that prosecutors have revealed many of the "top secret" documents actually went even higher than that classification, as they were part of "special access programs," a type of intelligence so secret that prosecutors even had to redact the codenames, because just the disclosure of those without any information about what they were could put military and intelligence officials in danger.

"These included documents about the nuclear capabilities of another country, military attacks by a foreign country, the military capabilities of a foreign country, the timeline and details of an attack in a foreign country, the regional military activity of a foreign country, the military activity of foreign countries and the United States, and military activity in a foreign country," wrote Pfeiffer. "And as sensitive as the subjects of those documents are, what was really put at risk by our former commander-in-chief were the nation’s most sensitive activities and information derived from them."

"These are programs or activities so sensitive they require enhanced safeguards and the strictest access requirements," wrote Pfeiffer. "Even those who go through the arduous and sometimes years-long process of obtaining a Top Secret clearance often require additional security adjudication for to gain access to SAPs. Details of SAPs are usually limited to the bare minimum number of people with a 'need to know.' Some are divided into several compartments with individuals given access only to those compartments requiring their expertise or knowledge; only a select few — a dozen or so, maybe fewer — might have access to the totality of the SAP."

Examples of the sort of information found in SAPs, wrote Pfeiffer, include research on new, experimental weapons systems, which could tell our adversaries how to neutralize our capabilities; information about active spies, which could compromise critical operations, get operatives killed, and make it much harder to even recruit new operatives; and documents that detail the “planning, execution, and support” of elite military operations, like the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Eight of the documents Trump is charged with removing, noted Pfeiffer, may contain at least some sort of SAP information — including from so-called "unacknowledged" SAPs, which are so secret that even the top-level reference to what program they are about is classified.

"Trump endangered our national security, putting us all at greater risk, and must be held accountable."

Read More Here: https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-document-special-access-programs

[Rick Plant]

CNN obtained a recording of Criminal Donald leaking top secret classified military information and played it on air tonight. 


Exclusive: CNN obtains the tape of Trump’s 2021 conversation about classified documents

CNN — CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify.

The recording, which first aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” includes new details from the conversation that is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information, including a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran.

“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio recording, while he’s discussing the Pentagon attack plans, a quote that was not included in the indictment.

Trump’s statements on the audio recording, saying “these are the papers” and referring to something he calls “highly confidential” and seems to be showing others in the room, could undercut the former president’s claims in an interview last week with Fox News’ Bret Baier that he did not have any documents with him.

“There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things,” Trump said on Fox. “And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

The audio recording comes from a July 2021 interview Trump gave at his Bedminster resort for people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff. The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance – a writer, publisher and two of Trump’s staff members – were shown classified information about the plan of attack on Iran.

The episode is one of two referenced in the indictment where prosecutors allege that Trump showed classified information to others who did not have security clearances.

CNN has previously reported that Trump at the time was furious over a New Yorker article about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley that said Milley argued against striking Iran and was concerned Trump would set in motion a full-scale conflict.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment.

Listen to the audio in the link: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/politics/trump-classified-documents-audio/index.html

[Rick Plant]

Trump heard on CNN tape discussing military secrets at golf club

Ex-president is heard discussing a Pentagon paper detailing plans to attack Iran with people who did not have security clearances



An audio clip has emerged of Donald Trump discussing secret documents that he had not declassified at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in July 2021, providing new evidence that the former president knew of proper declassification procedures.

The recording, obtained by CNN, includes new details from a conversation that is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information. It includes a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran.

The episode is one of two referenced in the indictment where prosecutors allege that Trump showed classified information to others who did not have security clearances, CNN reported.

In the conversation, Trump is talking with people helping his former chief of staff Mark Meadows write a book. His aide, Margo Martin, regularly taped conversations with authors to ensure they accurately recounted his remarks.

According to the recording aired on CNN, Trump refers to the document and its classified status.

“These are the papers,” Trump says in the audio recording, while he’s discussing the Pentagon attack plans, a quote that was not included in the indictment.

“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump continues, before noting that the document remained classified. “See as president I could have declassified it,” he says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

The audio recording obtained by CNN included more lines from the conversation:

Trump: “It’s so cool. I mean, it’s so, look, her and I, and you probably almost didn’t believe me, but now you believe me.”

Writer: “No, I believed you.”

Trump: “It’s incredible, right?”

Writer: “No, they never met a war they didn’t want.”

Trump: “Hey, bring some, uh, bring some Cokes in please.”

The July 2021 meeting that was recorded came shortly after Trump was incensed about news reports that Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had urged him not to attack Iran in the final weeks of his presidency.

Trump believed that the document outlining the report to attack Iran would undercut Milley’s reported assertions, though the report was actually written earlier in the Trump administration when Joseph Dunford was chairman of the joint chiefs, a person familiar with the document said.

Trump pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 37 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/26/donald-trump-classified-documents-recording-pentagon-iran



'This is secret information’: Hear exclusive audio of Trump discussing classified documents

New CNN audio reveals former President Donald Trump discussing classified documents with a journalist and a staffer. CNN’s Anderson Cooper discusses with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Paula Reid. #CNN

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'Devastating': Legal expert says Trump tape is 'gold' for Jack Smith



Following CNN's release of audio footage of former President Donald Trump bragging about holding highly classified military intelligence about Iran attack plans to staffers and patrons of his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig discussed the key implications on CNN on Monday.

This, he argued, is close to the best kind of evidence special counsel Jack Smith could possibly have for the Espionage Act charges against the former president.

"It is stunning to actually hear it," said anchor Kaitlan Collins. "We knew what he said, but to hear the audio, to hear the tone, to hear the conversation, the laughter in there — I mean, I'm not a prosecutor. I imagine this is a prosecutor's dream."

"Exactly right," agreed Honig. "This is a devastating tape. This is why prosecutors love tapes so much. This is why tapes are gold to prosecutors. I used to have cases where the first question was, do you have tapes? If you do, that changes everything."

Last week, Trump sat for an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, in which he claimed that most of the documents he was being charged for were in fact innocent magazine and newspaper clippings — a claim very much at odds with what he stated on the tape.

"We can see the difference between the black and white transcript, where the words are fairly incriminating," added Honig. "How it comes to life, though. You hear the tone. You hear who's in the room. You hear that he means it. You hear that he's actually shuffling papers. And this, to me, is the most important piece of evidence that we know of in this case."

Former prosecutor tells Maddow how newly released tape will be used during Trump's trial



MSNBC's Rachel Maddow began her Monday show by doing her own dramatic reading of Donald Trump's audio tape that was revealed by CNN. After listening to the tape, she explained that so much is left out in transcripts, like the cadence and inflection that makes it clear that Trump is handing a classified document to someone.

"I mean, let's just draw down on the specifics of this for a second. In Jack Smith bringing charges against Donald Trump, the sort of crux of the case, right?" said Maddow. "Is that the prosecution has to be able to prove that Trump had classified documents in his possession after he left the presidency, right? That's the illegal activity alleged in the indictment. And here in this part of the tape is Donald Trump saying he had possession of classified information after leaving the presidency."

Former federal prosecutor Barb McQuade, who now teaches law at the University of Michigan, joined the conversation saying she had two reactions to what she heard.

"One, as a former prosecutor, it makes my hair stand on end a little bit to see this in the public domain," she said. "Prosecutors try to keep this stuff safeguarded so you can't have witness tampering and crowdsourcing of defenses. Now people can because this is in the public domain. But as a matter of evidence, this is really powerful evidence. We had seen some verbatim quotes from this recording that was in the indictment, but to hear the whole thing play out, I think, is incredible evidence. And at trial, it will not just be this recording that's played in a vacuum. They will have to authenticate this document, this recording, with someone who was there. So, whether it is the biographer or the publisher or one of the two staffers, one or more of them will have to be there."

The question she expects them to be asked is if they looked at the documents because it sounds as if he is handing them to folks.

"So, I think it proves a couple of things," McQuade continued. "One as you said, his knowledge and intent, which is important here about that he is willfully violating the law, and the other is the incredible recklessness with which he is treating our national secrets. It is a very powerful piece of evidence."

McQuade ended the interview by saying, "Let's have some cokes," a reference to the bizarre final line in the tapes.

Watch: