With House Republicans scrambling to select a new speaker, which won’t happen until next week, the media decided to drop the latest development concerning Donald Trump’s legal woes and mishandling of classified information. It’s all bad news for the GOP—why not pour more gasoline on this bonfire? Trump has already been indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith, constituting the most robust case against the former president. The Stormy Daniels and January 6 indictments are fallacious, as is New York’s civil case against him on fraud.
The classified document case is a pickle, as the former president didn’t do himself any favors regarding mitigating risk. These are some of the most vicious anti-Trump prosecutors and attorneys working for the Department of Justice. They can and will make any case against him, which is the new rule regarding any Trump-related legal developments: expect the absolute worst. That’s not the case here, for once.
The latest development with Trump and sensitive information involves his conversations with an Australian billionaire, Anthony Pratt, at Mar-a-Lago after he left office, where he told him about the capabilities of our nuclear submarine fleet, which Pratt later spilled to other individuals. Based on the story and its headline, you’d think Trump is about to face another wave of legal hellfire. Nope, it’s a classic buried lede (via ABC News) [emphasis mine]:
Months after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago Club -- an Australian billionaire who then allegedly shared the information with scores of others, including more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The potential disclosure was reported to special counsel Jack Smith's team as they investigated Trump's alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the sources told ABC News. The information could shed further light on Trump's handling of sensitive government secrets.
Prosecutors and FBI agents have at least twice this year interviewed the Mar-a-Lago member, Anthony Pratt, who runs U.S.-based Pratt Industries, one of the world's largest packaging companies.
[…]
According to Pratt's account, as described by the sources, Pratt told Trump he believed Australia should start buying its submarines from the United States, to which an excited Trump -- "leaning" toward Pratt as if to be discreet -- then told Pratt two pieces of information about U.S. submarines: the supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry, and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being detected.
[…]
In emails and conversations after meeting with Trump, Pratt described Trump's remarks to at least 45 others, including six journalists, 11 of his company's employees, 10 Australian officials, and three former Australian prime ministers, the sources told ABC News.
[…]
Special counsel Smith did not include any information about Trump's alleged April 2021 conversation with Pratt in his June indictment against Trump, which charged the former president with 40 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information and obstruction-related offenses.
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Chalk this up in the ‘people are saying’ category of this legal fiasco since the evidence was insufficient to bring formal charges. It's not good news, but there's been too many lies emanating from the Biden DOJ to trust most of what's out there. What is more damaging for Trump right now is the snitch Yuscil Taveras, who served as an information officer at Mar-a-Lago. He recanted his initial testimony and now says he was privy to attempts to tamper with evidence relating to the classified document probe.
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