For the Record: You Can't Be Serious~

 

Still from The Manchurian Candidate, 1962.

Special counsel office working to wipe away the charges against Trump before January 20, including the ones about him stealing classified documents from the government, lying about them, refusing to give them back, conspiring to hide them from the FBI, showing them to hotel guests...

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:12 PM

Then on January 20 he gets a new security clearance! Is that wild or what? We can't have a trial to find out whether he's guilty of espionage or not, because that might interfere impermissibly with his ability to perform his official duties. We just have to give him the chance to do it again!

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:19 PM

That's in spite of the fact that we already know perfectly well he did it. I mean the polite thing is to say he's "innocent until proven guilty", but have you looked at the indictment? Have you looked at his sorry excuse for a defense? "Oh I secretly declassified them all!" I don't think so.

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:25 PM

You have to go through channels to do that stuff. There's a reason the docs are classified, even the president can't just pop off and let them out, you could get people killed that way. And in any case we know he's lying, because he admitted it www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/p...

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— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:33 PM

What the hell, people? This man was first caught passing classified information to foreign governments in May 2017 www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation... He's never explained what he wanted to do with the ones he stole in January 2021.

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— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:40 PM

His federal judge in Florida dismissed the charges--not that she thought he was innocent, she never said a word about that, but on the theory that the Constitution doesn't allow independent counsels? Really? Tell that to Richard Nixon, Judge Cannon! Tell it to Bill Clinton! Tell it to Joe Biden!

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:46 PM

Stupidest theory I've ever heard. And yet here we are, about to send somebody who has *definitely* shopped secret national security information to foreign agents, sparing him the discomfort and annoyance of a trial, and letting him go do it again. In the name of "civility".

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:52 PM

How can this be? If somebody's indicted for murder do you give them the keys to the world's best gunroom? How can we give him a security clearance without even asking if that's wise?

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 10:57 PM

"Oh, no, sir, I would never interfere with you trying to share intelligence secrets with MBS or Erdoğan or that nice and friendly Kim Jong Il who sent you such beautiful letters! Or V.V. Putin! I would never break the norms in such an ill-natured way! Here's your clearance, have a great day!"

— Yastreblyansky (@yastreblyansky.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 11:10 PM

OK legally it's true that he's innocent until proven guilty, but that's not true in spy stories. To George Smiley, you're not to be trusted...ever. How is there not a principle governing that? Does the legal principle even have any relevance to national security issues? Jesus, I think we should be giving them fake product and then watching to see if it turns up in Tehran or Beijing. Or Israel. Why would we be allowing him to have anything real, in the knowledge it could end up in a vulnerable bathroom at Mar-a Lago? 

What if Rep. Eric Swalwell, or Governor Tim Walz, or, keeping the sex aspect out of it, Senator-Elect Andy Kim, was indicted—not accused by some badmouth rightwinger but formally indicted, by a grand jury, on several counts of espionage and conspiracy; would we really allow them into the crown jewels of US intelligence?

There has to be a trial before Trump gets unconstrained access to the stuff.