Is Donald Trump the victim of a witch-hunt?
T HE ARRAIGNMENT of Donald Trump at a court in Miami on June 13th marks a first in American history. The current president's administration believes that the previous president endangered national security, by wilfully mishandling classified documents, and is bringing charges that could result in jail time. What makes this even more extraordinary, of course, is that the defendant is the front-runner in the Republican primary. Thus the 2024 election could turn into a campaign for Mr Trump to stay out of prison.
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What charges is Donald Trump facing related to classified documents?
That is what Mr Trump would like. Before the indictment against him was even unsealed, his campaign seized on it as a fundraising opportunity: Joe Biden could never win a free and fair election and so wants to jail his innocent opponent; 2024 is not just any election but the "final battle"; either Mr Trump wins "or we lose our country"; contribute here and become a Trump Gold Card member.
As well as turning Democratic fears about the end of American democracy back on the accuser, the Trump campaign complains that their man is being singled out. What about Joe Biden, Mike Pence and Hillary Clinton? As Mr Trump observes, they have all hung on to classified documents, or been reprimanded for carelessness with official secrets. He argues that his indictment is, therefore, proof that he is the victim of a witch-hunt.
What nonsense. America's security bureaucracy classifies so many more documents than it needs to that lots of officials and politicians inadvertently end up in possession of secrets. In practice, they are prosecuted only when the most secret documents are involved; when those who possess them refuse to hand them back or obstruct justice; and when they leave them vulnerable or share them with others. Mr Trump is alleged to be guilty of all three.
Some of the documents referred to in his indictment are highly secret. Others are marked " HUMINT ", which means they have been gathered by sources who could be in grave peril if caught.
Mr Trump's documents were also more vulnerable to being seen or stolen. Mr Biden left classified documents in his garage next to his Corvette--which was both sloppy and on brand. By contrast, Mr Trump's were kept at his club, whose several hundred members can take their guests for a swim and a club sandwich. According to the indictment, a large number of boxes were put in a storage room, which could be reached "from multiple outside entrances, including one accessible from The Mar-a-Lago Club pool patio through a doorway that was often kept open".
Mr Trump is also alleged to have shared the documents. His need to brag, and to make visitors feel special, is so strong that he let a writer, his publisher and two staff members look at a document that was probably a plan for bombing Iran's nuclear-enrichment facility at Fordow. "This is secret information," he is recorded saying. "See as president I could have declassified it. Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
So serious are these allegations that not to have charged Mr Trump would have been to single him out for special treatment. Had Mr Trump acknowledged his mistake and returned all the files, it is hard to see how there would have been any prosecution. As it is, Bill Barr, Mr Trump's former attorney-general, told Fox News that the indictment is "very, very damning" and concluded that "if even half of it is true, then he's toast."
That Mr Trump could be brought down by a combination of vanity, paranoia, chaos and conceitedness seems tragic-comically apt. But that ending is a long way off, if indeed it ever arrives. The trial and appeals in this case may drag on past next year's presidential election. Were Mr Trump to win it, the Supreme Court would then be asked whether the prosecution of the president-elect should continue. If the court said yes, President Trump would presumably seek to pardon himself. That really would be unfair. #