37 federal felony count indictment was his own doing for refusing to return classified documents

Donald Trump is 100% right that his indictment on 37 federal felony counts by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Florida grand jury for making off with classified government secrets is due directly to the actions of a major political player. No, not Joe Biden, but Trump himself.

Reading the indictment in full, as Smith invited everyone to do yesterday “to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged,” shows that Trump’s biggest foe is Trump.

After he left the White House on Jan. 20, 2021 (however reluctantly) Trump carted with him many boxes containing materials that rightfully belonged to the government, not him. Over the course of months the National Archives requested again and again the stuff be returned, while Trump denied he had anything.

Finally, almost a full year later, he relented and shipped 15 boxes back to the feds on Jan. 17, 2022. But inside 14 of those boxes the archivists found 197 classified documents, some of them secret and top secret. Three weeks later, the National Archives told the Department of Justice.

Then the FBI tried to find out if there were any more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. And if Trump had cooperated, like Biden and Mike Pence did when they were found to have improperly been holding secret records after their terms as vice president ended, Trump may have avoided prosecution.

Instead, Trump deceived the FBI and a federal grand jury and even his own lawyers, identified as Attorney 1, Attorney 2 and Attorney 3. He willfully held onto the secret papers after he had been asked and then ordered to return them. On June 3 last year, he forked over 38 more secret records, claiming that was the last of it. It wasn’t. The FBI raid on Aug. 8 turned up 102 more classified files.

Yes, it was a crime to have the secrets after his term of office ended (and to show them to visitors), but the worst offense is to have lied and tried to keep the top secrets. That’s no innocent mistake. It’s a felony. Over and over. He is cooked.

The Daily News Flash

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