Dear Editor:
Again? A 37-count criminal indictment has been unsealed on Trump and the Lefties are just giddy. Comments of “painted into a corner” and “walls closing in” are gleefully shouted. The “gotcha” feeling is almost palpable in New York newsrooms. Blustery old Bill Barr is rolled out to proclaim “he’s toast” to more snickers and applause and high fives all around. Barr’s Fox video clip is unendingly repeated across the other networks because if Fox’s banner is on that video the Left’s characterization of Trump as a criminal has reassured credibility; even though Fox is in the midst of their own Bud-Light moment as I write this.
So, what’s the end game here? Where’s all this headed? In all honesty, some of this has made me relook at why I wanted something like this for Hillary Clinton (and Bill) for so long. The Clintons have proven themselves so oblivious to the concept of ownership that they begrudgingly had to return hundreds of thousands worth of gifts to the government after leaving the White House. This willful ignorance ran deep enough that Hillary was equally confused about who owned the 33,000 government emails on the server in her basement, but, ‘never mind all that’. Disgraced FBI Director Comey assured all of us that “our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” Equally disturbing, aren’t the declarations by the National Archives that the 30 million pages of documents from the Obama era presidency contain no classified material at least somewhat suspect since Joe Biden himself has been found to have classified documents at multiple locations? Joe was part of the Obama White House, yes? Does the Obama/Biden administration just get an “olly, olly, oxen free” pass?
Even casual reading of documents like the Presidential Records Act and Executive Order 13526 suggests that there is confusion about what our Chief Executive can and can’t do relative to classified documents. The statement by Trump that he has the power to declassify documents under provisions of President Obama’s own Executive Order is not without merit. Trump was in discussions with Archivists even while the wheels towards indictment were already turning. Past Presidents have been given generous amounts of time and significant lenience in negotiating archives vs. personal property decisions; not so with Trump. But who are we kidding? This isn’t about vagaries in law and policy. This is full on weaponization of the Department of Justice to “stop the Orange Man” and bury him in trials and suits, and literally rob him of the time and resources to run a successful campaign. Is this where Democrats have come? Is this winning at any cost worth it? America deserves better.
Written by
Dan Schnieders
Jefferson City
