It makes me feel physically sick to read about highly classified, extraordinarily sensitive information being in the possession of, and treated so cavalierly by, people who clearly would betray the nation for power and position.
Why isn't Meadows being sweated under a bright light in a sealed room? Why hasn't a search warrant been served on Meadows properties, banks, storage vaults, etc.? What is being done to retrieve this document? I don't understand.
One thing you mentioned but bears repeating is that some of intelligence methods and sources included in the binder were those of America's foreign allies.
I'm reminded of how, in his first year as president, 45 "declassified" a bunch of stuff to show off to visiting Russian delegates that included Israeli sources, putting their methods and people at risk.
America is highly reliant on intelligence networks with its allies, and this kind of thing makes those allies very nervous.
Were 45 or someone like him to be returned to the Oval Office, I am 100% certain each of those allies would conduct new risk assessments about sharing intelligence with the US, and would likely start limiting the details that are shared. This makes everyone less safe, but it's exactly what adversaries like Putin want to see.
Words cannot convey how (expletive) angry I am about this. I served in classified Intel overseas with USAF in the sixties. My dad's older brother, a WW2 US Army officer, held secret/top secret clearances as I did. To realize that a PRESIDENT shared S/TS Intel with a foreign enemy puts me in a state of all-out rage. Betrayal of his Oath and our country makes Trump public enemy #1, selling out our Intel to nation-haters. Anyone who commits such treason should be hanged. Yes, hanged and for all the public to see. Trump's enablers deserve the same fate.
Thanks for retracing and providing background - I had only barely started paying attention to politics around the 2016 election and any details or developments in the whole Russia investigation soap opera over in the last couple of years has gone directly over my head. This helped me fill in quite a few gaps, thank you! (as usual)
And still.... no arrests.... Again - if any of us were suspected of making off with a BINDER of classified information, we all know what would have happened.
While there is all this speculation about where the binder is Meadows sits a free unindicted person (at the federal level). Perhaps, my speculation, is that he has the binder and has leveraged his freedom for it, at least for now.
They all knew what they were doing was wrong.
If the starting point is the binder doesn't leave the turducken, then the binder being anywhere outside the turducken implies guilt to nearly anyone who exercised authority to continue to move, modify and copy the binder.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. " From "Marmion" by Sir Walter Scott
Tangled web? If this case doesn't validate Scott's statement, I don't know of anything else that possibly could. Ever since he told his first lie to his mom: that he didn't wet the bed, it was the little Russian girl from down the street, his life has been nothing but a tangled web. And a tangled mess for the rest of us!
Thanks for the great reporting, guys. It is very much appreciated. We may not have the whole story yet, but we are a heck of a lot closer to it than we were yesterday. Here's hoping you two get a chance to put the original and their redacted versions side by side one of these days. Yeah, I know, but hey, we can still dream.
That was a helluva read, Jay. Thanks for explaining it so clearly - I'd been wondering about the details. It will be interesting to see where all this leads.
Pretty simple. Meadows should be in prison and denied bail until his trial is over. Distributing highly classified documents to people without security clearances is a severe violation of national security and should be treated as such.
Oh my. This reads like a Dan Brown novel! Thank you so much, Jay, for explaining all this in an accessible way. I really hadn't understood why Trump was so keen to get, and keep, the binder and its information if it detailed intelligence gathering that demonstrated his collusion with Russia. Aha! The key is for SELECTIVE release of any mistakes made by the government and/or any exculpatory evidence.
To me, this is scary stuff. Just more reasons why Trump should not be given any opportunity to be in the White House again. He cannot be trusted now or in the future.
Copyedit error: "...I was struck immediately by this fact: Trump had personally appointed both of these men as his representatives at the National Archives representatives in June of 2022."
It makes me feel physically sick to read about highly classified, extraordinarily sensitive information being in the possession of, and treated so cavalierly by, people who clearly would betray the nation for power and position.
Why isn't Meadows being sweated under a bright light in a sealed room? Why hasn't a search warrant been served on Meadows properties, banks, storage vaults, etc.? What is being done to retrieve this document? I don't understand.
One thing you mentioned but bears repeating is that some of intelligence methods and sources included in the binder were those of America's foreign allies.
I'm reminded of how, in his first year as president, 45 "declassified" a bunch of stuff to show off to visiting Russian delegates that included Israeli sources, putting their methods and people at risk.
America is highly reliant on intelligence networks with its allies, and this kind of thing makes those allies very nervous.
Were 45 or someone like him to be returned to the Oval Office, I am 100% certain each of those allies would conduct new risk assessments about sharing intelligence with the US, and would likely start limiting the details that are shared. This makes everyone less safe, but it's exactly what adversaries like Putin want to see.
Words cannot convey how (expletive) angry I am about this. I served in classified Intel overseas with USAF in the sixties. My dad's older brother, a WW2 US Army officer, held secret/top secret clearances as I did. To realize that a PRESIDENT shared S/TS Intel with a foreign enemy puts me in a state of all-out rage. Betrayal of his Oath and our country makes Trump public enemy #1, selling out our Intel to nation-haters. Anyone who commits such treason should be hanged. Yes, hanged and for all the public to see. Trump's enablers deserve the same fate.
But her emails! Piece of sh*t.
That man belongs in jail and all of accomplices as well. Everyone else who steals classified documents ends up in jail, every one.
Thanks for retracing and providing background - I had only barely started paying attention to politics around the 2016 election and any details or developments in the whole Russia investigation soap opera over in the last couple of years has gone directly over my head. This helped me fill in quite a few gaps, thank you! (as usual)
And still.... no arrests.... Again - if any of us were suspected of making off with a BINDER of classified information, we all know what would have happened.
While there is all this speculation about where the binder is Meadows sits a free unindicted person (at the federal level). Perhaps, my speculation, is that he has the binder and has leveraged his freedom for it, at least for now.
They all knew what they were doing was wrong.
If the starting point is the binder doesn't leave the turducken, then the binder being anywhere outside the turducken implies guilt to nearly anyone who exercised authority to continue to move, modify and copy the binder.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. " From "Marmion" by Sir Walter Scott
Tangled web? If this case doesn't validate Scott's statement, I don't know of anything else that possibly could. Ever since he told his first lie to his mom: that he didn't wet the bed, it was the little Russian girl from down the street, his life has been nothing but a tangled web. And a tangled mess for the rest of us!
Thanks for the great reporting, guys. It is very much appreciated. We may not have the whole story yet, but we are a heck of a lot closer to it than we were yesterday. Here's hoping you two get a chance to put the original and their redacted versions side by side one of these days. Yeah, I know, but hey, we can still dream.
Thank you, Jay. It just amazes and dismays me
at how cavalierly Trump,
his syncophant advisors,
hangerons and staff tossed
around Top Secret documents, unredacted binders filled with reams
of highly SCIF materials
and walked off with them.
I can understand Pence and
Biden having a couple of
items mixed in with the mega
boxes of stuff they had to cart off and store, but not
boxes and boxes of highly
classified documents. And
some, including this binder,
still very much missing. Being
shown and shared for giggles
and ooo's and ahhh's with
other fascists.
I hope and pray Justice is served on a platter to Trump
and many of his tribe soon.
He deserves anything and
everything the rule of law
can cram down his wattled
throat.
That was a helluva read, Jay. Thanks for explaining it so clearly - I'd been wondering about the details. It will be interesting to see where all this leads.
Pretty simple. Meadows should be in prison and denied bail until his trial is over. Distributing highly classified documents to people without security clearances is a severe violation of national security and should be treated as such.
Oh my. This reads like a Dan Brown novel! Thank you so much, Jay, for explaining all this in an accessible way. I really hadn't understood why Trump was so keen to get, and keep, the binder and its information if it detailed intelligence gathering that demonstrated his collusion with Russia. Aha! The key is for SELECTIVE release of any mistakes made by the government and/or any exculpatory evidence.
To me, this is scary stuff. Just more reasons why Trump should not be given any opportunity to be in the White House again. He cannot be trusted now or in the future.
Copyedit error: "...I was struck immediately by this fact: Trump had personally appointed both of these men as his representatives at the National Archives representatives in June of 2022."