The Biden Files Are a Problem: But There Is an Easy Solution

From The Guardian:

Democrats are worried the controversy surrounding the classified documents found in Joe Biden's home and office could damage a 2024 reelection bid, as Bill Clinton's former advisor said this is 'very, very big deal' for the president.

Let’s do a very quick summary of the problems:

First, despite the fact that the Guardian says that Democrats are starting to worry, too many Democrats believe that Biden is protected by the fact that he searched and turned all the files over. Turning them over was, of course, the right thing to do, but it will not protect him from the political consequences.

Second, The MAGAs are going insane (well, “increasingly” insane) because they believe that Biden is in “worse” trouble because he could not declassify the files, whereas Trump could. Of course, that is ridiculous because Trump never declassified the documents except in his head, and only as a defense (Remember when he said they were planted? He hadn’t thought of the declassified excuse yet).

Trump’s attorneys have never claimed he declassified them because they cannot put their name to a court document with a ridiculous assertion without risking being sanctioned. They know that Trump cannot declassify things by merely looking at them and thinking “declassified” any more than Melania can look at him and think “divorce” and start collecting the settlement agreement.

Third, the Biden files have spurned wild conspiracy theories. Some are compelling in a weird way but would have to be established by a serious investigation. The Left believes that the Right planted them through MAGA Secret Service Agents (Biden was afraid of Secret Service MAGA sympathizers until he got ones he believed he could trust, the Committee near proved the Committee near-proved the Secret Service was in on the conspiracy). Meanwhile, many on the Right believe that Democrats planted them to get Biden out of the race.

Fourth: Biden and his staff almost undoubtedly overlooked them in a move, as has been said. No conspiracy is needed. Occam’s razor.

Fifth: This will make prosecuting Trump more difficult. It shouldn’t. It may not prevent an indictment. But it will make the Right howl, which is a big problem because a group of them has already shown themselves to be violent. Additionally, if Trump is indicted, they will expect Biden to be indicted, and no amount of common sense will persuade them.

Now, we’re all on the same page. Let’s talk about a good solution.

DO NOT CHARGE TRUMP WITH POSSESSION OF CLASSIFIED FILES

Prosecutors never have to charge every crime they find, or there would be a lot more rich white kids with a record for a marijuana arrest. Prosecutors always have some discretion in what they charge, though local prosecutors are at least responsible to the voters. One example: The U.S. Attorney’s office and Main Justice decided not to charge Matt Gaetz, at least for the foreseeable future, because the witnesses were unreliable. In other words, Jack Smith is not obligated to charge Trump with possession of classified files. He can decide that there may be flaws in how the materials are taken.

This could be true even though there is evidence that these particular files sat in the residence at the White House. Moreover, the White House Counsel’s office repeatedly told Trump that the files had to be returned before he left office, but he ignored them.

Still, Jack Smith is free to ignore that Trump had possession because it is perhaps a widespread problem in fast changes in administrations. Instead, Smith can charge Trump with obstruction of justice by ignoring subpoenas and lying about what he had. Obstruction of justice is a felony, and depending on how one obstructed justice (and the justice obstructed), it could be a serious one with a prison term.

Additionally, Smith is free to prosecute Trump with espionage if the FBI has evidence that Trump showed the documents to anyone. We already know that the FBI believes Trump held the files for “nefarious purposes.”

If we can believe Biden, with his 40-plus years of experience, that he was not holding those files for “nefarious purposes,” it’s a non-issue. If we believe the FBI and Trump’s typical M.O. in nearly everything (“Make money off it!”), then those facts may add up to an espionage charge.

By leaving out the “possession” charge, Smith could state something about the unreliability of the process in the handover of power and wanting to avoid criminally charging something that may be a more common problem.

But he still has Trump by the…

SUMMARY

Some Democrats need to pull their heads out of the sand and stop relying upon common sense as a defense. Common sense has never stopped Trump, and it certainly isn’t now stopping him, nor his millions of followers. Additionally, the MAGA movement has been one of grievance and victimization from the start. This is their natural habitat and behavior.

So don’t give them anything to hold as a grievance except the facts in front of their face. Yes, every single element of the crime may be sitting in Jack Smith’s lap. As an experienced prosecutor, he is free to take note of what is going on in the country, and he is free to ignore one of the crimes sitting in his lap, especially if he has other means to hold Trump accountable.

The same strategy could easily work with January 6th. Forget the messy, almost impossible-to-prove moving parts in “sedition,” and instead, go with something easy. The Congressional Committee offered up almost two self-proving crimes, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the government. According to Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney in Michigan, the conspiracy to defraud the government could be proven by Trump’s pressuring Pence alone. The “obstruction” of an official proceeding could be proven by Pence again and the demand that DOJ sign a letter finding fraud and “leave the rest to me.”

I call this the “Al Capone” strategy. The goal is to finally hold Trump accountable for something. With Capone, they didn’t have the evidence to prove “murder” and instead put Capone away on tax evasion. With Trump, the ultimate goal is to simply find something that says, “You are not above the law.”

I believe that is the solution to the increasingly problematic “Biden possession of classified files” matter.

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Starting Feb. 1st, at least half of these articles will end at the “Talk about solutions” portion. I have some people pledging money, three of them pledged a lot, so it’s not fair to put everything out publicly. But I also have to demonstrate what a person would be purchasing. That is the purpose of alerting people to the changes coming.

Even if every subscriber pledged payments, this would only amount to a PT 2nd job done out of absolute love and for samples sent to bigger organizations. Not everyone will commit, obviously, and so it remains a work in progress. I cannot express my gratitude enough to those who took the dive. I pledge to provide increasingly better stories as I practice what works and what doesn’t.

Beach? Today we go to the Azores because why wouldn’t we?