Most people have forgotten the name, Jack Teixeira. Teixeira is the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who was charged with leaking highly classified military documents online. He is currently serving 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to six counts of “willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act”. His name is back in the news because he is facing additional military charges for disobeying orders and obstructing justice in a court-martial.
Compare that with what President Trump did. Trump illegally took highly classified documents when he left the White House that he did not have a right to possess for two reasons. First, under the Presidential Records Act, those documents were supposed to be turned over to the National Archives. Secondly, there are strict protocols for handling and storing classified documents. Storing classified documents in bathroom at Mar a Lago is not part of those protocols.
When Trump was asked to return the documents, he lied, not only to the National Archives but to his own attorneys. The FBI ultimately received a search warrant, went to Mar a Lago, and seized the documents. Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, brought charges against Trump and two of his employees at Mar a Lago. It should have been a straightforward case. However, thanks to the incompetence and bias of Judge Eileen Cannon, the case was delayed until after the election and ultimately dismissed. It has been reported that Trump has retrieved the seized documents and returned them to Mar a Lago and who the hell knows which bathroom they are now stored in.
On the one hand, there is Jack Teixeira who is currently serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison, and you have Donald Trump who is in possession of documents he should not have, and he is free to come and go at his pleasure. The justice system is clearly out of whack, but then again, we already knew that.
The bigger question is, why does Trump want those documents and who does he intend to share them with? It is well documented that Trump is not a great reader. The Presidential Daily Briefing for previous presidents was a binder of relevant information the Commander in Chief should be aware of. Trump notoriously didn’t read it, and it became a much shortened ‘Readers Digest’ version of national security information. So, given that we can assume Trump won’t be reading all the documents he now possesses, it really begs the question, who will he share the info with and what will he use it for?
Is it possible that some or all that information could find its way one way or another to the Kremlin? I wouldn’t take that bet. I have said for years dating back to Trump’s first term that he is the biggest security risk this country has seen in modern times. I stand by that statement today.
