Returning Trump to power poses risks the country should not take
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The Trump Administration
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The Trump Administration
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The Trump Administration
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The evidence publicly released Friday gives a glimpse into what Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is using to prosecute Trump. In one instance, there was some new detail from the transcript of the House January 6 committee’s 2022 interview with an unnamed White House employee.
Earlier this year, House Republicans had released a transcript of the committee’s interview with the White House employee, but Republicans redacted some of the employee’s responses that Smith highlighted.
According to the transcript, the White House employee told Trump that TV networks had pulled away from his speech because “they’re rioting down at the Capitol.”
“And he was, like, What do you mean? I said, It’s, like, they’re rioting there at the Capitol. And he was, like, Oh, really? And then he was like, All right, let’s go see,” the employee said.
The employee told the committee he took off Trump’s outer coat, got a TV and handed Trump the remote, after which he went to retrieve a Diet Coke for the president, who was sitting in the Oval Dining Room.
“I’m taking off his outer coat that he’s wearing right now, and I get the TV, like, ready for him, and hand him over the remote, and he starts watching it,” the employee said. “And I stepped out to get him a Diet Coke, come back in, and that’s pretty much it for me as he’s watching it and, like, seeing it for himself.”
The redacted appendices filed on the public docket in the case are related to Smith’s expansive filing from earlier this month that laid out his fullest picture yet of the case against Trump and Smith’s belief that his actions around the 2020 election should not be shielded by presidential immunity.
The documents were released a day after Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a bid by Trump to pause the release.
“If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute – or appear to be – election interference,” Chutkan wrote in a decision late Thursday.
Earlier this year, House Republicans had released a transcript of the committee’s interview with the White House employee, but Republicans redacted some of the employee’s responses that Smith highlighted.
According to the transcript, the White House employee told Trump that TV networks had pulled away from his speech because “they’re rioting down at the Capitol.”
“And he was, like, What do you mean? I said, It’s, like, they’re rioting there at the Capitol. And he was, like, Oh, really? And then he was like, All right, let’s go see,” the employee said.
The employee told the committee he took off Trump’s outer coat, got a TV and handed Trump the remote, after which he went to retrieve a Diet Coke for the president, who was sitting in the Oval Dining Room.
“I’m taking off his outer coat that he’s wearing right now, and I get the TV, like, ready for him, and hand him over the remote, and he starts watching it,” the employee said. “And I stepped out to get him a Diet Coke, come back in, and that’s pretty much it for me as he’s watching it and, like, seeing it for himself.”
The redacted appendices filed on the public docket in the case are related to Smith’s expansive filing from earlier this month that laid out his fullest picture yet of the case against Trump and Smith’s belief that his actions around the 2020 election should not be shielded by presidential immunity.
The documents were released a day after Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a bid by Trump to pause the release.
“If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute – or appear to be – election interference,” Chutkan wrote in a decision late Thursday.
The Trump Administration
Official
Military leaders who served under Trump sound the alarm about him
Trump’s suggestion that the military should be used to deal with “the enemy from within” on Election Day has reignited concerns about what he might ask US forces to do if he wins a second term as commander in chief.
And it is senior military leaders who served under him that have most clearly sounded the alarm about Trump.
The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told Bob Woodward in his new book “War” that the former president “is the most dangerous person to this country … A fascist to the core.”
Woodward said Gen. Jim Mattis, who served as Trump’s defense secretary, had emailed him to say that he agreed with the assessment that Milley had provided Woodward. On the podcast, Woodward said the thrust of Mattis’ email about Trump was “Let’s make sure we don’t try to downplay the threat, because the threat is high.”