Crimes go better with Coke

Mike Luckovich

Early this week, CNN acquired the audio of the conversation T**** had with staffers, a writer, and a publisher while he showed them a classified document. You read a bit of it in the indictment. It hits different when you hear it!

Indeed. Now we have a problem. Nothing a couple of Cokes can't fix. Crimes go better with Coke.

There's a bonanza in that tape.

He admits to knowing it was secret, saying plain as day, "Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information."  Furthermore, he admits knowing he could've declassified it but he can't now. 

His defense of the day is that "there was no document."

It was Mark Meadows's memoir that the writer and publisher present at this meeting were researching. Advance copies of the book has come out in the last day or two. What's inside undermines T****'s claims that he made to ABC News that it was "just bravado" and that he "was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents."

There were at least four people in the room that day, the writer and the publisher, and two aides. Nauta may have been standing by, ready to fetch Cokes.

Those four will tell us different.

Seriously, those people must have known this was a big no-no! Can you imagine sitting there and having him bring out a document labeled "Secret?" 

I can't want to hear their testimony at trial. 

Apparently, he doesn't yet quite understand the situation. He has reportedly been asking his lawyers to try to get back "his documents" from the government. Dude. Really?

In other news:

• It's still unclear what the outcome will be, but the case continues to be investigated, and the grand jury subpoenaed additional witnesses. It's possible more charges will be filed. The Independent speculates that there may be dozens of additional charges against T****.

• Waltine Nauta's court date has been pushed back to July 6. One, he can't find a Florida attorney to help him. Second, he was stuck on the tarmac for hours before his flight from New Jersey was cancelled on his original court date. 

If his boss is paying his bills, this may be one reason when he can't find an attorney. Cash up front, please!! 

• Speaking of mounting legal bills, T**** may be committing more crimes in the very attempt to defend this one. He is diverting funds donated to his campaign over to his PAC, which he is using to pay for his defense. It's unclear so far how illegal this scheme is, but Chris Christie has ripped him for it, calling him the "cheapest S.O.B. I've ever met."

• Case progress: Judge Cannon rejected the prosecution's request to keep the witness list secret, and she also has set a hearing for July 14 to discuss how to handle the classified materials. 

• A headline this week: "T**** Wins Election." Ok, it was for an rural Oregon fire district. And he won by a roll of the dice after he tied in a write-in vote. But he won! 

It would be great if they forced him to go fight fires in rural Oregon. Hey! Maybe that will be part of his prison duties. 

 

He'd be a natural out there. Remember his plan to rake the forest floor for fire control?

 

Hey, Donnie. It'll get hot. Don't forget the Cokes!