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Yesterday, information retailers reported the existence of a recording through which Donald Trump discusses his possession of categorized paperwork. The recording might show legally damaging, however its existence additionally reveals one thing essential about how the previous president operates.
First, listed below are three new tales from The Atlantic:
Image Above Law
Yesterday night, CNN and The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors have a 2021 recording of Donald Trump discussing a navy doc he held on to after leaving the White House. According to a number of sources, Trump signifies within the recording that he’s conscious that the doc in his possession is classed.
The content material of this recording might play an essential position in Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump’s dealing with of secret information in Mar-a-Lago. A powerful prosecution would wish to show that Trump was conscious that what he was doing was unlawful, and the 2021 tape might provide that proof. (Neither CNN nor the Times heard the recording, however a number of sources described the audio to reporters.)
But, as my colleague David Graham famous right this moment, the obvious recording performs one other position in our understanding of Trump too: “The circumstances of the recording,” he writes, reveal “the way he seems to understand bad press as a graver threat than criminal prosecution.”
David walks us by way of the circumstances behind the tape: The recording was reportedly made throughout a gathering Trump held with two writers who had been working with Mark Meadows, his former chief of workers, on Meadows’s autobiography. At the assembly, Trump was apparently upset a couple of current New Yorker report claiming that, within the remaining days of his administration, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had tried to forestall Trump from ordering a strike on Iran. Trump reportedly referenced a categorized doc that he steered might undermine that declare. Meanwhile, Margo Martin, a Trump aide, was reportedly recording the assembly as a result of Trump was apprehensive about being misrepresented or misquoted.
In different phrases, David writes, “Trump’s fear of damaging press—whether in the Milley reports or the Meadows book—was so much greater than his fear of criminal accountability that he ended up making an incriminating recording that could be a key piece of his own prosecution.”
Trump has lengthy seen tapes as a protecting forex, my colleague Sophie Gilbert famous in 2018—“a talisman against future malfeasance.” But he’s been burned earlier than, when allies or workers use his personal strategies in opposition to him. Two notable examples: the legal professional Michael Cohen, and the previous presidential aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.
This time, Trump might get burned by his personal recording ways—however David argues that he has some playing cards left to play: “Over and over, he’s managed to wriggle out of potential legal jams with bluster, brazenness, and the occasional large check.” That technique labored even when Trump was president; by rallying political assist, Trump was in a position to escape critical penalties from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, in addition to conviction in each impeachments. He will attempt these methods once more, David reminds us:
No matter how damning the proof that Smith is ready to assemble, Trump is searching for to bully the Justice Department out of charging him. If that doesn’t work, he hopes to be reelected to the presidency in November 2024, which might permit him to close down any investigation or prosecution in opposition to him, or to pardon himself. It would possibly but work.
And though 2024 remains to be a 12 months away, one factor is for certain: Trump can constantly depend on political assist from the GOP’s base. In an article aptly titled “They Still Love Him,” additionally printed right this moment, David famous that almost all of GOP voters don’t need a greater Trump various than the candidates on provide. They need Trump himself. They nonetheless love him, and they’ll proceed to like him—all the way in which to 2024, when he will get the prospect to shove his authorized troubles out of sight.
Related:
Today’s News
- The debt-ceiling deal handed the House with a vote of 314–117. It will now go to the Senate and, if it passes there, can then be signed into legislation by President Joe Biden.
- Russia says it repelled three extra cross-border assaults from pro-Ukraine forces whereas its aerial assaults on Kyiv killed three folks.
- The Senate handed laws to dam President Biden’s debt-relief program. Biden has stated he’ll veto the measure, however the Supreme Court is predicted to rule on two circumstances on the plan this month.
Dispatches
Evening Read
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NASA Learns the Ugly Truth About UFOs
By Marina Koren
At a gathering in NASA headquarters yesterday, the general public had some blunt questions about UFOs, or, as the federal government now calls them, “unexplained anomalous phenomena.” A NASA spokesperson summarized them aloud: “What is NASA hiding, and where are you hiding it? How much has been shared publicly? Has NASA ever cut the live NASA TV feed away from something? Has NASA released all UAP evidence it has ever received? What about NASA astronauts—do they have an NDA or clearance that does not allow them to speak about UAP sightings? What are the science overlords hiding?” In quick: Are you guys mendacity to everybody?
More From The Atlantic
Culture Break
Read. A new collection of Susan Sontag’s 1970s writing and interviews about feminism, On Women, showcases the writer’s stylish, idiosyncratic approach to the debates of her era.
Watch. You Hurt My Feelings, in theaters, is made by a filmmaker who knows what’s wrong with your relationships.
P.S.
For those of you who are fans of The Wire, my colleague Adam Serwer’s 2019 story on the “Stringer Bell rule” presents a helpful descriptor for crucial rule of a conspiracy—one which Trump and his internal circle have violated time and again.
— Isabel
Katherine Hu contributed to this text.