Something you run across in all of Donald Trump’s legal difficulties is that Trump is usually the key witness against himself. Whether he is being impeached, sued or prosecuted criminally, there is usually something in the record or on tape that Trump has said that gets him in trouble.
This audio tape of him showing visitors to one of his clubs a classified memo on attacking Iran. This will be played at a future trial. The Access Hollywood tape of him bragging that he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to women. That was a decisive piece of evidence in the recent slander suit he lost. The tape of his phone call with George elections officials asking them to find enough votes to flip Georgia. That will be a key piece of evidence when he is indicted in Georgia soon. His speech and words on Jan. 6, which will be key pieces of evidence when he is indicated for that. The phone call he had with the Ukrainian president, which led to his second impeachment. His remarks in a private conversation with the FBI director, which led to his first impeachment. The tape of his discussion with Michael Cohen about the hush money payments to keep an affair quiet. That will figure in a Manhattan indictment.
Trump never seems to think that anyone is taping him or writing things down. But people were always taping him and writing things down, constantly. Often in situations where he either saw them taping and writing, or should have expected it. If you are suggesting criminal actions to the Georgia secretary of state, it is reasonable to expect that he is going to be taping the call.
The rule of thumb that everyone who has worked for Trump or interacts with Trump understands is that any interaction, any conversation, may need to be discussed at some later date before a grand jury. Trump’s operating style forever has been to push beyond boundaries and norms. This wasn’t a big deal when he was just a real estate guy. Nobody in law enforcement really cared about some New York real estate guy, even someone who was a tabloid guy like Trump. Relatively small potatoes.
But when he started running for president in 2015 and became president in 2017, everything changed about who in law enforcement was interested in Trump. Trump did not understand this. He didn’t realize that his normal real estate guy style was very risky. So the problem for every Trump lawyer in the last 8 years has been that their client presents every prosecutor and plaintiff’s attorney with incriminating evidence, gift-wrapped.
I can only imagine what his lawyers in the classified documents case are thinking now. How do they defend their client when there is a tape of him acknowledging that he has highly classified documents in his hands, and he is waving them around in front of people? That tends to undercut any assertion that 1) he didn’t possess classified documents 2) he didn’t know they were classified. 3) he didn’t show them to people who, under no circumstances, were not cleared for those documents. State of mind, intent, it’s all in that 2 minute clip.