On Saturday morning, Donald Trump couldn’t quite bring himself to express concern for Paul Pelosi, but he did publish an unintentionally amusing missive to his social media platform, expressing surprise that his Mar-a-Lago scandal still exists:
“The greatest Witch Hunt in American History continues on all fronts, even as the Election rages, an unwritten ‘NO NO’ in Law and Politics. The Document Hoax Case I thought was over based on the fact that the documents were declassified, but more importantly based on the history of past Presidents and the way they were treated. The Clinton ‘Socks Case’ is conclusive, the Presidential Record Act is great & easy to understand, & my Fourth Amendment Rights were violated with the Raid on Mar-a-Lago!”
It’s not easy to pack this much nonsense into three sentences. In the first sentence, the former president seemed to suggest the ongoing criminal investigation shouldn’t continue during an election season, which is absurd. In the second sentence, the Republican repeated the “declassified” claim that his own lawyers are afraid to endorse because they’re well aware of how foolish it is.
And in the third sentence, Trump made clear that he still doesn’t understand what the “sock drawer” story is all about, while simultaneously raising a Fourth Amendment claim that, again, his own legal team doesn’t dare touch.
As for why the former president felt compelled to express fresh outrage about the Justice Department’s scrutiny, it’s hardly a stretch to think this Washington Post report got his attention.
One of the Justice Department’s most experienced national security prosecutors has joined the team overseeing the intensifying investigation of classified documents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and private club, people familiar with the matter said. National security law experts interviewed by The Washington Post say prosecutors appear to have amassed evidence in the case that would meet some of the criteria for bringing charges against the former president — an unprecedented action that they said probably would only happen if the Justice Department believes it has an extremely strong case.
The prosecutor in question is David Raskin, who has reportedly been assisting in the investigation into Trump and his aides.
The Post’s article, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, went on to note that Raskin, as recently as two weeks ago, “won a guilty plea in a case with parallels to the Trump case — a former FBI analyst in Kansas City who authorities say took more than 300 classified files or documents to her home, including highly sensitive material about al-Qaeda and an associate of Osama bin Laden.” Two days before this report was published, The Wall Street Journal and CNN ran related pieces noting that federal prosecutors were in court last week, pressing Trump and his team anew for the return of classified materials that the former president might, even now, still have in his possession. Yesterday, the former president added on his platform, in apparent reference to Justice Department officials, “[T]hey’ve got nothing.” By all appearances, that might be wishful thinking, but it’s not in line with reality.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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