7 thoughts on “Media Link: AVFA on Trump and the US midterm elections.”

1. Well – that was absolutely fascinating, and horrifying all at the same time. If Trump has the documents you suspect he has Pablo, he will well deserve to go to jail for as long as the law allows.

   I recall the fiasco when Barack Obama was trying to have Merrick Garland installed to the Supreme Court during his term and I remember being very impressed with Garland’s credentials and impressive CV at the time. I am sure he will be very carefully crossing the Ts and dotting the Is before he makes any move, but I am sure that will be the next step. It cannot come soon enough. There cannot be any way in which Trump is not made to face the consequences of what he has done – especially in light of this new information.

   We’ll be watching the primaries (along with this investigation) with great interest – I sincerely hope they go the way you suggest they might. Democracy in the US (and elsewhere) may get a new lease on life if that happens. Thank you both for a fascinating discussion.

2. Thanks Di, for your ongoing interest in our work.

   If what is being reported is true, then the purloined classified information story has the makings of a John Le Carre novel. If it is true that Trump has the payroll records and/or names of Non-Official Cover (covert) field agents in his possession and some of those people named in his files either were killed or disappeared/jailed in the months since he removed the documents from the White House (either in hard copy or on disks or flash drives), then he is liable on charges of High Treason, which is a Capital Offence in US federal law. Causing the deaths of US agents, whether or not their networks or other classified information was compromised, is about as serious a crime as one can commit.

   He would not be alone in being charged, as obtaining the records of such covert personnel involved in special access programs requires a criminal conspiracy of some sort, most likely involving people in the CIA as well as Trump’s entourage. This is a major security breach, in fact perhaps the worst security breach of all time or at least during peacetime.

   Anyway, I shall be waking up every day between nw and Nov 6 with the expectation that the legal axe finally will fall on his traitorous neck.

3. I’m not a lawyer and I’d appreciate advice; but it seems to me that there is no way that Trump can be safely of successfully charged for his document retention:
   I’m sure his lawyers will insist on seeing the evidence against him (i.e. the Top Secret documents) and given the dubious character of some of his legal representatives we can expect various contents to be leaked to the media (wherer is the Official Secrets Act when you need it?)
   If the defense is given access (“discovery”?) it would presumably be under strict conditions; sufficiently strict that the defense would be (1) able to draf the process out until the Justice Dept gives up/is decapitatated by an incoming administration and (2) claim that the conditions were so onerous that a proper “discovery” was not possible.

4. Thanks Alistair,

   You make interesting points. I would imagine that in earlier requests DoJ had specified the nature of the classified documents in question (in general terms) because often there is a coding sequence to them (e.g. things related to covert operations in Latin America would have a designator prefix, an operational code, a country identifier, a source identifier and other classifiers that run in chronological order). Thus they would have given Trump’s lawyer repeated requests in the months leading up to the search that would have given the lawyers time to review them a priori to the search. There were at least two such requests from the Archives this year, in February and June.

   You do identify a likely Trump strategy in accordance with his M.O.: drag out things with endless litigation in the hope that the 2022 elections give the GOP a majority House that wastes inordinate amounts of time and money “investigating”the DoJ/FBI parallel to any judicial manoeuvres, thereby muddying the waters about its intent, and then hope that the 2024 elections bring a change of administration that will drop everything.

   That is quite possible but I am getting the feeling that things are going to advance pretty quickly over then ext eight weeks when it comes to formalising charges against Trump and those who abetted the illegal removal of the documents, at which point the minions may just decide to start singing in exchange for please deals. Or so I hope.

5. In the 1990s Alexander Litvinenko worked for Russian Intelligence investigating, infiltrating and tackling international organised crime. He was poisoned with polonium-210 by the FSB in London and died shortly afterwards in November 2006. The case made headlines around the world and many books and films have been published about it.

   In the 1970s Bill Fairclough worked for British Intelligence investigating, infiltrating and tackling international organised crime. He was poisoned with botulism toxin by another intelligence agency in London, went into a coma and nearly died in June 1974. No one told the press about it and in 2014 a little publicised non-fiction book was printed which disclosed what transpired.

   What happened to Bill Fairclough (codename JJ aka Edward Burlington) is as described in the factual espionage thriller Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel in The Burlington Files series. Indeed, in 2001 Bill Fairclough later became a favoured patient of the renowned neurologist Professor Andrew Lees in London’s University College Hospital. Why? As Lees said at the time, it was a rare pleasure being able to research a patient who hadn’t died from having been poisoned with such a large dose of botulism toxin.

   Of course, if you are a true espionage aficionado and know about Ian Fleming’s “Trout Memo” you will have already studied Beyond Enkription and know a lot about not only The Burlington Files but also the links twixt MI6 Colonel Alan Brooke Pemberton CVO MBE, Colonel Oleg Gordievsky, Kim Philby and Greville Wynne.

   If not best visit https://theburlingtonfiles.org and https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/bill-fairclough for more facts about a real Maverick Agent.

6. Brian:

   Although your comment is interesting, what is your point? It has nothing to do with the subject of the podcast/post.

7. You must be pleased with this headline,

   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/01/democrats-sarah-palin-mary-peltola-alaska-special-election

   and some of the details in the report. Perhaps the Republicans will go down, mid-terms. The USA coming to its senses (we all hope!)
   Just watched Biden’s special address at Philadelphia. Extraordinary. While not an entirely inspiring public speaker, just the fact that he took the time to speak about these things is unprecedented I think.
   I think he’s been listening to you and Selwyn ;-)

   Kind regards.