National security expert and longtime writer Marcy Wheeler says Democrats are ignoring a key role that a key Donald Trump nominee played in the taking of classified documents.
Trump and two aides were indicted, with the former earning 40 felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents. The judge Trump appointed dismissed the case, not based on the evidence or the case itself but on the appointment of the special counsel to oversee it. The 11th District Court of Appeals will decide whether to uphold the decision.
Trump has nominated Kash Patel to lead the FBI in the second administration. According to Slate, which purports to have seen the list, Patel has crafted an enemies list to attack critics of himself and Trump.
ALSO READ: 'Going to come after you': Inside Kash Patel's 'lawfare' suit against ex-Pence official
Meanwhile, the left, Wheeler complained, is fighting on social media over the inaction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who could have charged Trump a year earlier, leading to the years-long delay in a trial.
"A key prong of the investigation into Trump’s treatment of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago involve disproving Kash’s public claim — made just before DOJ subpoenaed the documents — that Trump had declassified everything," Wheeler said, referencing her conversation with legal analyst Harry Litman on the "Talking Feds" podcast.
She brought up Patel's comments that Trump took documents related to the impeachment and the classified "Crossfire Hurricane" binder that former chief of staff Mark Meadows was said to have given to two reporters in Trump's final week in office.
"Patel did not want to get into what the specific documents were, predicting claims from the left that he was disclosing 'classified' material," recalled Wheeler.
She quoted him saying at the time, “It’s information that Trump felt spoke to matters regarding everything from Russiagate to the Ukraine impeachment fiasco to major national security matters of great public importance — anything the president felt the American people had a right to know is in there and more.”
"Person 16" in Exhibit D of United States v. Trump, discounted this, Wheeler pointed out.
"What Kash said in his immunized November 2022 testimony didn’t show up in either of the Florida indictments (and we only got reports of what he thought he’d say beforehand). We don’t know whether he backed off his unsworn comments. We don’t know whether he gave testimony debunked by five other people. We don’t know how much Kash had to say about efforts to take the Crossfire Hurricane binder home. But all that is highly likely to show up in a report," Wheeler pointed out.
Meanwhile, Patel could also appear in the Jan. 6 side of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation report.
Wheeler pointed to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who charged that Patel refused Trump's order to get 10,000 troops for Jan. 6. Laudermilk referred to it as insubordination. It could be a way Democrats could pick off a few Republicans in the impending confirmation battle for Patel.