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Trump Has Allegedly Disclosed Sensitive or Classified National Security Secrets at Least Ten Times: MSNBC Producer
The latest allegations against Donald Trump, that he disclosed national security secrets related to America’s top secret nuclear submarines to a foreign national at his Mar-a-Lago resort just months after leaving office, has experts raising alarms – especially as the ex-president is currently under indictment on Espionage Act charges.
But the Mar-a-Lago disclosure is far from the first allegation against Trump for disclosing or revealing national security secrets, sensitive, or classified information.
MSNBC’s Steve Benen, a producer for The Rachel Maddow Show and editor of the MaddowBlog, put together a non-chronological list he calls, “The Top 10 Instances In Which Donald Trump Allegedly Shared Sensitive Information For Reasons Unknown.”
As out turns out, just like the latest incident, at least two others involve nuclear submarine secrets.
The first time, as Benen notes, was just months into his presidency. In May of 2017 Trump held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak, inside the Oval Office, with no press or Antone from the Trump administration present. The only way Americans learned of the meeting, which did not appear on Trump’s official White House calendar, was a Russian reporter took photos and Russian media posted them to social media.
“President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State,” The Washington Post had reported on May 15, 2017.
“In 2021,” Benen writes, “Trump allegedly shared classified information about American nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire. The disclosures, the New York Times reported, “potentially endangered the U.S. nuclear fleet.”
“In 2020,” Benen continues, “Trump disclosed the existence of a secret nuclear weapons program to Bob Woodward, to the surprise of national security insiders.”
“In October 2019, Trump needlessly blurted out all kinds of ‘highly classified or tactically sensitive’ tactical and operational details about the al-Baghdadi mission in Syria,” Benen says, recording it as the fourth instance.
NBC News had reported, “Officials cringed as Trump spilled sensitive details of al-Baghdadi raid,” and added: “Some details the president has revealed are inaccurate, others are classified. Officials say they worry what to put in briefings for a man with no filter.”
“In August 2019, Trump published a tweet about a failed Iranian rocket launch, which included a sensitive surveillance photo,” writes Benen, pointing to this New York Times report titled: “In a Tweet Taunting Iran, Trump Releases an Image Thought to Be Classified.”
The sixth instance: “In early October 2019, Trump publicly discussed American nuclear weapons in Turkey, something U.S. officials have long avoided disclosing and/or confirming.”
He points to this NBC News report: “Why does Trump keep blurting out sensitive information?”
At number seven: “In February 2017, Trump discussed sensitive details about North Korea’s ballistic missile tests with the prime minister of Japan at a Mar-a-Lago dining area, in view of wealthy civilians/customers,” writes Benen. He points to a Washington Post article titled: “Trump turns Mar-a-Lago Club terrace into open-air situation room.”
The eighth instance Benen lists he teases out: “‘Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,’ Trump was recorded saying, adding, ‘Isn’t that incredible?’ … It’s so cool.” That goes to this MSNBC report: “Listen: Audio of Trump discussing classified documents published by CNN.”
Next up on Benen’s list: “In July 2019, Trump had a sensitive conversation with Ambassador Gordon Sondland, while Sondland was in a Ukrainian restaurant. A former senior director of the White House Situation Room said soon after, ‘The security ramifications are insane.'”
Benen links to his own 2019 article titled, “Latest example of Trump’s security breaches is described as ‘insane’,” where he writes: “Donald Trump has mishandled sensitive information with such frequency that I was able to put together a top-10 list a couple of weeks ago.”
So according to Benen, there were at least ten instances as far back as 2019 of Trump mishandling sensitive information.
Finally, Benen writes, ” In May 2017, Trump said a bit too much about nuclear submarines during a chat with then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.”
A May, 2017 Buzzfeed News article reads: “The Pentagon Can’t Believe Trump Told Another President About Nuclear Subs Near North Korea.”
“’We never talk about subs!’ three defense officials told BuzzFeed News after a transcript of a call between President Trump and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was published.”
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Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.
Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”
“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.
One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.
“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”
READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley
Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”
“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”
“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”
“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.
In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.
Listen to a short clip below or at this link.
ICYMI: @realDonaldTrump joined @NickKayal & @DawnStensland sharing his perspective on Title IX…
Watch below or listen on @Audacy pic.twitter.com/wzx0QxKPJ7
— Talk Radio 1210 WPHT (@1210WPHT) May 10, 2024
READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
A Fox News panel discussing the Trump New York criminal trial debated whether or not the indicted ex-president could attack the judge’s daughter, with former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer insisting he should, and claiming doing so would not violate the terms of the gag order.
“President Trump needs to stop calling the judge ‘conflicted.’ He needs to explain why he’s conflicted,” Fleischer said Friday to a panel that included former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Every day of the trial he goes in there, he says, ‘the judge is conflicted, conflicted bigger than I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life.’ He doesn’t explain how or why. He needs to say that the judge’s daughter works for a Democratic political consulting firm that does anti-Trump business. He needs to explain it. Otherwise, it’s just an assertion with no proof. And the President if he’s going to say it, back it up. Explain.”
“I think that’s a violation of the gag order, is it not?” a Fox panelist replied.
“No, he can criticize the judge,” McEnany responded.
READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
“Not the judge but the family,” the panelist added.
“But when he says the judge is conflicted, you can still explain how and why, and I think comply with a gag,” Fleischer insisted.
The panelists then agreed Donald Trump has been “measured” in his remarks.
National security attorney Brad Moss weighed in on social media, posting the relevant portion of the gag order and writing that Fleischer “effectively recommends Trump violate the terms of the gag order.”
The gag order in part reads: “Defendant is directed to refrain from” … “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staffs work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result.”
Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, an ethics panel last year cleared Judge Juan Merchan of any issues surrounding his daughter’s work.
On Monday, Judge Merchan warned Trump he may throw him in jail if he violates the gag order again.
Watch below or at this link.
Fleischer: Trump needs to talk about Judge Merchan’s daughter.
McDowell: I think that violates the gag order
Kayleigh: No, he can criticize the judge pic.twitter.com/CLgNxNpg6B
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 10, 2024
READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil
A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.
Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”
The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.
In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”
READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman
Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”
Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.
“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.
Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.
READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil
“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.
“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”
Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”
‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students
Ari Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order
Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman
‘Literally Willing to Take Bribes’: Report of Trump Promise to Big Oil Fuels Concerns
News3 days agoHouse Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman
News3 days agoBannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
News3 days ago‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students
News3 days agoAri Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order