Axios has new photos obtained via NYT reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book that allegedly show documents that Trump allegedly flushed down a White House toilet. If the pictures are real and the chain of evidence strong, it’s a near self-proving felony. It also looks quite nefarious. What would be so bad that Trump would feel the need to flush it?
Newsweek dedicated its latest cover to the question, “Will Trump face prison?” It is obviously “the” question the country faces this long summer, with either answer representing a truly existential threat. It is also a question that must be answered quickly because time is no longer on Merrick Garland’s side. Thus this site has reiterated that it would take near rock solid proof of conspiracy, with clearer evidence than already available – perhaps with the texts confirming Trump ordered Pence removed from the Capitol or ordered the Pentagon to hold off from stopping the insurrection and even then, with every element of seditious conspiracy covered, Garland might choose to charge Trump with a lesser, “cleaner” felony, one filed to ensure that Trump pays a price but without the complex litigation and roar about twenty years in prison.
It would be the ultimate “split of the baby,” but it might fit in a situation where one must necessarily split the country.
The photographs of the documents in the toilet could come in very handy.
NEW IN AXIOS: Trump denied flushing documents as president, as I learned during reporting last year for CONFIDENCE MAN. A Trump White House source recently provided PHOTOS of paper with Trump’s handwriting in two different toilets via @mikeallen https://t.co/wv6rrupO1n
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 8, 2022
From Axios:
Haberman— who obtained the photos recently — shared them with us ahead of the Oct. 4 publication of her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”
A Trump White House source tells her the photo on the left shows a commode in the White House. The photo on the right is from an overseas trip, according to the source.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told Axios: “You have to be pretty desperate to sell books if pictures of paper in a toilet bowl is part of your promotional plan.”
“We know … there’s enough people willing to fabricate stories like this in order to impress the media class — a media class who is willing to run with anything, as long as it anti-Trump.”
The pictures were discussed on CNN this morning, as Dana Bash said:
This looks nefarious. We don’t know the specifics. I don’t know if we’re going to get to the bottom of what exactly was in there because you’re going to have to have the former president cop to it. There’s no indication that is something he would do.”
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There is testimony to the Committee that says it is exactly what Trump would do and did. Furthermore, everyone knows that flushing documents down the toilet fits Trump’s modus operandi almost too perfectly.
It is tempting to say, “Haberman could have taken those pictures on her phone… ” and many MAGAs will make that exact point. But Haberman is one of the world’s elite reporters, no matter what Twitter trolls say on a daily basis. There is no chance that the New York Times superstar is going to throw her career away in order to sell a few more books. She has the means to back the photographs up.
Regardless.
This is the type of proof that could pin actual criminal “consequences” on Trump and be used in lieu of charging him with seditious conspiracy. If Garland went forward with charging destruction of documents, it would only be in a situation where Trump or his attorneys signed off on foregoing prosecution for seditious conspiracy, lest the next Republican attorney general charge Joe Biden with picking roses out of the Rose Garden or something similar as “payback.”
Meanwhile, the country continues to ask, will Trump be held to account or not?
@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.