Dem
51
GOP
49
OK, that headline is a little judgmental, maybe to the point of being problematic, but we're going to go with it because we think it's pretty amusing. It's a rare day that Donald Trump (the turd referred to in the headline) does not find himself scrambling (that is, on the run) from the latest legal difficulties created by his careless, often stupid, probably criminal behavior. The latest news involves Trump sharing classified information with someone definitely not entitled to that information.
That someone is an Australian billionaire, but one who is not—to our surprise—Rupert Murdoch. Nope, it is Anthony Pratt, who owns and runs Pratt Industries, a packaging company. Pratt is a member at Mar-a-Lago, and Trump likes to chat with him over lunch, probably about what it's like to be an actual billionaire. During one of their conversations, Pratt brought up the U.S. submarine fleet, and said Australia should be buying its subs from America. Trump reportedly leaned in and, in a "just between us" tone, revealed the exact number of nuclear warheads that U.S. subs carry and exactly how close they can get to a Russian sub without being detected. That's classified information, and Pratt rewarded Trump's confidence by sharing those details with at least 45 people, including 11 Pratt Industries employees, 10 Australian officials, six journalists, and three former Australian prime ministers. We know that loose lips sink ships; we're pretty sure submarines are included in that, too.
Pratt has already been interviewed by Special Counsel Jack Smith, and he said that Trump never showed off any actual documents. It's also not known if the information Trump shared was accurate, as military officials are refusing to comment on that point. That said, Trump is charged with possessing the documents, not with sharing them. He could be convicted even if nobody besides him saw or heard a single bit of information. But if Trump did share, or try to share, it speaks to intent, and undermines many or all of his potential defenses (like, for example, "I didn't even know that I had any classified documents"). Further, when it comes to intent, it doesn't actually matter if the information was correct, only that Trump tried to share it.
And so, the hole—which was already in competition with the Marianas Trench—just got a little deeper. (Z)