• Molly Callahan

    Senior Writer

    Photo: Headshot of Molly Callahan. A white woman with short, curly brown hair, wearing glasses and a blue sweater, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey backdrop.

    Molly Callahan began her career at a small, family-owned newspaper where the newsroom housed computers that used floppy disks. Since then, her work has been picked up by the Associated Press and recognized by the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2016, she moved into a communications role at Northeastern University as part of its News@Northeastern reporting team. When she's not writing, Molly can be found rock climbing, biking around the city, or hanging out with her fiancée, Morgan, and their cat, Junie B. Jones. Profile

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There are 9 comments on Trump’s Indictment in Classified Documents Case: What Comes Next?

  1. This hypothesis ignores the state criminal charges, both in Manhattan and likely also in Georgia. Presidential pardons do not extend to state level criminal convictions.

  2. I think that the bigger question is not what happens to Trump but the Pandora’s box that has been opened over indicting opposition front-runners (and former high-profile public figures).

    High profile public figures make many enemies, of necessity, during their service. If they have to start worrying that these enemies will come after them when they are in power, we will be left with a government that is completely unable to govern*.

    * – Yes, I’m setting up a perfectly obvious response.

    1. Is the obvious response you’re expecting, “So you’re saying that if a person has violated the law (and these are serious violations if true), then they should just allowed to do so?”

      I would say that would make the government even more unlikely to be able to govern – at least in the interests of the American people.

  3. What about President Biden and his son, Hunter? Both are known to have improper access to and storage of classified documents. The media should be giving equal weight to our sitting president and his family member.

    1. Everyone except Trump willingly and readily complied with requests for the return of any documents found (Clinton, Biden, and Pence). There was no refusal to comply, no lies about having the documents, no trying to hide the documents so they could keep them, no showing of classified materials to people who should not have seen the, and most importantly, no INTENT to take or keep classified documents.

      It’s really that simple. If the lifelong grifter and conman that was out 45th president had simply complied with the initial request to turn over the documents, there would be no charges. Just like there were no charges against Clinton, Pence, and likely won’t be any against Biden.

      1. I think that this is a politically jaundiced view of the facts. There was certainly evidence that Hillary Clinton avoided using government machines for certain government communications:

        https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system

        The reason Trump did not pursue his campaign promise of pushing for the prosecution of Clinton, Gore conceded to Bush, and Ford pardoned Nixon, is that they all realized that there was more at stake than punishing one individual.

        I would find calls that “no one is above the law” and “all law-breakers should be punished” much more compelling if the same individuals fought against Boudin’s or Gascon’s refusal to prosecute violent crimes.

  4. I concur with the last comment. Pandora’s box is now blown wide open. Going after Trump for these, relatively speaking, minor paperwork charges is utterly transparent and very dangerous. The fact, furthermore, that Clinton, Pence and Biden all committed similar crimes involving classified documents – with no apparent legal consequences – gives all this the smell of a politically-motivated, targeted persecution. We can argue details until we are blue in the face, but, in reality, details are irrelevant. PERCEPTION is all that matters. And the perception – to half the people in this country – is that the US government is irreversibly corrupted.

    There was already a dry wood stack of mistrust in this country between two increasingly hostile populations living side by side. They just tossed a box of lit Molotov cocktails into it.

  5. A former or sitting president of the USA should not be treated any differently than anyone else. Presidents take an oath pledging allegiance to the constitution. There are no rules which are different for them. When that occurs, it is a dictatorship for which our forefathers never intended. We have laws in this country which apply to Everyone. There should be no exceptions. This is a very simple concept that should not be exploited. The rules are for the people and by the people, not to be undermined by anyone, especially those whose authority was given to them through a trust that cannot be betrayed. There is no place in this country for narcissistic individuals who believe they are above the law because of their status or position. No one is above the law and no one should ever be allowed to threaten our democracy and sovereignty.

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