If Donald Trump is making a charge against someone, you
can bet that Trump has done the same thing, only worse. Part of it
is projection.
As an incurable narcissist, Trump can’t stop seeing
his own reflection on everyone else—but a bigger part is simply this: There
are few bad things that Donald Trump hasn't
already done. Bigly.
Donald Trump’s
companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital
records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance
of court orders.
These tactics—exposed by a Newsweek review of thousands of
pages of court filings, judicial orders and affidavits from an array of court
cases—have enraged judges, prosecutors, opposing lawyers and the many ordinary
citizens entangled in litigation with Trump.
When Trump
daily attacks Clinton over the emails, he’s charging her with doing
what Trump himself has done over, and over, and over.
The “30,000 missing emails” that Trump goes on about so often were personal emails. That designation wasn’t made by Clinton.
It was made by a team of lawyers that scoured her server
to determine which emails were related to her work, and which had nothing to do
with it—the exact same task the FBI is now conducting on the computer that
was the subject of Comey’s ill-timed, self-serving letter.
Meanwhile, actually
destroying emails associated with a case? That’s a Trump specialty.
When a government
attorney finally telephoned a Trump lawyer to find out why, he was told the
Trumps had not even begun preparing their answers and had no plans to do so.
The Trumps also postponed and blocked depositions, refused
to provide a description of their records, as required, and would not turn over
any documents.
What did Trump do
instead of turning over documents? He lied. He sued. He was Trump.
In the very first major issue where he was involved, a
federal suit over discrimination at Trump properties, Donald Trump stalled
for months. Finally, he was dragged into court.
… under subpoena,
Trump appeared for a short deposition. When asked about the missing documents,
he made a shocking admission: The Trumps had been destroying their corporate
records for the previous six months and had no document-retention program. They
had conducted no inspections to determine which files might have been sought in
the discovery requests or might otherwise be related to the case. Instead, in
order to “save space,” Trump testified, officials with his company had been
tossing documents into the shredder and garbage.
Why would Donald
Trump suspect that Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails contained important
information? Because Trump knows that when he had
the chance, he destroyed incriminating evidence. He did it not once or twice,
but as a matter of routine.
And a man who has
been involved in 3,500 lawsuits gets the routine down pat.
Trump didn’t just
claim to have no emails. In one case, he repeatedly denied even having a
server.
That was false …
Finally, during a
deposition nine months after he had signed the deceptive affidavit, the same
Trump executive admitted his assertions in it were untrue.
In fact, an IBM Domino server for emails and other files
had been installed in 1999, the same year witnesses for Power Plant contended
that Trump had learned of the casino deal. Prior to that, as early as 1997, the
Trump corporations used servers off-site ...
What happened with
Trump’s servers? Destroyed. The emails? Destroyed. And all of it while in the
middle of a legal action where the emails had been subpoenaed.
The deletions
continued, and backup tapes were reused—thus erasing the data they held. Power
Plant lawyers also discovered that after the lawsuit was filed, Trump Hotels
disposed of a key witness’s computer without preserving the data on it.
Donald Trump knows
about destroying evidence. It’s Trump’s reaction to everything. Because Donald
Trump knows that when evidence of his actions becomes public, it’s always an
issue.
Just look at the
Billy Bush tape.
