美国国家公共电台 NPR--What makes Trump's case different from other classified documents cases?

What makes Trump¹'s case different from other classified documents cases?

Transcript²

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to former federal prosecutor³ Robert Mintz about differences between the case against former President Trump and past cases involving the handling of classified information.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In the federal prosecution⁴ of former President Trump, there is not much disagreement about the facts. Photos attached to the indictment⁵ show cartons of documents stacked in Trump's Florida residence. The indictment says many papers contained national defense⁶ and even nuclear secrets. The debate, then, is all about how to interpret those facts.

Trump supporters have claimed he had some right to take the papers and refuse to return them, although prosecutors⁷ found the law says otherwise. Supporters also ask, what about other cases? What about Hillary Clinton's email server in 2016? What about documents found in the homes of Joe Biden and Mike Pence? Why aren't they in court? Well, we've called former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz to talk about this. Good morning, sir.

ROBERT MINTZ: Good morning.

INSKEEP: Bottom line - are those cases all the same?

MINTZ: Well, they're not really. This is a case about the willful retention⁸ of classified documents. And the key distinction between these charges and the facts that we know about President Biden, former Secretary of State Clinton and even former Vice⁹ President Mike Pence is that while there may have been documents improperly¹⁰ removed in those cases, there is no evidence of intent, no evidence to willfully retain classified documents. So in a very real sense, this indictment that former President Trump is facing is not about what documents he took with him when he left the White House. It's all about what he's alleged¹¹ to have done after the government requested the return of those documents.

INSKEEP: Oh, when he kept saying or having his lawyers say that they had done a good faith search and they'd returned everything and that there was nothing there - this is what the crime is, you're saying?

MINTZ: Yeah. And that's why we've seen in this indictment, which is extremely detailed¹², all of these very specific allegations. These are, by the way, not facts that you have to include in the indictment, but they were facts that the special prosecutor decided¹³ were important to include, I think so the American public could see the basis for these charges. So that's why, for example, we see these specific allegations about moving boxes out of a storage room, telling an attorney to search that room for classified material without saying that dozens of boxes were being kept elsewhere, suggesting an attorney hide or destroy documents that had been subpoenaed¹⁴ and causing allegedly other people to make false statements about whether all the classified documents had been produced. This is a very detailed indictment, and these are the allegations that the prosecutors are going to hope to prove the willful intent, in other words, the guilty knowledge of the defendant¹⁶ here.

INSKEEP: Are you saying that that evidence that you just described shows the defendant's state of mind, shows his intent at the time of this alleged crime?

MINTZ: Well, that's exactly what prosecutors are going to have to show here, because these cases are all about what was going on within the mind of the defendant. The prosecutors are going to try to show consciousness of guilt¹⁵. In other words, they're going to try to argue that somebody who was totally innocent would not have acted the way that the defendant - in this case, former President Trump - is alleged to have acted in these circumstances.

INSKEEP: Nonetheless, you can imagine a defense lawyer for the former president making an argument that this is selective prosecution. What is that as a legal concept? And how, if at all, could it apply here?

MINTZ: Well, the concept of selective prosecution is something that is very rarely successful. It's sort of the idea that you're being singled out for prosecution when others who are committing the very same acts are not being prosecuted¹⁷. And it's something that really doesn't work unless you can demonstrate that you're being singled out for some kind of bad reason - because of your ethnicity, perhaps your religion, something like that. In this case, though, I do think we're going to expect to see the defense raise that very issue. And they're going to point to former Secretary of State Clinton and the issues that came up with the use of her personal email server to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state. That was a situation that led to classified information being shared on non-classified, non-government computer servers.

But I don't think we're going to see the judge let them get very far down that road because judges like to keep the case focused on the defendant, the charges, the evidence against them and not turn this into a sideshow where the case becomes really about another case. We'll see the defense try to insert that into the case. We'll see how far the judge allows them to go with that.

INSKEEP: Do you think there's any possibility of a speedy trial, which is what the special prosecutor has asked for?

MINTZ: Well, the speedy trial is something prosecutors will be shooting for. But the defense really is the key here because they're the ones that can take extra time. That will depend on how much evidence prosecutors present during discovery. And the defense here will decide how quickly this case will go to trial. Because at the end of the day, judges will always defer¹⁸ to the defense because they don't want to see a trial start without the defense saying, Judge, we are ready to take this case to trial. We prepared our defense, and we're ready to go.

INSKEEP: Former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz. Thanks so much.

MINTZ: My pleasure.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

4 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

5 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

8 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

11 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

12 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 subpoenaed   

v.（用传票）传唤（某人）( subpoena的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The court subpoenaed her to appear as a witness. 法庭传唤她出庭作证。
• The finance director is subpoenaed by prosecution. 财务经理被检查机关传讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

16 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

17 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

18 defer   

vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从

参考例句：

• We wish to defer our decision until next week.我们希望推迟到下星期再作出决定。
• We will defer to whatever the committee decides.我们遵从委员会作出的任何决定。