Still unanswered: Trump’s motive for withholding classified documents
June 12, 2023 5 Comments
THE 49-PAGE GRAND JURY indictment, filed last week in Florida by the United States Department of Justice, contains 37 criminal charges against former president Donald Trump. The charges can be summarized into a two-fold accusation: Trump is alleged to have stolen more than 300 classified documents upon leaving the White House in January 2021. Moreover, he allegedly schemed with a group of advisors and aides in order to obstruct efforts by the government to retrieve the stolen documents. Both accusations are spelled out in stark detail in the pages of the indictment.
What remains unanswered, however, is the motive. Why did Trump allegedly take several hundred classified documents from the White House? Did he select specific documents to purloin? And, if so, why these specific documents? Lastly, why did the former president go to such pains to frustrate the government’s efforts to recover the documents? There has been intense public speculation about the answers to these questions. Yet the grand jury indictment does not appear to attempt to establish the possible motive behind the alleged crime. Nor 
does it need to. Establishing a motive is not required in order to demonstrate the need for a trial, or indeed a conviction. Given the high stakes of this case, however, establishing a motive can provide much-needed clarity in the public sphere.
Accidental or Malicious?
It is important to clarify with precision what the grand jury indictment does not state: its pages do not contain any suggestion that Trump took possession of the classified documents in order to share them with specific individuals or entities, American or foreign. Nor does the indictment suggest that the former president intended to use the classified information in his possession for personal financial gain —for instance to promote his investment ventures at home or abroad, or to gain leverage and win over potential business partners.
So, why did Trump do it? As The New York Times explained on Sunday, the indictment does offer some hints of motives, if one reads between the lines. One possible explanation stems from Trump’s time in the White House, during which he learned to associate his access to classified information as a paramount perk that came with being president of the United States. It follows that, retaining access to classified information was a way for him to maintain control over the office of the presidency. That strong need intensified even more after January 2021, as Trump was clearly “not ready to let go of the perks of holding the highest office in the country”. Indeed, the indictment describes several examples that reveal the strong sense of ownership that the former president felt about the classified documents he kept at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago, as well as 
his determination to keep them in close proximity to his office and sleeping quarters.
Tertiary Motives
A plausible tertiary motive for Trump’s alleged crimes is the leverage and status that access to secrets can bestow upon an individual. It is possible that Trump viewed the classified documents as the apogee of the long list of his material prizes and trophies —as an important physical legacy of the zenith of his career. That would also explain why he allegedly fought so determinedly to keep the documents in his possession, even after he was told in no uncertain terms by the government that they did not belong to him. Moreover, as The Times notes, the former president may view his classified document collection as a way to insure his legacy —for instance as a means of rebutting critics of his policies and decisions while he was in office, or even as potential “payback against perceived enemies”.
But these motives are probably less prominent in Trump’s mind. A strong and deeply held sense of ownership of government information, no matter their classification grade, is likely the driving motive behind the alleged crimes. As The Washington Post noted in an insightful article in 2022, aides to the former president said that he appeared sincere and genuine about his conviction that the classified documents “were his, not the government’s”. When he was advised otherwise by his own aides, he noticeably “gravitated toward lawyers and advisers who indulged his 
more pugilistic desires”, according to the paper. His attitude was not a show. It was sincere. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that it has subsided since his indictment.
A Genuine Conviction of Ownership
Trump’s latest legal woes are rooted in his genuine belief that access to classified information is something he is owed —not simply because he served as president of the United States, but because, in his mind, he should still be in the Oval Office. These deeply entrenched beliefs are unlikely to be abandoned by the former president, regardless of the cost. More importantly, these same beliefs are passionately shared by millions of his supporters. The latter are sufficient in number to wreak havoc in the Republican Party and radically reshape American politics for years to come. If Trump avoids trial or a prison sentence, his support base will view such an outcome as a form of noble victory against the “deep state”. It is therefore likely to be energized, possibly like never before. Should Trump be jailed or seek political asylum abroad in order to evade incarceration, the American political landscape will undergo a major earthquake. Regardless of the outcome of this unprecedented saga, stormy waters seem to lie ahead.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 12 June 2023 | Permalink
A SERIES OF COORDINATED drone strikes that struck Moscow last week were not random, but may in fact have targeted the homes of senior Russian intelligence officials, according to a new report by an American television network, which cited knowledgeable sources and data by an open-source research firm.
THE UKRAINIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES are training and arming cells of saboteurs inside Russia, who are responsible for several acts of sabotage on Russian soil, including a recent attack on the Kremlin, according to CNN. In an 
SENIOR REPRESENTATIVES FROM OVER 20 intelligence agencies from around the world, including the United States and China, reportedly participated in a secret meeting in Singapore last week. The meeting allegedly took place in parallel to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level security conference held annually in Singapore. The conference, focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, has been organized since 2002 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think-tank.
RUSSIAN OFFICIALS SAID THEY uncovered a sophisticated espionage effort by the United States government, which targeted the smartphones of thousands of Apple users living in Russia, including foreign diplomats. According to the Russians, the operation was carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA), an American intelligence agency that specializes in gathering foreign signals intelligence and securing the United States government’s information and communication systems.
ONE ISRAELI AND TWO Italian intelligence officers are among the victims of a boating accident in northern Italy. Local reports indicate that the incident occurred last Sunday evening, when a passenger boat named the Gooduria capsized and sank rapidly in Italian territorial waters. The boat was on a sightseeing trip near the Italian shoreline of Lake Maggiore, a popular destination situated on the southern side of the Alps between Italy and Switzerland.
A COURT IN ALBANIA 
ON MONDYA, TURKEY’S NATIONAL intelligence organization (MİT) announced the arrest of several members of an alleged spy network, who were reportedly recruited, trained and handled by Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad. Two members of the alleged spy ring were arrested two months ago, according to the Office of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor and Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
The United States Department of Justice has 
RIVAL ONLINE CAMPAIGNS BY American and Russian intelligence agencies are encouraging each other’s citizens to contact them, share information and possibly even defect. At least three ads have been on social media, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issuing the earliest one in February of this year. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its Russian counterpart, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), are now believed to have published similar ads.
A CHINESE COURT HAS sentenced a United States passport holder to life in prison on espionage charges, following a brief closed-door trial. However, no information has been made available about the precise charges against him. Closed-door trials are frequent occurrences in Chinese courts, especially in cases relating to national security, which include charges of espionage against the state. However, life sentences are exceedingly rare for espionage cases.
SOUTH KOREAN PROSECUTORS have charged four senior members of one of the country’s largest trade unions with espionage on behalf of North Korea. The move, which is seen as highly controversial by South Korea’s liberal opposition, has come a few months after the conservative administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol 
AN ESPIONAGE TOOL DESCRIBED by Western officials as the most advanced in the Russian cyber-arsenal has been neutralized after a 20-year operation by intelligence agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The operation targeted 
A UKRAINIAN PARAMILITARY GROUP has claimed to be behind a targeted attack against an influential figure in Russian literature and social media on Saturday, which killed his fellow passenger and prompted strong denouncements by the Kremlin. The attack appeared to target Yevgeny Nikolayevich Prilepin, 47, known in Russia as Zakhar Prilepin. One of the best-known novelists in Russia, Prilepin spent much of his late teens and early twenties serving in the Russian National Guard. He saw action during two tours in Chechnya.
intelNews.org 
Luxembourg ex-spy official and FBI fugitive vanishes while under house arrest
June 19, 2023 by Joseph Fitsanakis 2 Comments
In recent years, Schneider had been working for Dr. Ruja Ignatova, 44, a Bulgarian-born businesswoman who was the alleged architect behind the cryptocurrency scam known as OneCoin. In 2014, the Oxford University-educated Ignatova founded OneCoin, a cryptocurrency firm that claimed to operate on an investment model similar to Bitcoin’s. Later, however, investigators discovered that OneCoin operated as a fraudulent scheme, with no actual cryptocurrency backing it. Ignatova was subsequently indicted on multiple charges of money laundering, securities fraud and wire fraud.
However, Ignatova disappeared in 2017, after boarding a Ryanair flight from the Bulgarian capital Sofia to Athens, Greece. Ignatova remains at large and is widely seen as responsible for one of history’s largest cryptocurrency frauds, which is estimated to have defrauded investors of at least $4 billion. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently offering a reward of up to $250,000 in return for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest.
On April 29, 2021, French police arrested Schneider, a resident of France, in Audun-le-Tiche, a small town on the French-Luxembourg border and not far from the Belgian and German borders. His arrest took place pursuant to an international warrant, which was later confirmed to have been issued by authorities in New York. It was reported at the time that Schneider’s arrest involved the deployment of members of Brigade de recherche et d’intervention —France’s equivalent of the Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams in the United States.
The Luxembourger is accused by governments in several national jurisdictions of having worked as a fixer and troubleshooter for Ignatova, and in doing so enabling her to prolong her fraudulent schemes. Schneider remained at the Nancy-Maxéville prison until November 2021, when he was placed under house arrest in France. At that time, he was fitted with an ankle monitor equipped with Global Positioning System capabilities, which tracked his physical whereabouts in real time.
Throughout that time, French authorities worked with the government of the United States, where Schneider faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison for money laundering and fraud. On February 15 of this year, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne approved Schneider’s extradition to the United States. The decision was later endorsed by Nancy’s Court of Appeal, following an attempt by Schneider’s legal team to prevent his extradition to the United States.
Last week, however, it was revealed that Schneider had gone missing while under house arrest in France. How he did so remains unknown, thought it was reported that the former intelligence official had managed to disable and subsequently evade his ankle monitoring system. Moreover, the BBC reported that Schneider went missing in May, but the French government did not publicly reveal the information until June 8.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 19 June 2023 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with disappearances, extraditions, FBI, France, Frank Schneider, fraud, Luxembourg, OneCoin, Ruja Ignatova, SREL (Luxembourg)