How Different Would America be if Two Presidents hadn’t Committed Treason?

The FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago palace has rightfully been huge news. According to the Washington Post, the FBI took action because Trump had more than 300 classified documents and officials were certain that “either the former president or people close to him held on to key records.”

Unfortunately, Trump isn’t the only Republican President who has been caught with his hand in the Nations Cookie jar. Nixon and Reagan had their own Armageddon. These two could and should still be charged with high treason.

Nixon “monkey wrench”

As the November 5 election drew closer, President Johnson believed that there was a significant chance to end the Vietnam War on terms acceptable to the U.S. also knew that any signs of momentum toward such an agreement would boost Humphrey’s chances of winning. Nixon was, of course, also well aware of this.

Anna Chennault (wife of Gen. Claire Chennault of WWII fame) and top GOP fundraiser and head of “Republican Women for Nixon,” had been in touch since at least August with the South Vietnamese government, urging it not to go along with any peace efforts. In October 1968, Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman jotted down orders from Nixon. “Keep Anna working, any way to monkey wrench the agreement.”

On November 2, 1968, the FBI further reported to the White House that Chennault had contacted the South Vietnamese ambassador with a message from her boss, “Hold on, we’re going to win.” The bureau then said that Chennault had left Washington for New York and that it would “undertake discreet surveillance” while she was there.

When Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency ended in 1969, Richard Nixon replaced him. Johnson ordered an underling to surreptitiously take all highly classified material with him on his administration’s exit. Nixon went on to win the Presidency beating Humphrey in the popular vote 31.8 million to 31.3 million, a margin of 0.7 percent of the total votes cast.

Clark Clifford, Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, argued that releasing “some elements of the story are so shocking that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and it probably would do more harm to our country and also cast doubt on Nixon’s election.” Johnson concurred, saying “I do not doubt that.” The Vietnam War eventually ended in 1975, essentially on the same terms as had been available in 1968. But tens of thousands more Americans died, including South Vietnamese.

Reagan’s Scandal

During the Carter/Reagan election battle of 1980, then-President Carter had reached a deal with newly elected Iranian President Abdolhassan Bani-Sadr to release the 52 hostages held by students at the American Embassy in Tehran. But behind Carter’s back, the Reagan campaign and Ayatollah Khomeini had organized a clandestine negotiation, later known as the “October Surprise,” which prevented the attempts by President Jimmy Carter to free the hostages before the 1980 U.S. presidential election took place.

The fact that they were not released tipped the election results in favor of Reagan.” Keeping his side of the deal, Reagan began selling the Iranians weapons and spare parts in 1981 and continued until he was busted for it in 1986, producing the so-called “Iran Contra” scandal.

Reagan was never held to account for the criminal and treasonous actions that brought him to office, unlike Nixon. In a criminal investigation into Iran/Contra when independent prosecutor Lawrence Walsh subpoenaed President George HW Bush after having already obtained convictions for Caspar Weinberger, Ollie North, and others because of the Iran Contra scandal. Bush’s attorney general, Bill Barr, suggested he pardon them all to kill the investigation, which Bush did.

Trump convicts himself

But Trump is in a league of his own. The National Archives had tried to recover those records for more than a year. When they finally retrieved them, they identified them as highly secret and sensitive materials. Trump had more than 700 pages of classified information — including some at the highest level of classification — that he shouldn’t have had in the first place.

The figures represent three batches of documents that federal officials have recovered in recent months amid growing concern that Trump had absconded with the files after he left the White House.

Trump’s own words convict him:

• “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press”
• “The perfect call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky”
• “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have” to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Only time will tell the real damage done to America by the Trump administration.