Dispatches From Exile: Weekly Mind Dump 6/11-6/17, 2023
We have a two-tier justice system. So, don't get your hopes up that Donald Trump will see the inside of a prison for his mishandling of classified documents.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my censors. Yes, censors. You may not be aware, but most of what I publish in this newsletter and elsewhere must be reviewed and cleared by my former employer, the U.S. Department of State. This was the case during my 23 years of service, and continues to be until I breathe my last. As I explained a while back in “Why I’m Censored” —
When I signed up as a Foreign Service officer of the United States and again when I signed out twenty-three years later, I had to agree in writing to official censorship of anything I wrote prior to publication, and all public speaking before presentation. Thus, unlike the rest of the American population, I do not enjoy the full freedoms of expression covered in the Constitution. Alas, I made a faustian pact with Uncle Sam, who owns the creative part of my soul unto death. In return, he paid me to travel and live in exotic lands, gave me fancy titles, provided me with adventure and even romance sometimes, and made me privy to the innermost secrets of state. And he protects the latter zealously.
The reason is not to monitor my political views, as if Vladimir Putin or Ron DeSantis were in charge. It is to ensure I don’t spill any secrets. You’re thinking — “Even after so many years have passed since his fingers even touched a classified cover sheet, certainly the secrets he knew way back then would be staler than a Gino’s burger bun.”
Not quite. Some official secrets are on 30-year declassification schedules. Other highly sensitive documents are not subject to automatic declassification. And then there are the “sources and methods” of intelligence collection that are protected pretty much forever. I’ll read articles or listen to news broadcasts on national security matters and can read “between the lines” to know, or surmise things that people who never worked in the national security apparatus will not know. It’s one reason why I’m also required to put the italicized, these views “do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government” boilerplate you see at the end of my articles.
So, as I write, a self-censor autocorrect function is constantly on in my brain. Almost unconsciously, I pay close attention to the limits of what I can divulge. I hate having redactions imposed on me by the official censors. And, believe me, I’ve had plenty (see the above image for a sample). Lately, I’ve pushed the envelope, writing about stuff that can be seen as borderline. But the reviewers in the Office of Information Programs and Services have posed no objections. And that’s why I thank them. I’ve gotten along fine with them over the years. They’re great public servants dedicated to helping ex-fed writers like myself to stay out of trouble. They’ve even requested autographed copies of published books of mine which they reviewed.
What’s my point in raising this?
Precisely this: if Uncle Sam goes to such lengths to keep his thumb on little old me, he’s not going to make exceptions for ex-presidents of the United States. Nobody is above the law, after all. Just ask Jack Smith.
The government (usually) comes down like a ton of U.S. legal code tomes on those who defy the rules. Schmucks much lowlier than me have found out the hard way:
Harold Martin, an NSA contractor, received nine years behind bars for stealing 50 terabytes — equivalent to 9 million pages — of classified data from that agency.
Nghia Hoang Pho, an NSA employee, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for smuggling top secret hacking tools out of his agency.
Reality Winner, another NSA contractor, was sentenced to 5 years, 3 months in prison for leaking a classified document to a reporter.
Robert Birchum, a retired Air Force officer, was slapped with a three-year prison sentence and a $25,000 fine this month for taking home 300 mostly top secret files.
So, an ex-federal employee — who happened to have been commander-in-chief — is caught with 67 bankers boxes of U.S. government documents, many classified, in a bathroom, ballroom and office at his vacation resort. And lying to FBI investigators to boot. How many years will he get?
Alas, it may be that no person is above the law, but, like it or not, we do have a two-tier system of justice: one for stinkards and groundlings, and another for the lords and ladies.
CIA Director, and distinguished Army general, David Petraeus received a comparatively mere hand slap punishment of two years probation and a $100,000 fine for passing eight notebooks containing top secret information to his mistress for a book she was writing; he was also caught lying to FBI investigators. Former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, caught having smuggled five classified documents out of the National Archives and lying to investigators, was given two years probation and a $50,000 fine.
So, don’t get your hopes up that Donald Trump will be grunting shoulder-to-shoulder with ex-NSA schlubs and a fallen USAF lieutenant colonel sweeping the prison mess before bunk time.
The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government.