The crimes listed in the June 8, 2023 Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment against former president Donald Trump, involving his taking of classified documents, did not require a motive to charge. So the question “Why did he take them?” has not been asked or answered.

But Trump’s life-long modus operandi of deception, fraud and a willingness to break the law for personal gain, provides insight for answering the question: “Why did he take them?”

I suspect Trump intended to use the stolen classified information to obtain favor with a foreign government or to monetize them. And what’s worse, Trump and his family may have already done so!

We know that Trump’s hotels and resorts received financial favor from Saudi Arabia in a back door scheme to by pass the emoluments clause. Trump’s son-in-law received $2 billion dollars from the Saudi Arabia Wealth Fund. Ivanka (Trump) Kushner lobbied the Chinese government for special licensing agreement for her Ivanka brand products while serving as special assistant to President Trump. And now we’re learning that Trump may have conspired to sell presidential pardons. These and numerous other examples suggest Trump and his family had no hesitation or ethical restraint in leveraging the presidency for personal gain.

There is also the Oct. 7, 2021 New York Times article where the Central Intelligence Agency acknowledged that dozens of its informants have been arrested, captured and executed in recent years (2018-2020), begging the question: Was those agents cover exposed as a result of leaked classified information by the Trump administration? The short answer is, we don’t know. But there is a correlation between Trump’s time as president and when our agents’ cover started to be exposed. And there have been incidents where foreign nationals broke into Mar-a-Lago during the time Trump kept the documents.

These facts have not escaped the attention of Jack Smith — DOJ special prosecutor — who in May issued subpoenas for Trumps’ business deals with China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Clearly the special prosecutor is looking for evidence that Trump passed information in exchange for lucrative business deals.

Over the next several months additional evidence is expected to be released involving Trump’s taking of classified documents. If my hunch is right and that evidence shows that Trump passed classified information on to a second country, then our 45th president is indeed a traitor.

FREDERICK LEHR

Grays River