If you talk to Trump people, they’ll tell you, oh, we had such a rushed departure-and of course the reason is because Donald Trump did not accept the terms of the election-that we by mistake took boxes to Mar-a-Lago. So even though most people were not aware, there’s been a battle between the Trump camp and the National Archives since January 2021 about this whole question of what records the Trump administration had taken with them from the White House. WILLIAM ARKIN: It’s important to just talk about the background of what happened at Mar-a-Lago because this has been going on since Trump left office. *Below is a transcript of the interview with minor edits to improve clarity. In the 30-minute interview, which was recorded on August 19, Arkin outlines the timeline of events, what the DOJ investigation may mean for Trump’s potential 2024 presidential campaign, and why he believes the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago has sparked one of the biggest political disasters in the history of the bureau. He later reported more details on Trump’s “private stash” of documents. His reporting revealed that the FBI had an informant, who had knowledge of what documents Trump had in his possession and where they were located. He has written multiple reports related to the Justice Department’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified information. He has the credibility to offer important insights into what pursuing an Espionage Act prosecution against a former US president may mean for the United States.Īrkin is currently the senior editor for intelligence at Newsweek. I recount all of the above to show you why I setup an interview with Arkin about the Justice Department and FBI’s handling of the investigation into Trump and his possession of documents at Mar-a-Lago. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars. I accept that there’s a lot to report here, but I’m more worried about how much we are missing. I’d also argue, ever so gingerly, that NBC has become somewhat lost in its own verve, proxies of boring moderation and conventional wisdom, defender of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtle threat mongering, in love with procedure and protocol over all else (including results). Now it is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism. I’d argue that under Trump, the national security establishment not only hasn’t missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength. When Arkin appeared on “Democracy Now!”, he had just left NBC News and circulated a letter that criticized the media organization for “emulating” the national security state in the era of Trump. He co-authored the 2011 book, Top Secret America: The Rise of the American Security State and also wrote the book American Coup, which he describes as documenting the “creeping fascism of homeland security.”
We hold them up on a pedestal, that somehow they are the truth-tellers, that they’re the ones who are getting to the bottom of things, when there’s just no evidence that that’s the case,” Arkin added.Īrkin has a proven record of speaking out against perpetual war and challenging the immense power of the national security state.
“And there’s no real evidence that the FBI is that competent of an institution to begin with in terms of even pursuing the prosecutions that it’s pursuing.” “The FBI, in particular, has a deplorable record in American society, from Martin Luther King and the peace movements of the 1960s all the way up through Wen Ho Lee and others who have been persecuted by the FBI,” Arkin stated. In 2019, longtime national security journalist William Arkin appeared on “Democracy Now!” and spoke out against liberals in the United States who believed the FBI (and CIA) could save the country from President Donald Trump. Originally published at The Dissenter, a Shadowproof newsletter