The Trump Indictments Unsealed and Why Won’t Waltine Nauta Flip?

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It’s easier than reading a textbook in Organic Chemistry.

And the allegations are substantial, 37 felony charges connected to how classified documents were inappropriately handled, stored and moved – violations of the Espionage Act.

And then there are the charges of obstructing justice and making false statements. All of it is substantiated by evidence and photographs, with consequences of decades of prison time.

If a Martian looked over the document, he’d wonder why there wasn’t a better bathroom to store top-secret documents on Earth.

And then the said gender-neutral Martian would wonder how a man like Trump could have ever been seen as qualified to be president in 2016, let alone be the leading candidate for Republicans in 2024?

Trump is twice impeached, found liable in one sexual assault, and is now facing more than 70 state and federal criminal charges, with more charges in at least two other cases to come.

Is Trump qualified for the presidency? It doesn’t seem possible in any galaxy. Must be a case of affirmative action for whites?

And yet as MAGA types in Georgia proved this weekend, the level of indignation and repulsion is not as high as you’d expect, among Republicans.

Trump played victim and claimed the Deep State is weaponizing government. Trump said the Deep State was really the communists and fascists in America, painting it in clear “us-versus-them” terms.

“If you put me back in the White House, (the Democrats) reign will be over and America will be a free nation again,” Trump said to 15 seconds of solid applause.

Trump’s characterization of the threat to freedom is concerning, when it’s Trump himself, the indicted one who is the real threat.

Many AAPIs are in the U.S. because our families escaped autocracies. We fled dictatorships. Be it in China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan. We know when freedoms are stripped. We escaped oppression and anti-democratic forces in our ancestral homes.

I met a man from China the other day, who is awaiting his asylum interview and is so glad to be in America.

That’s why we’re all here.

We know the difference between autocracy and democracy. So should all Americans, if they stopped blindly cheering Trump enough to read the indictment.

I hope they do. But as I drove today in the red part of the blue state of California, I see someone hasn’t read the indictment and instead has spray painted a concrete overpass with the words, “Kill Dems.”

That Indictment

Funny, when I read it, I cheered justice, accountability, and the rule of law. But I admit as I held the document, I dwelled for more than a moment on that first page.

The stark print just stops you cold.

“United States of Amer- ica” it reads, meaning all of us.

Then, “v. Donald J.Trump and Waltine Nauta.” Nauta. One of us.

The 40-year-old Guamanian native just put the AAPI in the evolving sordid political history of Trump. Who’s the ex-president’s new running mate? It’s not the former VP, Mike Pence who is making his own history by being the first veep to directly challenge his old boss ever. It’s not Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy, the latter so quick to pander to Trump’s base by promising to pardon Trump.

No, Trump’s new running mate is our AAPI man Nauta, Trump’s own personal valet and now newly minted co-conspirator.

More than anyone you can think of from Ivanka, Don Jr., Melania, Stormy Daniels or even E. Jean Carrol, Nauta will be the name that makes the most consequential pairing. The president and his loyal Guamanian charged with felonies against our democracy.

It struck me as an odd bit of negative diversity. The first AAPI on the pile of those who have sold their soul to Trump, including those who have actually served time, like attorney Michael D. Cohen and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

And then there are those who have done time only as key enablers like Rudy Giuliani. Or enablers who have been somewhat rehabilitated like Bill Barr.

And then there are those who were actually convicted but then pardoned by Trump, white men all. Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon.

Maybe that’s what Nauta is hoping for. Be loyal. Stick to Trump. Ride with the “winner” and get what the big boys get. A pardon.

It would be easier not to break the law in the first place. Nauta has reportedly told his family in Guam he did nothing wrong; he just did (continue on page 14)