OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Sources who spoke with a leading legacy news outlet have conveyed information that will not be well-received by Democrats and former President Donald Trump’s detractors.
CBS News’ Catherine Herridge reported there is no evidence to suggest that former President Donald Trump shared nuclear secrets with an Australian. Also, the sources said that special counsel Jack Smith has yet to file any charges related to the alleged illegal sharing of such information by Trump.
“Sources tell CBS News there is no indication former President Trump shared sensitive records with an Australian billionaire + no charges have been filed by the Special Counsel through their alleged discussion about US Nuclear subs was investigated,” CBS’s Catherine Herridge posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Her post came after CBS News reported earlier that Trump allegedly talked about sensitive information regarding U.S. Navy nuclear submarines with Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt.
The report said that Pratt has been named as a potential witness in Smith’s classified documents case against Trump, sources confirmed. Pratt has not been accused of wrongdoing; Trump has called reports regarding his alleged conversations with Pratt “false and ridiculous.”
“I will often state that we make the best Submarines and Military Equipment anywhere in the World — A pretty well-known fact,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. “These fake stories are put out by corrupt prosecutors trying to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024.”
Meanwhile, the federal judge overseeing Trump’s classified documents case in south Florida chastised Smith and his prosecutors for failing to provide “timely” access to evidence materials to Trump’s legal team.
Smith had asked for a safe place to keep the files in Washington, D.C., which was nearly 1,000 miles away from the court in southern Florida where the case was filed.
“The parties are advised that production of classified discovery to defense counsel is deemed timely upon placement in an accredited facility in the Southern District of Florida, not in another federal district,” Cannon wrote in her order.
“It is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Counsel to make and carry out arrangements to deposit such discovery to defense counsel in this District, in consultation with the Litigation Security Group for security purposes,” she added. “The Office of the Special Counsel shall update and/or clarify any prior responses to the Standard Discovery Order in accordance with this Order.”
Cannon issued an order earlier this year outlining how the documents Trump is accused of mishandling can be viewed.
Trump’s legal team hasn’t had much success in court recently, but they won a minor ruling last week that could lead to a major one.
Cannon said she was “temporarily delaying a previously set schedule of deadlines stretching from October through May for the Justice Department to make classified documents available to Trump’s lawyers and for the defense team to have time to review them,” Yahoo News reported.
In addition, Trump’s legal team asked Cannon to push back the start date of the trial from May 2024 until after the November election, but she has yet to rule on that request, the outlets noted. That said, some observers noted that her decision to move back the deadlines made it less likely that the trial would begin on May 20, as she previously ruled.
The reason that matters is because should Trump succeed “in pushing back the trial and also manages to win reelection in 2024, critics fear that he will simply attempt to pardon himself if found guilty of the felony charges Smith has brought against him,” Yahoo News noted.
Close to three-quarters of voters believe that we are living in a police state, and a new movie by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, aptly titled “Police State,” tackles that precise issue.
A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports survey showed that 72 percent of respondents said that they are worried that “America is becoming a police state.”
