We'll title the Thursday edition of Nicolle Wallace's MSNBC show, "The Spy Who Came In From the 18th Hole."
The show keyed off a Washington Post article reporting that Trump staffers at Mar-a-Lago moved papers the day before an FBI visit to retrieve classified documents, and that Trump "at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others."
But whereas that Post article made no mention of a Saudi connection, Nicolle's show spun a dark conspiracy theory, insinuating that Trump might have made classified documents available to the Saudis in connection with Trump hosting a Saudi-sponsored LIV golf tournament at his course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The most explicit allegation in that regard was made by Peter Strzok. He's the infamous former FBI agent who was in charge of investigating supposed links between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.
Strzok's the guy who in 2016 told his then-girlfriend and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, in response to her frantic concern that Trump could become president:
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.”
Said Strzok on Thursday:
"Why did Donald Trump want to keep [classified documents]? . . . There's certainly some concern, immediately after the DoJ visited with a subpoena, he left for Bedminister for the summer, and then the Saudi Arabian-sponsored golf tournament occurred, you know, a little less than around two months later.
"So a lot of the "why" is also starting to come into focus in terms of, what was it that caused Donald Trump to repeatedly break the law and allegedly maintain these highly classified documents."
Betsy Woodruff Swan, an MSNBC contributor and Politico reporter, continued to stir the Saudi pot, saying:
"That reference to the Bedminster search, of course, is fascinating. The LIV golf connection, of all things, is another really notable development."
Wallace herself put a bow on the Saudi theory, darkly musing:
"There are big unanswered questions and concerns about the twice-impeached, and indicted, and civilly liable for sexual abuse ex-President's ties to the Saudi royal family specifically, as his Virginia golf course gets ready to host a tournament bankrolled by the Saudi Crown Prince and his investment fund."
Note that neither Wallace nor her panelists offered a shred of actual evidence in support of their Saudi theory. This was flagrant conspiracy-mongering, promiscuously propagating ominous innuendo.
So, Nicolle, what kind of devious spycraft was involved in delivering the purloined documents into the clutches of Mohammed bin Salman? Was a LIV player's golf bag conveniently left in the locker room and used as a dead drop? John Le Carré fans want to know!
On her MSNBC show, Nicolle Wallace and her guests suggesting that Donald Trump might have leaked to the Saudis classified documents he had at Mar-a-Lago was sponsored in part by E*Trade, Dell, Intel, T-Mobile, and Liberty Mutual.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Deadline White House
5/25/23
4:07 pm EDTPETER STRZOK: The other thing we're seeing in this recent Washington Post reporting is, the whole idea of why? You know, what's your theory of the case? Why did Donald Trump want to keep it? And there is some information in this new reporting that he had potentially shown it to an author. That he had shown it to donors.
There's certainly some concern, immediately after the DoJ visited with a subpoena, he left for Bedminster for the summer, and then the Saudi Arabian-sponsored golf tournament occurred, you know, a little less than around two months later.
So a lot of the "why" is also starting to come into focus in terms of, what was it that caused Donald Trump to repeatedly break the law and allegedly maintain these highly classified documents.
. . .
BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN: There's still so much going on in this investigation that has yet to percolate, or to become visible to those of us who are viewing it from the outside.
That reference to the Bedminster search, of course, is fascinating. The LIV golf connection, of all things, is another really notable development.
. . .
NICOLLE WALLACE: Betsy, the attorney who recently left, Mr. Parlatore, says in a CNN interview that some of his conflict with Boris Epshteyn was about a search. And when pressed by the interviewer— what search?—he says Bedminister.
. . .
HARRY LITMAN: The big line, the other big line in the Post, though, is the notion that he may have passed it along to others. As Ryan Goodman says,that would be a whole new crime under the Espionage Act.
. . .
JOHN BRENNAN: It is quite clear that Donald Trump's retention of these documents was quite purposeful. And with an aim that is, I think, still unknown. How he was going to leverage the information in those documents?
Who knows what he might have done? . . . And I do hope, in addition to holding him accountable for the unlawful retention of these documents, that we really do get to the bottom of what he planned to do, what he might have already done, and who might have had access to these documents that really could have seriously compromised national security.
. . .
WALLACE: There are big unanswered questions and concerns about the twice-impeached, and indicted, and civilly liable for sexual abuse ex-President's ties to the Saudi royal family specifically, as his Virginia golf course gets ready to host a tournament bankrolled by the Saudi Crown Prince and his investment fund.
