美国国家公共电台 NPR--Dispute over documents turns into a historic indictment of a former president

Dispute over documents turns into a historic indictment¹ of a former president

Transcript²

NPR's A Martinez talks to NYU Law professor Ryan Goodman about the historic indictment filed against former President Donald Trump³. A grand jury indicted⁴ him in the classified documents case.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

A dispute over documents has turned into a historic indictment of a former president. Donald Trump is now facing federal charges related to the trove⁵ of classified documents taken from the White House to his Florida estate. His attorney, Jim Trusty, told CNN the case against Trump includes obstruction⁶ and false statement charges.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JIM TRUSTY: He is innocent. I mean, everything about this case is absolutely rotten.

MART?NEZ: Joining us now is NYU law professor and former Defense⁷ Department special counsel, Ryan Goodman.

Ryan, this indictment is not public yet. Given what we know about the case so far, how strong do you think it might be?

RYAN GOODMAN: Based on the publicly available information, I think this case is going to be very strong. And we already have, unusually, a number of court filings by the Justice Department where they at least mapped out some of the allegations. And then on top of that is some very good investigative reporting. So the biggest charge here is for the Espionage⁸ Act, and the key language is the willful retention⁹ of national defense information and a failure to deliver it to the officials who are authorized¹⁰ to receive it. So, you know, I think many listeners know, from those words alone, the evidence that has been presented so far is - fits right within those four corners. And I think that's why it's probably going to be a very strong case.

MART?NEZ: And willful retention, what does that mean in simpler language?

GOODMAN: So willful is the key in the sense that it means that the government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that former President Trump was aware that he had the documents, and then he deliberately¹¹ kept them. Retention is just holding on to them.

MART?NEZ: Why do you think prosecutors¹² sought an indictment in Florida instead of Washington?

GOODMAN: It's a great question. It's - basically boils down to, I'd say, two factors. One is it's definitely true that the jury pool is not as favorable to the prosecutors in Florida. But that's not necessarily a legitimate¹³ factor for them, just like Donald Trump can't say that he would like to move the jurisdiction¹⁴ of the case in Manhattan to another place in New York because there are more Republican voters there. It's just not a factor that the law is going to recognize as legitimate for the prosecutors either, so that - they can't really take that into account.

And then the second is the law basically requires the prosecutors to bring the case in the jurisdiction where the criminal conduct occurred. A bunch of this criminal conduct that's alleged¹⁵ occurred in Florida. If they try to bring it in D.C., they might succeed. But if they got it wrong, there's a good chance that the entire case gets thrown out just on that basis.

MART?NEZ: So even if the documents went from D.C. to Florida, it's better to file those charges in Florida.

GOODMAN: Yes. And there's also this quirk¹⁶ within the legal system that in D.C., there's odd case law - it's not representative of the rest of the country - that says if it's actually for an obstruction charge, they say do not bring the charge in the place where the obstruction was targeted, like the National Archives or the grand jury that was meeting there. You have to bring it where the conduct of the obstruction occurred. The bulk of that is obviously in Mar-a-Lago. So I think that there's...

MART?NEZ: So Palm Beach County, possibly, instead of Miami?

GOODMAN: That's right. So that's - that would be, you know, an open question as to which part of Florida. But that's right. It would, at least, at a minimum, need to be in that state.

MART?NEZ: Trump is expected to appear in court Tuesday in Miami. How is that process going to go? How similar might it be to what we saw in New York?

GOODMAN: I think it's going to be very similar to the process in New York in the sense that they want to be showing that Trump is treated like other defendants¹⁷ but, at the same time, with, you know, hyper - heightened security. So he's unlike other defendants in that sense, and other defendants don't come with the Secret Service. So I think that's the only unusual part that we'll probably see. And then he'll have his opportunity to plead.

MART?NEZ: Now, many others have faced similar charges, but the circumstances in this case - very unique. Does that help or hurt the defense?

GOODMAN: So I've actually looked at every single case that the Department of Justice has ever brought in the last, like, 20-plus years for the Espionage Act under this particular provision, and I have to say, the alleged conduct for Trump is in the top quartile of the most egregious¹⁸ cases. So I think it's going to - that's why it's a very strong case for the prosecutors to bring. I think that in a normal situation, the person would plead and try to get a very minimum sentence, which - that can also happen with the way in which our system works.

MART?NEZ: All right. NYU law professor Ryan Goodman, thanks a lot.

GOODMAN: Thank you.

1 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

5 trove   

n.被发现的东西，收藏的东西

参考例句：

• He assembled a rich trove of Chinese porcelain.他收集了一批中国瓷器。
• The gallery is a treasure trove of medieval art.这个画廊是中世纪艺术的宝库。

6 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

9 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。

10 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

11 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

12 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

13 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

14 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

15 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

16 quirk   

n.奇事，巧合；古怪的举动

参考例句：

• He had a strange quirk of addressing his wife as Mrs Smith.他很怪，把自己的妻子称作史密斯夫人。
• The most annoying quirk of his is wearing a cap all the time.他最令人感到厌恶的怪癖就是无论何时都戴著帽子。

17 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

18 egregious   

adj.非常的，过分的

参考例句：

• When it comes to blatant lies,there are none more egregious than budget figures.谈到公众谎言，没有比预算数字更令人震惊的。
• What an egregious example was here!现摆着一个多么触目惊心的例子啊。