It is 2023. Donald Trump is running for President of the United States. He is surrounded by Secret Service agents. And he is the most recognizable human being on the planet.

He is also a flight risk, a potential fugitive from justice.

So said Jack Smith, the Special Prosecutor not named Javert, and the Judge who issued a subpoena in secret based upon the absurd claim that Trump might flee the country.

…Trump has been sued and criminal charged across the country. He has never made a break for it. Where would he go? Cuba?

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 10, 2023

At first I couldn’t believe what Turley was claiming, and read the decision in its entirety. I normally would take the word of an experienced legal expert, but the contention that a judge would actually sign off on the absurd notion that Trump would flee the country was too ridiculous to accept. I assumed that Turley was misreading something. After all, subpoenas can be issued in secret for reasons beyond the potential flight of a suspect.

But no, it is right there in the decision, buried in a footnote.

“The district court also found reason to believe that the former president would “flee from prosecution.”

The Special Counsel apparently was asked to justify this contention and backed off, but apparently the judge who made the original decision had actually found “reason to believe” that Trump would flee.

It is remarkable how much sloppy government lawyering there has been from high-level Justice Department employees. The US Attorney in Delaware “accidentally” almost gave plenary immunity from prosecution to Hunter Biden, and now the Special Counsel gives specious reasons for hiding elements of his investigation.

Honestly, we are to trust these people if they are admittedly so incompetent?

At issue was a warrant issued to Twitter for all of Trump’s electronic communications on the platform or with the company. This is an unsurprising request and I certainly don’t find it problematic. Trump is under investigation regarding his actions on January 6th, and Twitter use was a major part of that investigation. I doubt there is anything new that will come from the search, but it had to be done. Why it would be secret is another matter–Trump knows about the Special Counsel and has no control over the information that Twitter has, but whatever…

Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed and obtained a search warrant related to former President Trump’s account on Twitter, now X. However, he also sought the information with a nondisclosure order that prohibited X from disclosing the existence or contents of the search warrant to Trump or anyone else. However, Trump already knew he was under investigation, so why was there a need for nondisclosure?

The court found that Trump might change his course of conduct but that seems unlikely. If anything Trump has been most consistent in his social media practices. Indeed, while some of us have criticized him for his posting, he has remained entirely undeterred.

The lower court stated that “The district court found that there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump ‘would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ by giving him ‘an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates.’”

All those reasons for secrecy are absurd, but so is the entire investigation. We know what we need to know, and this is a witch hunt. It’s hard to come up with any conceivable way that Twitter records will have an impact on the proceedings.

Then there was the added rational that was tucked into footnote 2 of the D.C. Circuit opinion: Trump might flee.

Judge Howell actually agreed that the former President was a flight risk.

Process that for a second. Trump has 24/7 security. So Howell agreed that he might shake his sizable security detail, evade them, and go on the lam. He is one of the most recognized figures in the world. He would have to go to Mars to live incognito.

If the Special Prosecutor can assert and a judge agree that President Trump could possibly be a flight risk they are functionally insane and should be removed from the case. Period.

Clearly they have absolutely no clarity of thought when it comes to Trump. They assume he is a criminal mastermind and proceed from that assumption. The idea that he is potentially innocent until proven guilty is beyond their ability to comprehend.

Flight risk. If anybody thinks Donald Trump is a flight risk they belong in a mental institution, not sitting on a judicial bench or as a prosecutor.