Bob Sheak, June 18, 2023
Introduction
The focus here is on the indictment of Trump for keeping classified government documents and his unlawful attempts to avoid handing them over to the FBI and grand jury investigations, and how the former president and the GOP are encouraging resistance, if not violence, against the alleged Democrats’ “weaponization of the state.” Meanwhile, Trump hopes to see his fund-raising soar, as he expects his cult-like base and rich and powerful benefactors come to his assistance. In the deeply divided electorate, reasonable and civil government – at all levels – becomes difficult to achieve.
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The indictment
Charlie Savage offers an abbreviated version of the full text of the 49-page indictment, with annotations and a link the full indictment, at:
https://nytimes.com/interactive/2023/06/09/us/trump-indictment-document-annotated.html. He writes:
“The Justice Department on Friday unveiled an indictment charging former President Donald J. Trump with 37 criminal counts. They relate to Mr. Trump’s hoarding of sensitive government documents after he left office and his refusal to return them, even after being subpoenaed for all remaining records in his possession that were marked as classified.
31 counts
Related to withholding national defense information
One count against Mr. Trump for each document he was alleged to have kept in his possession.
5 counts
Related to concealing possession of classified documents
Among them are counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice and withholding documents and records, levied against both Mr. Trump and an aide, Walt Nauta.
2 counts
False statements
Related to statements to the F.B.I. by Mr. Trump and an aide, Walt Nauta.
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Jessica Corbett provides an analysis of the indictment and its implications (https://commondreams.org/news/trump-indictment-unsealed-mar-a-lago-documents). She makes the following key points.
One, the indictment against Trump was unsealed and made available to the public on June 9 by Special Council Jack Smith. She quotes Smith.
“‘Today an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice,’ said Smith, who was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in November, after the twice-impeached former president announced he is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“‘This indictment was voted by a grand jury of citizens in the Southern District of Florida and I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged,’ he continued. ‘Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk.’”
“‘We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone,’ Smith added. ‘It’s very important for me to note that the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. To that end, my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused.’”
Two, Trump kept classified government documents after leaving the White House.
“The indictment explains that after leaving office in January 2021 ‘Trump caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported’ to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, where FBI agents executed a search warrant last August. Even though ‘Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents,’ the document adds, he stored them throughout the club, ‘including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.’
“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
Three, Trump is accused of showing some of the information to people who lacked a security clearance.
“The indictment accuses Trump of showing classified materials to people who lacked security clearance to see them at least twice at his golf club in New Jersey.”
“The first time was in July 2021, during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff.
“The former president ‘showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ that Trump said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official,’ according to the document. ‘Trump told the individuals that the plan was ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret.’ Trump also said, ‘As president I could have declassified it,’ and, ‘Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.'”
“Then, in August or September 2021, Trump allegedly showed a representative of his political action committee ‘a classified map related to a military operation,’ told the unnamed individual that he should not be doing so, and said not to get too close.”
Four, Trump is accused of obstructing a criminal investigation
“After the FBI launched a criminal investigation in March 2022, which led to a grand jury issuing a subpoena for all records with classification markings in mid-May, ‘Trump endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents,’ the document details.
It goes on to share some comments Trump supposedly made to his attorneys in late May 2022, when the lawyers said they needed to search for materials to comply with the subpoena:
“I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes.”
“Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
“Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
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Trump’s reactions to the indictment
A team of New York Times journalists, including Shayna Jacobs,David Ovalle, Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, report on Trump’s reactions (https://nytimes.com/national-security/2023/06/13/trump-court-miami-indictment).
They write: “Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he broke the law dozens of times by keeping and hiding top-secret documents in his Florida home — the first hearing in a historic court case that could alter the country’s political and legal landscape.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, who presided over the arraignment, ruled that “Trump should not speak to [co-defendant Walt] Nauta or witnesses about the facts of the case. As to which Trump employees might be affected by the restriction, the judge instructed the prosecution team to provide a list.”
Attacking the special council
Just before the arraignment, Trump publicly “attacked special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, in the hours before his court appearance, calling the veteran prosecutor a ‘thug and a “lunatic” in social media posts.”
Viewing it as a fund-raising opportunity
Even during his arraignment, Trump’s legal strategy continued to be primarily political: A fundraising email from his campaign landed while he was inside the courthouse, vowing he would never drop out of the 2024 race. “They can indict me, they can arrest me, but I know … that I am an innocent man,” Trump wrote in the appeal for money. And he tried as much as possible to turn the potential humiliation of a criminal court date into a publicity tour, staging a surprise campaign stop in Miami at a popular Cuban restaurant and scheduling an evening speech in New Jersey, where he again claimed that the documents were his.”
Projecting strength
In an article for the Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey report on how Trump greeted the arraignment with showmanship in his bid to upstage charges (https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/14/donald-trump-arraignment-day-speedy).
“Former president Donald Trump faced down the most serious threat to his personal liberty and political future like just another day on the campaign trail — waving to fans, giving a thumbs up, swinging by a storied eatery, soliciting donations and planning a spirited speech to supporters at one of his properties.”
“‘He’s scared s—less,’ said John Kelly, his former chief of staff. ‘This is the way he compensates for that. He gives people the appearance he doesn’t care by doing this. For the first time in his life, it looks like he’s being held accountable. Up until this point in his life, it’s like, I’m not going to pay you; take me to court. He’s never been held accountable before.’”
Arnsdorf and Dawsey continue.
Trump has wanted to show, according to his advisers, that he is ready to fight — instead of looking downtrodden and glum — as he appeared in court Tuesday.”
“It’s fine,” Trump said when asked about his mood in a right-wing radio interview on the eve of his arraignment.
“You sound like you’re in great spirits,” the host, Howie Carr, concluded.
“I am,” Trump said. “I’m just fighting for the country.”
Trump returned to his golf club, the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Tuesday following the court appearance in Miami and that night made a speech “in front of Republican donors, party officials, past and present advisers and politicians.”
Trump walked through the doors miming wonder at the adulation that poured over him and mouthing “thank you” as the crowd chanted his name.” “The speech took a dark turn, however, as Trump attacked Biden and special counsel Jack Smith in vicious terms and portrayed his arrest as a political persecution like in repressive regimes.”
Arnsdorf and Dawsey quote from Trump’s speech.
“If the communists get away with this, it won’t stop with me. They will not hesitate to ramp up their persecution of Christians, pro-life activists, parents attending school board meetings, and even future Republican candidates….“I am the only one that can save this nation.”
The audience included Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), longtime New York GOP chairman Ed Cox, former White House aides Kash Patel and Sebastian Gorka, election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, televangelist Robert Jeffress, former Senate candidate Bernie Moreno of Ohio, former Senate candidate Leora Levy of Connecticut, former Nevada secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant and potential Senate candidate Jeffrey Gunter of Nevada.
Being “delusional”
Chris Lehmann, the D.C. Bureau chief for The Nation and a contributing editor at The Baffler, considers that Trump is being delusional, lying to himself, in his responses to the then pending indictment and other cases. It’s a chronic condition (https://thenation.com/article/politics/trump-indictment-classified-documents). Here’s some of what Lehmann writes.
“For all the genuine alarm, and legal agita, over the Mar-a-Lago case’s national security implications, we are left reckoning with something broader and uglier at the heart of all of Trump’s power-mongering: a wholly personalized model of presidential authority that overtly sacrifices constitutional government at the maximum leader’s whim, inconvenience, or tantrum. The theory behind all the many Trump prosecutions is that, at this late stage of democratic decay, the law will serve as the system’s 11th-hour savior. But the law won’t stop Donald Trump from lying to himself—and seems unlikely to rescue a political and media order that keeps mistaking Trump’s nihilistic delusions for reasoned policy disagreement.”
Inappropriate reference to The Presidential Records Act
Stefan Beckett and Melissa Quinn consider what the Presidential Records Act means and how Trump gets it wrong (https://cbsnews.com/news/trump-presidential-records-act-indictment-arraignment). The article was published on June 13, 2023.
“Since the indictment charging him with 37 federal felony counts was unsealed last week, former President Donald Trump and some of his allies have repeatedly mischaracterized a law known as the Presidential Records Act, according to legal experts and the federal agency charged with preserving White House records.
“‘Under the Presidential Records Act, I’m allowed to do all this,” he wrote on Truth Social after the indictment was revealed, referring to his decision to retain dozens of boxes of documents and other material from his time in the White House. He repeated that claim in a speech in Georgia over the weekend, calling the charges a /fake indictment.’
“Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore also misconstrued the law last week, telling CNN that outgoing presidents are ‘supposed to take the next two years after they leave office to go through all these documents to figure out what’s personal and what’s presidential.’
“Those assertions prompted a public rebuke from the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA. The agency released a statement detailing how presidential records are meant to be handled.
“‘The PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to [NARA] at the end of their administrations,’ the Archives said.
NARA also refuted Parlatore’s assertion, saying that there is ‘no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through, such as for a two-year period as described in some reports.’”
“Trump is not charged with violating the Presidential Records Act, which has no enforcement mechanism. But his repeated invocation of the law has renewed questions about what it says and how it applies to government documents.”
“Enacted in 1978, four years after President Richard Nixon’s resignation, the Presidential Records Act established that presidential records belong to the U.S. government, not the president personally, and must be preserved.”
“Records that must be preserved include documents relating to certain political activities and information relating to the president’s duties, including emails, text messages and phone records. Excluded from the act’s requirements for preservation are a president’s personal records, or documents of a ‘purely private or nonpublic character.’”
“‘After his presidency, TRUMP was not authorized to possess or retain classified documents,’ the indictment said.
“Prosecutors are not relying on the PRA to bring charges against Trump. He is instead charged with retaining national defense information under a different law known as the Espionage Act, a 1917 statute that has been used to prosecute other high-profile cases related to the retention or dissemination of classified information.
Going after Biden
In Legal Peril, Trump Tries to Shift the Spotlight to Biden
Michael D. Shear, a veteran White House correspondent, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and co-author of “The Border Wars,” reports on Trumps attempts to “shift the spotlight to Biden” (https://nytimes.com/2023/06/14/us/politics/trump-indictment-biden.html). Shear writes:
Under indictment and enraged, former President Donald J. Trump — with the help of Republican allies, social media supporters and Fox News — is lashing out at his successor in the hopes of undermining the charges against him.
“‘A corrupt sitting president!’ Mr. Trump blared on Tuesday night after being arrested and pleading not guilty in Miami. ‘The Biden administration has turned us into a banana republic,’ one of his longtime advisers wrote in a fund-raising email. ‘Wannabe dictator,’ read a chyron on Fox News, accusing Mr. Biden of having his political rival arrested.
“The accusations against Mr. Biden are being presented without any evidence that they are true, and Mr. Trump’s claims of an unfair prosecution came even after Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel specifically to insulate the inquiries from political considerations.
“But that hardly seems to be the point for Mr. Trump and his allies as they make a concerted effort to smear Mr. Biden and erode confidence in the legal system. Just hours after his arraignment, Mr. Trump promised payback if he wins the White House in 2024.
“‘I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,’ Mr. Trump said during remarks at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
“On Twitter, the former president’s followers used words like ‘traitor,’ disgrace,’ ‘corrupt’ and ‘biggest liar’ to describe the current president. And while Fox News said on Wednesday that the ‘wannabe dictator’ headline was ‘taken down immediately’ and addressed, the network counts Mr. Trump’s many followers as loyal viewers.”
(Also check out the article by Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Habberman, “The Radical Strategy Behind Trump’s Promise to ‘Go After Biden’” (https://nytimes.com/2023/06/15/us/politics/trump-indictment-justice-department.html).
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Right-wing violence being encouraged?
There is evidence.
#1 – Violent rhetoric
Journalists at the New York Times, including Michael S. Schmidt, Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman and Adam Glodman, do find evidence (https://nytimes.com/2023/06/10/us/politics/trump-supporter-violent-rhetoric.html).
“The former president’s allies have portrayed the indictment as an act of war and called for retribution, which political violence experts say increases the risk of action.”
As one example, they quote Kari Lake, the Republican former candidate for governor of Arizona, who has issued a call to Trump supporters to be ready for armed warfare.
“In Georgia, at the Republican state convention, Kari Lake, who refused to concede the Arizona election for governor in 2022 and who is an ardent defender of Mr. Trump, emphasized that many of Mr. Trump’s supporters owned guns.
“‘I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden — and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you,’ Ms. Lake said. “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.”
“In social media posts and public remarks, close allies of Mr. Trump — including a member of Congress — have portrayed the indictment as an act of war, called for retribution and highlighted the fact that much of his base carries weapons. The allies have painted Mr. Trump as a victim of a weaponized Justice Department controlled by President Biden, his potential opponent in the 2024 election.
“The calls to action and threats have been amplified on right-wing media sites and have been met by supportive responses from social media users and cheers from crowds, who have become conditioned over several years by Mr. Trump and his allies to see any efforts to hold him accountable as assaults against him.
“Experts on political violence warn that attacks against people or institutions become more likely when elected officials or prominent media figures are able to issue threats or calls for violence with impunity. The pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was drawn to Washington in part by a post on Twitter from Mr. Trump weeks earlier, promising that it would be ‘wild.’”
“‘So far, the politicians who have used this rhetoric to inspire people to violence have not been held accountable,’ said Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official who has studied the ties between extremist rhetoric and violence. ‘Until that happens, there’s little deterrent to using this type of language.’”
On Saturday [June 10, 2023], in his first public remarks since the latest indictment on seven charges related to the retention of classified documents and efforts to obstruct justice, Mr. Trump attacked those investigating him as engaged in ‘demented persecution.’”
According to Schmidt et. al., “security experts said that the rhetoric and the threats from it were unlikely to subside and would likely become more pronounced as the case moves forward and the 2024 election nears.”
“‘Rhetoric like this has consequences,’ said Timothy J. Heaphy, the lead investigator for the select House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in the White House after his presidency. ‘People who we interviewed for the Jan. 6 investigation said they came to the Capitol because politicians and the president told them to be there. Politicians think that when they say things it’s just rhetoric, but people listen to it and take it seriously. In this climate politicians need to realize this and be more responsible.’”
#2 – Millions of Americans think violence is justifiedTop of Form
Bottom of Form
Kenny Stancil reports that “12 Million US Adults Think Violence Is Justified to Put Trump Back in White House” (https://commondreams.org/news/12-million-us-adults-think-violence-justified-to-restore-trump-presidency). The article was published on June 9, 2023.
“More than two years after the deadly January 6 insurrection, 12 million people in the United States, or 4.4% of the adult population, believe the use of violence is justified to restore former President Donald Trump to power, The Guardian reported Friday.” Stancil continues.
“In the two and a half years since Trump’s bid to overturn his 2020 loss fell short, Republican state lawmakers have launched a full-fledged assault on the franchise, enacting dozens of voter suppression and election subversion laws meant to increase their control over electoral outcomes. Due to obstruction from Republicans and corporate Democrats, Congress has failed to pass federal voting rights protections and other safeguards designed to prevent another coup attempt ahead of November 2024.
“‘We’re heading into an extremely tumultuous election season,’ Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor and CPOST director, told The Guardian. ‘What’s happening in the United States is political violence is going from the fringe to the mainstream.’”
“Several right-wing candidates who echoed Trump’s relentless lies about President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory lost in last year’s midterms. But more than 210 others—including at least two who participated in the January 6 rally that escalated into an attack on the U.S. Capitol—won congressional seats and races for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general, underscoring the extent to which election denialism is now entrenched in the GOP and jeopardizes U.S. democracy for the foreseeable future.
The CPOST survey conducted in April found that 20% of U.S. adults still believe “the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president,” down only slightly from the 26% who said so in 2021.
“According to the newspaper, Pape compared ‘sentiments about political violence’ to ‘the kindling for a wildfire.’ While “many were unaware that the events on January 6 would turn violent, research shows that public support for violence was widespread, so the attacks themselves should not have come as a surprise.”
“‘Once you have support for violence in the mainstream, those are the raw ingredients or the raw combustible material and then speeches, typically by politicians, can set them off,’ said Pape. ‘Or if they get going, speeches can encourage them to go further.’”
“The research center’s most recent survey found that ‘almost 14%—a minority of Americans, but still a significant number—believe the use of force is justified to ‘achieve political goals that I support,’ the newspaper reported. ‘More specifically, 12.4% believe it’s justified to restore the federal right to abortion, 8.4% believe it’s justified to ensure members of Congress and other government officials do the right thing, 6.3% think it’s justified to preserve the rights of white Americans, and 6.1% believe it’s justified to prevent the prosecution of Trump.”
“‘There’s a tremendous amount of opposition to political violence in the United States,’ Pape remarked, ‘but it is not mobilized.’”
#3 – Building the infrastructure for violence
Thom Hartmann, a talk-show host and prolific author, considers how the GOP is building mini-fascist laboratories in Red States nationwide (https://commondreams.org/opinion/the-gop-is-building-mini-fascist-laboratories-in-red-states-nationwide). They are doing this “by asserting control over elections, purging tens of millions of voters off the rolls, destroying public schools, and arresting Black voters and parading them before cameras in shackles.” And it getting worse.
“This is the great danger at the state level for both American political parties as the GOP sinks deeper and deeper into its mire of regionalism, violence, racism, homophobia, misogyny, gun deaths, pollution, and victimhood, led by corrupt politicians like Trump, DeSantis, Kemp, and Abbott.”
“Generally, Red states are committed to making it difficult for all but middle-aged white people to vote (and trying to block the vote of college students); Blue states welcome the participation of as broad a cross-section of society as possible.
“Red states embrace guns, book and abortion bans, and pollution; Blue states are leading the way into pluralism, a clean energy future, and rebuilding their schools and infrastructure.
“The contrast is startling: a child living in Mississippi is fully ten times more likely to be killed with a gun than a child living in Massachusetts.
“Everybody in Oregon votes by mail and has for more than a quarter-century; Texas Republicans just made it extremely difficult for people in Houston to do the same, so they could force citizens in that very Blue city to take time off from work and stand in line for hours.
“A woman in California can get an abortion any time within the constraints of Roe v Wade; a woman or her family in Texas can get stalked, hit with $10,000 lawsuits, and even go to prison if she tries to do the same.
“Minnesota is joining 18 other states to become sanctuaries for trans people; being publicly trans in Florida can get you imprisoned or even killed.
“The differences between Red and Blue states are increasingly stark, and growing month-by-month as Red states pass more and more laws to regulate every intimate detail of people’s private lives.”
“Donald Trump and the fascists he has empowered are the main force leading the GOP into this doom spiral, with considerable help from billionaire-owned rightwing media. But this is not the first time this has happened in American history.”
Hartmann continues: “Republicans fall all over themselves in a mad rush to deliver more tax cuts to their billionaire owners, more pollution from the industries that fund their campaigns, more voting restrictions in parts of the states they control with large Black populations, and more guns to their citizens.
“Yesterday, The Washington Post noted, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) introduced legislation that would reinstate massive corporate tax loopholes, kill the new tax credits for electric vehicles and clean energy, and end a tax on toxic waste sites used to fund their cleanup.
“At the same time, Republican politicians from Florida to Arizona to Iowa are openly embracing the rhetoric of political violence. In Idaho, the party recently hosted a “Trigger Time With Kyle” event where donors could pay to shoot assault weapons with Kyle Rittenhouse.”
#4 – Republicans honor the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, as Trump is arrested
Dana Milbank reports on this (https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/16/house-gop-trump-indictment-reaction-jan-6). Here’s some of what he writes.
“During the very same hour in which the former president surrendered to federal authorities in Miami, his Republican allies in the House were, in their most visible and official way yet, embracing as heroes and martyrs the people who sacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in hopes of overturning Trump’s election defeat.
“In the Capitol complex, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), with sidekick Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and four other far-right lawmakers, held a ‘hearing’ that honored participants in the riot, family members of Jan. 6 rioters and organizers of the attempted overthrow of the 2020 vote.
“Technically, Gaetz couldn’t call such a hearing, because he isn’t a committee chairman. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is trying to win back the support of extremists such as Gaetz, let it happen anyway.”
“Gaetz opened the hearing with a video suggesting FBI culpability in the Jan. 6 attack. He claimed he ‘became aware of evidence’ that the Justice Department had evidence of ‘fraud in the election’ but Trump Attorney General ‘Bill Barr was suppressing evidence.’”
“From the witness table came howls of ‘wrongful conviction’ and ‘fascism.’ From the dais came a cry of ‘tyranny.’ From both came attacks on judges, juries and prosecutors. Audience members were wearing T-shirts saying rioters had been ‘murdered by Capitol police.’ In the hallway, keeping the peace, were two Capitol Police officers, guarding the people accusing them of murder.”
Concluding thoughts
Trump, the Republican Party and their supporters are encouraging violence as one part of their strategy to win control in 2024 of the White House, both branches of the U.S. Congress, and states across the country. They now have the cult-like support of Trump’s massive electoral base and, additionally, much of the corporate community, right-wing media, and the Supreme Court.
If Trump’s indictment ends up putting him in jail, the country will be relieved of one aspiring autocrat. However, in such an eventuality, the interest groups that make up his “base” and the rich and wealthy benefactors of the Republican Party will not disappear. They will go on fighting for a less democracy and worse.
In this political context, with all its flaws, the Democratic Party is presently the only viable alternative with respect to preventing the Republican Party from taking the country down the road to an authoritarian political system.
Vital issues - challenging pol and econ power 