Manuel Noriega

Noriega gave them to him.

Yeah, and they weren't stolen because they were addressed to Noriega.

They were sent to Noriega.

Perfect.

So what Noriega did actually was he kept them in this little black binder in the late 80s.

I know this because 60 Minutes did an interview with Noriega in like 87 or 88.

And it must have been 87 because he hadn't been indicted yet.

But 87, 88.

And Noriega, on camera, they're in his office.

He opens up this black binder and he's like...

look at all these letters like look at all the gratitude that america gives me he's like i'm not an enemy of the united states these documents are saying that i'm a friend i'm an ally they need me and they do i've got i've got a bunch of them i've got like hundreds of them that they say the same thing like without you we would not be able to curb narco trafficking in latin america he really was like the most important guy i'm sure they were sure the united states was thrilled that they sent him those oh i'm sure

Yeah.

They must have been pissed, especially at this point when Noriega was, like, actively working against U.S.

interests, right?

But Noriega, I think it's, to me, it was obvious that he wanted to use him as collateral.

and then when the invasion happened and he was extracted by the us military and brought to florida to stand trial he actually wasn't allowed to use those in his defense right right yeah so the trial was unjust right it was kind of a bs trial but um but anyways that those documents existed and then he was able to pass those on to trujillo who started to in many ways become a historian like he feels very strongly about sort of what happened in panama and he has always wanted to like

Tell the true story.

Like, he's written books in Spanish about, like, Noriega's relationship with HW and, like, even the history of Panama going all the way back to their independence in 1903 where the U.S.

government, like, essentially helped them get independence from Colombia with the intention of, like, digging out the canal so that the U.S.

could.