FBI Executed a Warrant at Mar a Lago; the Investigation Continues

The “argument” now is that trump had them in his desk because those were declassified. Such ridiculous nonsense

 

That's about all he has left and it won't fly.

The request for a Special Master was a real self-own because it let the DOJ tee up a very incriminating public response they wouldn't have otherwise.

 

Notice that none of the court filings by the Trump legal team assert that any of the documents have been declassified. That is a big tell to anybody paying attention to the facts and not the spin. The talk of declassification has been a public misinformation campaign put forward by MAGA but the lawyers know that they cannot make that claim as it is patently false.

Couple of notes on the legal team. First, the RNC has indicated that they will no longer pay Trump's legal fees. This does not bode well for those attorneys ever getting paid. They better have secured a large retainer...

DT legal team did finally get a qualified attorney on staff. Interesting enough, he is closely affiliated with DeSantis. I have to wonder if DT has agreed to endorse DeSantis in exchange for DeSantis trying to help DT out of his legal problems...

Trump Taps Ex-Florida Official to Lead Defense Against DOJ Probe (msn.com)

Donald Trump is hiring former Florida Solicitor General Christopher Kise to represent him after federal authorities searched the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in an investigation of his handling of classified records, according to people familiar with the move.

Kise, most recently a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP, served as Florida’s top litigator, a counselor to former Governor Charlie Crist and was also general counsel to former Florida Governor Rick Scott’s transition team and a counselor to current Governor Ron DeSantis’ transition team. He did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The hiring was first reported by NBC News.

He has successfully argued four cases before the US Supreme Court and been involved in dozens of cases before the Florida Supreme Court as well as in state and federal appellate courts across the US, according to a biography that appears to have been removed from the Foley & Lardner website.

 

Here's a good Twitter thread describing Trump's obstruction actions from a defense lawyer specializing in national security cases. The government has done a very good job at laying out their case, showing Trump didn't cooperate and lied about having classified documents at MAR.

 

I really, really wish GC would fix it so that we don't have to reply to see the tweets

 

The display of the documents on the rug was done by the FBI.

The response to the court by DOJ says twice as many documents were retrieved via the warranted search than via the subpoena earlier in the summer. No bueno.

During the June subpoena interactions, Trump's lawyers never mentioned declassification once to the DOJ.

Trump's intermingling in his desk of his passports and some of the documents may rope him in with personal involvement.

 

the filing for the special master was a really big mistake (or gift) that opened the door for the DOJ to lay out their case in their filing long before they would have been able to do so prior to the filing. ready, shoot, aim backfires again

 

Anything to muddy the waters and to attempt to "try" the matter in the media, reality show/Jerry Springer style. That won't fly if it ever makes it into an actual court of law.

 

Almost like Drumpf's counsel is setting him up to be prosecuted...

 

I see tweets without replying. I don’t know what the deal is, I’m using chrome on an iPhone, if that helps.

 

edge or android and have problems with both

 

Good summary. Looks pretty damning through that lens. Still wondering what Trump’s motivation was. I still don’t think he was selling secrets, but I could see him trying to obstruct future investigations of his past behavior.

 

Well the unthinkable is that he was selling secrets, and with Trump the unthinkable always seems to end up being the truth.

 

Trump went back to planted evidence today. So things must be bad.

 

Trump bragged to associates about knowledge of French president's 'naughty' private life: Report (msn.com)

Former President Donald Trump bragged to his associates about knowledge of French President Emmanuel Macron's "naughty" private life, according to a new report.

A document seized in the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid titled “Info re: President of France” triggered a "trans-Atlantic freakout" in Paris and Washington, the report from Rolling Stone claimed, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the situation. Though it is unknown what the details entailed and whether it included details of Macron's private life, the document has U.S. and French intelligence agencies scrambling to see whether there has been a security breach, the report said.
..............................
Trump repeatedly bragged to his friends and associated that he has secret knowledge of Macron's “naughty” private life that not “very many people know” about, the report added.

 

DOJ’s midnight filing shows ‘Trump is guilty’ of at least four crimes: ex-Mueller prosecutor (msn.com)

"Do you think this all happened for 18 months WITHOUT Trump knowing, and his lawyers did this without consulting with the client?" he said.

"And all this evidence is BEFORE we consider witnesses who we called at the trial about Trump's knowing that he should not take docs from WH, and should send them to Archives, that he was in charge of packing material from WH, that the process was secretive, that the lawyers [Evan] Corcoran and [Christina] Bobb could not ethically file the certification without discussing with Trump."

He said the former president's attorneys will be required to reveal who authorized their false statements, and surveillance video and witnesses will show who moved the boxes to obstruct their discovery -- and Weissman said the evidence will be too much for Trump to overcome.

"There is only one verdict consistent with this proof; we ask you to return a verdict of: guilty on espionage related charges (793/2071); guilty on contempt of GJ subpoena (402); guilty on obstruction related charges (1001/1519) guilty on unlawful retention of govt docs (641)," Weissman said.

 

Makes sense with Trumps absolute INSANE truth social postings yesterday. He was borderline having a manic episode.

 

So he declassified the documents BEFORE the FBI planted them. Brilliant on his part.