When it comes to weaponizing the government, Trump supporters are the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

 

Well, genius, by all accounts the "government" is already weaponized.
Your handlers don't let you out much, do they?

 

As Earl K. Long said, "How you gonna fight the Feds? They got the atom bomb". This indicates the government has been weaponized for some time.

Unfortunately for Trump and his supporters, there weren't enough people in government willing to break the law and prosecute Trump's opponents.

Just as unfortunate for Trump and his supporters, no one has to break the law to prosecute Trump. He has provided the grounds and evidence which will convict him of many of the crimes he accuses others of committing.

Those who continue to defend Trump while denying they are doing any such thing, throw out uninformed opinions about the Presidential Records Act and other legal minutia, which hold all the relevance of declaring Trump is not guilty of bank robbery. Nobody needs to get Trump. Trump has gotten himself.

 

Duh! And yet you are still threatening to use the government against your enemies. All because of faulty perceptions!

 

@@shootersa

And again you just make things up. Where do those numbers come fro?. You simply pull them out of your ass to keep posting this illusion of truth all over the board.

 

This is something many observers did not expect. Back during the Mueller investigation Trump and his treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans had total control of the narrative and fanned it for all its worth. And everyone knows by know Trump is a master at that. So the fear was Jack Smith and Garland were just going to let Trump and the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans do it again while they did their talking in court. But it looks like they have learned their lesson and aren't going to let that happen.



Attorney General Garland speaks on Trump case, defends special counsel

483
ALEXANDRA HUTZLER
Wed, June 14, 2023 at 11:48 AM MDT




Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday made his first public remarks after the historic indictment of former President Donald Trump on federal criminal charges.

Garland, taking questions at an event on combating violent crime, said he couldn't discuss particulars of the case but offered general praise for special counsel Jack Smith and his team after being asked about accusations made by Trump and other Republicans that the Justice Department has been "weaponized."

"As I said when I appointed Mr. Smith, I did so because it underscores the Justice Department's commitment to both independence and accountability," the attorney general said. "Mr. Smith is a veteran career prosecutor. He has assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by their filings in court."

MORE: Fact-checking claims made by Trump and his Republican allies after his 2nd indictment


PHOTO: FILE - US Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a ceremony at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, May 24, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)
Garland has been under pressure to speak out since the Trump indictment was revealed.

When asked about his role in the indictment process, he said he followed regulations set forth for an attorney general in special counsel investigations, and that his role was "completely consistent" with those regulations.

Pressed by ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas on why an indictment was the "best and most appropriate step" and why were there were no other alternatives, Garland repeated he was not going to get into particulars of the case.


Trump was indicted over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House. He has been charged with 37 felony counts, including willful retention of national defense information and obstruction.

Trump surrendered to authorities Tuesday in Miami and appeared in court, where his defense attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.


PHOTO: Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks to the press at the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on June 9, 2023, announcing the unsealing of the indictment against former US President Donald Trump. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
MORE: Legal experts break down Trump indictment and unanswered questions

The former president has denied all wrongdoing, and after his arraignment unloaded on the Department of Justice and Smith in a speech at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.

"Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country. Very sad thing to watch," Trump said.

He accused Smith of "doing political hit jobs" and called him a "thug."

Smith, who gave a brief statement after the indictment was released last week, said the country has "one set of laws and they apply to everyone."

"The men and women of the United States intelligence community and our armed forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people," he said. "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."


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/attorney-general-garland-speaks-trump-174800082.html

 

'They're mine': New details of Trump feud with lawyers revealed in latest report

Gideon Rubin
June 14, 2023, 8:04 PM ET



Former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks outside the club house at the Trump National Golf Club on June 13, 2023 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


In the fall of 2022 an attorney representing Donald Trump sought to avert charges in the classified documents case by negotiating a settlement with the Justice Department, but Christopher Kise never got the chance.

His plan to “take the temperature down” was rejected by the former president, The Washington Post reports.

Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany write for The Post that “That quiet entreaty last fall was one of many occasions when lawyers and advisers sought to get Trump to take a more cooperative stance in a bid to avoid what happened Friday. The Justice Department unsealed an indictment including more than three dozen criminal counts against Trump for allegedly keeping and hiding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.”

Former Trump attorney Alex Cannon in the fall of 2021 repeatedly urged the former president to return documents to the National Archives, according to the report, which notes that he repeatedly admonished him that he was required to do so.

His warning to Trump that the National Archives threatened to go to Congress or the Justice Department if Trump declined to return the documents was brushed off by the former president, the report said.

“It’s mine,” Trump said, according to the report.

RELATED: Trump lawyer Todd Blanche sued for malpractice

As the National Archives ramped up pressure on Trump to return the documents, the former president grew defiant according to the report, which notes he brought in new years, including Evan Corcoran.

Corcoran has since provided testimony that’s central to the case against Trump indicating the former president urged him to “stonewall” or decline to comply with a subpoena.

“I really don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes,” he said, Corcoran is cited in the indictment as saying.

Trump also said, according to Corcoran’s testimony, “Well, what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?” and “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything there?”

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Trump team expecting an indictment in Georgia: CNN

Read the full article here.



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lawyers-2661334878/

 

'He made a terrible mistake': Former Trump attorney says 'difficult client' undermined own defense

David Edwards
June 15, 2023, 1:13 PM ET



Attorney Joseph E. diGenova (Photo: Screen cap).


Joseph diGenova, a former attorney for Donald Trump, said the former president undermined his defense in a government documents case because he listened to right-wing activists instead of his legal team.

The Washington Post first reported that Trump's legal team had complained because their client took the advice of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who said the former president should not cooperate with the Department of Justice.

During a Thursday panel discussion on Newsmax, diGenova asserted Trump made a "terrible mistake."

"Donald Trump is a very difficult client," diGenova explained. "I know the president. I've dealt with him. He's a very stubborn man. He has a tendency to think he's always right."

"He was advised by people close to him who were not the lawyers who were working on the case not to be cooperative," he added. "That was a terrible mistake."

The case could have been resolved without criminal charges if Trump had not listened to Fitton, diGenova argued.

https://www.rawstory.com/joseph-digenova-donald-trump/

 

A classic Freudian slip.

"The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies,"

That is exactly what Trump is.






Trump and his allies try to spin classified documents case with myths and misinformation
Arit John, Sarah D. Wire
Fri, June 16, 2023 at 4:00 AM MDT




Former President Trump stuck to a familiar script at a campaign event held hours after he pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a federal court to 37 felony counts connected to his handling of classified documents.

Echoing the arguments he and his allies have made in news interviews, speeches and social media posts, Trump attempted to paint the indictment as "election interference" and "political persecution."

"I did everything right and they indicted me," he told supporters gathered at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Tuesday night.

Ever since the former president revealed last week that he had been indicted, he and his allies have put forward a number of legal and political arguments, and proliferated many falsehoods about the process. Some Trump surrogates have incorrectly claimed that he had declassified the documents and so did nothing wrong, while others have said that even if he did mishandle certain records, he's not the first to do so.


Trump also repeated on Tuesday his criticism of the Department of Justice's decision to charge him under the Espionage Act.

"The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies," he said. "It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents."

As laid out in the 49-page indictment unsealed last week, Trump is not being accused of being a spy. He's facing 31 counts of willful retention of national defense documents, as well as other charges including obstruction of justice.

Here are some of the claims made by the former president and his allies in recent days:

'Political persecution'
Trump is the first former president to face federal charges, but President Biden is also in an unprecedented situation as the Justice Department oversees a case against the leading GOP candidate seeking to challenge him in next year's presidential election.

Biden and Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland have said publicly that they have not communicated with each other about the case, and the president has refrained from campaigning on Trump's legal woes. But that hasn't stopped Trump and his supporters, including members of Congress, from falsely suggesting that Biden is behind the indictment.

"If the president in power can jail his political opponents, which is what Joe Biden is trying to do ... we don't have a republic anymore," said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has a law degree from Yale University and once served as Missouri's attorney general. "We don't have the rule of law or Constitution."

Hawley went on to say Biden and his "cronies" were trying to "take out their chief political opponent."

Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury. To protect the integrity and independence of the investigations into Trump ahead of his and Biden's expected presidential runs, Garland appointed veteran federal prosecutor Jack Smith in November to serve as special counsel overseeing probes into the former president's handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

Biden was asked last week what he would say to Americans asking about the independence of his Justice Department.

"I have never once — not one single time — suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge," Biden said Thursday. "I'm honest."

'As president I could have declassified it'
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Trump ally and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, insisted over the weekend that Trump had declassified all of the documents in his possession.

"He has said time and time again he declassified all this material," Jordan said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "This is the most political thing I have ever seen."

The indictment alleges that on at least two occasions, Trump showed documents that he acknowledged were classified to people who did not have security clearances.

In one July 2021 incident that the indictment says was caught on tape, Trump showed his publisher and others what he called a "plan of attack" prepared by the Department of Defense, and said, "As president I could have declassified it. ... Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."

There is no precedent for a president asserting that they have declassified something secret and are not subject to federal laws on their handling.

When asked if he had evidence that Trump had declassified the documents before leaving office, Jordan said: "I go on the president's word, and he said he did."

There is no indication that Trump declassified these documents, and he has yet to provide any proof of doing so. The declassification process includes certain procedures, records and logs so the intelligence community knows what information is secret and what is not.

Some of the documents Trump is accused of illegally retaining detail U.S. nuclear information, which the Atomic Energy Act protects from being declassified. The act has never been challenged in court.

Espionage Act vs. Presidential Records Act
Trump and others have argued that the former president should not have been charged under the Espionage Act.

In response to the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation, in 1978 the Presidential Records Act was enacted to prevent former and future presidents and members of the executive branch from destroying or keeping records that were created for or by them as part of their White House roles. For example, notes that a president scribbles in the margins of a memo would normally be considered a presidential record, while a letter or email to a spouse would be personal.

Trump has claimed the documents at issue in the case are personal records. The indictment paints another picture. The 31 classified documents that were found in his possession include secret and top-secret documents such as intelligence briefings on foreign countries and information on the military operations and capabilities of the United States and other countries.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has endorsed Trump’s reelection bid, said he believes the president has been overcharged.

“Whether you like Trump or not, he did not commit espionage,” Graham said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “He did not disseminate, leak or provide information to a foreign power or a news organization to damage this country.”

The Justice Department has not referenced the Presidential Records Act in this case. Instead, it has argued that the documents are not presidential records, but government records that belong to the intelligence agency that created them.

The Espionage Act addresses the disclosure and handling of classified information and says that anyone who has “unauthorized possession” of national defense information and “willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it” has broken the law.

Biden and the Clintons
Several Trump allies have claimed that his legal troubles are fueled by politics. As Trump railed against the current administration Tuesday and accused Biden of being corrupt, Fox News displayed a chyron that called the current president a "wannabe dictator."

Others have said they believe Trump is being investigated for actions others have engaged in without consequences.

"We all know that there is an unequal application of the law going on here," Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill this week.

Donalds referenced former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email practices, classified documents found in Biden's possession, and a 2010 case involving taped conversations with former President Bill Clinton.

While all of the cases deal with records, there are differences between them and Trump's case.

The FBI probed Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server in 2016. In November 2016, two days before the election that Clinton would lose to Trump, former FBI Director James Comey closed the investigation without recommending charges.

But he criticized Clinton for being "extremely careless," and said that hostile actors could have accessed the server. Comey laid out several factors that would have supported criminal charges, including "clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information" and "efforts to obstruct justice" — and said they did not apply in her case.

Many of the documents found on Clinton's email server had been classified after she received them. And at the time, the unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents — a different crime than what Trump has been charged with — was only a misdemeanor. (A 2018 law signed by Trump changed it to a felony.)

After news broke that Biden's personal attorneys had found classified documents in his possession earlier this year, including in the garage of his Delaware home, Atty. Gen. Garland appointed Robert Hur, a former Trump U.S. attorney appointee, as special counsel to investigate whether Biden had mishandled classified documents. Biden's team has cooperated with the Justice Department, and Hur's investigation is ongoing.

In 2010, the conservative legal group Judicial Watch sued the National Archives over a set of 79 audio tapes of a historian's interviews with former President Clinton while he was in office.

Judicial Watch argued that the tapes, which Clinton kept after leaving the White House, were presidential records that should have been turned over to the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act, alleging that they captured official business. Clinton had designated the tapes, which were recorded to be part of an oral history, as personal records.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the National Archives did not have the power to change the tapes' designation or to compel the former president to produce them. Instead, that power lay with the president during his term.

Trump and his allies have latched on to that case, both as an example of a perceived double standard and as a legal precedent that they say should also apply to Trump.

"Not only was Bill Clinton not even considered for criminal prosecution based on the tapes he took, but when he was sued for them, he won the case," Trump told supporters Tuesday.

At issue in Trump's case, however, is not whether the documents were personal or presidential records, but whether he retained documents related to national defense without authorization, and whether he broke other laws, such as conspiring to obstruct justice, in the process.

As Trump awaits his day in court, political rivals within his own party have started to take a more critical tone on his federal charges compared with their reactions to lesser charges issued by a Manhattan grand jury earlier this year.

"This indictment contains serious charges, and I cannot defend what is alleged," former Vice President Mike Pence said of the federal case this week.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department closed its probe into Pence's handling of sensitive information after classified documents were found at his home and voluntarily returned to the FBI earlier this year. No charges were recommended.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-allies-try-spin-classified-100059478.html

 

Shooter is glad that for once we've adhered to the adage;
Innocent until proven guilty
AND
Try the case in court, not the court of public opinion.

 

OH JUST FUCKING ROFLCOPTERS​

Says the guy who has been defending making up excuses and claiming its just a political witch hunt for Trump stealing information on our nuclear weapons and US vulnerabilities in case of an attack and left them laying around all over Mar a Lago AKA Spy Central.

 

LOL Trump always goes straight to the court of public opinion

 

I also got a bug laugh out of that. Its like he's pretending we can't see him.

 

OH MY!!
Time to review what propaganda is and how it works, eh stumbler?

The best way to protect yourself from propaganda is to understand how it works and be on the alert for it. Here are the classic propaganda techniques identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in the late 1930s (most of which are still used today):

Name Calling: You destroy your opponent by attaching a negative label to them such as racist, misogynist, traitor, bully, and so on.

Glittering Generalities: You make something sound more important by using words that cannot be proved or disproved, such as good, honest, fair, best, etc.

Transfer: You attempt to transfer the prestige of a positive symbol to a person or an idea. A common example is the use of an American flag as a backdrop for an event.

False Analogy: You portray two things as similar which on closer examination are not similar.

Testimonial: You get a celebrity to endorse the belief you are promoting.

Plain Folks: You get an average ordinary person, with whom people can easily relate, to endorse your belief.

Card Stacking: You omit unfavorable statistics about the belief you want to promote. You only show the favorable ones which means you are only telling a partial truth.

Bandwagon: You encourage people to accept your belief because “Hey, everyone is doing it!” Most people don’t want to be left out.

Either/Or: You only offer two choices, and promote it by saying if you are not for this then you are against it. A classic example is: “If you’re not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.” This technique offers no middle ground and is used to polarize issues.


Faulty Cause and Effect: You suggest that because two events are somehow related that one caused the other. You present your case as: if B follows A, then A must cause B.

The best way to deal with propaganda is to avoid it. Turn off your TV. It’s not just the news, it’s movies, TV dramas, sitcoms, documentaries, talk shows, and other forms of information and entertainment, each of which carries subtle messages. Make sure that you’re not buying into a narrative that goes against your best interests. Be wary of slogans. Ask yourself how is this statement attempting to re-frame the issue or situation?​

Propaganda ‘til You Puke | Psychology Today


So, Stumbler, we must dismiss your rant and chuckle at your sorry attempt.

​

 

OH JUST FUCKING ROFLCOPTERS AGAIN!!!


You just described yourself perfectly. And anyone on the board can see that for themselves.

 

Trump still searching for another Florida lawyer under cloud of failure to pay his bills: CNN

Tom Boggioni
June 16, 2023, 10:15 AM ET



Former US president Donald Trump was held up as a political martyr at the Cuban restaurant Versailles after he appeared for his arraignment on June 13, 2023 in Miami, Florida(AFP)


During a report on U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon's first rulings as she begins to oversee the upcoming prosecution of Donald Trump on 37-counts filed by the Department of Justice, CNN's Jessica Schneider reported that the former president still has not filled out his legal team due to questions about whether they will get paid and if he'll heed their advice.

Speaking with host John Berman, Schneider reported that the controversial Cannon has started the ball rolling by ordering the former president's current legal team to work with the DOJ's litigation security group on approval to view sensitive government documents central to the government's case.

With CNN reporting that both of Trump’s current attorneys, Todd Blanche and Chris Kise "have already been in touch with the Justice Department about obtaining the necessary security clearances to try the case," Schneider said the former president is under the gun to fill out his team to avoid unnecessary delays.

"Judge Cannon's order puts this additional pressure on the former president to get his legal team fully aligned," Schneider told the CNN host.

"Trump is still looking for at least one other attorney and his team has been in touch with Florida law firms," she continued. "As you are aware, attorneys have been hesitant to work with the former president; he really does have a history of not necessarily listening to legal advice and not always paying his bills so they have to report to the judge by Tuesday as to whether they coordinated with the DOJ."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-pay-his-bills/

 

Even before Jack Smith even unsealed the indictment I think the whole left including me were screaming Jack, what the fuck are you doing filing these charges in Florida where Trump can get his most friendly jury and you are likely to get his personal hack no experience already proven biased in Trump's favor Judge Cannon?

But then Smith unsealed his indictment and it became more clear. How to you defeat the claims this is a political witch hunt and just out to get Trump? You make the most friendly judge and jury convict him.


Special counsel asks judge to keep Trump from disclosing evidence in classified documents case

4.6k
AARON KATERSKY
Fri, June 16, 2023 at 3:57 PM MDT




Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday asked the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case to impose a protective order over the evidence in the case.

The protective order is meant to ensure that neither Trump nor codefendant Walt Nauta, his presidential valet, disclose sensitive information obtained during the discovery process, where prosecutors will show the defense what evidence it has amassed during their investigation.

MORE: Trump rejected his lawyer's effort to propose settlement in classified documents case: Sources

Trump was charged on Tuesday with 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation's defense capabilities.

The special counsel's motion said the materials include "sensitive and confidential information," including personal identifiable information, information that reveals investigative techniques, non-public information relating to potential witnesses, and personal information contained on electronic devices and accounts.

Notably, the special counsel also said the materials include "information pertaining to ongoing investigations, the disclosure of which could compromise those investigations and identify uncharged individuals."


PHOTO: FILE - Walt Nauta takes a phone from former President Donald Trump during the LIV Golf Pro-Am at Trump National Golf Club, May 25, 2023, in Sterling, Va. (Alex Brandon/AP, FILE)
The filing said the special counsel had spoken with attorneys for Trump and Nauta, who had no objection to the imposition of a protective order.

Judge Aileen Cannon referred the motion to a federal magistrate assigned to the case, Bruce Reinhart, for consideration.

MORE: Judge in Trump criminal case issues protective order to prevent sharing of evidence

The proposed language of the protective order, which is largely standard, says that evidence turned over to Trump and Nauta is to be used "solely in connection with the defense of this case, and for no other purpose, and in connection with no other proceeding, without further order of this Court."

The proposed order would also prevent the defendants from disclosing any of the evidence to the public. A similar order was sought and issued last month in New York City, where prosecutors said they were concerned that Trump would post to social media evidence in a separate case involving a hush payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing in both cases.


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/special-counsel-asks-judge-keep-215719031.html

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4054435-house-gop-doj-defense-trump/amp/

Seems the Republicans don't trust the Florida jury pool enough to let it go to them. They would rather play things by their book and defund those parts of the government they don't like, in other words, play politics.

 

Trump compares his Espionage Act case to Clinton, Biden. Winner's may be more apt: ANALYSIS

171
JACK DATE
Sat, June 17, 2023 at 8:20 AM MDT




When former President Donald Trump appeared in court Tuesday in Miami, where his attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf to historic federal charges -- the Espionage Act came into new focus as a key law implicated in his handling of government secrets while out of office.

The vast majority of the charges -- 31 of the 37 counts in the indictment against him -- were brought under Section 793(e) of the Espionage Act for his alleged "willful retention of national defense information." The century-old law outlines the type of information that is so sensitive that, if it falls into the wrong hands, could be used to harm the United States.

MORE: Trump faces 31 charges under the Espionage Act: The law on government secrets explained

Prosecutors alleged in Trump's indictment that he took approximately 300 documents with classified markings with him when he left the White House and then repeatedly sought to avoid giving them back, despite requests, a subpoena and, eventually, an FBI search.

MORE: Trump makes legal claims about classified documents, experts push back: Fact check

Trump and his lawyers have denied any wrongdoing. They claim that, as president, he had every "every right" to keep the documents under the Presidential Records Act so the Espionage Act doesn't apply, an argument legal experts disputed in interviews with ABC News.

The former president and his supporters have been claiming he's the victim of a legal double standard, pointing to classified documents found to be improperly held by his own vice president and current Republican political rival, Mike Pence, and his past and present Democratic foes Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden.

While those comparisons may serve a useful political purpose, details in each of those cases show they don't come close to what Trump has been charged with.

In Pence's case, approximately a dozen documents with classified markings are thought to have been found in his personal possession after he left office and then turned over to the Department of Justice. The DOJ investigated and declined to prosecute him.


PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for president for the third time as he pauses while speaking at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 15, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/AP, FILE)
Prosecutors also declined to pursue charges against Clinton for classified information that passed through a private email server she had controversially set up to conduct government business while she was serving as secretary of state. About 193 emails containing classified information were sent to or from Clinton's personal email, federal authorities have said.

A Department of Justice inspector general investigation of the Clinton probe found prosecutors and agents "could not prove that Clinton had actual knowledge that the emails in question were classified or that Clinton used [the private email account] with the purpose or intent of receiving classified information on them." In other words, prosecutors could not prove Clinton "willfully" disobeyed the law.

Meanwhile, the investigation into classified information found at a non-government office previously used by Biden and at his home is ongoing and being conducted by special counsel Robert Hur. Biden has pledged his full cooperation with that investigation.

MORE: Mike Pence offers tougher stance after reading Trump indictment

The exact number of classified documents found at Biden's former office and home, kept while he was out of office, isn't clear. He and his aides have repeatedly suggested it was a "small number" and stressed that they were returned when found.

Comparisons to cases actually charged under the Section 793(e) may be more instructive when looking at the stakes Trump faces.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Birchum was sentenced earlier this month to three years in prison after pleading guilty to an 793(e) violation, though that was less than half of the 78 months prosecutors sought.


PHOTO: In this June 8, 2017, file photo, Reality Winner exits the Augusta Courthouse in Augusta, Georgia. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images, FILE)
According to court records, Birchum illegally kept top-secret National Security Agency documents on a thumb drive at his home in Tampa, Florida. Prosecutors said his motive for illegally retaining the documents remained unclear, but investigators found more than 300 classified documents at his home, in a storage container parked in his driveway and in his overseas quarters.

Birchum was never found to have given classified documents to anyone, according to court records.

In court filings, federal prosecutors say the average prison sentence for cases similar to Birchum's involving top-secret information is more than four years. (Trump, too, kept top-secret documents with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to his indictment.)

Harold Martin, who worked as a contractor for the NSA, allegedly kept vast amounts of classified information strewn about his Maryland home, in his shed and even in his car. He was sentenced to nine years after pleading guilty to willful retention of 20 classified documents.

In 2018, another former NSA contractor, Reality Winner, was sentenced to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to a Section 793(e) violation for sending a journalist a classified U.S. intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 election. While she was charged with disseminating classified information, Trump has not been.

Trump, almost certainly not contemplating he would one day be charged under the same statute, complained on Twitter at the time that Winner's sentence was for "small potatoes" and claimed Clinton's conduct was worse.

George Washington University Law School professor and former Justice Department official Stephen Saltzburg told ABC News that the U.S. has a history of carefully prosecuting Espionage Act cases.

"We don't get many of these [Espionage Act] cases," Saltzburg said. "And when we do get cases, it's generally because there's outrageous behavior."

Referring to the Trump indictment, he added: "It is probably as clear a statement of charges I've ever seen."


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trump-compares-espionage-act-case-142022006.html

 

Not even a president can declassify things dealing with our nuclear weapons. Let's see the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans come up with excuses for that.

Any true American who had even an ounce of love and patriotism for our country would want to see Trump prosecuted for this because he put our whole nation at risk.



Trump lacked power to declassify secret nuclear arms document, experts say

• 
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  Trump lacked power to declassify secret nuclear arms document, experts say
  Former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks following his arraignment on classified document charges, in Bedminster
• 
  2/2
  Trump lacked power to declassify secret nuclear arms document, experts say
  The charging document against former President Donald Trump is seen in Washington

118
Jonathan Landay
Sun, June 18, 2023 at 4:09 AM MDT




By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even when he was president, Donald Trump lacked the legal authority to declassify a U.S. nuclear weapons-related document that he is charged with illegally possessing, security experts said, contrary to the former U.S. president’s claim.

The secret document, listed as No. 19 in the indictment charging Trump with endangering national security, can under the Atomic Energy Act only be declassified through a process that by the statute involves the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

For that reason, the experts said, the nuclear document is unique among the 31 in the indictment because the declassification of the others is governed by executive order.


“The claim that he (Trump) could have declassified it is not relevant in the case of the nuclear weapons information because it was not classified by executive order but by law,” said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of Atomic Scientists.

The special status of nuclear-related information further erodes what many legal experts say is a weak defense centered around declassification. Without providing evidence, Trump has claimed he declassified the documents before removing them from the White House.

Prosecutors likely will argue that declassification is irrelevant because Trump was charged under the Espionage Act, which predates classification and criminalizes the unauthorized retention of "national defense information," a broad term covering any secrets that could be helpful to the nation's enemies.

Document No. 19 is marked "FRD," or Formerly Restricted Data, a classification given to secret information involving the military use of nuclear weapons. The indictment described it as undated and “concerning nuclear weaponry of the United States.”

RULES FOR NUCLEAR DATA

Trump, who pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, has said he declassified while still in office the more than 100 secret documents he took to his Florida resort home, Mar-a-Lago, a contention echoed by Republican lawmakers and other supporters.

But Aftergood and other experts said that the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954 - under which the Department of Energy oversees the U.S. nuclear arsenal - defines a process for declassifying nuclear weapons data, some of the U.S. government’s most closely guarded secrets.

“The statute is very clear. There’s nothing that says the president can make that decision,” said a former U.S. national security official familiar with the classification system, who asked to remain anonymous.

The most sensitive nuclear weapons information is classified as "RD," for Restricted Data, and covers warhead designs and uranium and plutonium production, according to a DOE guide entitled “Understanding Classification.”

The Department of Energy downgrades from RD to FRD nuclear weapons data it needs to share with the Pentagon, but the materials remain classified, experts said.

Materials classified as FRD include data on the U.S. arsenal size, the storage and safety of warheads, their locations and their yields or power, according to the guide.

FRD information only can be declassified through a process governed by the AEA in which the secretaries of energy and defense determine that the designation “may be removed,” according to a Justice Department FAQ sheet.

Not everyone agrees that the president lacks the power to declassify nuclear data.

David Jonas, who served for 10 years as general counsel for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy division that oversees the nuclear arsenal,

said Trump had the constitutional authority to declassify all classified documents under the "unitary executive theory," which holds that Congress cannot limit the president’s control over the executive branch.

“The president is the executive branch and so he can declassify anything that is nuclear information,” he said.

Other experts dispute this view.

Elizabeth Goitein, a national security law expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the authority to limit presidential power related to most national security issues and “there is no question it can legislate in this area.”

While the president can request declassification of FRD materials, “it’s got to go through both DOE (Department of Energy) and DOD (Department of Defense). And it takes forever,” said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive.

FRD materials must be stored in a properly secured space, said Aftergood. "“Sticking it in your bathroom would not qualify,” he said, referring to the indictment’s allegation that Trump stored classified documents in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-lacked-power-declassify-secret-100929256.html