Justice Department accuses Trump of ‘shell game’ with Mar-a-Lago documents

Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
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Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein
Mon, November 14, 2022 at 9:24 AM·4 min read




Former President Donald Trump mischaracterized White House documents he retained after leaving office as “personal,” the Justice Department argued in anewly unsealed court filing, accusing Trump of engaging in a “shell game” to shield documents from criminal investigators.

In the filing, unsealed Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, prosecutors contended Trump has sought to restrict investigators’ access to materials — seized by the FBI in August from his Mar-a-Lago estate — by inappropriately claiming they’re his personal property. Federal law permits presidents to declare some records as “personal” so long as they have no decision-making value to future administrations.

But DOJ says Trump’s claim is self-defeating. If the records are genuinely personal, prosecutors argue, then there’s no basis to shield them from investigators.

“Indeed, personal records that are not presidential records or government property are seized every day for use in criminal investigations,” counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt wrote.


The department’s argument came in response to a request from U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie, whom Cannon appointed as “special master” to review the documents seized from Trump’s estate for potentially privileged records. Dearie asked DOJ and Trump’s attorneys to brief him on matters concerning executive privilege and the classification of White House records as “personal,” two thorny issues that are rarely raised in criminal investigations.

Cannon’s appointment of the special master slowed DOJ’s pursuit of a potential criminal case against Trump for retaining highly sensitive national security documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left office. Dearie is slated to decide next month whether to recommend that prosecutors be permitted to access the documents, though Cannon has the ultimate decision. Prosecutors say their evidence suggests Trump or his associates also attempted to obstruct DOJ’s efforts to retrieve the records.

In his own brief, Trump contended that by simply relocating thousands of documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, he implicitly labeled them “personal,” and his attorneys contend that there’s no legal recourse for DOJ to challenge that designation. Trump also asserted that executive privilege may apply to some of the records, despite DOJ’s claim that it would be unprecedented to shield sensitive government records from the very Executive Branch that created them.

Prosecutors argued that accepting Trump’s argument that the documents essentially became personal solely because he kept them would open a gaping loophole in the law Congress passed in 1978 declaring presidential records to be government property, the Presidential Records Act.

Trump “appears to be claiming that he can unilaterally ‘deem’ otherwise Presidential records to be personal records by fiat,” Bratt wrote. “Such a reading of the PRA would nullify the statute’s entire purpose by allowing a President to designate all of his official records as ‘personal’ records and then to remove them upon departure from the White House. … It would reduce the PRA’s detailed definitions of ‘Presidential records’ and ‘personal records’ to mere suggestions.”

Prosecutors also bristled at Trump’s effort to characterize some of the “personal” records as protected by executive privilege. Any documents that would be purely personal in nature, Bratt noted, could not conceivably be shielded by executive privilege, a principle meant to protect sensitive government records and internal White House communications.

“That is a shell game, and the Special Master should not indulge it,” Bratt wrote.

Trump has sought to frame the dispute around a 2012 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson related to a Clinton-era records dispute litigated by Judicial Watch, helmed by Trump ally Tom Fitton.

In her ruling, Jackson rejected Judicial Watch’s effort to obtain tapes of President Bill Clinton’s interviews with a journalist that the former president had retained in a sock drawer in the White House residence. The judge ruled Clinton’s decision to keep the tapes rendered them “personal” and the National Archives did not challenge that designation.

The decade-old decision by Jackson, a district court judge appointed by President Barack Obama, is not binding on any other judges. However, it has taken on outsized proportions in the Mar-a-Lago document fight, in part because there are only a handful of court cases interpreting the presidential records law, passed amidst protracted legal wrangling over former President Richard Nixon’s files.

DOJ says the 2012 opinion from Jackson is inapplicable to the current dispute, in which the National Archives challenged Trump’s designation of the records as “personal.” The Presidential Records Act permits the Archives to take steps to recover documents it deems government property.

Trump contends the only legal recourse for the Archives and the Justice Department would have been to sue him to demand return of the records, rather than embark on a grand jury investigation and potential criminal prosecution. Trump has also spent recent months lodging unsupported claims that the National Archives leadership is politically biased against him.

Dearie is expected to rule next month on which, if any, of the roughly 3,000 seized documents should be withheld from investigators. Prosecutors and Trump will then be able to raise any disagreements with Cannon. In addition, the Justice Department has a pending appeal at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the entire process Cannon ordered at Trump’s request be shut down.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/justice-department-accuses-trump-shell-162427112.html

 

How Donald Trump set himself up to be 'raided' by the FBI

Brandon Gage, Alternet
November 17, 2022



Photo: Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock


Did Ex-President Donald Trump bring upon himself the Federal Bureau of Investigation's execution of a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on August 8th?

A Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal strongly suggests that it was, and it all stemmed from Trump's negotiations with the National Archives to hand over the trove of top secret documents that he took from the White House which did not belong to him.

Trump wanted "the agency to explicitly say that there had been no raid on his Florida estate, according to people familiar with the matter," the Journal recalled. "The next day, the Archives issued another statement saying it had 'obtained the cooperation of Trump representatives' and that its officials 'did not visit or ‘raid'’ the Mar-a-Lago property."

But Trump's cooperation with the National Archives quickly waned after it started to become clear that the government was going to aggressively pursue the return of the clandestine files. That, the Journal explained, set Trump on a collision course with federal law enforcement.

"Trump’s transition early this year from fitful and often delayed cooperation to outright confrontation set up the battle still under way with the government," wrote correspondents Alex Leary, Aruna Viswanatha, and Sadie Gurman, adding that "the outcome could complicate his newly launched campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination."

Trump used his candidacy announcement on Tuesday night as a platform to declare himself a "victim" of a political system that is out to get him, which he has told his advisers is a tactic to intimidate the United States Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland away from criminally indicting him.

Garland has repeatedly stated that the pursuit of justice is not subject to politics and that nobody is above the law.

Yet Trump could have prevented the ongoing mess if he had simply returned the materials that he brought with him to Florida. Instead, however, Trump and his team of attorneys drummed up a laundry list of excuses as to why they supposedly belong to Trump. But that strategy backfired. Trump – though he maintains that he did nothing wrong – now finds himself in a legal quagmire that could cost him dearly.

"Rather than providing a way for Mr. Trump to justify keeping the documents, the theories he embraced—that the material was personal, privileged, declassified or some combination of all three—only heightened the confusion among Justice Department officials about the former president’s motivations, according to people familiar with the matter," the Journal pointed out. "Other evidence they had amassed prompted them to ask a court to allow them to send in agents to seize the remaining records. By May, the department was pursuing a criminal investigation that came to focus on the former president and his aides and include potential charges of obstruction."

Arguments from Trump's lawyers have ranged from dubious assertions of executive privilege (which was rejected), to Trump proclaiming that he mentally declassified documents outside of official protocols (which is not a thing), to unambiguously declaring that the sensitive contents inside the hundreds of boxes are "mine."

Additional trouble ensued in June after Trump's then-newly-hired counselor Evan Corcoran met with DOJ lawyer Jay Bratt, who was dispatched from Washington "to Mar-a-Lago along with three FBI agents to discuss how to deal with the remaining documents."

Corcoran "conducted a search, handed a packet of documents marked classified to the officials, and asked a custodian of the records, Christina Bobb, to certify that all of the remaining classified government documents in Mr. Trump’s possession had been turned over. Ms. Bobb signed that document only after insisting that it include language stating she was doing so 'based upon the information that has been provided to me,' and 'to the best of my knowledge,' according to people familiar with the matter" who spoke with the Journal.

"The certification failed to account for the roughly 100 documents with classified markings the FBI later found in its August search," the Journal continued. "Mr. Corcoran is now a central figure in the government’s investigation, according to people familiar with the matter. People close to Mr. Corcoran, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, have said he thinks he has done nothing wrong."

Nonetheless, Trump World is standing firm that Trump had every right to abscond with the hyper-sensitive items that included materials relating to a foreign power's nuclear capabilities.

Meanwhile, the courtroom battles between Team Trump and the federal government will continue to play out in the coming weeks.



https://www.rawstory.com/how-donald-trump-set-himself-up-to-be-raided-by-the-fbi/

 

Nothing like not only confessing but actually putting it in writing for prosecutors. Thieves are very open and transparent when they rob a bank but that doesn't keep them from getting charged with the crime.

And this is especially hilarious when Trump is still trying to spout the same lies about other presidents that have already been proven lies by none other than the National Archives. It shows just how panicked he really is. And with good reason. Jack Smith is one tough prosecutor with lots of experience going after corrupt politicians. And he's already playing hardball.


Trump brags that he 'openly and transparently' took government documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago
Sonam Sheth
Mon, November 28, 2022 at 3:10 PM·2 min read



Donald Trump.José Luis Villegas/AP

• 
  Trump boasted about "openly and transparently" moving official government records to Mar-a-Lago.
  
  
• The DOJ is investigating if Trump broke federal law when he moved and refused to return the documents after leaving the White House.
  
  
• "When will you invade the other Presidents' homes in search of documents, which are voluminous, which they took with them, but not nearly so openly and transparently as I did?" he wrote on Truth Social.

Former President Donald Trump boasted on Monday about how he "openly and transparently" moved government records from the White House to Mar-a-Lago upon leaving office.

"...When will you invade Bill and Hillary's home in search of the 33,000 emails she deleted AFTER receiving a subpoena from the U.S. Congress?" Trump wrote on his social media website, Truth Social. "When will you invade the other Presidents' homes in search of documents, which are voluminous, which they took with them, but not nearly so openly and transparently as I did?"

The Justice Department is currently investigating whether Trump broke federal law by moving documents to Mar-a-Lago upon leaving the White House. It's one of several criminal probes Trump is facing, and the DOJ and Attorney General Merrick Garland are under tremendous public pressure to remain independent as they investigate everything from Trump's retention of official records to his involvement in the deadly January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

That pressure ratcheted up a notch when Trump announced earlier this month that he was mounting a 2024 presidential run. A few days later, Garland appointed Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor, as special counsel to oversee criminal investigations involving Trump.

"Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel," Garland said.

Trump went on a tirade against Smith on Monday as well, writing on Truth Social that the special counsel is a "fully weaponized monster" who "shouldn't be let anywhere near the political persecution of 'President Donald J. Trump.'"

"I did nothing wrong on January 6th, and nothing wrong with the Democrats' fix on the Document Hoax, that is, unless the six previous Presidents did something wrong also...." he wrote.

Read the original article on Business Insider




https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-brags-openly-transparently-took-221058006.html

 

Just too fucking funny. And now they need to take the next step and sanction Trump's judge and get off the bench.

Appeals court stops special master review of Mar-a-Lago documents — dealing huge blow to Trump

Matthew Chapman
December 01, 2022



Judge with Gavel (Shutterstock)


On Thursday, CNN reported that a federal appeals court dealt a massive blow to former President Donald Trump, ending the special master review of the documents FBI agents seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

"In a ruling on Thursday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s order appointing a so-called special master to sort through thousands of documents found at Trump’s home to determine what should be off limits to investigators," reported Tierney Sneed. "'The law is clear,' the appeals court wrote. 'We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.'"

The ruling overturns the review that was put in place by District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who ordered the review after Trump requested it. Many legal experts considered this a stall tactic in a case in which the former president has potential criminal liability.

RELATED: Trump's special master 'seems to be running out of patience': former federal prosecutor

The three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit, which also included two Trump appointees, found that Cannon "improperly exercised" her authority, and to allow the review to proceed would "defy our nation's foundational principle that the law applies to all."

The special master himself, Senior Judge Raymond Dearie of Brooklyn, was himself skeptical of the way Trump and his attorneys were using his review.

Even before this ruling, the 11th Circuit had narrowed the scope of the special master review, holding that the Justice Department and intelligence community were entitled to at least the documents clearly marked classified, to conduct a national security review.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-special-master-2658812753/

 

If you have been following this Judge Cannon has been an amazement to the legal observers and pundits. The first anyone even heard of her was when Trump filed in her court requesting a special master. And the legal pundits said yeah but she won't be stupid enough to take it because its not in her jurisdiction. And she has been amazing them ever since. With the coup de grace being when she wrote that the laws apply differently to Trump because he is a former president. Which legal experts pointed out makes Trump just like the rest of us/

So there has been an ever unceasing number of predicting she was just going to get hammered by the court of appeals and George Conway was one of them.


'Just eviscerated her!' George Conway gloats after conservative court trounces Judge Cannon's ruling

Brad Reed
December 02, 2022



Creative Commons


Attorney George Conway on Friday couldn't contain his glee after the 11th United States Circuit Court of Appeals smacked down Judge Aileen Cannon's decision to appoint a special master to review documents seized from former President Donald Trump by the United States Department of Justice.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Conway noted that even former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr believed Cannon's decision to appoint the special master was "a crock" and he said he was happy to see the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which features two judges appointed by Trump, completely overturn it.

"The opinion was just brutal!" Conway exclaimed. "It just eviscerated her! They basically said, 'We had three choices: One is to follow the law, the second is to make a rule that basically says to every drug dealer who gets stuff found in his basement... can have a special master, or a special rule for ex-president.'"

Conway also dismissed worries that Trump could significantly delay the United States Department of Justice's investigation further by appealing to the United States Supreme Court.

IN OTHER NEWS: Alex Jones files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections: court filing

"He doesn't have a snowball's chance in the Supreme Court," he said.

Watch the video below or at this link.

https://www.rawstory.com/judge-aileen-cannon-2658822839/

 

Trump loss ignites next steps for DOJ in Mar-a-Lago investigation
by Rebecca Beitsch - 12/04/22 6:00 AM ET

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A federal appeals court decision has paved the way for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to use the remaining cache of unclassified records it seized at former President Trump’s home, halting the special master process and lifting an important roadblock into its investigation of the potential mishandling of records at Mar-a-Lago.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals court issued a strong repudiation this week of arguments from Trump and the lower court judge who awarded his request for a third-party review of the evidence seized from his home.


It also frees up the Department of Justice to use 22,000 pages of seized government records — an important green light that will allow investigators to review every piece of evidence in hopes of building an airtight case.

“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so,” the judges wrote.

It’s the latest sign that Trump’s initial success in the case is diminishing, with the three-judge panel for the court rejecting a number of arguments his legal team has offered since the August 9 search and determining even the unclassified records may be used in the department’s investigation.




The Department of Justice has made clear the classified records found at Mar-a-Lago represent the bulk of its potential case, which could include charges under the Espionage Act.

But the thousands of records found at Mar-a-Lago that do not bear classification markings could also be important to the case.

“One of the biggest challenges for the prosecutors in this case was always going to be establishing that Trump had personal knowledge of the fact that the classified documents were at Mar-a-Lago, and that he was personally involved in not returning them, which will go to obstruction,” Brian Greer, a former CIA attorney, told The Hill.


“The fact that these classified documents were intermingled with unclassified documents that he was accessing, or would have been accessing, is potentially very valuable evidence demonstrating Trump’s personal knowledge,” he added.

Previous court filings indicate that Trump’s passports were found among the documents and that the search found government records not just in a storage room, but in Trump’s personal office.

Thursday’s ruling notes that while other personal effects listed by Trump’s team, like golf shirts and pictures of Celine Dion, may be his property, “we do not see the need for their immediate return after seizure under a presumptively lawful search warrant.”


Even if the items are not central for building the government’s case, they could be useful in responding to possible Trump defenses.

Greer said that could be key, as the investigation differs from other cases dealing with mishandling of national security information given that Trump is “a wealthy man who’s not necessarily involved in packing his boxes.”

“If the classified documents were just in a storage room, in a box that wasn’t being accessed, that would be a harder case. But we know some of the documents were found in Trump’s personal office instead, and if DOJ can use the unclassified, intermingled records to show that Trump was accessing the classified documents, its case will be significantly stronger,” Greer said.


The Department of Justice responded quickly to the 11th Circuit ruling, filing a motion in the Florida court where Trump’s challenge to the warrant initiated, asking for an extension of deadlines before the special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, given that Trump has a week to appeal the ruling before it takes effect on Dec. 8.

While Trump’s legal team opposed the government’s motion, it did not indicate whether it plans to appeal the 11th Circuit ruling.

Experts say it will take the government little time to parse the 22,000 pages but caution that the Department of Justice has just as much an institutional interest in winning the case as an investigative one.


The 11th Circuit was for the second time highly critical of the decision by federal district court Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to award Trump’s request for a special master, noting that keeping it in place would represent “a dramatic and unwarranted” use of the court’s authority.


“It set a really bad precedent, Judge Cannon’s order,” said Ankush Khardori, a former DOJ trial attorney specializing in major financial fraud.


“If they just had this out there, every defendant or prominent defendant would try to do something similar to Trump,” he added.

Khardori agreed that the DOJ likely viewed retaining the unclassified documents as an essential step for proceeding with its investigation, but he warned it is hardly the last domino that needs to fall for bringing charges against Trump.

Following Trump’s announcement of a new 2024 presidential bid, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to oversee the Mar-a-Lago case, as well as its investigation into efforts to block the transfer of power.

Much of the decision on charges in the Mar-a-Lago case will likely center on what sort of documents Trump was storing.


“What is in these documents? How serious was the exposure? How significant was Trump’s retention of this material? What was in the actual documents is key to understanding the seriousness of the underlying conduct,” Khardori added.

Despite the classification markings, Khardori said it’s still unknown to the public whether Trump left office with serious national security secrets.

Though he said it’s unlikely, Khardori said it’s possible the documents could include classified records that are meaningless in isolation, along with other presidential records Trump may view as momentos, including letters from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

While the case has excited many eager to see Trump prosecuted, Khardori warned that the DOJ could still decline to bring charges.


“If it were not really terribly dangerous, then I think Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, they’re going to have to be thinking, ‘Okay, is this the kind of case that should comprise the first ever prosecution of a former president?’’ he said.

Greer said if the Department of Justice did decide not to bring charges, it would represent a double standard.

“It’s difficult to see DOJ walking away from this case. I just don’t see them saying, ‘No, we don’t think this case is worth charging,’ when DOJ brings several prosecutions like this against ordinary government employees every year,” he said.


The immediate next steps for prosecutors will likely be interviewing witnesses about the documents and gathering all possible details about the national security information Trump had on hand.


While Trump’s status as a presidential candidate has shifted the investigation to some degree — including Smith’s appointment — Khardori said the possibility of any activity coming amid an intensifying campaign season could actually slow the DOJ’s desire to bring charges.

“They may be saying to themselves, ‘He’s running. And he may very well be in the general election. So what we need to do is put together the strongest possible case … so that if there comes a point in time where he’s charged, that the prosecution is as successful as possible,’ rat




https://thehill.com/policy/national...xt-steps-for-doj-in-mar-a-lago-investigation/

 

‘Are you kidding me?’ Legal experts stunned as more Trump classified docs discovered – at a Florida storage facility

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
December 07, 2022



Donald Trump. (Screenshot)


Attorneys for Donald Trump have located more classified documents, in addition to the 300 that federal agents retrieved while executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. These newly discovered classified documents were sent from a federal office building in Washington, D.C. to a private external storage facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, which is near the ex-president's resort and residence..

The stunning revelation of more classified documents being found, even after a Trump attorney attested in June they had been told by the ex-president there were no more classified documents, comes after Trump's attorneys hired a third party to search four of his properties for classified documents.

The Washington Post, which first reported on the additional classified documents, adds, "emails show that GSA [the federal General Services Administration] and Trump staffers worked together to arrange to ship several pallets of boxes and other items weighing more than 3,000 pounds from Northern Virginia to the Florida storage unit in September 2021."

The GSA worked with the Trump team to help "secure the storage unit at a private facility in West Palm Beach on July 21, 2021," which is 18 months after Trump left office.


"People familiar with the matter said the storage unit had a mix of boxes, gifts, suits and clothes, among other things. 'It was suits and swords and wrestling belts and all sorts of things,' this person said. 'To my knowledge, he has never even been to that storage unit. I don’t think anyone in Trump world could tell you what’s in that storage unit.'"

As The Post notes, the existence of additional classified material, outside the ex-president's Florida home, "indicates Mar-a-Lago was not the only place where Trump kept classified material. It also provides further evidence that Trump and his team did not fully comply with a May grand jury subpoena that sought all documents marked classified still in possession of the post-presidential office."

Legal experts are stunned.

"Are you kidding me?" asked former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, now a law professor and MSNBC legal analyst. "How many more classified docs does he have?"

Another former U.S. Attorney turned law professor and MSNBC contributor, Joyce Vance, appeared to question how the classified documents got there.

"Trump lawyers found classified items at a storage unit GSA arranged for Trump in Florida, turning them over to the FBI. Trump sources say items were packed in northern Va, sent down & Trump had no idea what was there, but they had to get in there somehow?"

"Astounding," comments former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. He adds, "It appears that Trump’s own team doesn’t have a good handle on all the government documents in his possession, despite a criminal investigation."



https://www.rawstory.com/are-you-ki...ocs-discovered-at-a-florida-storage-facility/

 

DOJ asks judge to hold Trump's office in contempt of court over classified documents: report

Matthew Chapman
December 08, 2022



Dopnald Trump speaks at rally -- (Photo by Nicholas Kamm for AFP)


On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that Justice Department prosecutors are asking a federal judge to hold former President Donald Trump's office in contempt of court, following the discovery of new classified documents stashed at a Trump property despite his legal team's repeated assurances they had already handed over all such material.

"In recent days, Justice Department lawyers have asked U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell to hold Trump’s office in contempt, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sealed court proceedings. But the judge has not yet held a hearing or ruled on the request, they said," reported Spencer S. Hsu, Josh Dawsey, Jacqueline Alemany, Devlin Barrett and Rosalind S. Helderman.

"The request came after months of mounting frustration from the Justice Department with Trump’s team — frustration that spiked in June after the former president’s lawyers provided assurances that a diligent search had been conducted for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club and residence," the report continued. "But the FBI amassed evidence suggesting — and later confirmed through a court-authorized search — that many more remained."

The two new documents turned up in a storage unit in Florida owned by Trump. The discovery was made by an outside team hired by the former president.

IN OTHER NEWS: Trump jeopardized people's lives with his classified document storage pod: legal expert

"Trump’s team has searched a number of his other properties in recent weeks, in response to the DOJ concerns and instructions from the judge, and turned over two items with classification markings to the government," said the report. "Trump’s advisers told the FBI the items were found in a storage facility used by the former president in West Palm Beach, Fla. Other Trump properties searched in recent weeks include his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey and his home and office at Trump Tower in Manhattan. People familiar with those searches by a private firm say no classified documents were found at those locations."

All of this comes as special counsel Jack Smith investigates whether Trump committed any crimes in his mishandling of classified documents, which reportedly included highest-level information about foreign weapons secrets and clandestine human sources operating on behalf of the United States or its allies.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-contempt-of-court-2658903049/

 

They're still recovering more documents!

Fuck! What's the excuses going to be this time?

 

This time it's easy. No one knows how many documents remain or where they are. Trump and the people around him are so poorly organized, they have no idea what went where when they evacuated the White House.

This is the same guy who convinced Republicans he was a great businessman.

 

This time it's easy. No one knows how many documents remain or where they are. Trump and the people around him are so poorly organized, they have no idea what went where when they evacuated the White House.

This is the same guy who convinced Republicans he was a great businessman.

 

How many 5 star hotels have you built?

 

Trump office not held in contempt of court despite DOJ bid (cnbc.com)

POLITICS
Judge does not hold Trump office in contempt of court despite DOJ request
PUBLISHED FRI, DEC 9 20222:22 PM ESTUPDATED FRI, DEC 9 20227:37 PM EST

Dan Mangan@_DANMANGAN
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KEY POINTS

• A federal judge did not grant a Justice Department request to hold the office of former President Donald Trump in contempt of court over a grand jury subpoena.
• That subpoena demands the return of any classified documents still in Trump’s possession or control.
• Trump, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, is under criminal investigation for his removal of government documents from the White House when he left the White House.
• An FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida discovered thousands of government records, some of them classified or highly classified.

The department wanted Judge Beryl Howell to find Trump’s office in contempt for not fully complying with the subpoena issued in May, which demanded he return classified documents still in his possession, according to a person familiar with the issue who spoke to NBC News.

The Justice Department had no comment on Howell’s rejection of the request, which came after a closed hearing was scheduled for the matter in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

FBI raid of his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, found thousands of such records, more than 100 of which were marked classified or highly classified.

Trump last month announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Trump’s spokesperson, in a statement Friday, said, “The President and his counsel will continue to be transparent and cooperative, even in the face of the highly weaponized and corrupt witch-hunt from the Department of Justice.”

“Hillary Clinton was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 emails after they were subpoenaed by Congress, yet absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable,” the spokesperson said.

“If the Department of Justice can go after President Trump, they will surely come after any American who they disagree with.”

Judge Denies DOJ Request to Hold Trump in Contempt (conservativefighters.co)
A federal judge on Friday denied the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to hold former President Donald Trump in contempt for allegedly failing to comply with a grand jury subpoena.

DOJ attorneys urged chief U.S. judge for the District of Columbia Beryl Howell to hold Trump in contempt for his alleged failure to comply with a subpoena issued in May that demanded Trump’s custodian of records turn over any documents marked classified that the former president had in his possession.

However, team Trump turned over boxes and other federal records to federal law enforcement in January and June. The investigation into Trump’s handling of White House documents after his presidency ended led to August’s raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate, where the FBI seized hundreds of documents and other unrelated items from Trump’s home.

Friday’s proceedings were under seal and not open to the public because they related to grand jury proceedings.

The DOJ had no comment after the judge denied their request to hold Trump in contempt.

After the judge’s decision, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the former president remains committed to being “transparent and cooperative” with the DOJ’s investigation into his handling of White House documents.

Cheung said:

The President and his counsel will continue to be transparent and cooperative, even in the face of the highly weaponized and corrupt witch-hunt from the Department of Justice. Hillary Clinton was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 emails after they were subpoenaed by Congress, yet absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable. If the Department of Justice can go after President Trump, they will surely come after any American who they disagree with. President Trump is the only one who stands in the way of the un-American weaponization of law enforcement.

Judge Howell reportedly urged the DOJ and Trump’s attorneys to resolve the issue themselves instead of involving the court.

 

Judge’s Latest Ruling ‘Utterly Demolished’ Donald Trump, Legal Expert Says

Maria Pierides
Sun, December 11, 2022 at 8:00 AM



Donald Trump

This post has been updated since it was originally published to include recent facts

Another day, another court ruling against Donald Trump; this time, a major blow to his defense in his Mar-a-Lago lawsuit! On Thursday December 1st, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed an order previously issued by US District Judge Aileen Cannon which had called for the appointment of a special master to oversee the review of classified documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and to prohibit any review of the seized material until this was done – two terms requested in Trump’s Motion for Judicial Oversight and Additional Relief submitted on August 22nd.


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Bwahaha! "The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so," the panel wrote.



newsweek.com
Impeach Aileen Cannon calls grow as Trump judge "eviscerated" by court
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed Cannon's decision to appoint a special master in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
11:16 AM · Dec 2, 2022


Legal Expert’s Opinion On The Ruling

Legal expert Kimberley Wehle described how the panel of judges “utterly demolished Trump and Cannon both, in unforgiving language inspired by foundational principles of constitutional restraint.” She added that the “vivid picture is not good for Trump,” as this essentially removes the handbrake and “lets Special Counsel Smith loose on all 22,000 documents so the government can pursue the story to its logical conclusion, which could include an indictment.” Yikes!


GodlessAmerican

@RealJeffMajors
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"The law is clear," the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant."



axios.com
Appeals court halts special master review of Mar-a-Lago documents
It's a major defeat for Trump and victory for the Department of Justice.
12:16 PM · Dec 2, 2022


All these arguments are a sideshow,” the panel concluded after dismantling the defense, clearly not taken in by Trump’s stalling tactics. “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

Former Trump Official Just Revealed That The President’s Office Mishandled Confidential Documents

Olivia Troye – a national security official who worked as a homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence – previously opened up about the Trump White House being frivolous with important documents. In an interview with MSNBC, Troye, 45, revealed that while working with the Trump administration, it was a “known thing” that her colleagues were careless with sensitive papers and information.

“I found classified information in the ladies’ room of the White House one time in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building,” she said in the interview. Top secret materials were seized at Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago property during an FBI search, seeming to show a pattern of vital documents in unexpected areas.


Bob White

@BobWhite22
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Olivia Troye: "It was a culture of fear in the White House” https://msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/olivia-troye-it-was-a-culture-of-fear-in-the-white-house-144229957837
via @msnbc



msnbc.com
Olivia Troye: "It was a culture of fear in the White House”
Just days before the next public January 6th hearing, the panel is ready to focus in on the 187 minutes that Donald Trump did nothing to stop the insurrection from happening. Former top aide to...
5:13 PM · Jul 18, 2022


Troye’s discovery of files in a White House bathroom occurred before the coronavirus outbreak, she told Insider in another interview. Troye also explained that she “thought it was odd that someone put them down and forgot them.” Troye added that she immediately gave the materials to security, and left her position in the administration shortly after. Now, she is an open critic of the twice-impeached former president, 76. “I covered it up, I put it in a folder. It wasn’t marked properly,” she said of the papers in the restroom, “I was not expecting to walk into the ladies’ room and find a document like that.”

In a follow-up interview with MSNBC over the weekend, Troye said she can still “remember the panic” she felt after seeing crucial papers where they clearly didn’t belong. “There is sort of a blood-pressure rise in you where you pick it up, and you’re like, ‘Oh what do I do with this? I have a responsibility to protect it,'” she recalled.

Trump made a plethora of headlines after FBI agents executed a search warrant at his Palm Beach, FL, home on August 8th. Both the warrant and a signed receipt from the search were unsealed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida a few days later.

This showed that 11 sets of classified documents (including some marked ‘top secret’) were taken from the billionaire’s property. An insider source also reportedly told The Washington Post that this investigation was centered around sensitive materials, including ones that pertained to nuclear weapons.


Rolling Stone

@RollingStone
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NEW: Former President Trump claims that he "will do whatever" he can to bring down "the temperature" following last week’s FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago. A look at his Truth Social site tells a different story.



rollingstone.com
Trump’s Site Is Being Weaponized Against the FBI — and Their Families
And Trump himself is casting doubt about a recent attack on an FBI building, saying the attacker wanted to make MAGA supporters look bad.
6:02 PM · Aug 15, 2022


Those who read into the warrant also found that Trump was being investigated for possibly violating the Espionage Act and other laws related to national security. Troye also noted that while officials with security clearance usually take measures to secure materials that they view and handle, this did not always happen in the Trump White House.

“It was a known thing. People would carry documents around – especially political appointees – and traditionally you would put it in a pouch, and you would secure it, and you would lock the pouch and then carry it,” Troye continued, “That’s not what was the norm in the White House, and I do think there were numerous situations where you would see this kind of behavior.” She went on, “For those of us that have clearances, again, you do have a responsibility to protect the information. You don’t carry it home and store it for whatever number of months in an unclassified facility.”


https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/judge-latest-ruling-utterly-demolished-150042502.html

 

Trump stored sensitive government docs in pool storage room close to Mar-a-Lago members: report

Tom Boggioni
December 16, 2022



Donald Trump, Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago (Photo via AFP)


According to a report from the Washington Times, Donald Trump stored the government documents recovered by the FBI in both his Mar-a-Lago office above the main ballroom and a pool storage room that was accessible by employees and just a few feet away from members of the luxury resort.

With special counsel Jack Smith taking over the investigation of the stolen documents and attempts by the former president and his attorneys to block the recovery of them, the report offers new details about how easily they could have been accessed with minimal security in place.

In the case of the office, the report states, "The office is accessible through a grand staircase near the ballroom but is not usually open to guests. No permanent barrier has been placed to block the staircase, but a rope has tied off the staircase at certain events, according to social media posts shared in the report."

IN OTHER NEWS: Trump's anti-crypto rant comes back to haunt him after his NFT sales push

More concerning was the lack of security near the swimming pool where the documents were discovered in a storage room.

As the Times' Misty Severi wrote, "Trump officials claimed that guests could not access the storage room, and only certain staffers had clearance. However, people familiar with the property claimed the area is accessible through two sets of arched doors, according to the outlet."

Severi added, "Guests are allowed in the pool and outdoor patios, including an awning that was located within 60 feet of the doorways, placing thousands of guests that visited the resort at more than 50 political events since Trump left office close to the doorways."

The report adds, "A criminal investigation into the illegal storing of classified documents is currently underway, with Trump being investigated under 18 U.S.C. 793, part of the Espionage Act, according to a search warrant that was unsealed in August. He is also being investigated for the concealment or removal of government records, and obstruction of a federal investigation."

You can read more here.



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mar-a-lago-documents-2658974475/

 

Trump loses again in yet another court fight over Mar-a-Lago documents scandal

Brad Reed
January 05, 2023



Photo: Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock


Former President Donald Trump has lost yet another court battle in the investigation into his efforts to stash top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

The New York Times reports that Beryl A. Howell, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, rules that the former president's lawyers have to hand over the names of private investigators whom they claimed conducted searches of Trump properties for additional classified documents.

According to the Times, the Department of Justice wants the names of the investigators so it can question them personally on their findings.

"The fact that the Justice Department sought a formal order for the investigators’ names suggests an increasing breakdown in trust between prosecutors investigating the documents case and Mr. Trump’s legal team," the paper writes. "And the request comes as a special counsel has taken over the inquiry into whether Mr. Trump willfully retained sensitive records or obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them."

IN OTHER NEWS: Matt Gaetz calls Kevin McCarthy a 'squatter' on House floor while nominating Trump for Speaker

Trump's decision to take top-secret documents with him prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland last summer to personally authorize an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, which led to the former president claiming he was being politically persecuted.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-documents-scandal-2659074428/

 

Trump special counsel Jack Smith was handed an 'easy case' that can be 'prosecuted at any time': legal expert

Tom Boggioni
January 07, 2023



Donald Trump (Photo by Mandelk Ngan for AFP)


During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show" early Saturday morning, former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne said special counsel Jack Smith has his work cut out for him when it comes to a Donald Trump criminal indictment over the Jan. 6 riot.

As for the Mar-a-Lago stolen documents investigation, she added that Smith was handed a case ready-made to take the former president to court as soon as possible.

Speaking with host Phang, Alksne said the Department of Justice had not done a good job pursuing Trump over the 2021 insurrection that forced lawmakers to flee for their lives, but the Mar-a-Lago case is a completely different matter.

Addressing the FBI searching Trump's Florida resort and discovering documents that should not be in Trump's possession after stalling the National Archives, Phang prompted, "One is so much farther along in terms of the development of evidence. We've seen some of it already in public, for public consumption, why haven't we seen charges here with respect to the hoarding of classified documents?"

"Well, I would guess that that was going to come pretty soon," the former DOJ official quickly answered. "I mean, let's face it, that's an easy prosecution: you stole the documents, we're asking for them, we ask you 'pretty please,' he said 'no,' you lied about it, you move them, and then we found them!"

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Anti-McCarthy GOPers 'are in for a rude awakening' now that he's speaker: conservative analyst

"It's a reasonably easy prosecution," she elaborated. "There are a couple of outstanding things: one is, what is the obstruction? We know that, originally, they made the aide lie and didn't say that he had moved the documents under Trump's direction and then eventually flipped and did. Now, the question is was that flip, was that in any way coordinated? Without an obstruction by Trump or any of the lawyers as in, perhaps that Cassidy Hutchinson model with [attorney] Stefan Passantino."

"They have to figure out that obstruction, and they also have to figure out, now that they have the documents, were they shared with anybody and what exactly happened with them -- and that may take some time," she continued. "But the truth of the matter is that it's a relatively easy case, it could be prosecuted at any time, and I hope they do it before spring."

RELATED: Special counsel Jack Smith bolsters Trump investigation with two corruption experts as 'new phase' ramps up

Watch below or at the link:



https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-jack-smith-2659083233/

 

Well this will put a wrench in the whole Trump stole secret documents case, eh?
Why Joe Biden Was Not Raided by the FBI Over Classified Documents (msn.com)

So while biden minions were cleaning out his old office in a think tank (think about that for a moment) they discovered CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS!!!!
And of course immediately, the despicable pundits started scrambling to draw a distinction between the Biden scandal and the Trump scandal. Predictably;
1) Biden's people right away told someone and surrendered the documents. With Trump, the FBI had to get a warrant and go get them. An ARMED FORCE of agents had to RAID Trump's compound!
2) Biden only had "a few" documents. Trump had .......... well, the fucker had a lot.
3) Bidens were in a locked closet. Trump's were ........... Bidens were in a locked office. Trumps were in a locked closet.
4) Biden never did anything with his documents. Trump ........... well, it's Trump, so who knows what he did with them?

But here's the other thing that hasn't gotten much attention from the pundits about this whole issue of classified documents in the possession of former presidents; Literally every president since Truman has had classified documents in their possession after they left office.
Really.
Truman not only had a letter written by Eisenhower that was top secret (Eisenhower said he was going to resign from the military and marry his lover after he divorce Mamie, just as soon as he returned from Europe) but Truman had the document Destroyed. Eisenhower had FBI briefing documents from WWII. Nixon had documents detailing the Watergate break in. Johnson took documents about the war in Cambodia. Clinton ............. well, we know Hillary had some but we aren't sure where they went after she left office. Probably into Bill's sock drawer, eh? And rumors swirl still about what Obama took with him.

Now, there's no condoning a President (or anyone) taking classified documents with them when they leave government jobs, but the reality is that first, most of the time the documents really aren't all that secret (Kim's love letters to Trump case in point) and second, well it's the President for God's sake, he's already seen the things and if we can't trust an ex president to keep shit secret, we got more serious problems than a former president taking as a Souvenir the menu card for a state dinner(yes, they have been coded as classified before).

But the end conclusion is, this won't help the DOJ case against Trump, eh?
Here's a thought for the despicable conspiracy folks; maybe Trump had them planted in the Biden closet?

 

No, they are two separate cases that do not impact one another...

 

I already put up a thread on this and don't intend to let him derail this one with is impotent false propaganda. But here is the difference. No other president was ordered by the National Archives to return the documents Trump stole. And no other president or vice president refused to do that. And when Trump was told he would have to return the documents he stole to the National Archives no other president lied and only returned part of them. And no other president had top secret documents found by the National Archives which resulted in a referral to the DOJ. No other president refused to comply with a subpoena to retrieve all the records he stole. And when Trump was finally forced to comply with the subpoena lied and said all the documents had been returned. No other president forced the DOJ to get a search warrant to retrieve the top secret material And after all that no other president was found to still be in possession of classified documents in a storage shed several months after the search warrant was executed.

There is no doubt somebody fucked up and had classified documents in the wrong place. As well as other documents that fell under the Presidential Records Act. And the DOJ is investigating that. But there is no equivalence between that and Trump deliberately committing crimes after the had been informed multiple times they were in fact crimes.