'Seems like a coverup': Mark Meadows may face more legal trouble after censoring Trump book

David Edwards
August 20, 2023, 1:30 PM ET



Then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (L) disembarks from Air Force One with then-President Donald Trump at Miami International Airport on July 10, 2020, in Miami, Fla. Johnny Louis/Getty Images


MSNBC legal analyst Neal Katyal suspects a coverup after former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows deleted damning information about Donald Trump from his book.

According to ABC News, Meadows confirmed he had no knowledge of Trump's alleged order to declassify a trove of documents before leaving office. ABC News also reviewed an early copy of Meadows' book, written before he deleted passages that reflected poorly on Trump.

During an interview on Sunday, MSNBC host Jen Psaki asked Katyal which of the 18 defendants in Trump's Georgia election interference case presented the biggest threat to the former president.

Katyal said defense attorneys should be advising their clients to flip on Trump.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"I would also say Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, who's kind of danced this dance for a long time about avoiding, avoiding charges, you know, by some somewhat cooperating with the feds," he continued. "And he's, I think, being called in Georgia in a much more dramatic way because he's indicted."

Katyal predicted that the unpublished version of Meadows' book could bolster the prosecution's case because it had information suggesting that Trump mishandled classified documents.

"And then the report suggests that he personally edited it out because he didn't believe at the time that Trump would have possessed a document like that at Bedminster," he explained.

The legal analyst said it was "certainly possible" for Meadows to face legal problems over his book.

"Now, it could be removed because Meadows says, I didn't actually think that was true," Katyal observed. "Seems implausible given all of the evidence we already have about that four-page document."

"It looks like it's the same document that was the basis for Jack Smith filing new charges against Donald Trump just a couple of weeks ago," he remarked. "But it sure seems like it's a coverup, Jen."

Watch the video below from MSNBC or at the link. .





https://www.rawstory.com/mark-meadows-trump-book/

 

The genius posts irony thats .... ironic.
And funny as hell!

 

Meadows is in some deep shit along with Trump. Hopefully justice will finally catch up to them for trying to overturn a national election.

 

We will know a lot more about how much danger Meadows is in very shortly because he is both trying to get the case moved into federal court and asking that the Georgia case be dismissed. He is trying to claim he was just acting in his capacity of Trump's chief of staff. But most legal experts first point out he was acting on behalf of Trump's campaign which is outside of his official duties. And more importantly he can't claim committing crimes is within his official duties.

So if the courts reject those claims Meadows is in quicksand up to his nose.

 

Well well well what do you know.

Key docs case witness retracts 'false testimony' and implicates Trump: Jack Smith

Gideon Rubin
August 22, 2023, 5:57 PM ET



Jack Smith, Donald Trump (Smith photo via Saul Loeb for AFP, Trump photo via AFP)


A key witness in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case has retracted their "false testimony" after switching lawyers, special counsel Jack Smith’s team contends in court filings obtained by Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

The witness is identified as “Employee 4” in Smith’s legal team’s notification to Judge Aileen Cannon.

“Chief Judge Boasberg made available independent counsel (the First Assistant in the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the District of Columbia) to provide advice to Trump Employee 4 regarding potential conflicts. On July 5, 2023, Trump Employee informed Chief Judge Boasberg that he no longer wished to be represented by Mr. Woodward and that, going forward, he wished to be represented by the First Assistant Federal Defender.”



The witness since retaining new counsel has provided evidence to prosecutors implicating Donald Trump along with his aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Olivera, the filing contends.

“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the court filings said.

Read the filing below or click the link here.


https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2664264918/

 

2 Trump aides at Mar-a-Lago gave false testimony in documents probe, court papers say
A.L. Lee
Wed, August 23, 2023 at 8:11 AM MDT·4 min read
93



Former President Donald Trump is facing 40 charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office. File photo via U.S. Department of Justice/UPI


Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Two of former President Donald Trump's aides gave false testimony to a grand jury as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's criminal investigation into the alleged mishandling of U.S. secrets, according to court papers filed by prosecutors this week.

According to the filing, Yuscil Taveras, an IT professional who has not been charged in the case, and Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager indicted for obstruction alongside Trump, retracted sworn testimony in which they initially denied efforts to delete security camera footage at Trump's Florida estate, at which the FBI seized a trove of classified documents in August 2022.

Tuesday's filing sheds new light on how prosecutors reached the decision to file a superseding federal indictment in July, charging Trump, De Oliveira and Trump's longtime confidant, Walt Nauta, with unlawful retention of government documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Trump pleaded not guilty in June to 37 federal charges alleging he willfully mishandled classified documents, and he faces three additional counts under the superseding indictment, which alleges De Oliveira helped Nauta relocate 30 boxes of materials into a storage unit at Trump's behest "to conceal information from the FBI and grand jury."


De Oliveira was referenced, but not named, in the original indictment, but was added as a third co-defendant in the case as one of those who loaded boxes of the documents onto a plane that flew Trump and his family to Bedminster, N.J. in summer 2021.

In the latest filing, Taveras is identified as "Trump Employee 4" -- who, along with De Oliveira, denied any role in moving the cache of materials.

Taveras testified before the grand jury in March, with federal prosecutors pressing him about the security footage at Trump's Palm Beach mansion, to which Taveras "repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago," court papers allege.

Months later, the special counsel sent Taveras a target letter, putting him on notice that he was being investigated for potentially lying to the grand jury.

In July, Taveras "retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage," prosecutors said in Tuesday's court filing.

The indictment alleges De Oliveira approached a co-worker at Mar-a-Lago and asked about the property's security footage, saying "the boss" wanted the server deleted and asked how long the videos remain on file.

The conversation took place soon after the government sent a subpoena to Trump's legal team for the security footage, prosecutors revealed previously.

The security footage has since been subpoenaed as investigators were continuing to follow the paper trail of classified materials that Trump took with him after leaving office in 2021.

In July, Taveras fired his attorney Stanley Woodward, who is representing Nauta and several other witnesses in the case, and he has since hired a public defender in Washington to represent him.

Prosecutors indicated that Taveras would likely turn state's evidence against Trump and the other co-defendants, and the special counsel has asked Florida Judge Aileen Cannon to conduct an inquiry to resolve any potential conflicts between Woodward, Taveras and Nauta.

Last week, Woodward said he would accept the court's judgment on the matter as part of a closed hearing, but that he didn't expect any conflicts of interest to emerge over his representation of both men.

And in a notable filing of his own, Woodward asked Cannon to bar Taveras from testifying as a government witness due to jurisdictional constraints, arguing that the amended testimony was given to a grand jury in Washington, while the case was being prosecuted in Florida.

"The exercise of this Court's supervisory power is warranted to exclude Trump Employee 4's testimony as a remedy for the improper use of out-of-district proceedings or, at the least, to allow discovery with regard to this matter. Such relief would comport with measures taken in similar instances of perceived or potential grand jury abuse," Woodward wrote.

On Tuesday, prosecutors argued that Taveras' testimony was valid because the investigation revealed he had committed perjury in Washington.

Previously, Woodward said he wasn't aware that Taveras had lied to the grand jury.

Trump, who is the first president in history to be indicted on federal criminal charges, continues to deny any wrongdoing, saying previously that he had the power as president to "automatically" declassify the secret papers.

Separately, the special counsel has also brought charges against Trump over his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Trump also is under indictment in Georgia on 13 counts ranging from violating the state's racketeering act to conspiring to file false documents in the election, and has until noon on Friday to voluntarily surrender or face arrest.

In another case, Trump is set to go on trial in March to face 34 felony charges related to hush-money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had a sexual encounter that threatened to upend his 2016 campaign.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/2-trump-aides-mar-lago-141120241.html

 

Jack Smith may have found another Mar-a-Lago witness to flip against Trump: experts

David McAfee
August 30, 2023, 11:31 PM ET



Jack Smith, Donald Trump (Smith photo via Saul Loeb for AFP, Trump photo via AFP)


Special counsel Jack Smith may have discovered how to make alleged co-conspirators in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents case flip on the former president, according to legal experts on Wednesday.

Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell, where he and national security attorney Bradley Moss were asked about requests filed by Smith regarding potential conflicts with attorneys representing the co-defendants in that case.

"If I'm Jack Smith now, though, he has put some meat on that bone. If the government has something, say it," Moss said. "Don't just hint around and dance around it. You're not going to get that far with Judge Cannon, from what we have seen in the past. If you've got some of the points to a real conflict, put it in writing and file it in a public docket."



Kirschner followed up by suggesting Judge Cannon in that case is a "wild card," but noting that we saw the same thing happen last time Smith flipped someone against Trump.

"We've seen this movie before, and we watched it within recent days when an attorney named Stanley Woodward, who represents any number of MAGA-related team Trump kind of people, really didn't want to have a hearing to see whether he had a conflict in his representation of a person referred to as Trump employee number 4, that is the I.T. director at Mar-a- Lago, who has since been identified as Mr. Taveras... and lo and behold, Mr. Tavares flipped."

Watch the MSNBC video below or click the link right here.



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-witnesses-to-be-flipped/

 

Now what we are seeing here is Trump's mental illness on full display. First his hoarding, and then his all powerful delusion. Where he is above all laws and no one can make him do anything he doesn't want to do.

The National Archives, DOJ, and FBI bent over backwards trying to get Trump to coope3rate and return the classified documents and all Trump did was keep lying and hiding the documents.


Trump was warned FBI could raid Mar-a-Lago as team feared he'd 'go ballistic' complying with subpoena, lawyer's notes show
KATHERINE FAULDERS and MIKE LEVINE
Wed, September 6, 2023 at 3:08 AM MDT·9 min read
550




Scroll back up to restore default view.


In May of last year, shortly after the Justice Department issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump for all classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump's then-lead attorney on the matter, Evan Corcoran, warned the former president in person, at Mar-a-Lago, that not only did Trump have to fully comply with the subpoena, but that the FBI might search the estate if he didn't, according to Corcoran's audio notes following the conversation.

Only minutes later, during a pool-side chat away from Trump, Corcoran got his own warning from another Trump attorney: If you push Trump to comply with the subpoena, "he's just going to go ballistic," Corcoran recalled.

Corcoran's recollections, captured in a series of voice memos he made on his phone the next day, help illuminate Trump's alleged efforts to defy a federal grand jury subpoena, and appear to shed more light on his frame of mind when he allegedly launched what prosecutors say was a criminal conspiracy to hide classified documents from both the FBI and Corcoran, his own attorney.


Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and has denied any wrongdoing.

The recordings, which have become a key piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents case against Trump, contain information that was later described in Smith's publicly released indictment and in media reports -- but many of the details in them have never been made public.

ABC News has reviewed copies of transcripts of the recordings, which appear to show the way Trump allegedly deceived his own attorney, and how classified documents, according to prosecutors, ended up at Mar-a-Lago in the first place.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, responding to the development, told ABC News, "The attorney-client privilege is one of the oldest and most fundamental principles in our legal system, and its primary purpose is to promote the rule of law. Whether attorneys' notes are detailed or not makes no difference -- these notes reflect the legal opinions and thoughts of the lawyer, not the client."


PHOTO: M. Evan Corcoran, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, leaves federal court in Washington, March 24, 2023. (Jose Luis Magana/AP, FILE)
Cheung added that Trump "offered full cooperation with DOJ, and told the key DOJ official, in person, 'Anything you need from us, just let us know.'"

A spokesperson for the special counsel's office declined to comment to ABC News. Corcoran did not immediately return ABC News' request for comment.

'Complying with that subpoena'
When Corcoran joined Trump's legal team in April last year, the FBI had already launched a criminal investigation into Trump's handling of classified information. Nearly 200 classified documents had been found in 15 boxes that Trump reluctantly returned to the National Archives "after months of demands," as the indictment stated.

But Justice Department officials believed Trump was holding onto even more classified documents in other boxes at Mar-a-Lago and refusing to return them -- so on May 11, 2022, the Justice Department issued a federal grand jury subpoena demanding the return of any and all classified documents.

Corcoran and another Trump attorney, Jennifer Little, flew to Florida to meet with Trump. "The next step was to speak with the former president about complying with that subpoena," Corcoran recalled in a voice memo the next day.

But while sitting together in Trump's office, in front of a Norman Rockwell-style painting depicting Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and Trump playing poker, Trump, according to Corcoran's notes, wanted to discuss something else first: how he was being unfairly targeted.

As Corcoran later recalled in his recordings, Trump continuously wandered off to topics unrelated to the subpoena -- Hillary Clinton, "the great things" he's done for the country, and his big lead in the polls in the run-up to the 2024 Republican presidential primary race that Trump would officially join in November. But Corcoran and Little "kept returning to the boxes," according to the transcripts.

Corcoran wanted Trump to understand "we were there to discuss responding to the subpoena," Corcoran said in the memos.

The FBI 'could arrive here'
As Corcoran described it in his recordings, he explained to Trump during that meeting what the former president was facing. "We've got a grand jury subpoena and the alternative is if you don't comply with the grand jury subpoena you could be held in contempt," Corcoran recalled telling Trump.

Trump responded with a line included in the indictment against him, asking, "what happens if we just don't respond at all or don't play ball with them?"

The transcripts reviewed by ABC News reveal what Corcoran says he then told Trump. "Well, there's a prospect that they could go to a judge and get a search warrant, and that they could arrive here," Corcoran recalled warning the former president as they sat at Mar-a-Lago.

Still, as depicted in Corcoran's recordings and in the public indictment, Trump repeatedly suggested it might be better if they refused to cooperate.

The indictment says that although Corcoran -- who ABC News believes to be "Attorney 1" in the indictment -- and Little -- believed to be "Attorney 2" -- "told Trump that they needed to search for documents that would be responsive to the subpoena and provide a certification that there had been compliance with the subpoena," Trump still insisted to them, "I don't want anybody looking through my boxes," and, "Wouldn't it be better if we just told them we don't have anything here?"

And in a private, pool-side conversation during a break at Mar-a-Lago that day, according to Corcoran's recordings, Little relayed to him what she was told herself by two other Trump attorneys: that Trump would "go ballistic" over complying with the subpoena -- "that there's no way he's going to agree to anything, and that he was going to deny that there were any more boxes at all," Corcoran recalled on his recordings.

In the indictment, prosecutors allege Trump did something just like that.

The indictment describes how, before the May 23 meeting with Corcoran at Mar-a-Lago ended, Trump "confirmed" a plan for Corcoran to return to Mar-a-Lago two weeks later to search for any classified documents. And, according to the indictment, Corcoran "made it clear to Trump" that he would conduct that search in a basement storage room.



Corcoran's recordings suggest he was told by others that the only location at Mar-a-Lago that contained classified documents was the basement storage room. "I've got boxes in my basement that I really wouldn't want you to go through," Corcoran recalled Trump telling him.

And sources told ABC News that, when speaking to investigators, Corcoran explained that he checked with many people about where classified documents could be found, and everyone, including Trump, created the impression that any classified documents would be in the boxes in the storage room.

A 'shocking break-in'
Over the next two weeks, before Corcoran returned to Mar-a-Lago to search for classified documents in the storage room, Trump's two co-defendants in the documents case, Mar-a-Lago staffers Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, allegedly removed dozens of boxes from the storage room -- all "at Trump's direction" and with the goal "that many boxes were not searched and many documents responsive to the May 11 Subpoena could not be found," according to the indictment.

Corcoran ultimately found 38 classified documents in the boxes that remained in the storage room, and he handed them over to the FBI, along with a certification -- allegedly endorsed by Trump -- that the former president had now fully complied with the subpoena.


PHOTO: Police direct traffic outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. (Terry Renna/AP, FILE)
But when FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago three months later, they found 102 more classified documents in Trump's office and elsewhere.

Despite Corcoran warning him months earlier, according to the recordings, that the FBI might show up at Mar-a-Lago if he didn't fully comply with the subpoena, Trump called the FBI move a "shocking BREAK-IN," with "no way to justify" it, in posts on his social media platform.

According to the indictment, Trump "knowingly" deceived the FBI and his own attorney, providing "just some of the documents called for by the grand jury subpoena, while claiming that he was cooperating fully."

'Should be declassified'
The transcripts of Corcoran's recordings also appear to offer new insight into how classified documents ended up in boxes at Mar-a-Lago in the first place, and whether Trump truly believed those documents had been declassified.

As Trump described it to Corcoran according to the transcripts, he had a nightly practice while still in the White House: He would bring newspaper articles, photos and notes to his bedroom so he could review them.

He would also bring classified documents, according to Corcoran.

"That's the only time I could read something, and I had to read them so I could be ready for calls or meetings the next day," Trump told Corcoran, according to Corcoran's recordings.

However, in their meeting, Trump insisted to Corcoran that he made clear to those around him that "anything that comes into the residence should be declassified," the transcript reads.

"I don't know what was done," Corcoran recalled Trump telling him. "I don't know how they were marked. But that was my position."

Those comments from Trump, as recalled by Corcoran, suggest Trump understood that -- despite subsequent public claims to the contrary -- classified documents were not declassified simply by bringing them to the residence.

As for how classified documents ended up in boxes, Trump "had a lot of boxes" in his bedroom, and when he was done reading a newspaper article or a classified document, he'd "throw them" into one of the boxes, according to Corcoran.

So when it came time for Trump to leave the White House in January 2021, many of those boxes from the bedroom ended up at Mar-a-Lago in the storage room.

Corcoran provided special counsel Smith's team with his recordings after, as previously reported by ABC News, the now-former chief judge of the federal court in Washington ordered him to do so, finding that Smith's office had made a "prima facie showing that the former president had committed criminal violations" by deliberately misleading his attorneys about his handling of classified materials, sources familiar with the matter said at the time.

As a result of that legal fight, Corcoran recused himself from continuing to represent Trump in the documents case. But when Trump was arraigned in Washington on federal charges accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Corcoran attended the hearing and sat in the courtroom behind Trump.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trump-warned-fbi-could-raid-090851657.html

 

Revealed: Jack Smith filing shows volume of evidence being used in docs case

David McAfee
September 14, 2023, 8:31 PM ET



Jack Smith, Donald Trump (Smith photo by Robin Van Lonkhuijsen for AFP/ Trump by Saul Loeb for AFP)


Jack Smith notified the court in a filing on Thursday that his prosecutors have already turned over a massive number of documents -- and a huge amount of video footage -- to Donald Trump's team.

Smith indicted the former president in connection with a large number of documents, including those of various classifications, discovered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. Jim Jordan has recently threatened Smith's funding.

Now, Smith has revealed exactly how many documents it has turned over to team Trump, and how much CCTV footage has accompanied it. That's according to a filing unearthed by Politico's Kyle Cheney.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"Prosecutors say they’ve turned over 1.28 million pages and more than 1,700 hours of CCTV footage to Trump and codefendants in the Florida docs case," the senior legal affairs reporter wrote on Thursday.

The filing itself, bearing Smith's name, indicates that the material being filed "includes classified documents that had been stored at Mar-a-Lago as well as other classified material generated or obtained in the Government’s investigation, including documents related to witness interviews such as reports and transcripts."

The filing also indicates that the Capitol Police Board has designated all Jan. 6 CCV footage as "security information," according to Politico reporter Jordain Carney.

"This is a request the Capitol Police has previously disclosed it made to the board," according to Carney.

Read the filing here.



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-jack-smith-evidence-florida/

 

Trump handed prosecutors 'incredible' evidence by 'confessing to the crime' on TV: legal analyst

Travis Gettys
September 15, 2023, 7:31 AM ET



Alex Wong/Getty Images


Donald Trump seemingly confessed to the major elements of the criminal allegations against him in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, leaving legal analyst Andrew Weissmann astonished.

The former president told SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly that the Presidential Records Act gave him the right to keep classified materials after leaving the White House and then refuse to comply with a Justice Department subpoena seeking their return, and Weissmann told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that gave prosecutors powerful evidence.

"The key there is it's on tape," said Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller's team. "The government is in an incredible position because they have the defendant on tape confessing to the crime."

Weissmann said it was ludicrous to think a former chief executive would not understand that he must comply with subpoenas, but he said Trump's loose-lipped interviews were intended to rally his base as his attorneys try to stall the case.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"This case isn't about the facts, it is spinning to his base to try this case in the court of public opinion," Weissmann said. "There just isn't a dispute here if you are passionate about the facts. I think the biggest challenge for the government is getting this particular case to trial, they're not being helped out by the Florida judge who has been very slow in making rulings and deciding things. That will be the challenge."

"I suspect they're putting all their effort on the Jan. 6 D.C. case, because the Florida case is something that, you know, it remains to be seen just exactly when that will go to trial," he added. "The case is overwhelming."

Watch the video below or at this link.





https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-classified-documents-2665435734/

 

This story is just breaking now and there is a lot more to it. But this is what's coming up now.


Trump wrote 'to-do lists' on the backs of classified documents: former aide

Sky Palma
September 18, 2023, 4:46 PM ET



MSNBC


A former aide to Donald Trump told federal investigators that the former president repeatedly wrote to-do lists on the backs of White House documents marked classified, ABC News reported.

Molly Michael claimed that she received requests from Trump that were written on the back of notecards that she later realized were visibly marked as sensitive White House materials that were used to brief Trump while he was still in office.

"The notecards with classification markings were at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 -- but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators," ABC News' report stated.

Michael also told investigators that she grew increasingly concerned with how Trump was responding to the National Archives' request for the return of all government documents, saying that his claims regarding the materials were easy to disprove.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

Read the full report at ABC News.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-wrote-to-do-lists-on-the-backs-of-classified-documents-former-aide/

 

'Smoking gun': Ex-prosecutor says Trump aide's new testimony is make-or-break moment

Matthew Chapman
September 19, 2023, 8:15 PM ET



Donald Trump. (Screenshot)


Former president Donald Trump's longtime aide Molly Michael has "smoking gun" testimony that could decide the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, argued former Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons on Tuesday's edition of CNN's "OutFront."

This comes after reporting that Trump wrote her a "to-do list" on the back of a classified document, and when she raised questions, told her to pretend not to know about the stash of classified information at the former president's Florida resort.

"When it comes to the case here and the specific report from The New York Times that Molly Michael, the former assistant to then-President Trump, reportedly says Trump told her to play dumb and said, quote, 'You don't know anything about the boxes,'" said anchor Erin Burnett. "And that was after he was president, when he was in Mar-a-Lago. She still was working for him. Also, those notes that he would write on documents that he gave her, and she then noticed that some of those were marked classified. As a former prosecutor, when you look at this, and this latest reporting, how significant is it?"

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"Erin, in every case there's going to be a point during trial where a trial is won and lost," said Timmons. "I don't know if the former president will testify in Florida. But she might be the key witness. She doesn't have a prior inconsistent statement where she said something happened that didn't. So she makes a much stronger witness. And, on top of that, she's got just damning information."

That information, Timmons added, is "a smoking gun."

"So I think what we're going to see here is when this case goes to trial, if it goes to trial, her testimony, particularly her direct, and more importantly her cross-examination, is going to be the key to whether the former president is convicted," continued Timmons.

Watch the video below or at the link.




https://www.rawstory.com/trump-smoking-gun-documents/

 

BUT HER EMAILS!!!!!BUT HER EMAILS!!!!! BUT HER EMAILS!!!!!


Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: Sources
KATHERINE FAULDERS, ALEXANDER MALLIN and MIKE LEVINE
Thu, October 5, 2023 at 2:33 PM MDT·5 min read
453

• 
  

Months after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago Club -- an Australian billionaire who then allegedly shared the information with scores of others, including more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The potential disclosure was reported to special counsel Jack Smith's team as they investigated Trump's alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the sources told ABC News. The information could shed further light on Trump's handling of sensitive government secrets.

Prosecutors and FBI agents have at least twice this year interviewed the Mar-a-Lago member, Anthony Pratt, who runs U.S.-based Pratt Industries, one of the world's largest packaging companies.



In those interviews, Pratt described how -- looking to make conversation with Trump during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in April 2021 -- he brought up the American submarine fleet, which the two had discussed before, the sources told ABC News.

According to Pratt's account, as described by the sources, Pratt told Trump he believed Australia should start buying its submarines from the United States, to which an excited Trump -- "leaning" toward Pratt as if to be discreet -- then told Pratt two pieces of information about U.S. submarines: the supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry, and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being detected.

In emails and conversations after meeting with Trump, Pratt described Trump's remarks to at least 45 others, including six journalists, 11 of his company's employees, 10 Australian officials, and three former Australian prime ministers, the sources told ABC News.

While Pratt told investigators he couldn’t tell if what Trump said about U.S. submarines was real or just bluster, investigators nevertheless asked Pratt not to repeat the numbers that Trump allegedly told him, suggesting the information could be too sensitive to relay further, ABC News was told.

It's unclear if the information was accurate, but the episode was investigated by Smith's team.


Sources said another witness, one of Trump's former employees at Mar-a-Lago, told investigators that, within minutes of Pratt's meeting with Trump, he heard Pratt relaying to someone else some of what Trump had just said.

According to the sources, the former Mar-a-Lago employee also told investigators he was "bothered" and "shocked" to hear that the former president had provided such seemingly sensitive information to a non-U.S. citizen.

Pratt told investigators Trump didn't show him any government documents during their April 2021 meeting, nor at any other time they crossed paths at Mar-a-Lago, sources said.

According to the sources, Pratt insisted to investigators that he told others about his meeting with Trump to show them how he was advocating for Australia with the United States. Some of the Australian officials that sources said he told were, as reflected in news reports at the time, involved in then-ongoing negotiations with the Biden administration over a deal for Australia to purchase a number of nuclear-powered attack submarines from the United States.

The deal was ultimately secured earlier this year, with Australia agreeing to purchase at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines, though President Joe Biden has said that none of the submarines sold to Australia will be armed with nuclear weapons.


Special counsel Smith did not include any information about Trump's alleged April 2021 conversation with Pratt in his June indictment against Trump, which charged the former president with 40 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information and obstruction-related offenses.

Last year, while needling the Biden administration for what he said was a weak response to Russia's war on Ukraine, Trump said that if he were still president, he would make sure Russia understood that the United States is "a greater nuclear power" with "the greatest submarines in the world."

"[They are] the most powerful machines ever built, and nobody knows where they are," Trump said on the Fox Business network.

Shortly after Trump became president in 2017, Pratt joined Mar-a-Lago as a member and publicly pledged to invest another $2 billion in American manufacturing jobs.

Over the next few years, Pratt visited Mar-a-Lago about 10 times, interacting with Trump on several occasions, once even having dinner with Trump and a U.S. senator at another Trump-owned property nearby, Pratt told investigators, according to sources. Pratt also visited the White House in 2018, when Trump was meeting with Australia's then-prime minister, according to online records.


In 2019, speaking at the opening of a Pratt Industries plant in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Trump called Pratt a "friend" and praised him for funding the plant.

"We're here to celebrate a great opening and a great gentleman," Trump said. "Anthony is one of the most successful men in the world -- perhaps Australia's most successful man."

Standing beside Trump, Pratt then said he "would not have invested in this plant if it wasn't for President Trump's election, [which] has given us an incredible faith in investing in America."

But in recent months, according to sources, Pratt told investigators that he now supports the current U.S. government, describing himself as someone who tends to just "side with the king."

Representatives for Pratt did not respond to messages seeking comment from ABC News.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/white-house-trump-allegedly-discussed-203359022.html

 

'Tip of the iceberg': Experts pounce on Trump nuclear secrets bombshell

David McAfee
October 5, 2023 6:09PM ET



President Donald J. Trump speaking at his campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa at Drake University's Knapp Center. (Aspects and Angles / Shutterstock.com)


ABC News reported on Thursday that ex-president Donald Trump had shared nuclear secrets with a billionaire at his golf club, and experts were quick to react to how the report could affect Trump's current criminal case on classified document handling.

Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing in the Florida case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, has already weathered numerous reports about his purported sharing of confidential information. In this case, Trump is accused of sharing secret U.S. nuclear submarine details with a foreign national.

Reporter Molly Jong-Fast had a simple reply to the breaking news. "GOP front runner," she wrote Thursday.

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Conservative lawyer and anti-Trump activist George Conway had this to say:

"Everyone who has accused P01135809 of selling the nation’s secrets should profusely apologize. Out of innate charity, he gives them away for free," he wrote Thursday.

Reed Galen, co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, also chimed in:

"Disclosure of classified/secret/ts/sci information is a crime, too, I believer. Where are my #natsec folks?" he wrote.

Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa had a unique take on the situation:

"Just a reminder that Trump had multiple meetings with Putin with no other American officials present. I’m sure it was fine though," she wrote Thursday.

CNN anchor Jim Sciutto said, "There is no more sensitive intelligence to the U.S., Russia and China today than that relating to submarine capabilities and detection."

Author and journalist David Rothkopf wrote on his social media that "For sure this is the tip of the iceberg of this sort of thing. He didn't keep all those classified docs because his inner archivist demanded it. It was because he saw value in them...and the value came from sharing the information with people who shouldn't have it."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-nuclear-reactions/

 

Jack Smith dismantles Trump's request for trial delay in classified documents case

Travis Gettys
October 9, 2023 10:43AM ET



(Smith photo via Saul Loeb for AFP, Trump photo via AFP)


Special counsel Jack Smith's office has filed a scathing response to Donald Trump's request to delay his trial in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The former president's legal team last week asked District Court judge Aileen Cannon to reschedule the trial from May until after the 2024 election, but Smith's team argued that none of the claims they set forth to justify the delay were accurate or valid.

"The defendants provide no credible justification to postpone a trial that is still seven months away," prosecutors wrote. "They are fully informed about the charges and the theory of the Government’s case from a highly detailed superseding indictment and comprehensive, organized unclassified and classified discovery. Their unfounded claims of Government noncompliance with discovery obligations do not support their request."

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"Their claims about their inability to review classified information are distorted and exaggerated, and, in any event, the Government expects that the [classified information security officer] will resolve any remaining issues this week," they added. "There is no reason to adjourn the trial date. The defendants’ motion should be denied."

Prosecutors say they have provided classified materials and other evidence to Trump's defense team as required by law, and they argued that a sensitive compartmented information facility – a safe space where classified documents can be viewed – had been provided at the Fort Pierce, Florida, courthouse where Cannon presides.

"The fact is that the great majority of the allegations in the indictment — including allegations of the defendants’ conduct, knowledge, and intent — turn on evidence contained in the unclassified discovery, not the much smaller set of classified discovery," prosecutors wrote. "That the classified materials at issue in this case were taken from the White House and retained at Mar-a-Lago is not in dispute; what is in dispute is how that occurred, why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them — all issues that the Government will prove at trial primarily with unclassified evidence."

READ MORE: Trump's 'Putinite Republicans' raked over the coals by conservative leader

"Whether the highly classified documents Trump retained at Mar-a-Lago contain national defense information is a fact Trump can try to dispute, but it will hardly be the centerpiece of the trial," they added. "Regardless, as discussed below, none of the defendants’ claims about the availability of classified discovery justifies a continuance."




https://www.rawstory.com/trump-classified-documents-2665854799/

 

BUT HER EMAILS!!!!! BUT HER EMAILS!!!!! BUT HER EMAILS!!!!!



Former FBI official flattens Trump's defense for leaking nuclear secrets: 'Just sickening'

Sarah K. Burris
October 9, 2023 5:12PM ET



(Photo via AFP)


Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe walked through the latest revelations that Donald Trump leaked classified information about U.S. nuclear sub to an Australian businessman – and said there is no excuse or downplaying of that charge.

Speaking on the "Jack" podcast with Allison Gill (of Mueller, She Wrote), McCabe targeted the statement Trump's office put out downplaying the seriousness of the actions.

Trump's spokesperson said that the claim about the "leaks" lacks "proper context and relevant information."



"President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law," the spokesperson told ABC.

Trump allegedly shared the information with Australian businessman Anthony Pratt of Pratt Industries, who then told others. In fact, Pratt said the number of people he told was likely close to 45 and includes a dozen or so foreign officials, several of his own employees and a handful of journalists, Gill explained.

The scene unfolded when Pratt, looking to make conversation at Mar-a-Lago, told Trump that he thought the Australian government should buy its subs from the U.S. Trump then "leaned forward" and told the man the number of nuclear warheads that can be held on such subs and just how close they can get to a Russian sub without being detected.

McCabe explains that most classified information is delegated to be handled by executive order, but not when it comes to nuclear information. Trump has claimed that much of the information that he took from the White House was "declassified' by him before leaving office and that he had a "standing order" to declassify things when they left the West Wing.

Nuclear secrets don't work that way. McCabe explained that the legal statutes determine the classification of nuclear information and not even the president can unilaterally declassify and disseminate that defense intelligence.

"I'm sorry, what context makes it OK to share classified information — nuclear information?" McCabe said in response to Trump's spokesperson. "You could easily argue [it's] the most sensitive information we have."

If you're Trump, McCabe quipped, "You can just share it with your friends at Mar-a-Lago after a well-done steak and a bowl of vanilla ice cream."

Gill, who briefly served on a nuclear ship, said that she knows people on such subs and that even they aren't aware of that information.

"That's what kills me," McCabe said. "People in the defense community, the intelligence community, you spend your life collecting this information and perfecting it. Sharing it with decision-makers under rigorous controls, understanding and living by the rules necessary to preserve these secrets the nation's secret to preserve our safety and dominance in the world, certainly in areas like the High Seas in terms of nuclear-aided defense weapons.

"And to see a former president just blithely run past these requirements, to handle this information so incredibly irresponsibly, it's just sickening. It really is."

Listen to the full podcast with McCabe and Gill here.


https://www.rawstory.com/former-fbi...-claim-leaking-classified-info-lacks-context/

 

Jack Smith signals he's found Trump’s motive for keeping classified docs: columnist

M.L. Nestel
October 10, 2023 3:23PM ET



(Saul Loeb for AFP/AFP)


Special Counsel Jack Smith signaled that prosecutors know former President Donald Trump's motive for failing to relinquish a cache of classified documents before leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago, a Washington Post columnist wrote Tuesday.

"That the classified materials at issue in this case were taken from the White House and retained at Mar-a-Lago is not in dispute; what is in dispute is how that occurred, why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them — all issues that the Government will prove at trial primarily with unclassified evidence," reads a government motion filed in court on Monday.



It appears that the government is not only prepared to prove the how and the why that went into the paper hoarding, but also “what Trump knew, and intended" in retaining the precious documents once he left office after losing the 2020 presidential election to then President-Elect Joe Biden.

Washington Post writer Aaron Blake took quick notice of Smith's effort in the filed motion to publicly expose Trump's intent come trial.

"Indeed, establishing a motive would seem to drive home the intention of Trump’s actions and combat any arguments that this was all a misunderstanding — or that Trump somehow didn’t know what he had (which the government has taken care to undermine)," Blake wrote.

READ MORE: Hitler-apologist sparks furious in-fighting among Texas Republicans

"In that case, Smith need not necessarily prove that Trump knew that his claims of massive voter fraud were false to demonstrate that Trump broke the law in trying to overturn the election. But it, too, would be helpful, and Smith’s office has made it abundantly clear that it intends to prove it, devoting 20 out of 45 pages from the indictment to that point."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-classified-documents-2665878460/

 

Well?

 

'A big deal': New Jack Smith filing reveals concessions made by Walt Nauta's lawyer

M.L. Nestel
October 19, 2023 12:17AM ET



(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)


Jack Smith wants it to be known that the attorney for former President Donald Trump's valet might be disqualified from asking questions of his former client.

The prosecutor's additional briefing states that "Defendant Waltine Nauta’s attorney Stanley Woodward Jr. cannot ethically cross-examine former client Trump Employee 4, who will be a significant witness at trial," according to the document.

It was flagged by legal expert Katie Phang in a social media post. She noted the reason for this assertion is because Woodward used to represent the unnamed “Trump Employee 4” and currently represents “Witness 1.”

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Woodward had represented IT director Yuscil Taveras during the time that there was false testimony given to a grand jury about video surveillance footage captured at Mar-a-Lago, as described in an earlier filing.

It was only when Taveras parted ways with Woodward and secured a new lawyer that he came forward to admit he was asked to destroy security footage, those papers say, according to CNBC.

In her thread citing the documents, Phang also noted how Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, was conceding that “his ethical obligations may constrain his ability to discredit Trump Employee 4 or Witness 1 in closing arguments.”

Woodward and his legal team, the recent filing states, appear to be attempting to cede "any cross-examination" when ethical issues arise to "co-counsel."

Smith appeared to heap praise on another attorney, John Irving, who is representing Mar-a-Lago maintenance man Carlos De Oliveira.

Smith's filing suggests Irving was on point when he "informed the Court and the Government that he would no longer represent the potential witnesses, and his co-counsel would be solely responsible for cross-examining the witnesses at trial."

However, Woodward, in contrast, "simply denied that any conflict existed, suggesting that he should be permitted to cross-examine Trump Employee 4."

Phang weighed in on Smith's legal maneuvering.

"Woodward’s ability to attack current and former clients’ credibility during closing arguments was a huge sticking point last week when we were last in court before Judge Cannon," she wrote in the post thread, adding a quote from the filing that these kinds of ethical situations “frequently disqualify attorneys even where the attorneys propose that another attorney will conduct the cross-examination of a former client.”

Phang added that "Woodward’s concessions to the Government as represented in tonight’s filing are a big deal."

"He was complaining so much before Judge Cannon and yet now he concedes much of what the DOJ was arguing to the court last week," she wrote Wednesday.



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2666018574/