FBI search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago (Update: Trump Indicted!)

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Have we've ever had a more intellectually incompetent President?

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1572763147555033090?s=20&t=B1Hbq0DlMoFhY_b...
 

Follow up question Mr. President: can the sitting president also mentally re-classify material that had been mentally declassified?

It's like how 10 Downing Street belongs to the First Lord of the Treasury. You can only reclassify or declassify if you hold the office of President and High Priest of the MAGA Cult.

[DaleCooper]

Have we've ever had a more intellectually incompetent President?

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1572763147555033090?s=20&t=B1Hbq0DlMoFhY_b...

Follow up question Mr. President: can the sitting president also mentally re-classify material that had been mentally declassified?

I was initially a bit worried about this executive authority post-presidency argument getting legitimized by conservative lawyers and judges, but Trump seems to be ruining it by running around talking like this. It's pretty embarrassing even by his standards.

[ProudModerate2]

https://twitter.com/dnlbrns/status/1572728437873287169

I had a strong feeling the appeals court was going to rule in favor of the DOJ.
Good to see.

[ProudModerate2]

Have we've ever had a more intellectually incompetent President?

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1572763147555033090?s=20&t=B1Hbq0DlMoFhY_b...

Can you believe a pretty-big chunk of the US population want this Idiot back as our president?
They don't care that we have an Moron, who could destroy our nation or world, just as long as he is back in office and they won to own the libs.
Uggggggg.

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

Have we've ever had a more intellectually incompetent President?

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1572763147555033090?s=20&t=B1Hbq0DlMoFhY_b...

Just seeing the quote made me think of this clip from season 5 episode 7 of Better Call Saul. Clip in the spoilers.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

[Torie]

If Trump had declassified some of that extremely sensitive material, that is an impeachable offense. So if he claims he did that, he can be impeached and convicted now, the penalty being that he is barred from holding any federal office.

I am surprised no one to my knowledge out there on the fruited plain has picked up on this take.

Yes I know, the two thirds thing in the Senate. That's OK. Make the Pubs there sweat, and defend his conduct putting lives at risk, or his perjury. That is the thing. He needs to make the claim under oath. Bring it Trump.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I think a key part of the Hannity interview was this quote from Trump:

If you’re the President of the US, you can declassify just by saying, it’s declassified, even by thinking about it. Because you’re sending it to MAL, or to wherever you’re sending it.

I expect that affidavits are even now being prepared to get search warrants for other Trump properties.  There was already the suspicious video of the plane from MAL to Bedminster with Trump personally helping load boxes.

[emailking]

If Trump had declassified some of that extremely sensitive material, that is an impeachable offense. So if he claims he did that, he can be impeached and convicted now, the penalty being that he is barred from holding any federal office.

I am surprised no one to my knowledge out there on the fruited plain has picked up on this take.

Yes I know, the two thirds thing in the Senate. That's OK. Make the Pubs there sweat, and defend his conduct putting lives at risk, or his perjury. That is the thing. He needs to make the claim under oath. Bring it Trump.

I think Barr said (on Fox no less) if he just waved his hand over a bunch of boxes without knowing what's in them and said everything in here is declassified, that's worse than taking them in the first place.

[Torie]

If Trump had declassified some of that extremely sensitive material, that is an impeachable offense. So if he claims he did that, he can be impeached and convicted now, the penalty being that he is barred from holding any federal office.

I am surprised no one to my knowledge out there on the fruited plain has picked up on this take.

Yes I know, the two thirds thing in the Senate. That's OK. Make the Pubs there sweat, and defend his conduct putting lives at risk, or his perjury. That is the thing. He needs to make the claim under oath. Bring it Trump.

I think Barr said (on Fox no less) if he just waved his hand over a bunch of boxes without knowing what's in them and said everything in here is declassified, that's worse than taking them in the first place.

Yes of course, but everybody knows he's lying. If there is a God, Trump will lie under oath, but his lawyers won't let him. Sad!

[wbrocks67]

The way this entire thing just quickly started to unravel again for Trump is just... *chefs kiss*

[Torie]

One of the few things that Trump said that at the time seemed to be hyperbole now seems to have been quite accurate - his claim that he could shoot people dead on the streets and still be loved. You see, Trump's poll ratings are as stable as the speed of light. 44% still support him at this very moment. Lawsuits, lies, insurrection enablement, Q'anon derangement, none of that matters. It is sobering that 45% of the country have basically been seduced into a cult as it were. Their lives are really that miserable for them. This place on the planet has just gone bat sh**t crazy. Pity that this post is not itself infractable for gross hyperbole. Damn!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/upshot/donald-trump-approval-poll.html

[Torie]

I think a key part of the Hannity interview was this quote from Trump:

If you’re the President of the US, you can declassify just by saying, it’s declassified, even by thinking about it. Because you’re sending it to MAL, or to wherever you’re sending it.

I expect that affidavits are even now being prepared to get search warrants for other Trump properties.  There was already the suspicious video of the plane from MAL to Bedminster with Trump personally helping load boxes.

I just looked at it, and while I see Trump, I didn't see any boxes in his hands. Not that that matters obviously. Presumably the DOJ knew about this some time ago, and I am kind of shocked that warrants were not immediately issued. Now it is probably too late. If some stuff is in them that Trump really should not have, he most certainly will have destroyed those documents now. For him to have rushed documents out of MAL to avoid seizure is a smoking gun felony. So he has no choice but to destroy them.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

It appears 44% of this country is more loyal to Trump than to the USA. Very sad.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1572967822086803457

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's the ideological breakdown of the judges on the 11th Circuit panel?

[GeorgiaModerate]

What's the ideological breakdown of the judges on the 11th Circuit panel?

Two appointed by Trump, one by Obama.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think he can also ask the full 11th to look at it but doubtful they'll go for it either.

11th Circ. rules actually preclude reconsideration of an emergency stay, & so there was talk earlier this week of DoJ, if still skittish post-Cannon, filing this initial appeal en-banc instead of in front of this random panel, but thankfully the panel came through, so SCOTUS is indeed Trump's only route for an appeal now.

I'd be surprised if SCOTUS even wants to hear it. They've got their jobs for life, and they're where they are so that they can issue edicts like Dobbs, not blow their credibility on personal favors to Trump.

Ironically the only two justices on it who seem to give a sh!t about Trump personally are two he didn't appoint (Thomas and Alito.)

[GeorgiaModerate]

Judge Dearie calls another of Trump's bluffs:

https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1573010332146171908

[Stockdale for Veep]

How did Dearie get placed on Trump's list?

I'm guessing the Four Seasons Total Landscaping booker might have some answers?

[brucejoel99]

How did Dearie get placed on Trump's list?

I'm guessing the Four Seasons Total Landscaping booker might have some answers?

Literally based on nothing except a post-truth (read: baseless) hunch:

https://twitter.com/sophiacai99/status/1571587292359434240

[emailking]

I don't even understand that. Why would that mean he might be suspect of the FBI?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Wow! The Justice Department really called his bluff with the selection of Dearie then. What did they say to get the Trump team to agree to him? "Oh no! Please! Not Judge Dearie! Anyone but him!?"

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

I don't even understand that. Why would that mean he might be suspect of the FBI?

Yeah again, it might be another case of my residency-worn brain being exhausted, but the wording of that tweet is awful.  I feel like there's two related but independent thoughts being slammed together.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

I don't even understand that. Why would that mean he might be suspect of the FBI?

Yeah again, it might be another case of my residency-worn brain being exhausted, but the wording of that tweet is awful.  I feel like there's two related but independent thoughts being slammed together.

Don't dismiss the possibility that Trump's lawyers are just very, very bad at their jobs.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I don't even understand that. Why would that mean he might be suspect of the FBI?

Yeah again, it might be another case of my residency-worn brain being exhausted, but the wording of that tweet is awful.  I feel like there's two related but independent thoughts being slammed together.

The theory I've read from some Legal Twitter folks is that Trump/his lawyers believed that Dearie was embarrassed by the Carter Page affair and held a grudge against the FBI for getting him to sign off on the FISA warrant, so he'd be inclined to rule against them.  Which is the type of thing Trump might do...but not someone who is, by all reports, a model judge with a decades-long career.  As always, it's projection.