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

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1557024134206464002?s=21&t=Blt_wfxSdbOV...

To no one's surprise this is what they accuse the left of being - because they are so mentally degenerate that they lack creative imagination, self-awareness or empathy.

I think it's just a matter of time before the GOP turns to nationwide violence. Either because they face consequences for their behavior, or because they have successfully avoided such consequences.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Conservatives are going to go 100% in on the “FBI planted evidence” conspiracy theories now. It’s the only option left for them.

Either way, you will have 20-30 million Germans on his side.

You can't hang someone for genocide that 1/4 of the German population worships like a God. It's playing with fire, especially considering we're likely to be out of control of the Reichstag in a few short months.

Also: “We.”

LOL you are such a blatantly obvious concern troll, Citizen “Q.” You’re not even trying, it’s pathetic.

Not to give him to much credit, but there are legitimate concerns about how far some of these people are willing to go. I mean, one of them just shot up an FBI building.

Whether he gets away with this and everything else, is tired and sentenced, or is lynched by an angry crowd tomorrow will not affect what the MAGATs will do one little bit. They're going to terrorize the rest of America because reality refuses to bend to there fantasies. The only variable is when they finally collectively lose it. I don't see where it makes any positive difference to keep the threat of wide spread right wing terrorism hanging over the country.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I see Trump has descended to terrorist threats - he should be treated like any other terrorist leader.
https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1559252134142660609
Donald Trump is not just a traitor, he is the terrorist leader of a terrorist party. As the GOP has radicalized, the response of America's instutition has lagged badly, always several steps behind. Our country is running out of time to respond appropriately to Republican terrorism. Donald Trump and his enablers need to be treated like their true peers: Omar Abdel-Rahman and his co-conspirators.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The affidavit being unsealed isn't even going to satisfy the rabid Trump base. They'll just move the goalposts to something else afterwards. They don't actually care about the evidence that formed the basis of the raid, they're just looking for people to deflect blame to. They want another situation like with the two FBI agents in Mueller's team who were having the affair and shared the anti-Trump text messages. They need something more to muddy the waters with even if it comes at the cost of that transparency possibly giving the investigation even more credibility to those who aren't brainwashed in the country. Just like when the warrant itself was revealed.

You don't give the MAGATs enough credit. They want the affidavit so they can track down the "rats" and terrorize them, just like they're already terrorizing the judge, the Attorney General and countless more people who are trying to do the right thing but still can't wrap their brains around what they're up against.

To be fair, we've never had to deal with anything exactly like the MAGATs before. They're part cult, part criminal conspiracy, part terrorist, and part orc, with a helping of totalitarianism and fascism smeared over everything. They hate freedom, democracy, and rule of law with the buring fire of a million morons. (Except when it's their votes, their laws and their freedumb.) I hope Garland and others can bring justice to Trump, but whether they do or not, I expect things to escalate to a violent campaign of widespread MAGAT terrorism, either when Trump is brought to justice, or if that fails, and some future point when they and their cult leader are told "no".

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Judge says the redacted version is ok to unseal and should be unsealed by noon tomorrow.

Prediction:

"Based on my training and experience, I, REDACTED, a special agent of the Federal Bureau of  Investigation, request a search warrant on the information specifying REDACTED, REDACTED, and REDACTED, provided by witness REDACTED on date REDACTED, and additional information specifying REDACTED and REDACTED provided by witness REDACTED on date REDACTED."

I disagree.  And here's why:

First of all, you have to consider that ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.  Furthermore, --------------------------------------------------------------------.  And based on legal precedent, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.  

Ergo, -----------------------.  I could be wrong, though.

It's going to be quite a bit longer, and will likely include correspondence between NARA and Trump, and the DOJ and Trump. What will be redacted is witness information, such as who tipped them off that he was sitting on national security docs and lying about it (and anything else that would expose sources or methods or otherwise help the GOP leader with his crimes). Tomorrow will be a very bad day for Trump. We'll head into the weekend with Team Trump claiming it's a smear job, and demanding the unredacted affidavit so his terrorists can target witnesses. (Because while Democrats want to know who broke the law, all Republicans are ever concerned about is who ratted them out.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Setting aside for the nonce all the juicy but unproved speculation about Trump leaking or selling classified info, the DOJ has already built their case, and Trump and his lawyers have helped them do so. NARA and the DOJ very kindly gave Trump a rope (something they would not have done for anyone posting here) and let him decide what to do with it. Rather than climbing out of his self-dug hole, he wrapped it around his neck.

No matter how much Trump whines and lies, the DOJ's case is already very well documented.

Trump stole classified documents and presidential records from the White House.

He stored those records insecurely and illegally  at his clubhouse/home.

When clearly told he was breaking the law, both by having them and storing them improperly, he lied and kept doing it.

That's Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act violations, all documented and lined up. There are likely more crimes still not fully documented, almost certainly including obstruction, but the Espionage and PRA violations are all in the open, well established by the combination of Trump's shamelessness and the government's forbearance.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

This is so embarrassing.

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1563888973860290560

The funniest thing here is the idea Trump supporters know what the National Archives are.

Terrorism is not amusing in the slightest.

It is painful watching the Democrats and our institutions failing to check the GOP cult as it  now openly embraces terrorism in the name of the criminal traitor leading it. Events over the last month - starting to hold Trump accountable for his flagrant lawlessness, and President Biden accurately calling out the GOP as fascists - is encouraging.

What we all need to prepare for is the extremely likely future where the Republicans resort to widespread violence when America refuses to kneel to them. That's what these threat from Graham and Trump are ultimately about. It's what the GOP is always about: liscense to abuse others without consequences for themselves. When a Republican says "law and order" all they means is that they think laws should only exist to enforce their orders.

Thanks to Donald Trump, who screams the quiet parts at the top of his lungs and gets Republicans to chant along with him, the pretent that the GOP is anything more than a treasonous, abusive cult grows more threadbare every day. It's sad to see how many Americans either fall for the lies, or willfully embrace the horror.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The paragraph below from the DOJ's filing opposing the appointment of a Special Master leapt out from the page and utterly Gobsmacked me.

"The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation. See also MJ Docket D.E. 80 at 8 (“As the Government aptly noted at the hearing, these concerns are not hypothetical in this case. One of the statutes for which I found probable cause was 18 U.S.C. § 1519, which prohibits obstructing an investigation.”). This included evidence indicating that boxes formerly in the Storage Room were not returned prior to counsel’s review."

Some of the most sensitive documents were in Trump's desk, including some sitting next to his passports.

For the first time ever, this particular washed up old retired lawyer believes it would be right and proper for the DOJ to use its prosecutorial discretion and proceed to indict Trump assuming evidence exists that he directed the felonious secretion of top secret documents that should only be reviewed in secure settings, putting lives and critical national security interests at risk. Such conduct by Trump is indeed shocking to the conscience and outrageous.

To state it with more brevity, assuming evidence exists of Trump's knowledge of the secretion of documents to thwart the production of documents pursuant to a subpoena, that is the  smoking gun. Prosecuting Trump may result in violence, but the mob must not and cannot become the arbiter of justice.

Given that some of the recovered materials were in his office desk, Mr. Trump's knowledge seems certain. Unless he's going to claim that his lawyers framed him. He can't even claim the FBI framed him, since he's already raving that he "declassified" the documents in question (Narrator, "The documents had not been declassified") meaning that he was aware he had them, which is itself a crime even if they had been declassified (which they obviously weren't).

For those interested in the law or aspiring lawyers, I highly recommend reading the DOJ document. The prose meets the highest standards of the legal profession. I rarely saw prose of this caliber when I practiced law.

Addendum

I of course was curious, after typing out the above, to check out what the NYT deemed most significant. Below is a screenshot of its headline:

While the NYT does not generally invent events or otherwise regularly misreport (as does, say FOX News), they (and Haberman in particular) have reliably soft-pedaled Trump's more heinous acts.  This story is no exception.

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1564948257142366208

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1564554875618447361

There's always a tweetclip.

I know, I know. Pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans is like pointing out that water is wet. But it bears repeating that the goal of the GOP is the destruction of rule of law in order to enable their own abuse. It is important that we do not become numb to the endless stream of Republican falsehoods. Trump needs to be brought to justice, and the Republican Party destroyed as a political force.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1565713407759745024

I understand the Classified and missing Classified documents are huge, but this also seems to be a lot of documents that Mr. Trump was not supposed to have.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

When an idiot appoints a moron to the Federal Bench, You get rulings like this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

More like when a traitor appoints a cultist.

I'm not surprised Cannon ruled in Trump's favor. I am surprised it was so blatant. She flat out admitted that her ruling is based on the "irreparable harm" of... Trump facing consequences for his crimes. A perfect example of the future Republicans want for all Americans: one set of rules everyone else has to obey, and a second set of much more permissive rules for themselves. Hopefully this only serves to slightly delay Donald the Traitor's delayed meeting with justice.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

All the ruling does is delay the investigation, but I have to ask - what type of indictment does not create irreparable harm to someone's reputation? If we use that standard, we may as well never charge anyone with a crime.

Twitter is full of defense attorneys gleefully rubbing their hands and looking forward to citing this ruling. What will be telling is whether we have a new broad precedent in criminal law, or whether it's a precedent limited to some subset of rich, prominent Republicans.

In a way, the ruling is a double-pronged trap for the DoJ. Failing to appeal it sets a damaging precedent for future federal prosecutions and lets Trump , his lawyers, and his judge drag out the process for months. Appealing it through the conservative 11th and Supreme Court may drag it out for years, if they're so inclined. Either way, it serves the underlying but unspoken goal: drag things out until Trump or some ally is in th White House and able to abuse the position to pardon him.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1568651557171757057

The boxes are the same, too:

https://twitter.com/peterstrzok/status/1568569532377186306

The idea that he hid documents in Ivana's coffin looks slightly less like a joke now.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1571308537745129472

I think Garland's Ellis Island speech should be getting more attention. It was heartfelt, powerful, and perhaps a window into his current state of mind. I'm not quoting the whole speech (though I believe it is well worth reading, and watching). Here is some of what he said (that will make it clear why I'm posting this speech in this thread):

In the preamble of the Constitution, those Americans enumerated those hopes: to form a more perfect union; establish justice; ensure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense; promote the general welfare …
And importantly – in their words – “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Like them, each of you has now made a commitment not only to this nation and your fellow Americans, but to the generations of Americans who will come after you.

In that commitment, you have given your posterity – and the posterity of all of us – a precious gift.

I know how valuable that gift is because it is the same one my grandparents gave my family and me.

I come from a family of immigrants who fled religious persecution early in the 20th Century and sought refuge here in the United States. Some of my family entered right here, at Ellis Island.

My grandmother was one of five children born in what is now Belarus. Three made it to the United States, including my grandmother who came through the Port of Baltimore.

Two did not make it. Those two were killed in the Holocaust.

If not for America, there is little doubt that the same would have happened to my grandmother.

But this country took her in. And under the protection of our laws, she was able to live without fear of persecution.

I am also married to the daughter of an immigrant who came through the Port of New York in 1938.

Shortly after Hitler’s army entered Austria that year, my wife’s mother escaped to the United States. Under the protection of our laws, she too, was able to live without fear of persecution.

That protection is what distinguishes America from so many other countries. The protection of law – the Rule of Law – is the foundation of our system of government.

The Rule of Law means that the same laws apply to all of us, regardless of whether we are this country’s newest citizens or whether our [families] have been here for generations.

The Rule of Law means that the law treats each of us alike: there is not one rule for friends, another for foes; one rule for the powerful, another for the powerless; a rule for the rich, another for the poor; or different rules, depending upon one’s race or ethnicity or country of origin.

The Rule of Law means that we are all protected in the exercise of our civil rights; in our freedom to worship and think as we please; and in the peaceful expression of our opinions, our beliefs, and our ideas.

Of course, we still have work to do to make a more perfect union. Although the Rule of Law has always been our guiding light, we have not always been faithful to it.

The Rule of Law is not assured. It is fragile. It demands constant effort and vigilance.

The responsibility to ensure the Rule of Law is and has been the duty of every generation in our country’s history. It is now your duty as well. And it is one that is especially urgent today at a time of intense polarization in America.

The United States is no stranger to what our Founders called the risk of faction. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote about it in the Federalist Papers. George Washington warned against it in his Farewell Address.

Overcoming the current polarization in our public life is, and will continue to be, a difficult task.

But we cannot overcome it by ignoring it. We must address the fractures in our society with honesty, with humility, and with respect for the Rule of Law.

This demands that we tolerate peaceful disagreement with one another on issues of politics and policy. It demands that we listen to each other, even when we disagree. And it demands that we reject violence and threats of violence that endanger each other and endanger our democracy.

We must not allow the fractures between us to fracture our democracy.

We are all in this together. We are all Americans.

On this historic day and in this historic place, let us make a promise that each of us will protect each other and our democracy.

That we will honor and defend our Constitution.

That we will recognize and respect the dignity of our fellow Americans.

That we will uphold the Rule of Law and seek to make real the promise of equal justice under law.

That we will do what is right, even if that means doing what is difficult.

And that we will do these things not only for ourselves, but for the generations of Americans who will come after us.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump’s lawyers want to look at the documents themselves that they claim that Trump may have declassified, but won’t provide any evidence because it would expose their legal strategy to the DOJ. Why have a special master if Trump’s lawyers can look at it? Trump seems to have a phobia about providing any evidence.  His thing is unsubstantiated claims. Who knew?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/us/politics/trump-declassification-documents.html

"But apparently undercutting that argument, Mr. Trusty told Judge Dearie at the hearing that he wanted some of his legal partners to get expedited top secret security clearances so that they, too, could view the documents. Mr. Trusty said he already had a top-secret clearance from another case.

'Complicating the matter even further, Julie Edelstein, a lawyer for the Justice Department, told Judge Dearie that a handful of the documents at issue were so secret that even Mr. Trusty’s clearance might not be enough.

'Mr. Trusty responded that “it was kind of astounding” that the government would seek to keep Mr. Trump’s legal team from seeing some of the classified material in the case. They needed to see it all, he said, to determine whether the government had acted properly by removing it during the search of Mar-a-Lago."

Can anyone explain why this shouldn't be taken as transparently offensive stupidity?  I mean:

"Trump took a bunch of documents marked as classified."

"We want a special master to review the documents, because some of them are really Trump's, not evidence."

"No, we won't provide anything saying which ones are Trump's, or why they're Trump's."

"Trump's lawyers  don't know what documents were taken, even though they were in Trump's possession, reviewed by Trump's lawyers, and supposedly declassified by Trump, and they got receipts."

"Trump's lawyers 'solution' is that Trump's lawyers - who are themselves suspects and/or registered foreign agents - be allowed to review all the documents instead of the special master."

I mean the motivation is obvious: delay, with a side helping of stealing or destroying evidence, plus maybe figuring out just how badly they've all screwed up (since one or more of Trump and his lawyers have lied to a court about them). But the idea that anyone, let alone a court, should be expected to give this transparent lying BS a pretense of credibility is patently offensive to reason.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

How many banker's boxes does it take to fit 200,000 pages into? Did Trump leave any documents behind at all? Why would the DOJ say 11,000 when it was really 200,000? So many questions, so few answers.

It's 11,000 documents that contain an estimate (per Trump's filing) of about 200,000 pages.  A banker's box holds about 4 or 5 reams of paper (2,000-2,500 pages) so it would take about 80-100 boxes.

Trump - via his sacrifical lawyers - is pretending that every single newspaper clipping, and/or every single page of printout is a separate document in an effort to delay proceeding and give corrupt judge Cannon an excuse to help him. Once Dearie ordered him to delcare which documents he claimed were his, he knew the jig was up and that Dearie wouldn't cover for him the way Cannon has.

Trump is guilty as sin, so his only play is to try to run out the clock.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I'm as disgusted by anyone as Cannon's outrageous rulings here, but does this really matter? Sure, she's letting trump's team go through everything before they decide if/what they are going to lie and say was planted by the FBI. But do we really think the FBI is stupid, that they didn't see this coming? I'd bet a rather large amount of money that they recorded themselves doing the search so that they could prove everything they took away was already there when they began. This is going to delay, and it will likely lead to another stinging rebuke of Cannon by the 11th Circuit.

It matters in the sense that it helps Trump buy time, and helps destroy the credibility of our justice system.

Trump's near future goal of continuing to escape consequences for his malfeasance involves delaying the course of justice until he and his allies are better positioned to protect or enable him. They're hoping that elections will bring in a traitorous MAGAT House and Senate in 2023 to meddle, and then a MAGAT President (Trump or some other MAGAT, if needed) to shield him fully.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1578696918255177729

This is a distraction and Haberman (who never holds Trump's feet to the fire) is helping to push it.

"People are saying that maybe Trump talked about doing this one horrible thing during his crimes spree, let's focus on the rumored hypothetical musing, and ignore that actual crime spree we.all watched him commit."

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

This is a distraction and Haberman (who never holds Trump's feet to the fire) is helping to push it.

"People are saying that maybe Trump talked about doing this one horrible thing during his crimes spree, let's focus on the rumored hypothetical musing, and ignore that actual crime spree we.all watched him commit."

She's not saying to ignore it at all. It's a big deal if true.

She is trying to get people to focus on a purely hypothetical allegedly contemplated crime (blackmailing the US government with nuclear secrets) instead of providing details of the very well done documented crime Trump did commit (stealing government documents, including National Defense Information).

Trump stays out of jail by constantly vomiting out a vast cloud of malign BS that serves as concealment and distraction from his very real crimes. Haberman and the NYT have been helping him for years by amplifying the BS and failing to provide clarity on the obvious wrongdoing. Just because someone is criticizing Trump does not mean that they're right, nor that they're defending rule of law.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

She is trying to get people to focus on a purely hypothetical allegedly contemplated crime (blackmailing the US government with nuclear secrets) instead of providing details of the very well done documented crime Trump did commit (stealing government documents, including National Defense Information).

Trump stays out of jail by constantly vomiting out a vast cloud of malign BS that serves as concealment and distraction from his very real crimes. Haberman and the NYT have been helping him for years by amplifying the BS and failing to provide clarity on the obvious wrongdoing. Just because someone is criticizing Trump does not mean that they're right, nor that they're defending rule of law.

Dude everything I've heard from legal experts is that if true it makes it worse and DOJ should look into it.

She's not trying to deflect attention. She had an exclusive and she's reporting it. What reporter doesn't want you to focus on their reporting?

It brings more attention to it as far as I'm concerned, because it's another news cycle about it.

Once a source told her this, did you really want her to sit on it and say nothing? You've criticized her in the past for saving stuff for later.

Reporting actual things he did, not excuses for his crimes that are fed to the NYT as a "scoop", thereby legitimizing the excuses.

Here's another example of this in action:

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1579596801178767360

The thing Haberman never says? Trump is lying.

There's an old saying in politics, that we on this board and Maggie Haberman and her editors at the NYT are all very familiar with: "if you're explaining, you're losing". And her response to a self-serving lie by Trump is... to never clearly label it for the self-serving lie it is, and instead proffer an explanation that effectively defends Trump's claims as mere exaggeration. This is not a difficult story to grasp.



Trump needs help to keep his cloud of protective BS airborne, and Haberman eagerly gives it to him. They're chasing and promoting smoke and lies, while ignoring the basics of their job, which it to report the truth. And it's not that difficult. The media's obsession with novel spin, scoops, and eyeballs is part of what's destroying America.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I don't see it as defending him. Like not at all. So if he proposed a deal, that amounts to extortion, to hand over these top secret docs he doesn't have a clearance for, that screams of corruption. Not poor Trump, if only they were nicer to him.

There's no evidence he did anything of the sort, even from the allegations his people leaked to Haberman. Even if it was somehow true, "I thought about blackmailing the Deep State" isn't even crime. It's fodder for his routine of, "See what they accused me of, that I never did? It's all fake!"

And it's working - here you (and a great many others) are, so outraged over something Trump cannot possibly be held accountable for, that the open and shut crime of, "Trump stole a bunch of government documents, including secret one's, and refused to give them back" is fading into the background and Trump and the NYT cloud the coverage.

This is how he got elected in the first place. And yes, the NYT helped the same way back in 2016 - with loads of ineffective criticsm. If they'd stuck with the quite factual "Trump is a bankrupt crook and liar", it would have weight. Instead they helped cover that up with an endless stream of "Trump said" and "But what he really meant was" arguments. Whether they meant to do that, or are just addicted to outrage eyeballs (and access for "scoops") I don't have any way of knowing, and I don't think it really matters.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The point of the allegation is not that Trump might be prosecuted for attempting to make a corrupt bargain.  The point is that if there is corroboration that he was even musing about this idea, it helps to establish that he was willfully retaining documents that he knew to be government property.  Willful retention is an important element in at least one of the statutes under which he's being investigated.

The government doesn't need to chase down twisty, foggy alleyways of "what-if Trump really said" to prove willful and unlawful retention.(aka theft) of government documents. Trump has already handed that to them on a platter.

All Haberman's coverage ever seems to do is overshadow what Trump did, with what Trump said. And that's damned poor journalism, no matter how effective it is as clickbait.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Oh no, evil Maggie strikes again:

https://twitter.com/maggienyt/status/1579879896993521667https://twitter.com/maggienyt/status/1579881699147935745https://twitter.com/maggienyt/status/1579885876871847936

More like misleading Maggie, and yes, this is a fine example; thank you for sharing it.  Lots of words and some passive voice to avoid saying outright: Trump had his lawyer lie to the Department of Justice about the government documents he stole.

Trump will be quite pleased if the NYT spends the next two years and change talking about the legal knots his lawyers tied themselves in on his behalf instead of his own treasonous crimes. The article does, in passing, remind us of one meaning of MAGA: Making Attorneys Get Attorneys. (And there's even a silver lining of sorts: a lot of GOP money is going to Trump's legal bills  instead of key races.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

We thought that this was gonna be the story that puts Trump in jail and he still is out free

It takes time to go from investigation to indictment and arrest on these sorts of cases, even when the perp is not an ex-President. If he's not been charged in another 14 months, then he probably won't ever be.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1595103246305075201

Republicans always want to know who ratted them out. In Individual-1's case, that would be so he can attempt to punish and intimidate them using, among other methods, his terrorist followers.

That this comes immediately before the 11th hearing suggests Individual-1's criminal organization is worried  their pet judge's jurisdiction may be curtailed in the near future.