Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

‘Every time he opens his mouth he incriminates himself’: Legal experts stunned by latest DOJ Trump revelation



Legal experts were quick to react to the U.S. Dept. of Justice near-midnight filing, a 36-page response to Donald Trump's legal team's deemed for a "special master" to review all the evidence federal agents seized at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 – a demand they have been saying was inappropriate to begin with and either too early or too late.

That demand, filed with a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump after the 2020 election, likely became moot quickly as DOJ had wasted no time in completing its review of the 20 cartons of documents, classified and Top Secret documents, and other White House records Trump apparently took with him to his Florida residence.

The special master demand allowed the Dept. of Justice to "speak" through its filing, which is public, and includes the now-viral damning photo displaying the "Top Secret" headings, or covers, of numerous national defense and national security documents sprawled out on the rug of a room at Mar-a-Lago office, which Trump's team refers to as "45 Office."

Now that the experts have had 12 hours overnight to absorb the DOJ's latest filing, they remain dumbfounded as to the severity of its impact on, if nothing else, public perception of the growing and apparent criminal case the federal prosecutors appear to be putting together against the former president.

"DOJ says FBI found one current and one expired official passport, and one expired personal passport, with classified documents in a desk drawer — seemingly tying Trump himself to the unauthorized retention of govt docs," reports The Guardian's Hugo Lowell, who points in part to this portion of the DOJ's filing that reads:

“The location of the passports is relevant evidence in an investigation of unauthorized retention and mishandling of national defense information; nonetheless, the government decided to return those passports in its discretion."

Retired Harvard professor of law Laurence Tribe, who wrote a well-known book on the U.S. Constitution, slammed Trump.

"So even Trump’s complaint about the passports the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago and has since returned turns out to have backfired! Every time he opens his mouth, he incriminates himself further," Tribe tweeted.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, also now a professor of law, and an MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst offered this insight.

"A rare moment where we can thank Trump for something. Without his Ill-advised lawsuit asking for a special master, DOJ would not have had this opportunity to explain the situation with such clarity," she writes.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner adds: "After Trump’s lawyers certified that everything had been returned to the government, the search of MAL [Mar-a-Lago] uncovered tons of ADDITIONAL highly classified documents that had’t been returned, including CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS IN TRUMP’S DESK DRAWERS!"

Tribe sarcastically responded to Kirschner's remarks.

"A new Trump defense," he writes, mocking the former president: “'How in the world would I know what was in MY DRAWERS? Who do you think I am? Houdini? Spiderman? Sheesh. Lots of people are saying NOBODY knows that stuff. They’re saying I’m being treated worse than anybody in world history. Much worse. Hugely worse.'”

Attorney George Conway, who withdrew from consideration to be Trump's Solicitor General, posted a screenshot of a recent Trump "truth," a post from his Truth Social account.

It reads: "Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see. Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!"

Conway, who occasionally question's Trump's mental state, writes, "Not a parody. Evidence of guilt, and of a highly disordered personality."

Read More Here: https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1564984250914557954

[Rick Plant]

DOJ reveals why FBI seized Trump's passports — and how it incriminates him further



Two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump angrily accused FBI agents of confiscating his passports while executing the search at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

"Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else," Trump posted to Truth Social at the time. "This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!"

Ultimately, Justice Department officials returned his passports. But as part of a legal filing late Tuesday night, attorneys for the government explained there was an actual, valid reason why the passports were seized, according to Newsweek — and that reason further incriminates Trump.

"The agency said the former president's claim the FBI agents had improperly taken three of his passports while looking for sensitive material removed from the White House at his Florida home is 'incorrect,'" reported Ewan Palmer. "The Department of Justice explained that the passports were seized by the FBI as they were held in a desk drawer in Trump's office which also included classified documents, and therefore within the scope of the search warrant and relevant to the investigation."

"The government seized the contents of a desk drawer that contained classified documents and governmental records commingled with other documents," explained prosecutors in the filing. "The other documents included two official passports, one of which was expired, and one personal passport, which was expired. The location of the passports is relevant evidence in an investigation of unauthorized retention and mishandling of national defense information."

As The Guardian's Hugo Lowell noted on Twitter, by seizing Trump's passports and cataloguing that they were in the same drawer as classified information, the Justice Department now has clear evidence that Trump himself must have been reviewing and holding onto these documents personally — as opposed to his staffers or lawyers doing so.

This comes as the Justice Department released damning new pictures as part of the same filing, showing documents with prominent "SECRET" and "TOP SECRET" cover pages that were seized as part of the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.

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

[Rick Plant]

Trump special master stunt backfires as DOJ deploys 'legal battering ram' in late-night filing



Legal and political experts said Donald Trump made a self-inflicted blunder when he pushed for a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, which allowed the Department of Justice to address his claims in a 36-page document filed shortly before midnight on Tuesday, which included 18 pages of exhibits including a photo of documents with highly classified control labels.

"I have read the entire Government filing. I spend all day, every day, litigating against the Government, so some of this is familiar stuff to see. This particular brief is very well-done," attorney Bradley Moss tweeted.

"To sum it up, Trump took plainly marked classified records to [Mar-a-Lago], he delayed, obstructed and resisted Government efforts to recover them, he (or his staff) concealed the records from investigators, and they got caught doing so," Moss explained.

Former Deputy Assistant AG Harry Litman summarized DOJ's arguments.

"Facts (11 pages): Trump's assertion he cooperated is a joke; in fact he delayed access repeatedly," Litman wrote. "Law: (20 pages): first principles: these are not his records. He has no legal entitlement to challenge anything."

"Once again, Trump hoist on his own petard," Litman wrote. "The DOJ 's justification for a fairly full new factual recitation is that Trump went running to another court that hadn't reviewed the affidavit and needs facts--which we get too--showing that claim of having been cooperative is bogus."

"More evidence Trump disobeyed subpoena and concealed more docs," wrote attorney Ryan Goodman.

He noted Trump's push for a special master, "opened the door for DOJ to publicly correct the record in a response brief. Trump's legal team, and their client, again with self-inflicted wounds."

Attorney and Vox writer Ian Millhiser agreed.

"If I were Trump’s lawyers, I would not have filed a motion seeking a fairly minor form of relief, knowing full well that this motion would give the notoriously taciturn DOJ an opportunity to lay out much of its criminal case to a public that is still forming its opinion about it," Millhiser wrote.

Journalist Kurt Eichenwald wrote, "Of the many mistakes Trump has made in life, the biggest one was filing this motion for a special master, because it opened the door for DOJ to unload on him in its response and reveal how he engaged in criminal obstruction of justice by lying in response to a grand jury subpoena."

"Robert Mueller danced around clearly implicating Trump in obstruction of justice," wrote Trump biographer Tim O'Brien. "The DOJ filing tonight has no such hesitation — it’s a legal battering ram that lays out a clear pattern of obstruction."

Attorney Teri ....field wrote, "Just to point out the obvious: Trump keeps lying to the FBI and when he filed his lawsuit, he lied to the court. Here's where the DOJ says, oh and by the way, Trump lied when he told you that the search was to enforce the Presidential Records Act."

Trump's filing may have even implicated more people.

"DOJ suggests Trump counsel and Trump custodian — understood to be Christina Bobb — committed obstruction by representing that all docs from WH were in one storage location when they weren’t, and that all docs were turned over in response to subpoena when they weren’t," journalist Hugo Lowell reported.

Civil rights attorney Matthew Segal said, "I struggle to understand how in the year 2022 anyone is still vouching for any factual claims on behalf of Donald Trump, let alone doing so in a signed certification to the FBI and DOJ."

Defense attorney Sara Azari concluded, "Trump is screwed."

But for some, the filing raised even more questions.

"After reading the DOJ's Response tonight, I'm even more intrigued about how the FBI found out that there were more classified records at MAL, including outside of the storage room. All of which led to the search warrant being obtained," former prosecutor Katie Phang noted. "Who ratted on Trump to the Feds?"

Read More Here: https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1564824297130139648



Trump is a 'deranged, defective personality' we're watching 'self-destruct in real time': George Conway



On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "All In," conservative attorney George Conway tore into former President Donald Trump for his scheme to hoard classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida — now the subject of a massive FBI investigation and an intense back-and-forth with the DOJ in a Florida court.

The most remarkable thing, noted Conway and anchor Chris Hayes, is that Trump had numerous chances to simply comply with the law and not face any jeopardy — and refused to do it at every turn.

"I watched Trump do all kinds of things," said Hayes. "Previous life and public life, where he seemed either to be breaking the law or flirting with breaking the law. He encouraged Russian sabotage, criminal sabotage of the election, right? Cheered it on. He attempted to blackmail a foreign leader used foreign policy like dirty tricks against his opponent. He attempted the first ever, essentially, coup in U.S. government history, so he can stay in power. All the motives are clear, he did not have to do this. It is so wild that he has brought this on himself by deciding to just hoard and steal a bunch of documents that weren't his and lie about it."

"And not only that, but he could have given those documents he had last year, and this would have been over!" exclaimed Conway. "It's incomprehensible. He's a sociopath, and he's a narcissist. He's a sociopath who knows no bounds, no rules, does not care about the rights of others, only cares about himself. Even if he cares about himself, you think you would know enough not to do this."

Trump's insistence on keeping highly classified documents, said Conway, is a sign of a "defective" worldview.

"He can't help himself," said Conway. "Everything belongs to him. He is the center of his own universe. We are all abstractions to him. We belong to him. The generals across the river at the Pentagon belong to him. They were my generals. These documents, they were my documents. The presidency, it is mine, I get to keep it. If I don't get to keep it, someone's stealing it from me. This is a deranged, defective personality that is self-destructive to the core, and we are watching him self-destruct in real time."

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

'Smoking gun' DOJ evidence suggests Trump committed a 'willful violation of the law': legal expert



Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade believes she may have identified the equivalent of "smoking gun" evidence after analyzing DOJ's late-night court filing which included 18-pages of exhibits.

"In a 36-page brief responding to Trump’s motion to appoint a special master to review the material seized by the FBI, the Justice Department explained that three of the classified documents were recovered from Trump’s private office, known as 'the 45 Office.' According to DOJ’s recent brief, classified documents in that office were 'commingled' in a desk drawer with three passports," McQuade wrote for The Daily Beast. "While the government did not disclose the name on the passports, Trump himself has complained that during the search, the FBI “stole” his three passports. It seems a safe bet that the passports DOJ recovered were Trump’s."

McQuade noted footnote six, which said, "The location of the passports is relevant evidence in an investigation of unauthorized retention and mishandling of national defense information; nonetheless."

"In other words, the presence of the passports in the same drawer as the classified records tends to tie the unauthorized possession of these documents to Trump himself," she wrote. "A photo included with the filing shows the items that were recovered from his office. Among the classification markings on the documents are 'Top Secret,' meaning that the disclosure of the material could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States."

McQuade wasn't the only expert to focus on the wording in the footnote.

Berkeley Law Prof. Orin Kerr wrote, "In a footnote, DOJ explains that while they returned the passports voluntary, legally they could have kept them as evidence: They were in a desk drawer mixed together with illegally mishandled classified documents, so they could help prove who had mishandled the documents."

Attorney Ryan Goodman agreed the location is important.

"Active passports in same drawer as classified docs. Prosecutors could even note that at trial," Goodman wrote.

McQuade concluded that the location of the documents could suggest a "willful" violation of law.

"To the extent Trump may be inclined to pin all blame on his lawyer who signed a document in June attesting that all of the classified documents had been returned, the documents in his personal desk drawer are a problem for him. The former president would need to explain away the notion that he himself possessed these documents long after the government asked for their return, and despite personal assurances from Trump when Counterintelligence Section Chief Jay Bratt visited Mar-a-Lago in June to inspect the storage of documents," McQuade wrote. "The former president’s continued retention of the documents, even after the repeated requests to return them, suggests a willful violation of the law."

Read More Here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-trumps-passports-the-fbis-smoking-gun



Former top Trump aides: Probably 'more highly classified documents at Bedminster' or his kids' homes



Many Americans watching the national security crisis of Donald Trump‘s alleged unlawful possession, retention, and refusal to return documents likely containing some of the country’s top, most-closely guarded secrets have been wondering if the Dept. of Justice has been able to acquire all the documents taken from the White House, and if Trump was able to make any copies of those documents.

Two former top aides to the former president suggest there may be cause for concern on that front.

“I have been saying this since the @FBI raid,” former Trump longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen said via Twitter Wednesday. “I believe #Trump has copies, potentially other documents as well, at other locations including his children’s homes, Weisselberg’s florida home, Bedminster, NJ golf course, Fifth Avenue apartment, etc…”

Weisselberg is Allen Weisselberg, the former CFO of the Trump Organization who began working for the Trump family in 1970. Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to 15 criminal felony charges.

Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, who first began working for the federal government in 1972, also says there may be more documents hidden in places other than Mar-a-Lago.

“Well given that it’s Donald Trump we’re talking about,” Bolton told Sky News (video below), “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more highly classified documents at Bedminster or some some other residence of his.”

AFP



Conservative legal expert thinks Trump is 'likely to be charged' with obstruction of justice



In an op-ed published in the National Review this Wednesday, conservative commentator Andrew McCarthy predicts that former President Donald Trump is facing "the very serious prospect of being indicted for obstruction of justice and causing false statements to be made to the government."

McCarthy cites a portion of the recently released affidavit justifying the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago that reads, “There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the PREMISES" for his reasoning.

The filing provides the most detailed account yet of the motivation for the FBI raid this month on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, which was triggered by a review of records he previously surrendered to authorities that contained top secret information.

McCarthy, a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, writes that he thinks the Justice Department has a much stronger obstruction case against Trump than it does for his alleged mishandling of classified information.

"If there is convincing proof of attempts to conceal or destroy government records, especially highly classified ones, that could change the equation. The Justice Department typically takes very seriously any tampering with witnesses or evidence," McCarthy writes. "I am not saying the former president is guilty of such behavior — and again, we don’t know what the government represented to the court in this regard. But it might well be possible for the Justice Department to prosecute a narrow obstruction case without having to expose classified intelligence and the identities of, at least, most of its informants."

McCarthy goes on to write that he's seen enough proof to think that Trump "is likely to be charged."

"Proving potential charges against Trump does not involve navigating the same complications that would arise from trying to prove classified-information offenses," he writes. "Just as critical, they involve conduct that would be very easy for the public to understand, and for which the average person would be indicted."

AFP



Trump investigation is 'like a narcotics case': former prosecutor



On Wednesday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat," former federal prosecutor and white-collar criminal defense attorney Danya Perry broke down the legal predicament of former President Donald Trump as the FBI investigates his improper hoarding of highly classified information at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Specifically, Perry argued that Trump's situation is similar to that of people caught in major drug busts — and his potential lines of defense are just as limited.

"Even if Trump had attempted to declassify — and I say attempt because which don't know he successfully did it — the fact that he had the records in his possession since the beginning evidence of his guilt?" asked anchor Katie Phang.

"In some ways this is like a narcotics case," said Perry. "This is if you have it in your possession, yes, you can argue I didn't realize that white powdery substance was cocaine. But that's a difficult argument. I've never seen that argument succeed."

Furthermore, noted Perry, the Justice Department already has some evidence Trump did, in fact, know exactly what he was doing.

"We saw some tells in the filing," said Perry. "Some of the documents as you pointed out earlier were in his office, in his desk, and they were intermingled with his personal documents and his passports. So that's another tell that he had to know. And if he saw them, if he put eyes on them and they're in his residence, I do agree that's an open-and shut case.

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

Trump ‘admits possession’ with Truth Social post that is ‘evidence of his guilt’: analysis



Legal experts were stunned on Wednesday when Donald Trump took to his Truth Social website and essentially admitted his guilt hours before his lawyers had a deadline to respond to the bombshell, late-night DOJ filing.

At question was a photo taken by FBI agents showing documents with classification markings on cover sheets.

"The folders were arrayed by agents at Mar-a-Lago after being removed from what the filing indicated was Mr. Trump’s office — they were not discovered scattered on the floor, according to two federal law enforcement officials," The New York Times reported. "Files or documents are not tossed around randomly, even though they might appear that way; they are usually splayed out so they can be separately identified by their markings. The ruler seen in the image is to give a sense of their size in relation to other objects."

The newspaper reported "the genesis of the photograph appears to be in keeping with standard protocols for how federal agents handle evidence they come across in a search."

But Trump offered his own thoughts on Truth Social.

"There seems to be confusion as to the 'picture' where documents were sloppily thrown on the floor and then released photographically for the world to see, as if that’s what the FBI found when they broke into my home. Wrong! They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet, making it look like a big 'find' for them," Trump posted. "They dropped them, not me - very deceiving."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times noted, "Trump has moved off suggesting things were planted and now says documents were 'in cartons' at his house/club…which he says even though his lawyer signed a document asserting all material was in the storage area and went back, per DOJ."

Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post described it as, "They took out the documents that our lawyers said we didn't have and took pictures of them."

Trump's post shocked legal experts.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted, "Trump's admission that the classified material was 'in cartons' at his residence is evidence of his guilt."

It would be like a defendant taking issue with a FBI photo showing bricks of cocaine on the floor of his residence instead of 'in cartons.' It admits possession," Mariotti explained.

Former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissman said, "Trump is a criminal defense lawyer's nightmare."

"His uninhibited mouthing off is actually serving to make the criminal case against him stronger," Weissman wrote.

https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1565101591891480576



Legal experts say Trump lawyers may need their own lawyers after 'damning' DOJ filing



The Justice Department on Tuesday said in a filing that former President Donald Trump and his legal team "likely" tried to conceal classified documents after being hit with a grand jury subpoena.

The 36-page filing, which came in response to Trump's dubious request to appoint a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago residence, details the DOJ's evidence of obstruction of justice. The DOJ filing suggests that Trump and his team may have tried to mislead investigators when Trump attorney Christina Bobb signed a document affirming that all classified documents sought by the National Archives had been returned.

The DOJ filing included a photo of some classified documents that were seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago office, some of which are labeled "Top Secret," "Secret" and "Sensitive Compartmented Information."

"Lordy, there are pics," tweeted conservative attorney George Conway.

The filing detailed extensive efforts to recover the documents that led investigators to believe that "government records were likely concealed and removed … and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation."

Agents during the August 8 Mar-a-Lago search found material so sensitive that "even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents," according to the filing.

The filing also includes a written document signed by Bobb affirming that Trump had turned over all relevant documents in response to a grand jury subpoena seeking records he withheld after turning over 15 boxes of materials to the National Archives earlier this year. When the FBI searched the property, they found more than 100 more classified documents, which "calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter," the filing said.

The filing said that agents came to believe that Bobb and fellow Trump attorney Evan Corcoran may have obstructed the investigation.

"The former President's counsel explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained" after Bobb signed the document, the filing said, undercutting Trump and his lawyers' claims that he was "cooperating fully" with the probe.

The filing came after Trump's lawyers sought to have a judge appoint a special master to review the seized documents for potentially privileged information. The DOJ said in a filing on Monday that a "filter team" had already reviewed the files for possibly privileged documents. The DOJ argued that Trump's request is now effectively moot and rejected Trump's demand to return the documents "because those records do not belong to him."

"The former President cites no case — and the government is aware of none — in which executive privilege has been successfully invoked to prohibit the sharing of documents within the Executive Branch," the filing said.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointee, signaled earlier this week that she may be inclined to grant Trump's request for a special master. But the move would do little to impact the investigation and some legal experts believe that Trump's request already backfired.

"It opened the door for DOJ to publicly correct the record in Response brief," tweeted Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor. "Trump's legal team, and their client, again with self-inflicted wounds."

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller's team, agreed that the Trump request was a "huge misstep."

"DOJ has used its response to disclose damning proof of a series of crimes, which it would not otherwise have been able to do," he wrote. "And one very compelling photo."

Weissmann in an appearance on MSNBC also suggested that Trump's attorneys may need to lawyer up themselves.

"You need to withdraw as counsel and you need to get the best defense counsel you can possibly get and stop talking," Weissmann warned Trump's lawyers. "They are clearly going to be interviewed and, at the very least, they're going to be witnesses… And I say at the very least because they could be in worse trouble here."

Conway, a frequent Trump critic, agreed that all signs suggest that the DOJ may prosecute Trump's lawyers as co-defendants: "I think it would be almost crazy NOT to anticipate such an indictment at this point."

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1564841394383925250



Trump lawyer John Eastman spent the morning pleading the 5th to Georgia grand jury



Donald Trump lawyer John Eastman spent the morning testifying to the special grand jury called in Fulton County, Georgia, where he was asked about attempts to overthrow the 2020 election in the state.

Eastman penned the so-called "coup memo," which demanded that then-Vice President Mike Pence stop the electoral college count on Jan. 6, 2022.

“And all we are demanding of Vice President Pence is this afternoon at 1p.m., he let the legislators of the state look into this so we get to the bottom of it, and the American people know whether we have control of the direction of our government, or not,” he said.

His theories were ones that concerned White House lawyers.

“I don't remember why he called me,“ White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said in the House Select Committee probe earlier this year. “He started asking me something about dealing with Georgia and preserving something potentially for appeal.”

He continued: “I said to him, 'are you out of your f*cking mind?' right. I said, ”I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on — orderly transition.”

District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, presiding over the Fulton County case, said that judicial records proved that Eastman spoke with Georgia lawmakers about the 2020 election, as well as crafting the memos mentioning Georgia to the president.

“I do think there is a logical correlation” between the grand jury investigation and Eastman’s experience and information about the events being investigated, Marlow Sommer explained.

The Santa Fe, New Mexico lawyer appeared virtually before the court, and according to his lawyers Charles Burnham and Harvey Silverglate, Eastman pleaded his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

"By all indications, the District Attorney's Office has set itself on the path of criminalizing controversial or disfavored legal theories, possibly in hopes that the federal government will follow its lead," the statement said.

If Eastman's only concern was controversial or disfavored legal theories he wouldn't need to be concerned about incriminating himself.

Read the full statement here: https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/1565033542643482629

[Rick Plant]

Lawrence O’Donnell flabbergasted ‘stupidest man on earth’ hid the evidence in his desk

MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell on Wednesday examined why it was is important that FBI agents allegedly seized classified information from Donald Trump's desk.

"The Trump lawyers, on Jun. 3, swore under oath that they were on that day, handing everything over to the FBI," O'Donnell reported. "When the FBI comes back with a search warrant, they find twice as many classified documents as the Trump lawyers handed over to them."

"And where did they find them? In his desk," O'Donnell continued. "In his desk! That's where the FBI found three classified documents when they executed the search warrant of Trump's home, in Donald Trump's desk! In his damn desk! That's where they were!"

"For well over 100 years now, going back to at least Sherlock Holmes, we have been treated to an endless array of mystery novels and short stories, and plays, and movies, and TV shows. They bring in a detective that struggles mightily to get into the mind of the brilliant criminal, to try to imagine, 'If I was the brilliant criminal, where would I hide the evidence of my crime, the proof of my crime?'"

He continued by saying, "On the morning of august 8th, FBI agents had to imagine, 'If I was the stupidest man in the world, or maybe just the stupidest man who ever won the Electoral College, where would I hide the evidence of a crime?' "And so the FBI went straight to Donald Trump's desk where they found three classified documents, which is exactly three more than Donald Trump was legally allowed to have in his desk."

O'Donnell concluded, "the only way those documents could be closer to Donald Trump is if they were in his pockets."

He explained how he keeps his passport in the upper-right drawer in his desk.

"I know exactly what's in the drawer with my passport, it's the most important drawer in the office. It's the drawer where the most important stuff goes," O'Donnell explained. "And so tonight, Donald Trump's sleep struggle it's going to be trying to fall asleep well he wonders if the FBI has been able to find his fingerprints on the classified documents that he was hiding in his desk."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

‘This is crazy!’ Democratic lawmakers fear 'erratic and strange' Trump will blurt out top-secret intel in fit of rage



Democrats are increasingly concerned that Donald Trump will reveal top-secret intelligence during his ongoing public meltdown over the search of Mar-A-Lago.

FBI agents seized boxes of classified materials the former president had hoarded at his private resort in Florida, and lawmakers are worried that he might lash out against the government by blurting out top-secret information on his Truth Social account or during back-channel discussions with foreign leaders, reported The Daily Beast.

“I would not leave it beyond him to do something as insane as that," said Rep. Ted Lieu (DCA). "When someone is cornered, they make very bad decisions, and Donald Trump is in a very bad situation right now. We don’t know what he will do."

A photo released Tuesday by the Department of Justice shows investigators found top-secret documents, some marked as highly classified, in boxes and desk drawers at Mar-A-Lago, and Trump's social media posts have gotten increasingly unhinged -- and have hinted he may retaliate by releasing some of that information.

“Thought they wanted them kept Secret?" Trump posted Wednesday morning. "Lucky I Declassified!”

A court filing revealed the DOJ was seeking documents that could include specific information about the nation's nuclear weapons, which under the Atomic Energy Act a president cannot unilaterally declassify -- but Lieu is concerned Trump would try anyway.

“You can’t just have this lying around at Mar-a-Lago -- this is crazy,” Lieu said. “Who knows who would have seen these documents in a public place like Mar-a-Lago? This is a resort where lots of people go.”

Other lawmakers expressed fears about who had already seen some of that information, and Trump's own attorney Alina Habba admitted Wednesday night on Fox News the former president hosted frequently guests in the office where some of that material was found.

“Did the MyPillow guy spend hours in the office taking notes? Did Rudy Giuliani? We don’t know," said Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT). "We’ve got to assess that to see if there are steps we should take to mitigate damage. To put them in an unsecure office, where his pals can amuse themselves by looking at these documents, is appalling.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) was concerned that Trump refused to read his daily spy briefing as president but was interested enough in that secret information to squirrel those documents away at his private home, and he said those online rage spasms were a source of anxiety.

“It’s hard to predict exactly what he’s going to do," Castro said. In the last few days, he’s been behaving very frantically. It’s very erratic and strange behavior — particularly from a former president. But the entire episode of how he treated those documents was erratic and unsafe.”

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) agreed Trump's social media posts presented an ongoing threat to national security.

“Here’s what makes it truly scary: Trump is weirdly attached to all of this ‘Top Secret’ information, he constantly throws tantrums, and he has an insatiable desire for attention including on social media,” Huffman said. “Since he no longer has White House china to smash, his next tantrum might be blurting out sensitive national secrets on Truth Social, or calling his pal [Vladimir] Putin to divulge or even sell information. With anyone else these would seem like crazy scenarios, but not with Trump.”

Read More Here:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/democratic-lawmakers-grow-concerned-donald-trump-may-spill-state-secrets

[Rick Plant]

'Isn't that sedition?' Trump ignites fury after revealing he's financially supporting J6 defendants



Donald Trump revealed Thursday he is meeting with and financially supporting January 6 insurrection defendants, while he floated pardons for them in remarks he made on the far right wing Wendy Bell Radio streaming podcast. His remarks are causing concern among legal and government experts.

“So I met with a number of fans but I met with and I’m financially supporting people that are incredible,” Trump announced (video below), referring to those who he said are being charged with crimes related to the January 6 insurrection, while mentioning that “contributions should be made.”

“And they were in my office actually two days ago. It’s very much on my mind. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people. It’s disgraceful and, and mostly, I mean, you know, it’s firemen, they’re policemen, there are people in the military. There are people that were, you know, you look at what took place with the police where there are ushering them in and so many different things.

Trump went on to bash “radical leftists,” who he called “sick,” and said, “there’s something wrong with them, and nobody’s ever seen anything like this.”

He also called federal prosecutors the “most cold-hearted people,” saying “they don’t care about families. They don’t care about anything. They just, and you see what they’re doing with the sentencing.”

“And I will tell you, and I’m looking at it very carefully, I’ve studied it, I study cases and contributions shouldn be made. We have to do that because you know, they have some good lawyers, but even the good lawyers, you get some of these judges that that are so so nasty and so angry, mean, the sentences, and I will tell you, I will look very, very favorably about about full pardons, if I decide to run and if I win I will be looking very, very strongly at pardons – full pardons.”

“I think that’s probably going to be the best because even if they go for the two months or six months and you know they have sentences that go a lot longer than that, but we’ll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons. Because we can’t let that happen here, and I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he declared.

Experts are expressing outrage.

“So, if you are meeting with seditionists and giving them money and promising them pardons which could be seen as obstruction of justice and support for further anti-government violence…isn’t that, um, sedition?” asked foreign policy, national security, and political affairs expert, journalist, CEO, and political commentator David Rothkopf.

“If Trump is elected, he’ll apologize to the J6 traitors because the Capitol police got in the way of their bats, poles, stun guns and bear spray,” observed former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob.

“But this isn’t fascism, right?” former U.S. Dept. of Defense official Adam Blickstein noted sardonically.

“Coup leader pledges relief to his assistants,” observed attorney Eric Columbus, who served at DOJ, DHS, and as a special counsel in the House and Senate.

“Trump admits to funding the people who violently attacked the capitol in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the election. Also, he wants to pardon them and wants America to apologize to them, said Democratic strategist and former Clinton aide Jesse Ferguson.

https://www.rawstory.com/isnt-that-sedition-trump-ignites-fury-after-revealing-he-s-financially-supporting-j6-defendants/