Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Donald Trump once said "I have the best words" but when given the opportunity to use them yesterday, he pleaded the fifth more than four hundred times.

[Rick Plant]

Merrick Garland announces DOJ will seek to unseal search warrant of Trump's Mar-a-Lago — and he personally approved it



WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered remarks on Thursday afternoon days after the FBI conducted a search warrant at President Donald Trump's Florida home at Mar-a-Lago.

"Since I became attorney general, I have made clear that the Department of Justice will speak through its court filings and its work," Garland began. "Just now the justice Department has filed a motion in the southern district of florida to unseal a search warrant and property receipt relating to a court-approved search that the FBI conducted earlier this week. that search was a premises located in Florida belonging to the former president. The department did not make any public statements on the day of the search. The former president publicly confirmed the search that evening, as is his right."

The motion to unseal the search warrant doesn't give any details, however.

President Donald Trump and his lawyers were given the search warrant, but he said that he wouldn't make it public. The judge who signed off on it, however, asked the Justice Department to consider it.

"Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken," Garland also said. This is a confirmation that the DOJ had been working with Trump to obtain the documents through other means prior to the search warrant. The New York Times reported Thursday morning that they had subpoenaed the information from Trump earlier this spring.

Garland revealed that he personally signed off on the act and went on to emphatically chastise those attacking the Justice Department and the FBI implying improper behavior.

"Let me address recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors. I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked," he said. "The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants. Every day they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism, and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them."

AFP


Merrick Garland called Donald Trump’s bluff: legal expert



Attorney General Merrick Garland held a press conference on Thursday revealing the Department of Justice has moved to unseal the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and redacted property receipt listing the items seized.

Following the press conference, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig offered his analysis during a CNN interview.

"We essentially saw Merrick Garland call Donald Trump's bluff," Honig said. "So essentially Merrick garland said, 'Okay, Donald Trump, you're not going to release them, we're going to do it, we're going to put those documents in front of the American public.'"

Honig also explained what he's looking for if the documents are unsealed.

"The warrant typically will list logistical information, place to be searched, usually a general description of items to be searched for, the name of the judge, a deadline by which DOJ has to execute the search," Honig said.

"But it also sometimes has what we call an attachment," he explained. "That attachment typically will list the statutes, the laws that DOJ believes it has probable cause to believe were violated. So that's going to be the first thing I look for. I'm going to look right at that attachment and say do they list the statutes, that's going to tell us what laws could be at play here."

The motion to unseal the documents asks the judge to unseal the search warrant "including Attachments A and B."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for classified ‘nuclear weapons’ documents: report



Explosive new information is coming out about the focus of the FBI search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.

"Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday," The Washington Post reported, citing "people familiar with the investigation."

"Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands," the newspaper reported. "Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts said. Publicizing details about U.S. weapons could provide an intelligence road map to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems. And other countries might view exposing their nuclear secrets as a threat, experts said."

David Laufman, the former head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, explained the significance if the report is true.

"If that is true, it would suggest that material residing unlawfully at Mar-a-Lago may have been classified at the highest classification level,” Laufman said. “If the FBI and the Department of Justice believed there were top secret materials still at Mar-a-Lago, that would lend itself to greater ‘hair-on-fire’ motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible.”

Trumpland was reportedly "caught off guard" by Attorney General Merrick Garland's call to unseal the search warrant so the public would learn more details.

Read the full report: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/11/garland-trump-mar-a-lago/

[Rick Plant]

‘Signals intel’ at Mar-a-Lago makes Trump’s scandal look so much worse: experts



While the world was shocked after The Washington Post dropped the bombshell report that the FBI was searching Mar-a-Lago for nuclear weapons documents, some national security experts were also shocked that "signals intelligence" was recovered from Donald Trump's Florida home.

"Former senior intelligence officials said in interviews that during the Trump administration, highly classified intelligence about sensitive topics, including about intelligence-gathering on Iran, was routinely mishandled," the newspaper reported. "One former official said the most highly classified information often ended up in the hands of personnel who didn’t appear to have a need to possess it or weren’t authorized to read it. That former official also said signals intelligence — intercepted electronic communications like emails and phone calls of foreign leaders — was among the type of information that often ended up with unauthorized personnel. Such intercepts are among the most closely guarded secrets because of what they can reveal about how the United States has penetrated foreign governments."

That pattern may not have ended when Trump left the White House after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

"A person familiar with the inventory of 15 boxes taken from Mar-a-Lago in January indicated that signals intelligence material was included in them," the newspaper reported. "The precise nature of the information was unclear."

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal tweeted, "Signals intelligence (like electronic intercepts) are some of the most sensitive and secretive material in the US."

"There are a host of special markings and protections on every such document," Katyal noted.

The fact signals intelligence was reportedly recovered at Mar-a-Lago shocked national security professionals.

Retired USAF Gen. Michael Hayden, who served as director of the NSA and CIA, simply tweeted, "Jesus Christ."

Bill Kristol, who served as Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff, offered his analysis.

"It’s been a while since I was in government, but signals intelligence—man, you are really not supposed to mess around with that," he wrote.

He wondered if it might be connected to Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"People ask why Trump would keep docs," he added. "Plenty of possible reasons. E.g.—and this example is pure speculation: Signals intel on MBS and [Jamal] Khashoggi, or on Saudi nukes, are the kind of docs you’d want in case you had to remind the Saudis to keep the $ coming."

Historian Claire Potter wrote, "If it was you or I who, and not Trump, who were in possession of top secret documents about nuclear weapons, or signals intel--well, you or I would be in handcuffs in a very bright room with glam rock playing in our ears. Yet he plays the victim."

Journalist Kurt Eichenwald wrote, "I never thought there was anything left that Trump could do that could shock me. But THIS? He took nuclear weapons and signals intel documents to his g*dd**n golf resort? Ok, I will finally say it. Lock him up."

Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes was asked about the reporting during an interview with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell.

Rhodes said, "I keep coming back to the fact that — how unusual, how remarkably unusual it would be for anybody to be keeping this information, frankly even like while you are in the White House. It's not like you need to keep records of the stuff if you are the president of the United States."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Republicans told to quiet their attacks on the FBI because the info on Trump could be damaging: report​​​



After President Donald Trump's home on his golf club's property Mar-a-Lago was searched by the FBI, Republican allies took to social media and conservative news outlets to attack the FBI and question whether there was a conspiracy afoot to bring down the GOP leader. But now Republicans are being told to quiet those complaints.

According to the New York Times, GOP leaders have been warned by allies of Trump's to calm their aggressive attacks on Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement. The Trump insiders say "it is possible that more damaging information about Mr. Trump related to the search will eventually become public."

Within hours of the news being announced, Trump took to his social media site to rant that he was the victim of a "witch hunt." His son, Eric Trump, however, told Fox's Sean Hannity that the FBI had been negotiating with Trump for months to get the documents back. There was a concern that the top-secret information wasn't in a secure location on the property.

The report said that the Justice Department was concerned that the documents were of such a dramatically sensitive nature that they were forced to act. The information backs up what Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said two days ago when he explained to MSNBC that there was an urgency in the case.

"I think part of the urgency here is that Trump has very poor counterintelligence hygiene," he continued. "He blabs secrets all the time. He is not careful about this kind of information. We also know Mar-a-Lago has been a target for foreign governments trying to get access to information. There was a trespasser several years ago who was arrested there, who was believed to be linked to the Chinese intelligence service. So I think that they want to make sure that they get these out of an unsecure location and out of potential hands that shouldn't have it."

It was reported in 2019 that Chinese businesswoman Yujing Zhang was arrested at Mar-a-Lago with four mobile phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive, and a thumb drive that “contained malicious software,” the court documents said. She'd made it through at least five Secret Service agents. She's not a sanctioned spy, however.

Read More Here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/us/politics/trump-fbi-subpoena.html

[Rick Plant]

'I don't trust the guy': Former Florida Trump voters support FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago



On Thursday, Axios reported that a new focus group of Donald Trump supporters in Florida who had switched to Joe Biden in 2020 revealed the vast majority of them were turned off by the former president — and trusted the FBI in its search of Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI was looking for classified information that had been stolen when the former president and his associates left the White House — and new reporting this evening indicates some of the information the FBI was looking for were U.S. nuclear secrets.

"Eleven of 12 participants said it was appropriate for the FBI to execute a signed search warrant at the home of the former president — and that it would be a serious crime to take documents from the White House in an unauthorized fashion even if that person previously held the office," reported Alexi McCammond. "None said they would support Trump if he ran again."

"Engagious/Schlesinger conducted two online focus groups on Monday night with 12 Floridians who voted for Trump in 2016, then Joe Biden in 2020," said the report. "One is now registered as a Republican, four as independents and seven as Democrats. While a focus group is not a statistically significant sample like a poll, the responses show how some voters are thinking and talking about current events."

In contrast to the attitude of these voters, Trump's associates have spent several days attacking the FBI and accusing them of a political hit on the former president — and some of Trump's current supporters are calling for a civil war on social media. This anger culminated in a Trump supporter who was previously at the January 6 insurrection being killed by police after he tried to shoot his way into the FBI building in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Regardless of the outrage from Trump supporters, a recent poll showed that Americans as a whole support the FBI investigation.

Read More Here: https://www.axios.com/2022/08/12/florida-swing-voters-mar-a-lago-fbi-raid



Dem congressman: Law enforcement officers are 'sitting ducks' for Trump extremists



On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "The ReidOut," Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) tore into the GOP for violent rhetoric against the FBI's search warrant of former President Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

This comes after an armed man who had advocated violence against the FBI for going after Trump was killed by police after trying to breach a federal building in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"From your perspective, when days like this happen, when you have a would-be terrorist attack the FBI office in Cincinnati after having a conversation with Marjorie Taylor Greene, how does it feel going back to work, how do you feel the next time you go back to Congress that you have colleagues who encourage violent terrorists?" asked anchor Jason Johnson.

"It's sickening where we have arrived, we is to say, somebody's going to get killed," said Swalwell. "Well, people died on January 6th. And today, when it's just most intolerable is in the last 48 hours since the FBI search Donald Trump's home, you can draw directly from what Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lindsey Graham all said, threats against law enforcement, the lies that they told about law enforcement and what these individuals foisted online before he took up arms against the FBI. And it's a little personal for me because I have two brothers who are law enforcement officers."

All law enforcement officers could be targets, argued Swalwell, not just the FBI — they might even go after local city cops on the street.

"We know these guys are not geniuses, they are targeting law enforcement, so they have a lot of people wearing the uniform who are sitting ducks right now," said Swalwell. "Someone is fired up and being told by Kevin McCarthy that these folks are going rogue are these folks are not like they're going to look for FBI agents, they will go after any law enforcement officer they see. So they are at risk. This party, by the way, who has told us for so long that they back the blue and Democrats want to defund the police — when you talk like this, it doesn't sound like you are pro-cop. It sounds like you are pro-coup."

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

FBI Agents Association blasts Trump allies: 'Calls for violence against law enforcement are unacceptable'



A man with an AR-15 and a nail gun went after the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio Thursday morning leading to a chase and crisis negotiation with the individual. Supporters of President Donald Trump have filled message boards with attacks on federal law enforcement and attacked the judge who signed the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. Republicans have attacked the FBI, going so far as to demand defunding the FBI and implying that they planted evidence.

By Thursday afternoon, the FBI Agents' Association released a statement saying that leaders should be supporting federal law enforcement not urging on attackers.

"FBI Special Agents are dedicated members of the law enforcement community who put their lives on the line every day to protect the public from criminals and terrorists," the statement said. "Special Agents and their families should never be threatened with violence, including for doing their jobs."

"The threats made recently contribute to an atmosphere where some have, or will accept violence against law enforcement as appropriate. It is not. This is not a partisan or political issue. It is a matter of public safety and basic decency. Calls for violence against law enforcement are unacceptable, and should be condemned by all leaders."

After the news broke about the search warrant, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) called to destroy the FBI. The tweet was still online three days later.



Earlier on Thursday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) was confronted by a Fox News host who asked what happened to "backing the blue," meaning why he was no longer supportive of law enforcement.

"The FBI, with 35,000 members, you know, now they apparently are receiving a lot of specific field agents are receiving specific death threats because there are a number of people online and elsewhere who are demonizing the FBI, and some Republicans," the Fox host explained to the Congressman.

Read More Here: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/us/cincinnati-fbi-office-armed-subject/index.html



Ohio FBI gunman may have been at U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6: NYT



The man wearing body armor and armed with an assault-style rifle who allegedly attempted to breach the Cincinnati FBI building may have Jan. 6 ties, according to The New York Times.

"Investigators are looking into whether the man who tried to breach the F.B.I.’s field office in Cincinnati on Thursday had ties to extremist groups, including one that participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter," the newspaper reported. "The suspect, identified by the officials as Ricky Shiffer, 42, seems to have appeared in a video posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021, showing him attending a pro-Trump rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington the night before the Capitol was stormed."

The newspaper zeroed in on an unverified Twitter account that follows Donald Trump, Jr. and one other account. In a March 7 tweet, the account said, "I was there" in a discussion about Jan. 6.

That same day he responded to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) by apparently attempting to invoke America's Revolutionary War, but got his history wrong as to the year.

"Congresswoman Greene, they got away with fixing elections in plain sight. It's over. The next step is the one we used in 1775," the account wrote.

Later that night the account wrote, "Save ammunition, get in touch with the Proud Boys and learn how they did it in the Revolutionary War, because submitting to tyranny while lawfully protesting was never the American way. LEXINGTON."

The account told Trump, Jr. it was opened on April 26.

Authorities say the suspect was killed by police.

Read the full report: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/us/fbi-cincinnati-ricky-shiffer-jan-6.html

[Rick Plant]

'Gut them like a fish!' Trump-loving lawmaker vows to lead fight to defund the FBI



Trump-loving Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini on Thursday vowed to defund the entire Federal Bureau of Investigation after it executed a lawful search warrant against former President Donald Trump.

During an appearance on the right-wing "Real America's Voice" channel, Sabatini explained why it would not be enough for Republicans to simply hold hearings on the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.

"The plan should be: First you defund, then you follow up with the hearings," Sabatini declared. "So, first we defund them. First we gut them like a fish. Bring the DOJ to heel, all the DOJ law enforcement agencies, the FBI's obviously the most important one."

After defunding the entire federal law enforcement apparatus, Sabatini said that hearings could then establish if "some of their original purpose is still valid" before deciding whether to give them any money.

Republicans have increasingly ratcheted up their rhetoric against the FBI in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago search, with some commentators going so far as to liken them to Nazi stormtroopers or the KGB.

On Thursday, an armed man drove to a Cincinnati FBI building and lobbed threats at employees, although it is not known at this time whether his motivation was related to the Mar-a-Lago search.

Watch:

Feds drop subpoenas on multiple GOP offices inside Pennsylvania Capitol: report



After the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Monday and seized the cellphone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) on Tuesday, the DOJ is now reportedly dropping subpoenas inside the Pennsylvania state Capitol.

"Federal investigators delivered subpoenas or paid visits to several House and Senate Republican offices in the Pennsylvania Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to multiple sources," PennLive reported on Wednesday. "At least some of the individuals receiving subpoenas were told they were not targets of an investigation, according to at least six sources reached by PennLive, but that they may have information of interest to the FBI. All of the sources had been briefed on the investigative moves in some way, but demanded anonymity in order to discuss them."

GOP leaders did not confirm whether members of their caucuses were subpoenaed.

"The information being requested centered around U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and the effort to seek alternate electors as part of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in office after the 2020 election, several sources said," PennLive reported. "Perry, a York County Republican in his 5th term in the House, has come under as much scrutiny as any Pennsylvania office-holder over his involvement in Trump’s efforts to stay in power after his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. The primary focus on Perry from multiple congressional investigations that have played publicly has been his connection to former Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, one of the few Department of Justice officials who appeared to be sympathetic to Trump’s false claims that the vote in several swing states had been rigged against him."

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who is now the GOP nominee for governor, was considered by Trump campaign to be the "point person" for the alternate electors slate, The New York Times reported in July.

PennLive noted, "The Trump slate included a number of well-known GOP luminaries, including former congressman Lou Barletta, Allegheny County Republican Committee Chairman Sam DeMarco III, Comfort, the current vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee, and Andy Reilly, one of Pennsylvania’s members on the Republican National Committee."

Read The Full Report: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/08/fbi-delivers-subpoenas-to-several-pa-republican-lawmakers-sources-say.html


‘Trump should watch his back’ because Mar-A-Lago search shows ‘his buddies could be wearing a wire’: Barbara McQuade



An informant reportedly told the FBI where they could find classified documents Donald Trump had stashed away at Mar-A-Lago, and now the former president is purportedly consumed by mistrust.

The FBI executed a search warrant Monday at Trump's private club in Florida, which was reportedly prompted by a confidential human source, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said the ex-president is taking a close look around his inner circle.

"Who told the FBI what documents Trump was hiding and where they were located?" the "Morning Joe" host said. "Trump world is reportedly trying to figure out who flipped ... Donald Trump is worried he may have a rat or multiple rats in his midst. He is wondering if his phones are tapped, or even if his buddies could be wearing a wire."

Former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade agreed that Trump should be concerned about his allies providing information to investigators as multiple cases move forward against him.

"If this is an ongoing investigation, as it appears to be, then it would be appropriate to continue to collect evidence," McQuade said. "So the ways those are done are through listening devices, surveillance techniques, confidential informants, consensual monitoring. To use those techniques requires court oversight. They're not planting bugs on their own, they're not tapping his phones without great scrutiny by a court. So just as we saw for this search, it required a court to review and determine whether there was probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed and that evidence of that crime would be found on the scene."

"To engage in any of the other investigative techniques would also require court oversight," she added, "so I'm sure Merrick Garland is doing this by the book. He has told us so. By all appearances, he is doing so. But I think you're right, if we know there is an informant who shared this information -- which is not surprising. It is often the way that the government learns about misconduct in cases, someone who is close to the wrongdoer shares that information. But i think Donald Trump does need to watch his back. Sound like the rats are fleeing the ship."

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