Month: August 2022

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Espionage

Trump’s Lawyers Likely To Flip On Him To Save Themselves From Espionage Charges

As Donald Trump’s legal problems continue to multiply, this week’s search warrant served by FBI agents at Mar-a-Lago could also wind up ensnaring his attorneys as co-conspirators.

A report from the New York Times notes that an attorney for Trump assured the Justice Department in June that all classified materials located at the ex-president’s Palm Beach golf resort had been returned, which the FBI has now proven was a blatant lie.

At least one lawyer for former President Donald Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said.

The written declaration was made after a visit on June 3 by Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division.

That report was later confirmed by a second outlet, Mediaite notes:

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz confirmed the NYT reporting on Saturday, that a lawyer for the former president signed a letter in June attesting that all classified records and information had been returned. The existence of this signed statement that was uncovered on Saturday, potentially demonstrates that the Trump team was not completely honest or forthcoming with the Department of Justice about the storage of government material.

This occurred around the time that “Justice Department officials came down to Mar-a-Lago,” in an attempt to recover government documents being held at the estate. From the June visit, officials returned with additional documents marked classified, which was shortly followed by the written declaration from the lawyer claiming that all sensitive material had been returned.

That means that Trump’s legal team is also facing charges of obstructing justice and even espionage, which could send them to prison for decades.

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal wrote on Twitter that Trump’s attorneys may now have no choice but to flip on their client and testify against him if they want to avoid significant time in jail.

And former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti noted that the attorney who vouched for Trump can no longer represent him:

As several of Trump’s former attorneys (i.e. Rudy Giuliani, Michael Cohen) can attest, when you agree to represent the Donald, you’re basically throwing your life away.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Melania Trump

Michael Cohen: Trump Must Be Terrified The Mar-a-Lago FBI Informant Is Melania

Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s personal attorney for many years, and he said Saturday on MSNBC that his ex-client must be terrified that someone close to him tipped off the FBI about him having classified and top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.

For all he knows, Cohen added, the informant could be his wife, Melania.

Cohen was asked by host Ali Velshi:

“How is he feeling right now because someone in his circle, or somebody around him that may not be a trusted advisor or something, but somebody around him who knows stuff about him is now an informant for the FBI. That much we know, the name’s been redacted so we don’t know who that is. What happens to Donald Trump when he feels that someone’s betraying him?”

Cohen replied:

“Yes this is a big problem for him because under normal circumstances quite a few people are around him. So he is able to shift to the next person. Here, he is not sure who he can shift to.

“He’s not sure if it’s Melania, he’s not sure if it’s one of the kids. Now you may remember, for over a year and a half, I’ve been saying that the whole issue with [Jared] Kushner to me just seems falsely odd in the fact that he who was secretary of everything in the White House, secretary of everything and that he seems to be escaping any sort of attention and , you know, any legal issues and so I’ve been saying for a long time, that just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

The former attorney added that he thinks the most likely suspect is indeed Jared:

“But, then again, it’s just my opinion. I personally have always thought that Kushner was the guy that would end up turning on his father-in-law first.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DV1mlJ-caE&feature=emb_logo

No matter who the mole is, they clearly know a great deal about Trump and his secrets. That alone is enough to make the Donald paranoid.

Categories
Congress GOP Social Media

Kevin McCarthy Asks If Americans Are Better Off Than 2 Years Ago And Gets His A*s Handed To Him

During debate Friday on the Inflation Reduction Act, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) borrowed a line from former president Ronald Reagan that quickly came back and bit him squarely on the ass.

HuffPost reports:

In a speech on the House floor, McCarthy asked, “Is America better off today than they were two years ago?” which referenced a question Reagan asked during a 1980 presidential debate with then-President Jimmy Carter.

McCarthy’s memory, however, must indeed be very short, because as Twitter users quickly reminded him, two years ago the United States (and the entire planet) were in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic which has so far killed over a million Americans.

The impact of the COVID pandemic was magnified in the U.S. in large part because then-president Donald Trump refused for months to acknowledge the seriousness of the disease and told the country it would dissipate as soon as the weather grew warmer in the spring and summer.

Trump also suggested using disinfectant inside the body to destroy the virus and infusions of “light” into people to counter the disease.

While McCarthy’s question was clearly meant to be rhetorical, he was pelted with responses for the complete tone-deafness of what he said.

https://twitter.com/ItsJustMarkNV/status/1558197747726962688?s=20&t=y9XKUoTmrlEUS2zCpY1jng
https://twitter.com/mikeavila/status/1558217852108374016?s=20&t=_lWGAuu5yVMXFvMcWTFpuw

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Fox News

Sean Hannity Tells The MAGA Faithful: ‘Constitutionally’ Trump Can Run For President From Prison

Question of the Day: If you’re Donald Trump, how do you know when you’re complete screwed and likely facing time in jail?

Answer: When Fox News host Sean Hannity starts trying to reassure the MAGA faithful that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t say a person can’t run for president from prison.

That’s what Hannity told listeners to his radio show Friday, according to Media Matters, which reports that Hannity had this to say:

“What do you think the next thing that happens here is, do you think that they would try and indict the former president in the hopes of convicting him and having him in jail at the time of the next election to prevent him from running?

“Because a conviction by the way, constitutionally, would not prevent him from running for office.”

Maybe not, but it would damn sure prevent him from actually serving as president, which would raise issues of its own.

Hannity added:

“You know, this code that is being cited by Marc Elias and all these other people negates the very enumerated qualifications in the Constitution, and the specific requirements for somebody not to be eligible to run, and that would be impeachment and conviction. It doesn’t mention anything about being, you know, maybe not following every single dotted i and crossed t in the Presidential Records Act of the National Archives Act.”

Here’s a prediction I would gladly wager as much as $1,000 on: If Donald Trump is indicted, convicted, and imprisoned before the 2024 presidential election and the GOP is dumb enough to nominate him, he’ll lose by the largest margin in U.S. electoral history.

 

Categories
Donald Trump GOP WTF?!

Republican Congressman: The Nuclear Information Trump Had Can Be Found ‘On Your Own Phone’

It’s been interesting to watch this week as Republicans have progressed from saying failed, one-term former president Donald Trump had been served with a search warrant for no reason to falsely claiming the FBI had “planted” evidence on the twice-impeached ex-president.

And now that we know exactly what was found in those boxes Trump had at Mar-a-Lago (top secret documents, some of which laid out American nuclear secrets, along with incredibly sensitive signals intelligence), we have Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) attempting to move the goalposts yet again, suggesting that such high classified material can be found on your cell phone.

At a press conference Friday, Turner remarked:

“I can tell you that there are a number of things that are classified that fall under the umbrella of nuclear weapons but that are not necessarily things that are truly classified. Many of them you can find on your own phone as we stand here and if they fall into that category, they’re not an imminent national security threat that would rise to the level of, you have to raid Donald Trump’s home and spend nine hours there.”

Turner, it should be noted, serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

Is what the congressman said even marginally true? Not according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Their website notes, explaining that there are “two types of classification.”

“The first type, known as national security information, is information that is classified by an Executive Order. Its release would damage national security to some degree. The second type, known as restricted data, is information that is classified by the Atomic Energy Act. It would assist individuals or organizations in designing, manufacturing, or using nuclear weapons. Access to both types of information is restricted to authorized persons who have been properly cleared and have a ‘need to know’ the information for their official duties. For additional detail, see Classified Information.”

The unsealed search warrant served at Trump’s Palm Beach residence contained all sorts of national security and restricted data, some of which can only be safely viewed in a secure, contained facility that must be designated as such by national security experts. Trump doesn’t have any such facility at his Florida golf club.

Specifically, the Washington Post reports, the inventory lists:

One set of documents is listed as “Various classified TS/SCI documents,” areference to top secret/sensitive compartmented information, a highly classified category of government secrets, in addition to the four sets of top-secret papers. Agents also took three sets of documents classified as secret, and three sets of papers classified as confidential — the lowest level of classification.

So is what Congressman Turner says the least bit true? To answer that, just Google “Top Secret U.S. nuclear files” and see if you get access to anything close to what Trump allegedly had in cardboard boxes all over his Florida residence.