Category: Justice Department

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage Justice Department

DOJ Now Believes Trump Was Up To ‘Something Nefarious’ With Top-Secret Documents: Report

The Justice Department now believes that failed, one-term former president Donald Trump was up to “something nefarious” by keeping classified and top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Washington Post reporter Amber Phillips noted on MSNBC Friday that new court filings prove the DOJ has a very important motive for getting the documents back into federal custody:

“Step back and try to think about this because there is a lot going on, and it’s all heating up right now. I think we’re right to be talking about this Mar-A-Lago raid a lot, and that’s because the FBI agents had to go out there and spell out examples of crimes they think Trump or his allies committed in Trump’s residence, and a judge agreed that there is possible cause. I mean, it’s right there. This is pretty serious.”

But it was what Phillips said next that’s most terrifying and worth keeping an eye on in the weeks ahead:

“Now the question that I have and legal experts have that I talk to have said is, did the FBI just want the documents badly enough to go in there and get them and then they’re done, or do they think there was some kind of misuse, and yesterday’s hearing, I thought, in court, reading a little bit of the tea leaves underscored that the FBI and the Justice Department are concerned that something nefarious was going on. There is still an ongoing case, we’ll mess up our prosecution if we keep this going. That is the No. 1 case to follow, and after that there is another Justice Department investigation into Jan. 6 that has hundreds of defendants, and they’re looking into President Trump’s words and actions regarding the Electoral College votes, and we could talk more about that in a minute. But it is a big one.”

 

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

DOJ May Release One Piece Of Incriminating Evidence And Turn The Tables On Trump: Report

As disgraced former president Donald Trump continues to press for the full and unredacted search warrant affidavit to be released by the Justice Department, there’s one piece of highly incriminating evidence the DOJ may make public, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who was a member of Robert Mueller’s investigative team in the Russia probe.

Weissmann was a guest on MSNBC’s “The Beat” Friday, and was asked by host Ari Melber:

“What portion do you expect — for people to understand, because we’ve heard a lot of legal terms and redactions, there is more information coming — how much it is and how much of that is a win or loss is to be explained?”

Weissmann responded:

“So remember that the district court — the magistrate judge has seen the entire affidavit, so when the government was saying it’s all something that’s sensitive to a criminal investigation or it’s all something sensitive from a national security perspective or witnesses, he has in front of him the affidavit. So he can sort of see, are there portions that don’t implicate those concerns? So the thing that I think we will still not see is anything that could reveal the identity of witnesses. I don’t think we’re going to learn anything about the substance of classified information, those kinds of documents, so if we’re concerned, for instance, was there nuclear information? I don’t know that we’re going to see that, and I think leads, things about various things that the Department might still be doing, so things that they saw in the surveillance tapes if that’s in the affidavit, all of that could be fairly redacted.”

However, Weissmann added, there is one portion of the affidavit that would potentially be devastating for Trump and literally turn the tables on his claims of innocence:

“An area where I do think we could see something that would be very useful is the whole back-and-forth between the Department and Donald Trump and his people. That’s something that Donald Trump knows, those people can clearly put it out there and I could see the judge saying, you know what, I don’t really see how that implicates so much the concerns here from a national security perspective. Maybe some of the substance would be redacted, but that seems like it would give us a fair amount of detail on something, and more than we know now.”

Indeed, a record of the DOJ communicating with Trump, asking for return of the classified documents and his refusals to do so would prove the FBI had no choice but to use a search warrant to get ahold of those top secret papers. That alone would be clear evidence that Trump has been lying all along.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

Allies Warn Trump Releasing Surveillance Footage Of FBI Mar-a-Lago Search Could Doom Him

Disgraced former president Donald Trump says he may release surveillance footage of the FBI carrying out a search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, but some of his closest allies are warning him that doing so could backfire badly on him and all but guarantee he spends decades in prison.

CNN reports that the failed, one-term ex-president thinks he can use the footage as “leverage” against the Justice Department:

Some of Trump’s aides and allies have encouraged the former President to make some of the footage available to the public, believing it could send a jolt of energy through the Republican Party’s base. One person familiar with the conversations said there have been discussions about featuring the August footage in campaign-style ads, believing the footage could bolster Trump’s claims of political persecution.

Another person close to Trump said it’s not a matter of if the former President and his team release any of the footage, but when, noting it could be released before he makes a campaign announcement.

Such a move, however, might swing public opinion against Trump, with one adviser to the former president noting it could “backfire by providing people with a visual understanding of the sheer volume of materials that federal agents seized from his oceanfront residence, including classified materials.

“It’s one thing to read a bunch of numbers on an inventory list, it’s another to see law enforcement agents actually carrying a dozen-plus boxes out of President Trump’s home knowing they probably contain sensitive documents. I don’t see how that helps him,” said this person, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity in order the speak candidly.

It’s unclear exactly what such a video would show, but the possibility that FBI agents who carried out the search would be identified is especially troubling for the agency, which has seen a significant uptick in threats against its staff since the Aug. 8 event at Trump’s golf club.

Another negative possibility for Trump: Surveillance video might negate his claims that the FBI set him up by fabricating evidence, CNN notes:

But releasing the tapes could neuter some of the most conspiratorial excuses for the search that MAGA personalities have been circulating in recent days, including the baseless notion that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago — a claim the former President himself has repeated and which there is no evidence to support, especially after Trump’s own lawyer signed off on the FBI’s seizure receipts at the end of the search.

Considering the many legal and financial failures Trump has had over the decades, the only safe bet is that whatever decision he makes regarding the footage will come back to bite him squarely on the ass.

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department WTF?!

Trump Tried To Get A Threatening Message To AG Garland After Mar-a-Lago Search: Report

Before Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed the contents of the search warrant that was executed at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club on August 8, the disgraced former president attempted to pass a threatening message along to the top law enforcement officer in the country.

Citing The New York Times, Business Insider reports:

Trump wanted Garland to know that he had been speaking with people around the country and that they were enraged by the FBI search.

“The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?” was the message Trump wanted to be conveyed to Garland, a person familiar with the exchange told the paper.

A person close to the former president reached out to a Justice Department official to give Garland the message, the paper reported. It is not clear if the message reached him.

Many who were asked about the message said it was a clear threat, intended to convey a warning to Garland that if he pressed further, the ex-president and his supporters might just stir up violence around the country in response.

Robert Maguire, a research director at the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, noted:

“Just a normal former president hinting to the current attorney general of the United States—who was about to make an announcement about the investigation into the former president—that he can fan the flames of violence, before asking ‘What can I do to reduce the heat?'”

On Thursday, Garland announced that he had personally approved the search warrant that resulted in over a dozen boxes of allegedly classified and top secret documents being taken into federal custody.

If it can be proven that Trump knew he wasn’t supposed to keep the materials in an unsecured location, he could be charged under the Espionage Act and sentenced to 10 years for every document he had in his possession.

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Donald Trump Jr. Justice Department Social Media

Don Jr. Makes A Fool Of Himself By Saying The FBI Isn’t Part Of The Justice Department

There’s a constant debate that goes on when it comes to discussing the three eldest children of failed, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump: Which is the dumbest?

For many, the answer is Eric. But then Don Jr. will tweet out something that proves he, much like the man he’s named for, is perpetually dense.

Once again today, Don Jr. is taking the prize with a tweet in which he proves he doesn’t know that the FBI is part of the Justice Department. Check this out:

So the FBI was not acting alone as everyone was told… As usual allies never had up and the “conspiracy theorists” were right yet again. You can’t trust a single thing these people tell you!!!

Damn! Does Junior have any idea that there’s a thing called Google he can do an instant fact check on? If he did, maybe he wouldn’t be so perpetually clueless.

Here’s what you find when you Google FBI:

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.”

The FBI is part of the DOJ. Who doesn’t know this?

Let the mockery begin!