Tag: FBI

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Justice Department WTF?!

After Calling FBI Agents ‘Sleazy,’ Trump Now Claims He Always ‘Had Their Backs’

When FBI agents served a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort on Aug. 8, disgraced, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump said some incredibly nasty things about the agency and agents who had participated in the search.

Specifically, HuffPost notes, Trump used just about every pejorative imaginable to attack FBI:

Trump attacked the FBI as seditious, abusive, criminal and “sleazy” after agents hauled out about 20 boxes of White House material from his Florida home, including 11 sets of classified information. Those records should have been turned over to the National Archives when Trump’s term ended, according to the Presidential Records Act.

In days that followed the search, Trump baselessly called it a “sneak attack” and a “raid,” a “siege,” and “corrupt.” He also claimed FBI agents “planted” evidence in his home.

Now, however, as the possibility of being charged with violating the Espionage Act becomes more of a reality, Trump has changed his tune and is praising the FBI:

Now, Trump claims agents are “furious at FBI leadership” for the “political weaponization against a president (me).”

They “don’t like being ’used’ by people they do not agree with, or respect,” he wrote in the post. He went on to add that agents are not “thrilled with the leadership” of the Department of Justice.

Why did Trump make such a dramatic shift? That’s unclear, but it may have something to do with him wanting to appear as supportive of law enforcement even though he clearly thinks he’s above the law and shouldn’t be subjected to a search, even if he has allegedly committed some of the most serious crimes that any president can be suspected of.

Some have suggested that Trump’s verbal attacks on federal agents have led to an uptick in threats against them, and the FBI Agents Association issued a statement which reads:

“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. 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.” 

It remains to be seen if Trump will still be behind the FBI if and when they show up to arrest him.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Fox News U.S. Senate

WATCH Steve Doocy School Rand Paul On The Dangers Of Saying The FBI Unfairly Targeted Trump

“Fox & Friends” co-host called Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and others in the GOP out for their incendiary rhetoric aimed at the FBI for doing their jobs and executing a search warrant former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Largo golf resort.

Paul was a guest on the show Thursday morning, and he immediately began attacking the FBI:

“This is part of the same people who are still running the FBI. They have a different understanding, maybe, of what they think the FBI can and cannot do and how it should be used on Americans, but I’m going to require proof that there was actually some sort of probable cause of a crime, and I’m suspicious that there was not.”

Doocy schooled the senator on the dangers of saying such things:

“The problem is, over the last week or so there has been so much violent rhetoric directed at the FBI, and I heard somebody printed that it stands for ‘Fascist Bureau of Investigation; or something like that. Unfortunately now the people who work at the FBI headquarters, there are death threats and all sorts of stuff. I heard from a staff member there who was talking to a colleague at the FBI, a colleague realized, ‘Oh, look, I’m wearing the wrong shoes today to work,’ because if somebody attacks the building and they’ve got to run, can’t run in those heels, so they’re caught in the crosshairs.”

While Paul said he agreed there was no need to call for violence against federal agents, he quickly tried to minimize the threat by claiming he faces even greater attacks for his stance on controversial issues:

“I think the death threats are inappropriate and not the way to go about it. There’s the political process. The problem is that the people in charge of Congress, the Democrats, have not been interested in or curious in investigating anything. We have a million people who died from Covid, and I haven’t had one hearing on the origin. We finally did a couple weeks ago. I insisted on hearing, and the Democrats didn’t come to my hearing. The thing is there’s been a lack of curiosity on the part of investigation, but there’s no excuse for threats to the FBI, and the thing is, look, and they’re not the only one getting threats. I’ve had probably over 50 threats this year. Sometimes i can have a dozen in a week. We have my address posted online, we have people who are wishing me ill will, injury, all the time.”

At times like this, it’s easy to understand exactly why one of Rand Paul’s neighbors beat the snot out of him.

Categories
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.

Categories
Congress Donald Trump Elections GOP

Liz Cheney Uses Her Concession Speech To Destroy Trump’s Claim The FBI Planted Evidence

As expected, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was defeated by challenger Harriet Hageman in the GOP primary on Tuesday, but in her concession speech, Cheney made it clear that she plans to do everything in her power to make sure that failed former president Donald Trump is eventually brought low.

Speaking to supporters in Jackson, Wyoming, Cheney noted:

“Our nation is young in the history of mankind, and yet we’re the oldest democracy in the world. Our survival is not guaranteed. History has shown us over and over again how poisonous lies destroyed three nations. Over the last several months, in the January 6 hearings, the American people have watched dozens of Republicans, including the most senior officials working for President Trump in the White House, the Justice Department, and on his campaign—people who served President Trump loyally—testify that they all told him the election was not stolen or rigged and there was no massive fraud. That’s why President Trump and others invent excuses, pretexts for people not to watch the hearings at all. But no citizen of this republic is a bystander. All of us have an obligation to understand what actually happened. We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.”

Cheney then branded Trump as a liar and pointed to his attacks on the FBI agents who were doing their jobs when they served a search warrant on his Mar-a-Lago resort last week:

“To believe Donald Trump’s election lies, you must believe that dozens of federal and state courts who ruled against him, including many judges he appointed, were all corrupted and biased, that all manner of crazy conspiracy theories stole our election from us and that Donald Trump actually remains president today. As of last week, you must also believe that 30 career FBI agents, who have spent their lives working to serve our country, abandoned their honor and their oath and went to Mar-a-Lago, not to perform a lawful search or address a national security threat, but instead with a secret plan to plant fake incriminating documents in the boxes they seized. This is yet another insidious lie.

“Donald Trump knows that voicing these conspiracies will provoke violence and threats of violence. This happened on January 6, and it’s now happening again.”

For the time being, Trump has bested Cheney. But she’s far from finished with him and still has over four months to make his life hell as she continues to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

Categories
Uncategorized

At Least 6 Current Employees May Be Informing On Trump To The FBI: Report

As disgraced former president Donald Trump and his allies continue to demand that the Justice Department release the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant executed by the FBI last week at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, a new report from The New York Times makes it clear that multiple people in Trump’s orbit are sharing everything they know with federal investigators.

According to The Times:

(Former Deputy White House Counsel Patrick Philbin) is among eight people who currently or used to work for Mr. Trump who have been contacted by the F.B.I. since a grand jury was formed this year. Investigators also interviewed Derek Lyons, a former White House staff secretary.

Mr. Lyons’s last day at the White House was Dec. 18, 2020, meaning he did not know how the last boxes were packed as Mr. Trump prepared to leave. But he had information about paper flow in the White House and how the former president handled material.

The F.B.I. has reached out to about a half-dozen people who currently work for Mr. Trump and who might know what documents he may still have in his possession.

A half-dozen people! That’s a lot of witnesses who could potentially testify against Trump at a trail if the DOJ decides to indict the former president for violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice. The charges under the Espionage Act carry penalties as high as 10 years for every classified or top secret document that may have been improperly handled.

Meanwhile, Trump’s minions in right-wing media continue to press for the names of who “the informant” might be. But it looks like they (and he) have set their sights too low, as at least six employees are gladly informing on their boss, probably because they know he’s gone too far this time and has to be brought to justice for his crimes.