Tag: Trump crimes

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Crime Donald Trump WTF?!

Trump Refused To Turn Over Classified Documents Because He Wanted To Use Them As ‘Leverage’: Report

A former FBI agent says he thinks former president Donald Trump kept thousands of classified and top secret documents because he had plans to use them as “leverage” over others.

Peter Strzok, who served in the FBI for 22 years, including as Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division, was asked by MSNBC host Tiffany Cross:

“We know he shares because this guy almost tweeted out major secrets. I want to direct your attention to the Iran missile tweet … there was an image of the Iranian missile blowup, and it was exquisite intelligence, this is all according to a former official. And when they showed it to the president he said I’m tweeting it. And they essentially said, sir, we don’t want to do it because people will understand our capabilities. His response was, I’m the president, I can declassify anything. That blows my mind, and I do wonder what exactly was Merrick Garland mulling over, because we’ve seen how he’s been a threat to us for four years?”

Strzok replied:

“The president has the authority to classify and declassify things while he’s in office, and what’s critical, he’s no longer in office. He was not in office immediately following the inauguration on January 20th, so what you have to do is go back and look, and the biggest question in my mind is why did he have all the information? In the run-up you show former National Security Adviser John Bolton saying he thought it might be neat. In my mind, I would not be surprised, one, not just the material that the FBI recovered in the search warrant but those 15 boxes that the National Archives got much earlier in the year.”

And then Strzok explained why he thinks Trump wanted to keep such highly sensitive information lying around unsecured at Mar-a-Lago:

“I think there’s going to be turn out to be, one, highly, highly classified information, but, two, things that aren’t just things he found neat. I would be surprised if there weren’t things that furthered his business interest, things he could use as leverage over people, things he could use to settle the scores. The biggest question in my mind is why on earth, having been told repeatedly by so many people, that he steadfastly refused to turn these things over and instead carried them all away. You know, I hope DOJ is content now with the FBI that they have recovered everything, but we’re talking about a massive amount of information.”

Greed and revenge. We all know that Trump is rapacious and petty, constantly looking for ways to enrich himself and get payback on others, even at the expense of U.S. national security. He needs to be indicted and tried. If he isn’t, this country will never be safe.

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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.

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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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Crime Donald Trump

Trump’s Mood Has Turned ‘Dark’ Since The Search Warrant Was Unsealed On Friday: Report

As he continues to see the evidence against him mount and it becomes clearer that he will likely be charged for mishandling classified information and other sections of the Espionage Act, failed, one-term former president Donald Trump’s mood has grown very dark, according to a report from The Washington Post.

Shortly after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago while the Trumps were in New York, the disgraced ex-president was ebullient, convinced he would get a political bounce out of Monday’s events in Palm Beach:

Immediately after the search, Trump seemed to believe the FBI had played into his hands. Instead of exhibiting any concern, two people who spoke to him Monday evening both reported that Trump was ‘upbeat,’ convinced the Justice Department had overreached and would cause Republicans to rally to his cause and help him regain the presidency in 2024.

Four days later, when the search warrant and inventory of items seized were unsealed and the world found out Trump had kept nuclear secrets and signals intelligence information for months beyond when he had said he would return them, his mood changed:

By Friday, however, the unsealed court records showed agents had seized 11 sets of classified documents, among other things. Republicans’ howls of protest became somewhat more muted, and people around Trump said his buoyant mood at times turned dark.

How bad are things inside Trump’s head? He’s sharing articles online in which he’s called a “martyr,” making you wonder who explained that word to him and how the ex-president could be so clueless as to not know using such a word isn’t exactly something that should be seen as a compliment, especially when attached to a man as immoral and irreligious as he is.

For now, Trump is lashing out at others, trying to accuse former president Barack Obama of failing to turn over documents after he left the White House, even though the National Archives says Obama did no such thing and has indeed handed over all of his presidential records.

Consider the desperation in this statement from Trump:

“President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified.

“How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!”

But as The Post notes, “Nowhere in the statement did he address whether he had done the same.”

 

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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.