Tag: Trump crimes

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

Former US Attorney Says THESE Are The ‘Surprises’ A DOJ Indictment Of Trump Could Reveal

Earlier today, attorneys for failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump met with officials at the U.S. Department of Justice for approximately two hours.

According to CNN:

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump met with Justice Department officials on Monday following a public request for a meeting about what they characterize as prosecutorial misconduct, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The meeting comes as the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents and possible obstruction appears to be nearing its final stages.

The meeting lasted an estimated 90 minutes. Trump’s attorneys did not comment to reporters after leaving.

While Trump’s team had publicly asked to meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland, he was not believed to be in the meeting.

Additionally, thanks to the New York Times, we now know what one of Trump’s former attorneys, Evan Corcoran, handed over recordings to the Justice Department that could be incredibly damaging to the disgraced ex-president.

“The level of detail in the recording is said to have angered and unnerved close aides to Mr. Trump, who are worried it contains direct quotes from sensitive conversations,” the Times reported.

Those developments led former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance to tell MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin that it’s clear prosecutors have the evidence to indict Trump.

“The evidence, if the public record is correct, is a solid evidence, prosecutors should be able to obtain and sustain a conviction. That answers the question, can you indict?” Vance explained. “Then you have to answer the more nuanced question of should you? A big part of that is whether or not an indictment would be consistent with how similar situations have been handled in the past. In this instance, indicting Trump based on his conduct would be very consistent with how other cases involving retention but not dissemination of classified or other sensitive material has been handled.”

Vance went on to note that prosecutors have the ultimate weapon when it comes to gathering evidence: A subpoena. And we could soon learn all sorts of “surprises” about what the DOJ found during their investigation.

“Typically, the government knows a lot more than the public does when a case is indicted. This is a little bit different because the reporting has been so outstanding. Many reporters are very well-sourced,” Vance. “But it would be surprising if there weren’t a few surprises it would that could be good or bad for prosecutors. It’s possible that there could be some form of exculpatory evidence that suggests Trump is not guilty, maybe of any charges, or at least some of them. But It’s also possible that the government’s evidence gets much stronger when they access information through the grand jury. They may even be able to prove, for instance, that Trump disseminated these materials instead of just retaining them. And we will have to wait until we see the indictment to know how that shakes out.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith may hand down indictments against Trump as soon as this week, according to reports.

 

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Congress Crime Donald Trump GOP Justice Department Social Media

Jim Jordan Gets Mocked For Telling DOJ To Turn Over Details Of Jack Smith’s Trump Investigation

As so often does, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) made a complete fool of himself today by demanding that the Justice Department share details of the ongoing investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Jack Smith into failed former president Donald Trump with him and the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs.

According to The Federalist, Jordan sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “demanding details about the extent of FBI involvement in a special counsel probe run by U.S. Attorney Jack Smith.”

Jordan’s letter also contained this: “The extent of the FBI’s bias and reckless disregard for truth, which Special Counsel John Durham laid out in painstaking detail, is nothing short of scandalous.”

Of course, that has zero to do with the investigation being conducted by Smith, and Jordan has absolutely no right to demand anything from Garland or the DOJ when it comes to an ongoing probe. No member of Congress has that power, no matter what committee he or she may chair.

And yet, Jordan made it sound as if he had the right to know everything regarding Smith, the FBI, and the Justice Department:

“Explain whether any FBI employees who have worked on Special Counsel Smith’s investigation previously worked on any other matters concerning President Trump, and explain whether Special Counsel Smith’s investigation relies on any information or material gathered exclusively by the FBI prior the Special Counsel’s appointment.”

In other words, Jordan knows that Smith is close to indicting Trump on multiple charges, including violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice, and he wants to try and stick his nose into the investigation so the disgraced ex-president and his attorneys will know what to expect.

The Ohio Republican got a well-deserved mocking on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DennisElleflot/status/1664672284395597824?s=20

Jordan won’t get a damn thing from Garland because DOJ policy is clear when it comes to ongoing investigations by the Justice Department: There will be no discussion of the matter, not even with Congress, until the investigation is completed.

Nice try, Gym, but once again you failed.

For more on the Smith investigation, watch this video from MSNBC:

 

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

Former Federal Prosecutor Explains Why Trump Keeps Attacking Jack Smith

Ever since Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to look over the alleged crimes committed by failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, the disgraced ex-president has been on the attack, suggesting that Smith is a partisan and one of the worst people to ever trod the face of the planet, which is especially ironic coming from someone as immoral and downright evil as Trump.

Salon provided a brief rundown of some of the more disgusting things Trump has said about Smith.

Upon Smith’s appointment last year, Trump wrote that he was a “Trump Hating THUG” and a “fully weaponized monster.” This quickly spread, with some of Trump’s biggest supporters in Washington, including Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Elise Stefanik, and Rep. Jim Jordan, also arguing that Smith and the Department of Justice were corrupt. A few months later, Trump began questioning whether Jack Smith was the prosecutor’s real name, and went so far as to call him an “unfair Savage.” The name-questioning got so bad (“What did his name used to be?”) that Smith’s hometown paper felt compelled to track down Smith’s high school yearbook, and now, the whole world can ponder his 1980s borderline-mullet situation. (He is, indeed, identified as Jack Smith, Class of ’87).

Considering that Smith will soon let the world know whether Trump will be charged with espionage, obstruction of justice, and mishandling of classified material (all felonies), you’d think Donald’s attorneys would tell to shut the hell up and let the entire matter play out.

But since Trump has the self-control of a two-year-old, he simply cannot resist lobbing one insult after another in Smith’s direction, which is odd behavior for someone who could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison if Smith decides to file charges.

Why, you might wonder, does Trump engage in such counterproductive behavior against the wishes of his legal counsel?

That’s the question Shirin Ali put to Robert Katzberg, a former federal prosecutor.

To Katzberg, it’s a simple case of Trump being characteristically impulsive and reacting emotionally. “I just don’t think he’s able to control himself. Any experienced lawyer would have resigned a long time before that.”

Children tend to act emotionally rather than rationally or strategically, and that’s certain the psychological blueprint many experts on human behavior have laid out when it comes to Trump: He may be a 76-year-old man, but he acts like a spoiled 5-year-old shitheel.

Katzberg added: “(Trump) has the thinnest skin of any human being in history and is incapable of keeping his mouth closed.”

Insecurity and thin skin. It’s the sort of combination you might feel pity for if you saw it in a friend or relative. But when it emanates from someone as pathologically hateful as Donald Trump, it just makes you hate the person. And that hatred is why the loser ex-president is likely headed to prison or for a landslide electoral defeat if he isn’t criminally charged.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage

Legal Expert: Trump’s Problems Just Went From ‘Bad To Worse’ In Documents Case

A report from the Washington Post suggesting that disgraced former president Donald Trump left classified documents in plain view at his Mar-a-Lago resort and may also have shared them with others is the worst possible news and means his legal liability has gone from “bad to worse” according to attorney Norm Eisen.

In a column he wrote for MSNBC, Eisen notes there’s more than enough evidence to indict Trump for obstruction of justice, but the Post report means the stakes are even higher now.

If Trump had really showed off classified documents to people at Mar-a-Lago, then that would add to what we already know of his legal liability,” Eisen writes. “Just by retaining the documents, Trump would face liability for apparent willful possession and retention of the classified documents pertaining to national defense. Under section 793(e) of the Espionage Act, it is a criminal offense for a person without authorization to willfully retain classified documents and fail to deliver them to an officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them.

And that’s where things get even stickier for the ex-president, Eisen explains.

… purposefully showing classified documents to others without authorization, in the manner reported by the Post and the Times, would go beyond retaining classified documents as prohibited by the statute. It likely constitutes an even more egregious violation of the Espionage Act under the clause prohibiting the willful communication, delivery or transmission of classified documents.

The bottom line is that the Justice Department’s case against the scofflaw former head of state “is becoming clearer and potentially more damning — and the possible consequences for Trump more dire.”

Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to announce indictments against Trump as soon as next week, according to some reports.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

Ex-FBI Official: Special Counsel Likely Has All Of Trump’s Phone Records And That’s Bad News For Donald

Now that we know Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed financial information from the Trump Organization on possible business deals with seven foreign countries, former FBI assistant director for counter-intelligence Frank Figliuzzi said Tuesday on MSNBC that the Justice Department and Smith also likely have all of former president Donald Trump’s phone records, which is very bad news for the failed ex-president.

Figliuzzi began by noting that statements Trump made at the CNN town hall recently were confessions of his actions regarding classified documents.

“But that crucial period after that sobering subpoena is slapped on you is that I have a choice,” Figliuzzi began. “I’ll either comply with the law, or I’m not. And everything he’s done after that has involved non-compliance with the law, and, in fact, thumbing his nose at the law. And as recently as the CNN town hall meeting, he actually said, ‘I took those documents. I had every right to. And if I did show them to somebody, and I can’t remember if I did or not, I had every right to.’ This is defiance that goes towards criminal intention. It is there. And, by the way, if the reports are accurate, this case is all but done.”

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reported today that Smith is nearing the end of his investigation and has completed all of the interviews in the case.

That led host Nicolle Wallace to inquire, “Do we assume that people we maybe haven’t heard about, going in to talk to Jack Smith and his investigators, are part of the fabric of this part of the probe — foreign business dealings and Trump classified documents?” 

“We know Trump doesn’t use email, but he is a prolific user of the phones, right?” explained Figliuzzi. “And so, guaranteed there have been subpoenas for phone carriers for his phone records throughout this period and watching his response to a visit from the head of the National Security Secretary, DOJ, then here come FBI agents, and there’s a subpoena. And you’re watching this, they call it ‘tickling the wire.’ See what responses — who is he calling? Who’s calling each other?”

That, Figliuzzi continued, is how Smith and the DOJ will determine if Trump was involved in espionage.

“So, you can develop sources. So, when there is great confidence that they have the goods on him, it is because they are targeting people who know for a fact what is going on. Now, let’s fast forward and tie that into this subpoena for whether or not the Trump Organization was doing any business with one or more, or seven nations. There is an interesting piece in the Washington Post that actually puts a post on it. And it is last month. If that is true, that is intriguing because it may imply that this is a pro forma routine thing. Let’s make sure there’s no surprises because the defense will say, ‘Look, you have no evidence that committed espionage, right? That he actually disseminated national security information to a foreign country?’ Well, we better look.”

“Maybe from those phone calls, maybe from those from sources, where we think, no, we better look at Saudi, or China, or Turkey. I don’t know. But it would go toward motive,” he concluded. “And it would be explosive if he would have actually shown documents, and what if those documents involved those very countries that are on the list? It’s even more concerning. And now you’re looking at maybe real-life espionage. We don’t know.”