(I'm going to pass on commenting on this one as I've exhausted all my shot arguing with folks over at The American Conservative that John Eastman might not be the best commentator on this issue[1] and that by being selective about whom the law applies to [based on political expediency], they're emulating their favorite George Soros-backed progressive district and states' attorneys[2]. Of course, none of that is likely visible, as hiding comments from the unpaid hoi pollii is the New Hotness on "conservative" sites.)
"Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation."
"Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands."[1]
Waiting to hear more before jumping to any conclusions - this is an astonishing(!!!) story - but I didn't think that this could get any screwier.
WaPo is moderating their reporting somewhat this morning:
"The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. They did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation. Nor did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Trump spokesman did notrespond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment."
Well written David and even better played by Merrick Garland. Nothing sweeter than seeing the orange guy put in a box and leveraged into debating whether to crap himself in public or in private. I know; he can plead the 5th regarding releasing the search warrant and related documents. He should be really freaking good at given his 400 plus performance yesterday.
Funny how all of those big guns who came out firing the other day have gone silent. How hard would it have been to just return the documents he stole (yes, i said stole, they weren't his to take)? Perhaps he just wanted to pass them out as party favors at the LIV golf tournaments being played at his courses. Imagine the excitement of sharing classified nuclear documents with the boys. What better way to endear his relationship with the Saudi's?
I do not know what the real facts are in this case but, having been in the business of securing cryptography, nuclear weapons authentication and top-secret communications, I'm pretty sure it was illegal to mishandle highly classified information in 1965 - at least under the UCMJ. If Trump is guilty, he should receive the same harsh punishment as Hillary and Sandy Berger and a number of other democrat political figures.
David French agrees on that, when it comes to the identical action taken by Hillary and Donald (mishandling sensitive information).
However: we then have possible obstruction of justice charges involved due to reported signed affidavits that all classified materials were returned, and Donald's repeated insistence that this government property belongs to him - which it never was nor ever will be his property to do with as he sees fit.
All are possibilities. We will see if they can make a case. It should not be difficult in DC. Hatred of Republicans (particularly Trump) runs strong there. Whether it will hold up through all the scrutiny and appeals is iffier. Of course, the same charges could have been brought against Hillary - especially obstruction.
Yeah, no. There's no case for obstruction for Hillary: and of course Trump was president for four years with compliant AGs and yet there still was no case brought against Hillary - most likely reasoning being that they didn't think they could make the charges stick.
That's the ultimate decider for prosecutors, ain't it?
Not a lawyer but I can read. Destruction of evidence is also considered obstruction of justice. For sure AGs are hesitant to bring cases against democrats because they are almost certain to lose in DC. Barr said as much. Most recent example is Michael Sussman. The DC judges, prosecuting attorneys and juries are corrupt and biased and live off democrat political largess.
I'd argue that any destruction of data that occurred by Hillary/staff would be negligent handling, with what we know: if that destruction occurred AFTER the data was requested or an investigation started then that'd be something else.
And that's where you have to recognize that while what Hillary did was serious negligence, what Trump is doing is intentional obstruction and theft. He somehow thinks he has rights to these materials, when they are the property of the US Government.
But by all means, just chalk everything up to corruption and democrats like you always do rather than admit that by all available evidence that's not the case: sure allows for maintaining your delusions.
(I'm going to pass on commenting on this one as I've exhausted all my shot arguing with folks over at The American Conservative that John Eastman might not be the best commentator on this issue[1] and that by being selective about whom the law applies to [based on political expediency], they're emulating their favorite George Soros-backed progressive district and states' attorneys[2]. Of course, none of that is likely visible, as hiding comments from the unpaid hoi pollii is the New Hotness on "conservative" sites.)
[1] https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-regime-wants-its-revenge/
[2] https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-our-late-roman-moment/
Washington Post tonight:
"Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation."
"Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands."[1]
Waiting to hear more before jumping to any conclusions - this is an astonishing(!!!) story - but I didn't think that this could get any screwier.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/11/garland-trump-mar-a-lago/
WaPo is moderating their reporting somewhat this morning:
"The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. They did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation. Nor did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Trump spokesman did notrespond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment."
And now we hear rumors that Trump may challenge unsealing the warrant. Because you can’t fundraise on the truth, only lies.
I’m certain he will.
Well written David and even better played by Merrick Garland. Nothing sweeter than seeing the orange guy put in a box and leveraged into debating whether to crap himself in public or in private. I know; he can plead the 5th regarding releasing the search warrant and related documents. He should be really freaking good at given his 400 plus performance yesterday.
Funny how all of those big guns who came out firing the other day have gone silent. How hard would it have been to just return the documents he stole (yes, i said stole, they weren't his to take)? Perhaps he just wanted to pass them out as party favors at the LIV golf tournaments being played at his courses. Imagine the excitement of sharing classified nuclear documents with the boys. What better way to endear his relationship with the Saudi's?
Regardless:
https://twitter.com/Patterico/status/1557907233932918784?s=20&t=86sDRLYulwhbjKGNao_hmw
I do not know what the real facts are in this case but, having been in the business of securing cryptography, nuclear weapons authentication and top-secret communications, I'm pretty sure it was illegal to mishandle highly classified information in 1965 - at least under the UCMJ. If Trump is guilty, he should receive the same harsh punishment as Hillary and Sandy Berger and a number of other democrat political figures.
David French agrees on that, when it comes to the identical action taken by Hillary and Donald (mishandling sensitive information).
However: we then have possible obstruction of justice charges involved due to reported signed affidavits that all classified materials were returned, and Donald's repeated insistence that this government property belongs to him - which it never was nor ever will be his property to do with as he sees fit.
All are possibilities. We will see if they can make a case. It should not be difficult in DC. Hatred of Republicans (particularly Trump) runs strong there. Whether it will hold up through all the scrutiny and appeals is iffier. Of course, the same charges could have been brought against Hillary - especially obstruction.
Yeah, no. There's no case for obstruction for Hillary: and of course Trump was president for four years with compliant AGs and yet there still was no case brought against Hillary - most likely reasoning being that they didn't think they could make the charges stick.
That's the ultimate decider for prosecutors, ain't it?
Not a lawyer but I can read. Destruction of evidence is also considered obstruction of justice. For sure AGs are hesitant to bring cases against democrats because they are almost certain to lose in DC. Barr said as much. Most recent example is Michael Sussman. The DC judges, prosecuting attorneys and juries are corrupt and biased and live off democrat political largess.
I'd argue that any destruction of data that occurred by Hillary/staff would be negligent handling, with what we know: if that destruction occurred AFTER the data was requested or an investigation started then that'd be something else.
And that's where you have to recognize that while what Hillary did was serious negligence, what Trump is doing is intentional obstruction and theft. He somehow thinks he has rights to these materials, when they are the property of the US Government.
But by all means, just chalk everything up to corruption and democrats like you always do rather than admit that by all available evidence that's not the case: sure allows for maintaining your delusions.