The Trump Investigation(s) Thread

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:31 pm

I will love watching the 3PM deadline expiring with Trump not answering so they can't release it. Headline on Fox will be "DOJ fails to release documents!".

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:44 pm

The relevant USC sections for the search warrant:

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:50 pm

Apparently the asshole released the entire search warrant to Breitbart without redacting the FBI agent’s names. Which will put a giant target on their backs from the MAGA howler monkeys.

Whatever the most dickish thing possible to do in any scenario is, you can count on Trump to do exactly that.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:50 pm

Nice that he leaked it with the agents names in it. Fucking scumbag.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:54 pm

Snitches get stitches. -DJT

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:01 pm

pr0ner wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:44 pm The relevant USC sections for the search warrant:

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:18 pm

It doesn’t sound ridiculous anymore.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:26 pm

A raid of his forehead would be completely justified.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:35 pm

Breitbart headline is that the most important thing is they waited an entire weekend!

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:54 pm

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 4:01 pm

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 4:02 pm

Some of the information the FBI seized include Roger Stone's clemency paperwork and a dossier on French president Macron.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 4:56 pm

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:06 pm

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:09 pm

Grifman wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:54 pm

You had me going until they wrote “Breitbart”.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:24 pm

FWIW random thought but I think while David Brooks has some good ideas in his piece today...the headline, "Did the F.B.I. Just Re-elect Donald Trump?" makes him look pretty foolish. Again. It's shades of when he said the 1/6 commission hearings were a waste of time before it began.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:11 pm

Honestly, I fear that headline isn’t as foolish as you think. Trump started using this incident as part of his 2024 effort exactly 7 seconds after he got the call that the FBI were at his place.

If he can continue to convince people he’s being treated unfairly, and by extension all republicans are being treated unfairly, he’s going to remain a viable threat in 2024. I know we can’t ignore his crimes, but sometimes I think just pretending he doesn’t exist and avoiding any mention of him is our only hope. Trump has learned to thrive on media attention….good or bad. He can make himself out to be the victim in almost any situation. I hate that he’s that good at it. And I hate that so many idiots fall for his shit. But here we are.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:30 pm

The natural implication of Brooks piece is that the FBI should have considered ignoring Trump holding classified material about our nuclear capability at his golf course. It's a non-starter.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:34 pm

Or that we need to be very, very careful when dealing with someone like Trump. Or learn to play his game better than he does. Probably both.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 9:42 pm

He’s now claiming that he had a “standing order” that any documents he took home were immediately declassified by default.

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Aug 12, 2022 9:47 pm

Christ. I mean…that’s “my dog ate my homework” levels of stupid.

Of course, his moron worshippers…and the GOP at large…will support/pretend to support it.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 3:17 am

Who is giving Trump legal advice? Isn’t he well past the point a defense lawyer would tell him to STFU? I mean, he’s basically confessed to a crime at this point.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 3:19 am

Skinypupy wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 9:42 pm He’s now claiming that he had a “standing order” that any documents he took home were immediately declassified by default.

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works

Even if it works that way, it is irrelevant. Under the Espionage Act, it doesn’t matter whether the documents are classified or not. Trumps handling of the documents was illegal.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:38 am

Grifman wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 3:17 am Who is giving Trump legal advice? Isn’t he well past the point a defense lawyer would tell him to STFU? I mean, he’s basically confessed to a crime at this point.

Apparently it was his army of MAGA lawyers acting as "informal" advisors by some accounts. But in the end he can confess to crimes because he knows we're not going to do anything about it.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:16 am

Paul Rand, that piece of human excrement that someone shoveled into a pair of pants, is going around echoing Trump's latest accusation that the FBI planted evidence on Trump during the raid.

These shit heels will stoop to anything to keep themselves on the government payroll. Including treason.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:47 am

It's intentionally incoherent. Did they plant it or was it there but "declassified" by his magic standing order? It's all a farce but that's the point. They tell us obvious lies and nothing happens. They are showing us that they can get away with anything and they're effectively in charge. It's classic fascism. People have to wake the fuck up. It's happening.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:24 am

malchior wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:47 am It's intentionally incoherent. Did they plant it or was it there but "declassified" by his magic standing order? It's all a farce but that's the point. They tell us obvious lies and nothing happens. They are showing us that they can get away with anything and they're effectively in charge. It's classic fascism. People have to wake the fuck up. It's happening.

The shifting goal posts are almost comical. Oh he declassified them. Oh the FBI planted them. Unfortunately there's a sizable number of people who won't believe any facts that come out from this.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:58 am

“This is one of the two feds who signed the ‘Receipt for Property’ form, which detailed—at a very high level—the fishing expedition that the FBI performed at Mar-a-Lago,” Ziegler said on both Truth Social and Telegram.

The former Trump administration staffer further listed out the FBI agents’ date of birth, work emails and linked to alleged family members’ social media accounts.

“Hope he doesn’t get a good night’s sleep for the rest of 2022,” Ziegler wrote on Truth Social, responding to another Truth Social user’s photos of one of the alleged FBI officials who signed off on the inventory receipts on the warrant.

...

Speaking on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Ziegler doubled down on his posting of information he claims to be that of the agents.

“We have to have faces,” he said. “There are people ruining America, and they have names, and emails, and addresses.”

Multiple attempts to reach Ziegler for comment were unsuccessful on Friday night.

The targeting by a former Trump administration aide follows CNN reporting that the FBI now faces “unprecedented” newfound threats against their agency.

“We work closely with our law enforcement partners to assess and respond to such threats, which are reprehensible and dangerous,” the FBI told CNN in a statement. “As always, we would like to remind members of the public that if they observe anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately.”

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 10:43 am

When they do that they should be arrested..its like hiring a hit man or inciting a mob.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 10:49 am

Best summary of the gobble-defense-ygook I've yet seen.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 12:24 pm

NY Times - that lawyer must feel like a lamb being led to slaughter - just another dupe who'll shield Trump from justice

At least one lawyer for former President Donald J. 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 to Mar-a-Lago by Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division.

The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material. And it could help explain why a potential violation of a criminal statute related to obstruction was cited by the department as one basis for seeking the search warrant used to carry out the daylong search of the former president’s home on Monday, an extraordinary step that generated political shock waves.

...

Shortly before Mr. Garland made the announcement, a person close to Mr. Trump reached out to a Justice Department official to pass along a message from the former president to the attorney general. Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Garland to know he had been checking in with people around the country and found them to be enraged by the search.

“The country is on fire,” Mr. Trump said, according to a person familiar with the exchange. “What can I do to reduce the heat?”

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 4:52 pm

$iljanus wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:24 am
malchior wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:47 am It's intentionally incoherent. Did they plant it or was it there but "declassified" by his magic standing order? It's all a farce but that's the point. They tell us obvious lies and nothing happens. They are showing us that they can get away with anything and they're effectively in charge. It's classic fascism. People have to wake the fuck up. It's happening.
The shifting goal posts are almost comical. Oh he declassified them. Oh the FBI planted them. Unfortunately there's a sizable number of people who won't believe any facts that come out from this.

The problem with Trump’s declassification argument is that if he “thought” in his mind and declassified the documents, it is just as possible that Biden has reclassified them in his mind. Hence, they are now classified again.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 4:54 pm

It's being reported today that lists of spies on the American payroll were included among the documents.

I'm sure that was just light reading that appealed to an intellectually curious man like Trump.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 4:58 pm

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:44 pm

Holman wrote: Sat Aug 13, 2022 4:54 pm It's being reported today that lists of spies on the American payroll were included among the documents.

I'm sure that was just light reading that appealed to an intellectually curious man like Trump.

...known for his love of in-depth reading.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:00 pm

I'm incredibly skeptical of anything coming out of Newsweek. They've made mistakes this week already.

Edit: This is really thin and verges on clickbait. Potential? They're guessing.

In pursuing the unprecedented search of Donald Trump's residence on Monday, the FBI was seeking to retrieve Top Secret and "compartmented" documents dealing with intelligence "sources and methods," two federal government sources tell Newsweek—documents with the potential to reveal U.S. intelligence sources, including human sources on the American government payroll.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 8:17 pm

Rand Paul’s response? Repeal the Espionage Act.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sun Aug 14, 2022 6:35 am

The article Rand quotes is one of the strangest, illogical things I've read recently. He basically argues the espionage act is a bad tool because it was related to a war he argues that "hardly anyone defends". Also it is bad because lives were wasted because it didn't prevent a future war that no one predicted. Weird stuff. What does that have to do with the need of all modern nations to protect their sensitive information? He also details old timey examples of abuses of the espionage act from that time period...that don't happen anymore. It is a strange basis for making national security rationalizations but it seems right up Rand Paul's idiot alley.

What does that mean with respect to the Espionage Act? It means that the law should simply be repealed and that Americans need to start demanding repeal rather than simply pleading with the Justice Department to enforce it in a more judicious manner.

Let’s keep in mind that the law is the fruit of a rotten foreign intervention. Hardly anyone defends the U.S. intervention into World War I. That war was, quite simply, none of the U.S. government’s business. President Wilson, however, was hell-bent on embroiling the U.S. in the conflict. Wilson believed that if the force of the U.S. government could be used to totally defeat Germany, this would be the war to finally end all wars and to make the world safe for democracy.

Wilson’s mindset, of course, was lunacy. Sure enough, the U.S. intervention resulted in Germany’s total defeat, which was then followed by the vengeful Treaty of Versailles, which Adolf Hitler would use to justify his rise to power. Nazism and World War II soon followed. So much for the war to end all wars and to make the world safe for democracy. Tens of thousands of American men were sacrificed for nothing.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sun Aug 14, 2022 7:30 am

Daniel Dale at CNN gets it...mostly. He does a good job deconstructing the scheme in this article. Too bad he doesn't reflect on how the 4th estate is central to it working as they play along for access and clicks.

In response to the FBI search of former President Donald Trump's home in Florida on Monday, Trump and his allies in Congress and right-wing media have returned to his preferred strategy for communicating in a crisis: say a whole bunch of nonsense in rapid succession.

From his battles against impeachment to his effort to limit the political fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump has attempted to flood the zone with such a quantity and variety of lies, conspiracy theories and distractions that Americans will tune out, turn away or cease to know what is true and not. And he has regularly been joined by a large cast of eager defenders.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sun Aug 14, 2022 9:19 am

Man, Rand Paul. I will be shocked if after the shit gets truly unfurled (if it does), he’s not shown to be super compromised somehow. If you look at his statements, positions and tweets in the past few years…Jesus.

Seems to go beyond the normal ‘I love Trump!(bc it’s good for my political career)’ bullshit.

LFG would be suspect as well but he’s literally said he’s just a needy, craven coward who will do anything for relevance. I get a different vibe from Paul. And we all know how accurate THOSE can be!