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| credit: M. Ramirez BC Idonwanna sez: What's wrong with this picture?. |
Update: The undue deference given the former guy but the Justice Department may be ending soon, after the newspaper of record when on record stating that Trump intended to use illegally possessed government secrets as exchange for FBI files concerning its investigation into his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia. If this story proves to be entirely factual, it is eerily similar to the extortion he attempted against Ukraine, in which he threatened to withhold aid money unless President Zelensky investigate Hunter Biden. The National Archives and Records Administration--"those radical left lunatics"--earned his infamous ire when it refused to give him sensitive documents he thinks would support his allegations of politically motivated mistreatment, i.e. "witch hunt". He told his aides, according to the Times that he would return boxes of documents he illegally took out of the White House if he got the FBI documents he wanted from NARA. So now you know why. US Person says it is way past time to put this white-collar crime boss from Queens in the dock for the sake of the Republic where no one is above the law, even deranged "deal makers" in over their head.
Rolling Stone reported Friday that the FBI has questioned witnesses about government documents that may be stashed at Trump Tower in New York or at the Bedminister Golf Course in New Jersey. Der Trumpminister still claims the seized documents-including the classified ones--belong to him. Who is the lunatic in this sad, sociopathic tale of defiance?
{07.10.2022}As Trumpillini's high-paid defense team become evermore ridiculous in their defense of the indefensible, The WaPo revealed this week more evidence of his criminal intent to illegally possess government secrets. He personally packed some of the 15 boxes that were returned to the National Archives in January after his lawyers convinced him that he could not contiue to store them at his country club home. Trump tried to get attorney Alex Cannon to tell the "left wing radicals" at NARA that all the government papers had been return. Cannon demurred to this request, with apparent good reason. A few months later, the FBI seized documents at his resort including 100 highly classified papers. Prior to this discovery, on February 7th he dictated a statement referring to his "friendly" return of the documents without stating whether all government records had been returned. This statement was never released. He still refuses to make that statement under oath, or agree in court to the accurate inventory of seized material from Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department's chief counterintelligence officer said at this late date there still may be missing documents lodged at Mar-a-Lago or one of his other residences in New York City or Bedminster, New Jersey. Ask yourself, what did those empty classified folders contain and where are the contents? Der Leader's neurotic insistence on retention of material that is not his to own is more than mind-boggling stupid, it is criminal. Even blasé Washington pundits are beginning to admit his blatant lawlessness. Under the Presidential Records Act, any records created or received during the exercise of official duties are property of the United States government. NARA is custodian of those records.
The DOJ was granted an expedited appeal by the Eleventh Circuit of the lower court order appointing a special master to review some 11,000 documents. Rightly so, because appointment of the master by an obviously biased district judge was nothing more than a delaying tactic in which Individual One's lawyers could argue seratim about each document that they wanted to assert a privilege for to prevent public disclosure. Such a process could take months. Trumpillini has even resorted to petitioning the Supreme Court to stop DOJ from using the classified material exempted from special master reviw by the Court of Appeals. No doubt he was encouraged by the fact that the conflicted MAGA justice, Clarence Thomas, oversees the Eleventh Circuit. Thomas was the only justice to vote against the Houser Select Committee obtaining White House communication records relating to the coup attempt. His wife was communicating with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others in support of the coup.
Special Master Dearie is speedily moving ahead in his review of unclassified records. He has in fact, already ordered the return of some papers clearly personal in nature such as tax records, personal notes, and personal communications of the former occupant, which DOJ agreed earlier to return. He has imposed an October 20th deadline for a declaration of which documents are still in dispute after consultation by the parties.