#Trump Classified Document Case

[gwydionmisha]

The employees did nothing wrong. Republicans are hollowing out the FBI as part of the planned weaponization against anyone 47 or Kash Patel don't like.

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

😡

[follow-up-news]

Judge Aileen Cannon said on Monday that she would not block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. However, Cannon scheduled a court hearing later this week on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s plan to share with some lawmakers the part of Smith’s report dealing with the classified documents probe. In the meantime, she is continuing to halt the department from disclosing that aspect of the report to anyone outside of the agency. The new order from the Trump-appointed judge is the latest twist in a court fight that has upended the Justice Department’s preparations for winding down its investigations into Trump before he is sworn into office next week, while jeopardizing the transparency Congress and the public have into those probes. The department has historically released the final reports on special counsel investigations into presidents, including while those presidents were still in the White House.

[news-of-the-day]

I'm going to attempt typing a bit and explain the Trump cases because I know they can be confusing. I'll start with one that's easy to understand: the classified documents. I went over it before last July, but I'll do it again in much greater detail.

After Trump left the White House in 2021, the National Archives realized he hadn't handed over all of the classified documents he's supposed to as required by law. After reaching out, he returned 15 boxes but the National Archives knew it wasn't everything. In May 2022 the DoJ issued a subpoena demanding the rest of the documents, and then later the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and discovered many, many more. In June Trump and one of his staff Waltine Nauta were indicted for retaining classified information, obstructing justice, withholding statements, and other charges you get when you don't play ball with an investigation.

With the indictment, prosecutors presented a lot of their evidence and it's pretty copious due to the amount of witnesses, texts, emails, etc. If you want to read the 60 pages, it's here and it's pretty amazing. Please keep in mind everything I'm relating after this is an allegation from the DoJ and needs to be proven.

It seems after that May 2022 subpoena, Trump had a meeting with his lawyers, who promptly told him to just relinquish the documents. He resisted that idea and threw out some suggestions, like just not responding to the DoJ, replying there are no documents, or hinting that perhaps his lawyers could take the fall for this.

However at the end of the meeting, he agreed that the lawyers should go to Mar-a-Lago and review what was there. Before they could do this though, Trump ordered Nauta to remove and hide 64 boxes so the lawyers couldn't find them (although later he returned 30). Trump and Nauta are also accused of contacting the IT director at Mar-a-Lago to see if the security camera data of this venture could be deleted after the FBI asked for it. When the lawyers did find the remaining classified documents, Trump hinted that he wanted them to hide some of them in the lawyers' hotel rooms, but they didn't do it. Instead the lawyers returned what they thought were all the documents to the FBI and certified this was everything. This caused problems for Trump personally because now his lawyers are witnesses against him and will undoubtedly be required to break the attorney-client privilege, and (in my personal opinion) they may be angry because they unwittingly became accessories to a crime. When the Mar-a-Lago search warrant was issued, there was a lot of discussion about how these lawyers may be ejected from the bar for lying to the FBI, that's how serious this was.

You may ask why Trump is being treated differently than Pence and Biden, both of whom also held onto classified documents. Unlike Trump, they immediately worked with law enforcement to retrieve everything and cooperated, which kinda hints it was accidental on their part. Not great, and you can still be prosecuted for that nevertheless, but at least there didn't seem to be anything intentional. Trump is only being charged for documents he held onto after that initial 15 box return to the National Archives, and what he did keep was vital information about the US' military capabilities, CIA information about other countries, nuclear secrets... and this was left initially on a ballroom stage, then a bathroom shower, and finally in storage where anyone could go through it. In fact at one point Mar-a-Lago staff found papers lying all over the floor in the storage room.

So why did Trump do this? It seems purely for bragging rights; he liked to show off some of the documents to visitors. Unfortunately for him one of those meetings was recorded in which he admitted he knows it's classified. And in another meeting, a witness came forward stating Trump showed him a document but told him not to come too close because it's classified.

A lot of his 38 charges carry a $250K fine and up to 20 years in prison, but federal guidelines for sentencing probably means he'll only be imprisoned a year or two if he's found guilty. (Federal guidelines take into account whether it's a first offense and other factors. I would explain it, but I'm not a lawyer and got confused when I tried reading up on it.) The case is set to be heard for May 2024. Trump's trying to get it delayed until after the election, but it's been denied.

Reuters, CNN, AP

[latestnews-now]

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has requested the dismissal of two major federal criminal cases against Donald Trump following his 2024 presidential win. Learn why the Justice Department's policy shields sitting presidents from federal prosecution and what this means for Trump's second term. Discover the ongoing implications for his legal battles at the state level.

[youthchronical]

Donald Trump: What happens to Donald Trump's criminal cases after he becomes President? Can he pardon himself? | World News - Times of India

As Donald Trump is poised to take over the Oval Office, all eyes are on some of the serious criminal charges against him, which also include federal cases.The second term could help Trump do away with federal indictments accusing him of mishandling classified documents and seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. According to reports, prosecutors will find new, and possibly…

[shellhawk]

I seldom post anything political here, but I felt that this was a good time to post this essay from 2022 on why, exactly, you can't declassify classified documents by the power of your (rat-infested) brain.

This is an important read for everyone who has to deal with the utter insanity of people who think that classified document theft is no big deal.

[2bpoliticallycurious]

She is not impartial. The DOJ needs to have her removed from this case.

ADDENDUM:

It turns out that that this was an unidentified Trump supporter who just looked like Aileen Cannon. It was apparently NOT Judge Cannon. (Thanks for the Snopes link @epicallyepicepicosity2 ).

Still, given the way Cannon egregiously handled Donald J. Trump v. United States of America, she has already demonstrated that she is not impartial.

She should still recuse herself.

[evilmark999]

There's really no better way to say it: Judge Aileen Cannon has "fucked around" and will soon be "finding out"...

But DON'T take my word for it. Michael Popok and Ben Meiselas get it right more than anyone else in the media. MORE. THAN. ANYONE!

This is a follow-up post to a reblog a little further down in mah history. Please, share it via reblog or copy-n-paste it into a new post of your own! Intelligent presentation without an undisclosed moneymaking bias is DIFFICULT to come by!

[melodyvibes-blog1]

"Enough is enough" Judge can't stand Trump and Dumps every piece of Evid...

[contemplatingoutlander]

Here's Trump's rant about his indictment. 🙄

Anyone who believes that Trump is "innocent" is either absurdly gullible or willfully misinformed.

FINALLY: Trump Is Indicted in Documents Case

Thank goodness for Jack Smith! Finally, Trump might be brought to justice!

According to The New York Times:

Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to face federal charges. The Justice Department took the legally and politically momentous step of lodging federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, multiple people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The charges follow a lengthy investigation of his handling of classified documents that he took with him upon leaving office and into whether he obstructed the government’s efforts to reclaim them. The indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Miami, is the first time in American history a former president has faced federal charges. [...] Mr. Trump was charged with a total of seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday, according to a person close to him and his own post on Truth Social. The indictment, filed by the office of the special counsel Jack Smith, came about two months after local prosecutors in New York filed more than 30 felony charges against Mr. Trump in a case connected to a hush money payment to a porn star in advance of the 2016 election.

[follow-up-news]

The federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump issued an order Tuesday temporarily blocking the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation. The injunction lasts until three days after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on a pending request to block the release of the report over a separate matter involving Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira filed a motion Monday night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report, citing the judge’s previous ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.

[lumsel]

David McBride is I think the funniest whistleblower in history, in a very dark sort of way.

Military lawyer David McBride is mad that the SAS keeps getting "wrongfully accused" of war crimes. He thinks the whole thing is all trumped up political bullshit and the investigations into them are illegal. The boys out there are just doing their jobs, but the top brass keep breathing down their necks casting aspersions on them.

He gets in touch with investigative journalist Dan Oakes to try and get his story out about how awful their treatment has been. He hands over a trove of classified military documents to support his case.

Dan Oakes takes one look at these documents and goes what the fuck. these guys are doing insane amounts of war crimes.

Oakes releases a bombshell article 12 months later about war crimes in Afghanistan, making a compelling case that they should be investigated harder over their conduct, essentially the exact opposite story that McBride wanted him to write.

The Australian Federal Police work out pretty quickly that McBride was the one who leaked those files to the press, and he flees to Spain for a time but eventually returns to Australia and is arrested. He faces time in jail for leaking the files.

Fortunately for him he also finds a trove of supporters. They help raise money to pay his legal fees and protest to raise awareness of the miscarriage of justice held against him. Unfortunately, this support is mostly predicated on the premise that he bravely risked it all to spread the word about the horrible crimes the SAS had been committing. He would prefer to correct them about this, but he is not really in a position to refuse their help.

It is something of an awkward situation.

[mugiwara-lucy]

One of the main reasons why I’m voting for Kamala Harris is because sometime within the next couple of years there will be two open seats in the Supreme Court.

Let’s not forget one of the judges that Trump appointed in his first term OVERTURNED ROE V WADE. And the old fucker BRAGS about it:

If he gets back into office, I’m sure we can all anticipate AILEEN CANNON being one of those Supreme Court justices. And if you all don’t know who she is, she threw out the case where Trump STOLE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE:

In a nutshell, if Trump gets into office, he will appoint two younger Supreme Court justices younger than Clarence Thomas, meaning the Supreme Court will be locked HARD RIGHT for AT LEAST 30 years.

By then, that means our potential children and grandchildren (if you even want to have kids) will have LESS RIGHTS THAN US.

Do you really want that?

That’s why I feel with Kamala Harris being President, we can BALANCE OUT the courts!

Please Vote Blue.

Thank You 🙏

[scottguy]

There are a lot of good lawyers but sadly, the profession draws an inordinate number of assholes like her.