Trump on Trial

One wonders (doesn't one?) how many incriminating documents* were hauled out of the White House and down to the Cartoon Palace, where the ORC has been busy over the past 18 months burning them in a 55-gallon barrel on the back lawn.

* Russian collusion
* Putin's instructions
* Congressional blackmailing
* Saudi back-room deals
* UAE back room deals
* Iranian back-room deals
* North Korean naked pictures of Kim
* Trump Tower receipts from foreign nationals having business with the US
* Negotiations over the new Air Force 1 having gold toilets
* Bribes over the Space Force contracts
* Oil and coal company bribes
* Federalist Society negotiations over anti-Roe judges
* etc etc etc

Professor Heather Cox Richardson's thoughts.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

August 26, 2022 (Friday)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) today released the redacted affidavit that persuaded a judge to agree to issue a search warrant for FBI agents to look for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the property owned by the Trump Organization in Florida.

It was bad.

The affidavit explained to the judge the history behind the FBI’s request.

On February 9, 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration (what did I say about archivists?) told the DOJ that after seven months of negotiations, on January 18 it had received 15 boxes of material that former president Trump had held at Mar-a-Lago. Those boxes contained “highly classified documents,” including some at the very most secret level of our intelligence: those involving our spies and informants.

In those initial 15 boxes, FBI personnel found 184 classified documents. Sixty-seven were labeled CONFIDENTIAL, 92 were SECRET, 25 were TOP SECRET. Some were marked SCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI, the very highest levels of security, involving human intelligence, foreign surveillance, intelligence that cannot be shared with foreign governments, and intelligence that is compartmented to make sure no one has full knowledge of what is in it. The former president had made notes on “several” of the documents.

On June 8, 2022, a DOJ lawyer wrote to Trump’s lawyer to reiterate that Mar-a-Lago was not authorized to store classified information, and warned that the documents were not being handled properly. The DOJ lawyer asked that the material be secured in a single room at Mar-a-Lago “in their current condition until further notice.”

Trump’s lawyers told the DOJ that presidents have the absolute authority to declassify documents—this is not true, by the way—but did not assert he had done so.

The FBI opened a criminal investigation “to, among other things,” figure out how the classified records were taken from the White House and ended up at Mar-a-Lago, and to determine if other classified records might have been improperly taken and stored, and to figure out who might have taken and mishandled them.

They concluded that there was good reason to think that more classified records remained at Mar-a-Lago and that investigators would find evidence that Trump and his allies were obstructing the government’s effort to recover the material. The person who made the affidavit said they were a special agent with the FBI, “familiar with efforts used to unlawfully collect, retain, and disseminate sensitive government information, including classified N[ational] D[efense] I[nformation].” They swore that “there is probable cause to believe” that locations at Mar-a-Lago “contain evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed.”

The affidavit confirmed that the Department of Justice is “conducting a criminal investigation concerning the improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records,” and asked for the affidavit to be sealed because “the items and information to be seized are relevant to an ongoing investigation and the FBI has not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation.”

Sidestepping Trump’s insistence that he could declassify whatever he wished when president, the affidavit specifies that the documents could cause damage even if they are not classified, and it notes that retaining “information related to the national defense” is illegal.

The information that Trump stole classified documents itself was eye-popping, and then that he refused to return them was astonishing. Now, the knowledge of the extent of it, and that it included information from our human sources, is stunning.
AND THIS WAS JUST THE AFFIDAVIT TO GET A SEARCH WARRANT TO GET MORE RETAINED DOCUMENTS…which the FBI did on August 8.

We still don’t know what was in those more recently recovered boxes.

Trump is in serious trouble…and so are the rest of us. This stolen and mishandled classified intelligence compromises our security. The best-case scenario is that it was never seen by anyone who knew what they were looking at. Even that would mean that our allies have every reason to be leery about sharing information with us again.

But that’s the best-case scenario. We have to wonder, who else now knows the secrets designed to keep Americans safe? Multiple news stories during Trump’s presidency noted that even then, Mar-a-Lago was notoriously insecure. And, unthinkable though it should be but sadly is not, what if secret documents have already been given or sold into the hands of foreign actors whose interests conflict with ours?

I have been writing today about Trump’s first impeachment and the hearings where Marie Yovanovitch, Fiona Hill, and Alexander Vindman, immigrants all, who served our nation faithfully and fully, risked—and ultimately lost—their jobs to warn us that Trump was willing to compromise our national security for his own interests.
“He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” House impeachment manager Adam Schiff warned the Senate. “You can’t trust [Trump] to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can’t. He will not change and you know it.” Schiff begged them to say “enough.”
But they would not, and they did not, and here we are.

Trump is threatening to incite a civil war if he is indicted.

I don't think there's really a choice here.  If we don't protect democracy, there won't be a country to preserve.  Better to let the heavily-armed MAGA army have a few shoot-outs with the police, get a couple dozen on each side killed, and make it clear that armchair cosplay revolutionaries aren't gonna get their way.  It won't be a full-blown "civil war," it'll be a few knuckleheads getting themselves killed (like the Bundy Ranch and Branch Davidians).

If DOJ moves before November－which I expect they will－then sides will be taken before the election and anyone supporting insurrection will be called out. Couple that with women registering to vote in record numbers, and we could well see the Republican party shrink substantially in 2023.

Trump took with him to Mar-A-Lago some documents on the nuclear capabilities of a foreign nation.

Presumably Israel.

It's well known that the Trump family in general and Jared Kushner in particular have been very friendly with the Saudis.  Kushner was paid $2 billion for some information he delivered to the Saudis  in April.

Is it hard to connect the dots here?

Trump called Ashli Babbitt's mother to tell her what a patriot her daughter was.

Louie Gohmert delivered the American flag that flew over the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, to one of the rioters who just finished her jail sentence.

People are selling Babbitt tee-shirts (misspelled) calling her a patriot.

This is what happens when justice delayed is justice denied.  The other side controls the narrative.

Two headlines in today's news:

Putin Calls Up 300,000 Reservists Amid Setbacks With Ukraine Invasion

Arbiter In Trump Docs Probe Signals Intent To Move Quickly

The cynic in me wonders if these two stories are related?  Could the "big trouble" Trump has promised if he's indicted be some move by his best bud Vlad The Impaler to threaten a nuclear accident at Zaporizhzhya?  An escalation of conscripts to Ukraine?  More war atrocities?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Yay Tish James!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-lawsuit-new-york-letitia-james_n_632b2515e4b0cd3ec26403dc

James says she is "not going to seek the dissolution of The Trump Organization" but she really doesn't have to. With this action their line of credit is effectively cut off, and the business has always run on borrowed money.

Banko. Just like the steaks, the wine, the university, the board game....

Trump doesn't read, so he didn't haul boxes of documents to M-A-L for his evening entertainment.

China was tipped off to spy networks in its midst and quickly executed about 30 of them and shut down the network.

Jared Kushner was given $2 billion for classified information he delivered.

Trump has publicly admitted still talking to North Korea, even though he's no longer legally allowed to.

Information Trump stole and sold included Israeli and Iranian military and nuclear secrets.  

If that whole family doesn't end up in trials for treason, and soon, there is no justice.

In news of the "well, duh!" variety:

Trump was unfit for office

Merrick Garland appointed a Special Counsel to look into Trump's legal woes today.

Why?

The DOJ has all the evidence it needs to issue an indictment -- it was all out in public anyway. Trump is a private citizen now and holds no special immunity. Garland's neutrality has always been proclaimed by him, as loudly as he can.

So why appoint an SC?

1. Delay delay delay until the 2024 elections (preliminaries begin in 14 months)
   
2. Chances are, Garland has gotten credible death threats
   
3. Chances are, Garland has been threatened by Russian organized crime

I've shifted my view of the future. I now believe Trump will get off scot-free from everything. EVERYTHING.

Donald Trump this, Mar-A-Lago that, Kanye, mystery guest, lawsuit, appeals court... BLAH BLAH BLAH

Can we PLEASE just keep DJT out of the news ENTIRELY until he's frog-marched into federal prison???

Trump Org trial goes to jury

Expect a quick conviction. Action afterward may take many years of course...

How Trump Org's tax fraud conviction could bar Trump from federal contracts, even for Secret Service

Quote :

   The Trump Organization was found criminally liable of tax fraud on Tuesday after a six-week trial.

   The conviction could ban Trump from doing business with the federal government.

   A ban could end his 'exorbitant' billing of Secret Service agents who protect him at his resorts.

Trump Org has always been a business that runs on debt -- borrow a lot of money, invest it in real estate, pay back a little bit of the principal.  There has never been a time when DJT hasn't been hugely (bigly?) in debt.

All that changes now.

All his outstanding loans will be called in.  His ability to borrow new money to pay off old loans will be severely curtailed.  His entire empire, built on grift, debt, and skimming off the margins, can only collapse.

He is bankrupt.  He's never faced bankruptcy before, and it'll be interesting to see how he reacts.  He won't understand why his grift has been shut down, and he'll blame everybody but himself.

This makes it doubly important that he's never let near the levers of power ever again.

___________________________________

The House GOP has instructed the January 6 Committee to preserve all of their records.  On January 3 2023 when they take over they plan to "investigate the investigation."  They'll be looking for any exculpatory testimony, any countervailing facts that tend to minimize the President's crimes.  I expect they'll find some.

I also expect it won't be much ----- and if they seriously look into the evidence they'll have to reach the same conclusion as the Democrats.

Bottom line: With DJT & company seriously wounded financially, and zero chance of any convictions in the Senate, the House will be flailing wildly until 2024, doing more damage to themselves than to anybody else.  Somewhere during that timeframe, DJT will face trial.  When he does he'll be convicted.

At that point the GOP will be left with nothing to support, and will have to either pivot or collapse.

As it becomes increasingly obvious to the House GOP that none of their dozen or so impeachments will go anywhere in the Senate, as it becomes increasingly obvious that DJT is a wounded animal, as it becomes increasingly obvious that the American public does not support their circular firing squad...

The GOP may begin to fracture, a caucus of normalcy may emerge, the MAGAts may find themselves losing steam/power/influence.

At least one can hope.

Only if Kevin McCarthy is tossed out though.

Trump got four criminal referrals out of the January 6 Committee.

Completely toothless, completely for show, utterly a waste of time. The Committee could have done some good 18 months ago -- the evidence was not waiting to be uncovered. Having waited too long, now the GOP takes over the House and begins multiple years-long investigations of the J6C.

Which the members will feel free to utterly ignore. Contempt charges, show trials, total waste of time.

Meanwhile Orange Julius Caesar runs free.

Trump's taxes are about to be publicly released.

I suspect this will be much more damaging to him than the criminal referrals.

Republicans rage against releasing Trump's tax returns...

Only a coupla small problems here. One, every president since Richard Nixon has voluntarily released their returns to the public. Two, Trump PROMISED to do so as soon as he was out of audit.

Or did you forget, Representative Brady?

The only way to wean Republicans off the Trump teat is to make it toxic.

Trump should be charged not just with insurrection, but conspiracy to commit insurrection. Then everyone who stands up for him, everyone who participated in the January 6 insurrection, everyone who voted against certifying the electoral votes (147 House Republicans and 10 Senate Republicans, if memory serves) should be ADDED to the conspiracy.

"Stand by your man"? Yeah, you can stand trial with him, fuckers.

Trump's tax returns have been released.

Among the revelations so far:

• Trump carried forward huge losses, reducing his tax bill (probably legal, but worth examining)
  
• Trump's taxes were NEVER under audit during his presidency, despite his using that excuse to avoid releasing them (probably legal, but the IRS decision is illegal)
  
• Trump held substantial foreign assets while president (probably illegal)
  
• Rounded figures in interest payments from his kids (illegal)
  
• Claiming his helicopter expenses exactly equalled income from Trump Aviation (statistical impossibility, illegal)
  
• Huge charitable donation deductions (Trump's never given a penny to a charity = illegal)
  

In short, the ORC will be going to jail for what's in here.

I haven't looked myself, but I hear there's no mention of him donating his salary to anywhere, either.

Uh-oh.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/politics/joe-biden-classified-documents-counsels-office/index.html

This won't turn out well.

On the FLIP SIDE.... if the House impeaches Joe Kamala becomes president.

Trump Org fined $1.6 million for tax fraud

This is a pittance.  They're being made to pay back [some of] the taxes they cheated, with ABSOLUTELY NO PENALTY and ABSOLUTELY NO CONSEQUENCES. They're not being required to pay back attorney's fees, and you KNOW the government spent at least 10x that much prosecuting the case.  White collar crime really is a different system of justice.

If you get caught, you might have to pay back the principal... but you get to keep the interest, and nothing to stop you from continuing to cheat on taxes.