Thursday, September 08, 2022
Wednesday, September 07, 2022
Judge Prioritized The Protection Of Trump's Reputation And Rewarded Him For His Current Crimes While Ignoring The On-Going Danger To Hundreds Of CIA Assets' Lives
Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel, September 6, 2022
Cannon did some crazy-ass stuff . . . [She] usurped the authority of the President of the United States (among other things), to claim that Trump had a property interest in the 11,000 stolen government documents the FBI seized on August 8.Her argument about the irreparable harm that Trump faces because the government seized 11,000 documents — some highly classified — that he refused to return is still more appalling. . . . [S]he says it would harm Trump's reputation to be charged with a crime. . . .
[C]onsider Aileen Cannon's logic about leaks. . . .
It's pretty obvious they [the DOJ] haven't [been responsible for leaks to the media], because none of the leaks to the press have been accurate. The vast majority of them, in fact, can be matched to false claims Trump has made in his own filings.
Trump is leaking. The investigative team is not.
Ironically, in her order, Cannon also revealed details about the potentially privileged content seized from Trump. She's done more leaking than the investigative team has.
And so Judge Aileen Cannon's remedy for the risk of hypothetical leaks about Trump is to give the seized documents . . . back to Trump and the lawyers who are leaking up a storm, not a single one of whom has a need to know about these Human Source Operations anymore. . . .
[S]he also has forbidden the government from continuing to criminally investigate Trump and any co-conspirators he might have. She has forbidden the FBI from using the documents to try to chase down any existing leakers of these documents (though she has allowed a damage assessment that will be virtually impossible to do without the FBI side of the investigation).
Judge Cannon is worried about a hypothetical threat to Trump's reputation posed by the leak of materials seized from his hall closet and desk drawers, and because of that, she has prohibited the FBI from investigating Trump for willingly, knowingly, obstinately leaving stuff about Human Source Operations lying around a hotel targeted by foreign intelligence services.
For a year, Donald Trump left 325 files lying around his club, unsecured. After he gave 184 of them back in January 2022, he went to great efforts to prevent the FBI from reviewing what kind of damage he had done, delaying their access by a month. All the while, he secretly kept at least 141 more of those files in his desk drawer and hall storage room, even after it was public that he had been storing sensitive records in his poorly secured resort. The government subpoenaed him. He stalled again. He gave back 38 of those documents, while still hiding another 103, still lying around his poorly protected club. He bought a padlock, his lawyers have claimed in leaks to the press. Finally, on August 8, the FBI came and seized another 103 documents, still including documents protected as part of highly sensitive compartments that, if disclosed, could get people killed.
Judge Aileen Cannon has ruled that it is more important that Donald Trump's reputation be protected from hypothetical leaks than that FBI be able to remedy the possibility that leaks facilitated by Donald Trump's obstinance and neglect could get people killed.
Donald Trump has already been given 18 months in which his obstinance has prevented the government from preventing leaks of the sort that can get people killed. Now, out of fear of hypothetical reputational leaks, Judge Aileen Cannon has mandated that Trump and any co-conspirators be given still more time to get people killed.
One of Cannon's rationale for appointing a Special Master to look through all the documents to make sure Trump's "privileges" were preserved (some of which he is not entitled to) was to allegedly insure the appearance of impartiality, even going so far as to say that Trump's position is so special that it's even more important that he not be tainted by the unseemly existence of an investigation. . . . But it is nothing more than a political tactic and it's one the right is well-practiced at deploying. . . . The right spreads a conspiracy theory, either defensively or offensively, which has only the slimmest relationship to reality. But their non-stop shrieking about it inevitably leads some people to believe that there must be something to it. The media can't resist this so they then pump the "controversy" which gives right-wing authorities the excuse they need to let a Republican off the hook.You see, there's just so much (fake) controversy circling in the ether that these authorities, whether law enforcement or the courts, have no choice but to bend over backward to ensure there is no "perception of unfairness" when, in fact, the whole manufactured dispute is blatantly biased. This can also work in reverse as well. The controversy can also lead authorities to go harder on Democrats so as not to appear biased in the face of the right's accusations. It's a win-win for the GOP.Judge Cannon was particularly crude in her invocation of this ploy and it will be remembered as one of the most brazenly partisan acts ever handed down from the federal bench. Caring not at all about maintaining even a shred of judicial objectivity, she went the extra mile to ensure that Trump will at least have the delay he desperately needs to worm his way out of this one. Considering what we already know about the stolen documents, and the actual simplicity of the elements of the crimes he's clearly committed, however, that's going to be more difficult than most of Trump's corrupt conduct. So, he is working overtime to make sure his MAGA supporters see this as the ultimate act of persecution. . . .
His followers no doubt relate to all of this. They too are angry at all the unfairness they believe is being meted out by people who are out to get them. He speaks to their grievance like no one else and in their view he is being mistreated for doing so. . . .
The fact that [Trump] constantly eludes accountability even as the government throws everything at him, from the DOJ to Congress to state courts and local law enforcement, has led to the belief among his followers that he is invulnerable.
What we see as whining they see as strength and when he says "this will fail miserably, like all the rest" they believe him — he's a superhero. It's rather important that the government gets the job done this time. If he gets away with stealing top secret nuclear documents, relying on the laughably absurd rationales he and his hand-picked judge have been throwing out, they will believe he is nothing short of a god.
Trump Claims FBI Took His "Complete And Highly Confidential Medical File And History", Which Allegedly States He's "An Absolutely Perfect Physical Specimen"
A document describing a foreign government's military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month . . .
[More than 11,000 documents, including over 300 classified and top secret documents were recovered on August 8, 2022.]
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. . . .
Investigators grew alarmed, according to one person familiar with the search, as they began to review documents retrieved from the club's storage closet, Trump's residence and his office in August. The team soon came upon records that are extremely restricted, so much so that even some of the senior-most national security officials in the Biden administration weren't authorized to review them. One government filing alluded to this information when it noted that counterintelligence FBI agents and prosecutors investigating the Mar-a-Lago documents were not authorized at first to review some of the material seized.
Führerprinzip
Trump has argued that the documents at Mar-A-Lago were not sensitive because as president he had the absolute authority to declassify them, even if he told no one he had done so. This "magic wand" defense sounds ridiculous. But it also sounds fascist.
Hitler's central theory of law was called the Führerprinzip, or leadership principle. Basically it meant that the leader's word was above the law. The leader shaped the law; the law did not bind the leader, who "was not subject to any constitutional checks and balances," per historian David Welch. The leader's power in fascism is (like Trump's mental declassification) virtually mystical. It does not arise from written law or from established institutions. Rather, it comes from the leader's spiritual connection to the masses.
"The purpose of the law in the eyes of the Nazis was not to apply long-held principles of fairness and justice," historian Richard Evans explains, "but to root out the enemies of the state and to express the true racial feeling of the people."
From this perspective, Cannon's decision is not a failure of reasoning. It's simply the application of an alternate set of legal principles. Or, as composer Frank Wilhoit put it, "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." . . .
This is only illogical if you think that Trump's power as president came from the law. If you are operating under Führerprinzip, or something like it, then Trump's power comes from embodying the spirit of MAGA, and always puts him above the law. . . .
This is the actual legal reasoning behind Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election results. From the traditional empirical and legal standards, there was no election fraud, and Biden's victory was valid. But if you hold to Führerprinzip, as Trump does, then any vote cast against the leader is by nature illegitimate and illegal. The law is there to crush those who defy the leader. Trump, from the view of Trumpism, isn't lying when he says he was the winner. Or his lying is justified because is serves a greater truth. Either way, Trump remains president no matter the law, because the true purpose of the law is to validate his presidency.listen clearly to what Trump is saying in this clip. this is a manifesto of dictatorship. pic.twitter.com/oaqBN8ZeEt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2022
The conservative legal movement that Trump advanced has been moving more and more towards Führerprinzip and the law of MAGA. The Supreme Court has mostly abandoned any pretense of ruling by precedent, truth, or reason, and has signaled its willingness to abandon voting altogether and simply allow Republican legislatures to choose the next president . . .
Tuesday, September 06, 2022
A MAGA Federal Judge Accepts Trump's Snowflake-Whining And Rules (With No Legal Foundation) In His Favour, Stating His Reputation & Feelings Are More Important Than The Current National Security Nightmare He Has Caused
Trump's lawyers told the Justice Department on June 3 that Trump had returned all government documents in his possession. That was a lie -- and has landed two of Trump's lawyers in serious legal trouble for lying to the Justice Department -- because two months later, during a court-ordered search of Trump's Florida home, the FBI discovered an additional 27 boxes of documents (including more than 300 classified documents and more than 70 mysteriously empty folders). Other news account mention 33 additional boxes.
Political scientist Norman Ornstein said Cannon "violated her oath and is unfit for the bench", calling her ruling "a clear-cut impeachable offense" and stating that she has "engaged herself in obstruction of justice".
Her decision was utterly lawless. She has disgraced her position as an Article III judge.
Is it only Trump who can have a judge enjoin a criminal investigation into his conduct following execution of a judicially authorized search warrant? Either Judge Cannon thinks Trump is above the law or she's created a new rule to benefit criminal defendants.
To any lawyer with serious federal criminal court experience who is being honest, this ruling is laughably bad, and the written justification is even flimsier. Donald Trump is getting something no one else ever gets in federal court, he's getting it for no good reason, and it will not in the slightest reduce the ongoing howls that he is being persecuted, when he is being privileged.Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at University of Texas, called the ruling
an unprecedented intervention by a federal district judge into the middle of an ongoing federal criminal and national security investigation.Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor:
Judge Cannon had a reasonable path she could have taken — to appoint a special master to review documents for attorney-client privilege and allow the criminal investigation to continue otherwise. Instead, she chose a radical path.Paul Rosenzweig, a former homeland security official in the George W. Bush administration and prosecutor in the independent counsel investigation of Bill Clinton:
This would seem to me to be a genuinely unprecedented decision by a judge. Enjoining the ongoing criminal investigation is simply untenable.Peter M. Shane, a legal scholar in residence at New York University and a specialist in separation of powers, said Cannon had no legal basis to expand a special master's authority to screen materials that were also potentially subject to executive privilege. He said her opinion
seems oblivious to the nature of executive privilege. . . . Even if there is some hypothetical situation in which a former president could shield his or her communications from the current executive branch, they would not be able to do so in the context of a criminal investigation — and certainly not after the material has been seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant.Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., a Harvard Law School professor, called Cannon's reasoning "thin at best" and said she gave "undue weight" to the fact that Trump is a former president, undermining the premise that in the United States, everyone is equal under the law.
I find that deeply problematic. This court is giving special considerations to the former president that ordinary, everyday citizens do not receive.
Judge Cannon's decision is wacky for a lot of reasons, none more than this. I can't think of any other ruling I've ever read where a judge explicitly notes that applicable law does not grant her jurisdiction to hear the case but proceeds to decide it anyway.
This judge basically did Trump's lawyers' work for them, making arguments under the 4-part Richey test which Trump did not brief or argue, making executive privilege arguments that Trump did not press fully in the hearing, and granting an injunction when one wasn't requestedGlenn Kirscher, who worked as a federal prosector for 30 years:
In addition, this judge basically admits that Trump is getting special treatment bc he is former POTUS. . . .
If Donald Trump were any other person on the planet, you know what law enforcement would be doing? They'd be getting an arrest warrant for him, they would lock him up . . . Trump knows PRECISELY why he had those TS documents containing some of our nation's most closely guarded intelligence information AND he knows what he did w/the docs that are missing from the classified folders. Stop handling Trump w/kid gloves. Arrest him. Protect our nation.
The argument that he has executive privilege is so what the scientists would call stupid. . . . It would be like if Trump called for executive privilege over Air Force One and parked the plane at Mar-a-Lago.
This special master opinion is so bad it’s hard to know where to begin:Seth Abramson graduated from Harvard Law School and has worked as a former criminal defense attorney and federal criminal investigator. From his 46-tweet thread, explaining "why so many lawyers are horrified" by Cannon's ruling:
1. She says Biden hasn't weighed in on whether docs protected by Exec Privilege. Nonsense. The archives letter (which DOJ submitted to the Judge) makes it clear current President thinks none of this is privileged. Archivist says it is "not a close" question.
2. Judge enjoins the entire investigation because some of the material might be subject to Executive Privilege. But Executive Priv isn't some post-presidential privilege that allows Presidents to keep documents after they leave office. At most, it simply means these are Executive documents that must be returned to the archives. It doesn't in any way shape or form mean they can't be used in a criminal prosecution about stolen docs...
3. She says the "reputational" harm to Trump justifies a special master. That's insane–every crim deft has reputational harm. Are we now going to have special masters in every crim investigation?
4. She says the Special Master should screen materials for exec privilege, without ever once explaining what specific material is subject to exec priv, particularly when the incumbent President rejects the assertion. How is the Master supposed to figure that intricate Q out?
5. She says that because some tiny percentage of materials might be privileged, the entire investigation over all the materials has to stop. That's a bazooka when one needs at most a scalpel.
6. She tries to enjoin the Exec Branch from using these materials in an investigation, but the govt has already reviewed all the materials. It makes no sense.
7. She says Trump suffers irreparable harm in interim, but the only harm she isolates is he won't have the docs back during the investig. That's not irreparable, he can get them back later & if they are improperly used to bring an indictment, he can move to dismiss the indictment.
8. Her analysis of standing is terrible. Trump wouldn't own these docs anyway, so why does he get a Master over them? If there is some marginal claim to some attorney client docs, that handful of material can be separately dealt with–you don't enjoin the entire investig for that.
9. Her jurisdictional analysis is similarly awful. She let Trump forum shop for a judge, instead of letting the magistrate judge evaluate these claims. The appearances here are tragic.
That's just a few of many more problems. Frankly, any of my first year law students would have written a better opinion.
5/ So already we come to the first problem with the Cannon ruling, besides the obvious fact that it came from a Donald Trump political appointee who Trump and his team desperately "forum-shopped" for in a clear abuse of how our system is *supposed to* (but often does *not*) work.
6/ And that problem is this one: Trump appointee Aileen Cannon declared—and not just implicitly, but, horrifyingly, *explicitly*—that Donald Trump's reputation simply *matters* more than yours or mine, as do his property rights. And they matter more because he is a powerful man.
7/ In ruling (in part; explicitly) on this basis, Cannon not only made up *precisely* the sort of ad hoc judicial-activist new rule Republicans claim to hate—"ex-presidents' reputations matter more than other people's, even though they're just regular citizens"—but did far worse.
8/ Why do I say that she did worse than just not applying the rule of law equally across all those before her? Because she implicitly accepted Trump's dime-a-dozen whining about being persecuted—many defendants say/think this—by bringing political considerations into her ruling. . . .
15/ But even more importantly, Judge Cannon actually held in her ruling that DOJ had not abused its authority—had *not* abused Trump's constitutional rights—which makes any explanation of her ruling in grounded in the opposite claim wildly self-contradictory and even nonsensical. . . .
23/ . . . There are immediate and dire national security implications in the question of whether or not DOJ's counterintelligence division is going to be allowed to continue its investigation of one of the worst security breaches in our history.
24/ And make no mistake, that is *exactly* what Cannon did: she acknowledged the high national security stakes in this case and then said that Trump's *specially protected, snowflake-like reputational interests* were clearly more important than U.S. national security. Uh....what?
25/ The DOJ investigation is a national emergency, as DOJ doesn't know what was taken illegally from DC, whether it has all of it, what was done with what it doesn't have (or where such portion of Trump's stolen goods might be)—and so it *needs* to keep reviewing documents *now*.
26/ Instead, Cannon has effectively put a stop on the DOJ investigation for weeks or even months, making it impossible for DOJ to determine if Trump still has national secrets hidden somewhere in one of his domiciles. Indeed, Cannon's ruling so threatens national security that...
27/ ...it'd be not at all surprising if the FBI now sought to search Trump Tower and Bedminster precisely *because* their suspect—who, to be clear, they have dead to rights—has managed to forum-shop his way into preventing them from determining if *more* stolen data is out there.
33/ . . . Trump has made no showing whatsoever (or even claim) that the documents seized included attorney-client privileged materials, because of course he's too busy trying to preserve a false defense that he didn't even *know* what he stole from DC (yes—really).
34/ By the same token, Trump has not and cannot credibly raise executive privilege as an issue because he is not the president, the actual president (Biden) has waived that privilege preemptively anyway, and privilege actually has nothing to do with the case—which is about theft.
35/ But even more than this, Trump—*again*, and consistent with his M.O. throughout his presidency—has yet to formally invoke executive privilege with respect to *any* specific document. The law requires him to do so, but judges have been covering his ass on this for *years* now.
36/ To my knowledge not a single federal judge since 2017 has required Trump to invoke executive privilege even when *others* have—without any basis in law—tried to do so on his behalf. It's like these judges are acting as *Trump's lawyers*, invoking defenses *he* can't or won't.
37/ Here, Trump won't invoke because—again—he's trying to maintain the farce that he's no idea what he took and therefore doesn't know if any of it was privileged (which, again, is legally immaterial here anyway). So Judge Cannon has helpfully given him an argument he never made.
38/ And to be clear—to the extent appointment of a special master *is* common in a type of case involving a seizure, it's one in which a defendant *shows cause* to a court that there's reason to think items were seized a special master must curate. Trump has made no such showing.
39/ The result of this is that we have a demand for a special master without any of the legal or factual grounding for such a demand, in a situation in which granting the demand harms national security, and with a claim of special status that has no basis in U.S. law whatsoever.
40/ And it's *on top of all this* we must put the fact that a) Cannon is a lame-duck Trump-appointed judge who owes her career to [Trump], b) Trump has actively incited threats against *all* government agents who could threaten him—which implicitly includes Cannon.
CONCLUSION/ This case should've been heard by the same court already overseeing the Mar-a-Lago search. Failing that, it should've been decided by Cannon consistent with the facts, law, and the issues *actually raised* by the movant (Trump). Fortunately, DOJ can—and should—appeal.
PS/ As it is appealing, DOJ should *also* use the Cannon ruling as an additional basis—it already has probable cause—to search other Trump domiciles for the contraband it *knows* he stole. Moreover, it should move full speed ahead with its January 6 investigation of the ex-POTUS.
PS2/ I'll also say that I consider it odd that Cannon feels compelled to consider certain facts not in evidence—a 2024 run Trump hasn't announced; legal claims he hasn't/won't make—but not *other* known facts, like the movant's decades-long history of bad-faith delaying tactics.
PS3/ A judge can only take what's called judicial notice of facts not in evidence on a motion by one of the parties, but here she's already said Trump is special—she can take into account items not properly before her—so how is she drawing the line on her deviation from protocol?
PS4/ It's for all the foregoing reasons that my rather curt and snarky tweets about the ruling this morning focused on just two possibilities: (a) Judge Cannon is a political partisan more than she is a judge, or (b) she's *acting* that way because she's scared of MAGA terrorism.
Everyone is so mean and constantly persecuting poor Donnie when he never does anything wrong. The Whiner in Chief, feeding his cult more misery and woe so they can wallow in his world of grievance and persecution. pic.twitter.com/apMP4WypSn
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 5, 2022
The NYT reports that senior DOJ officials say they may “scale back” the investigation of Trump until after the midterms to avoid appearing partisan.
— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) September 5, 2022
Could there be a more partisan act? To hell with national security, can you imagine how this will play on Fox?
your reminder that Reality Winner swiped one document and was arrested immediately and spent four years in prison. one document. four years. she didn't get to pick her own rent-a-judge and she wasn't allowed to fly around the country and hold hate rallies
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) September 5, 2022
Sunday, September 04, 2022
CNN, 1860
Why was Abraham Lincoln so mean in calling out secessionist traitors to the US who just want to maintain the barbaric practice of slavery (which is misunderstood)?
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 4, 2022
Lincoln's hate speech is so political and divisive! We'll be back with Robert E. Lee for his thoughts.
We will now head over to a Southern plantation and drink coffee made by their unpaid slaves to find out why undecided, White male voters have so much economic anxiety and feel so insulted about being called extremists for their defense of treason and slavery.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 4, 2022
Stonewall Jackson joins our Sunday panel to discuss why Lincoln's woke politics and the left's cancel culture extremism against Southern slavery have forced him to join and support the secession movement.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 4, 2022
Nope.Am I wrong? "Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali says mainstream Republicans are MAGA" https://t.co/M9w6ZgHQbF via @msnbc
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 5, 2022
Trump Promises Unprecedented Violence Across US, Says His Followers Will Have "No Choice [But To Unleash] A Backlash The Likes Of Which No One Has Ever Seen Before"
Trump on Biden's speech tonight: “He must be insane, or suffering from late stage dementia!” pic.twitter.com/fJlnK8g82l
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) September 2, 2022
Remember: Every Accusation Is A Confession.Trump says Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House last week and kissed his ass pic.twitter.com/QT7zBHjedy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2022
Trump's rhetoric is impossible to follow. He says that by January 2021 he'd saved America—making the nation stronger than it'd ever been in 240 years. But his salvation was *also* apparently so shoddy that a man he deems addled was able to *destroy* all he did in months. Uh...?🤪
Anyway, now he's back to saying he knew virtually nothing about Russia when he took office in 2017. (In fact, he entered office having spent decades—decades—more obsessed with Russia than almost any businessman in America. His fabulism is beyond pathological. It is sociopathic.)
He is fully unhinged. . . . Biden is a "tyrant." He says his followers must "smash" the Democrats. He is repeating all the things he said *on January 6*. He is saying America is about to be "destroyed." He is *worse* today than he was on January 6.
God, the lies he is telling. Multiple lies per sentence. I am not sure he has told the truth about even a single thing yet and we are like 20 minutes into his "speech."
He is literally *in* a building with empty seats throughout the upper deck and with a whole section behind him blocked off and empty and he's telling people who are *in the building with him* that the building is sold out and at capacity. Sociopathy? Psychopathy? I've lost track.
He's telling people who are *in the building with him* that "all the cameras just turned off" because of what he just said, and the people *in the building* can see that that's untrue but he says it anyway because *this is a cult*. He could declare himself God and they would nod. . . .
Trump says the war in Ukraine wouldn't have happened under him because he would've simply asked Putin not to invade and Putin would've instantly agreed. Imagine being a person who believes this. I don't know about you, but I can't. . . .
He just said the 5 worst presidents in U.S. history *combined* did *less* harm to America across their decades in office than Biden has done in 18 months. How does anyone take a man seriously who says things like this? A literal circus clown would be embarrassed by this clownery. . . .
He just slipped and admitted he lost Pennsylvania, then caught himself. Or, he didn't, not really, but all the cultists in the room will think he did. I kid you not, this man who inherited $400 million from his dad is now attacking Fetterman for "leeching off his parents" (huh)?
Family out at the Trump rally in PA, which is tomorrow:
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 3, 2022
Q - Why are you a Trump supporter?
A - Because I realize that he’s the only person who did something in this world, and he helps us a lot. pic.twitter.com/i7fI158U3H
Woman at Trump rally today thanks Steve Bannon for providing news for her: “Steve, I just want to thank you. We’re so thankful for real American news .. real journalism.” pic.twitter.com/0PW9r6fDQt
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 3, 2022
At the Trump rally, Marge says that the ‘New Yorks Time’ is the worst spreader of J6 conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/PQxwuGpLYs
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 3, 2022
They are shilling Trump-head pancake pans at the #TrumpRally. pic.twitter.com/C5C1c8djas
— jeannette (@reedermt) September 3, 2022
Might want to give a breathalyzer to people at the Trump rally before you go live with them: “Donald’s the only boy that can straighten it out, I’ll tell you that.” pic.twitter.com/GK8Q5QwG2b
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 3, 2022
Headline of the Day (from Rolling Stone)
Republicans Call Biden Divisive While Equating Him To Satan And Hitler
Thursday, September 01, 2022
Trump & Lawyers Confess To His Crimes – But Defend Him Against Having A Messy Office
Trump this morning: “A lot of people think that when you walk into my office I have confidential documents spread out all over my floor .. like a slob. Like I’m sitting there reading these documents .. They put them there in a messy fashion and they took a picture.” pic.twitter.com/nsXaaYJydG
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 1, 2022
Donald would never throw documents on the floor pic.twitter.com/W17xQUo07E
— ChrisTrolles (@AsstMgrPCH) September 1, 2022
Trump this morning on the search: “My poll numbers have gone through the roof because of it. I’ve never been involved in an event that’s driven me up like this.” pic.twitter.com/mSUAPhlgMg
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 1, 2022
Jeanine: I was shocked to see classified documents and photos on a floor released by the FBI. Why is the FBI staging evidence like this? I’ve been in law enforcement for 30 years, I have never seen anything like this pic.twitter.com/fVuQVgfEBu
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 1, 2022
And Judge Box-O-Wine says she has "never seen anything like this" despite being "in law enforcement for 30 years"?!?!
Nat'l Security Analysts 'Shaking Their Heads' Following Trump's Handling Of Docs (MSNBC)
Trump's Legal Moves In Mar-a-Lago Hearing Make 'No Sense At All': Fmr. FBI General Counsel (NBC News)
Donald Trump Lashes Out At DOJ (MSNBC)
Nat. Security Lawyer: 'Spit Out My Coffee' After Reading Trump Team Filing (MSNBC)
Why Trump Attorney May Need A Lawyer In Wake Of DOJ Photo (CNN)
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Trump's Reply To DOJ Admits He Unlawfully Possessed Top Secret Documents, But It's Not Clear His Lawyers Realize What They've Said; Meanwhile, A Frantic Trump Keeps Confessing To Crimes; He Now Admits He Stored Cartons Of Classified Documents In His Home
JUST IN: Trump’s lawyers have responded to the DOJ and it’s unclear whether they understand that acknowledging their client’s “possession of … Presidential records” is admitting that he did crimes pic.twitter.com/gE0b9sojCg
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) September 1, 2022
NEW: Legal experts contacted by The Independent described the court filing by Mr Trump’s lawyers as “total bulls**t,” “gibberish,” and containing “nothing coherent”. https://t.co/m0XKVcme4I
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) September 1, 2022
Trump attorney indicates he "frequently" has guests in his personal office at Mar-a-Lago — where the FBI just recovered extraordinarily sensitive national security documents.https://t.co/G6J3SPHl5i
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 1, 2022
Trump lawyers: It’s totally normal for Top Secret/SCI documents to be randomly scattered throughout boxes and no one should be alarmed by any of this at all. pic.twitter.com/R2n03nWkFL
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) September 1, 2022
Former president now admitting the Top Secret/SCI docs in the photograph were found “in cartons” pic.twitter.com/V5SSbn8l2B
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) August 31, 2022
Trump's McLawyers claim--on the same day he admitted twice he had large numbers of TS/SCI docs in his office, claim they were in a secure setting.https://t.co/gZ2Qf2JhSM pic.twitter.com/NiimN0uHSx
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 1, 2022
THREAD. The fact that Trump never formally declassified anything, and also never raised it to DOJ, but is asserting it (unofficially) now, is actually an incredibly damning admission by Trump. That's because it means that *he wanted these secrets to still have value*
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) August 31, 2022
Trump is a criminal defense lawyer's nightmare. His uninhibited mouthing off is actually serving to make the criminal case against him stronger. Patty is correct that the below is a damning admission, not a defense. https://t.co/fsJAjTAuMq
— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) August 31, 2022
Quick primer on law of evidence: if he's indicted, every word he is saying now, every crazy eruption eg it was the FBI that strew the documents, will be heard by the jury, wh or not he testifies.Will be overwhelming attack on his credibility & proof of his consciousness of guilt.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) August 31, 2022
Pretty sure she’s disqualified herself from that job, now that she’s made herself a witness against him, as well as potential co-conspirator/criminal suspect. https://t.co/gCQR21GyFJ
— Serenity Now! (@Cpo10za) September 1, 2022
Habba expresses a truth about the way authoritarians think and operate. Breaking the law is an everyday activity, it is...mundane. https://t.co/2o9HYE73sE
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) August 31, 2022
Alina Habba: "The Espionage Act is too mundane to prosecute."
— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) August 31, 2022
*Julius and Ethel Rosenberg have entered the chat* pic.twitter.com/IbdjSrVz4z
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
MAGA Mnemonics
They have come up with a method to keep track of all the things they are mad about pic.twitter.com/J2cqaHj6T1
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 30, 2022
They're literally doing what 1st grade teachers do to make it easier for kids to understand simple things.But those usually make more senseThis is going to be too complicated for their followers.Like his simple-minded viewers will remember this? I can picture them all furiously grabbing their crayons to take notes.A republican candidate is going to say this in a debate and no normal people will have any idea what they're talking about.Same energy:
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Big Massive Dumps & Tiny Mushroom Dicks
Giuliani: They’re saying things like there’s going to be a big dump and there was a big dump. I put out the big dump.. pic.twitter.com/nv6qvBfWDl
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 27, 2022
"Then they did dumps ... big, massive dumps" -- Trump to Maria Bartiromo pic.twitter.com/oX2RPPOwbi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2020
Trump whines to Maria Bartiromo about the “massive dumps” he says cost him the election pic.twitter.com/oX2RPPOwbi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2020
[Trump has been wearing] diapers since probably the '90s. . . . He's incontinent from all the speed, all the Adderall he does, the cocaine that he has done for decades. All that stuff has a laxative effect on your bowels and his are uncontrollable. . . .One time there was the word "arbitrage" on a cue card and he started screaming that the script department was setting him up. "You're setting me up!" And he just freaked out and then very loudly evacuated his bowels and you could smell it. And the guy who was holding the boom mic was tearing up. And that's where the nickname the "Shitshow" came from. That was the crew nickname for Celebrity Apprentice.
Friday, August 26, 2022
Trump Should Be Sentenced To 966 Years In Federal Prison
(Applying The Reality Winner Standard, Since Everyone Is Equal Under The Law In The US)
BREAKING: Here is the redacted Trump Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit: https://t.co/SV5mIa5Y5H pic.twitter.com/xLKmJGfBZR
— Chris “Subscribe to Law Dork!” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) August 26, 2022
"When I read this today, my big overarching takeaway is, and I know this is just a prediction and speculation but I say it's an educated one, is that the former president is going to be prosecuted. I don't see how you cannot" - @AWeissmann_ w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/x1HZEis3ht
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) August 26, 2022
NEW: FBI review of 15 boxes transferred to National Archives contained 184 docs with classified markings:
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 26, 2022
— 67 Confidential
— 92 Secret
— 25 Top Secret
— additional docs with HCS (human Intel), ORCON (originator controlled), NOFORN (only US citizens), SI (special Intel), FISA
Full panic mode. The lies might work on his gullible cultists, but they won’t work in a courtroom, which is where he is headed. pic.twitter.com/R9OMb0Vhsi
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 26, 2022
"WE GAVE THEM MUCH!"Self-proclaimed "prophet Robin Bullock reports that God is very upset about the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago: "God didn't like that. It didn't sit well in Heaven." pic.twitter.com/5Xoz02I63X
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) August 25, 2022
Reality Winner was in possession of one classified document. In August 2018, she was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison, the longest sentence ever imposed for unauthorized release of government information (Winner leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 US elections to the media).
Donald Trump was in possession of (at least) 184 classified documents. Since everyone should be treated equally under the US justice system, Donald Trump should be sentenced to . . . 63 months (for one document) times 184 documents . . . 11,592 months in federal prison. That's exactly 966 years.
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Lindell: One "Billion" People Would Watch Voter Fraud Summit;
On Saturday, He Was Off By Only 999,999,940.
Lindell promised one "billion" people would tune in this weekend to hear his (non-existent) evidence of 2020 vote fraud. On Saturday morning, at 9:30 a.m., 28 people were watching. Just past noon, that number had ballooned to 60 people.
Mike Lindell is rambling on, denouncing Fox, Newsmax and other right-wing media outlets for not covering his escapades because they don't want to get sued any worse than they already are. (This isn't changing the world) pic.twitter.com/SvCpY48UWd
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 20, 2022
Liz Harris showing PowerPoint slides as her evidence. Literally just PowerPoint slides she made herself. People paid to be at this fucking lunatic parade. I can't take anymore. Mike Lindell is going to be sued into poverty. We will all point and laugh. pic.twitter.com/8ITA5K7OG9
— Bffs with my inner demon (@lacinb30) August 20, 2022
Elsewhere, the event was derailed by technical difficulties and Lindell, who couldn't stop yelling at his own attendees. During the event, he frequently repeated that the gathering would have "no breaks" and there should be "no reason to leave" the venue. https://t.co/AJBca2UViL
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 20, 2022
Mike Lindell, who said his latest election denier event today would convince everyone the 2020 election was stolen, is droning on about how his MyPillow promo codes work.
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 20, 2022
Lindell says increased sales off an ad means something is wrong. pic.twitter.com/oGIbmkScer
Saturday, August 20, 2022
"Moment Of Truth" Summit In Missouri This Weekend: Pillow Man Promises Upcoming Court Ruling On New Vote Fraud "Evidence", Says Election Denier Event "Will Be One Of The Most Important Events In History", Claims A "Billion" People Will Be Watching
WATCH: Moment of Truth Summit by Mike Lindell in Springfield, Missouri, on August 20-21!https://t.co/g3kQAO2jxJ
— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) August 17, 2022
Mike Lindell posted this propaganda clip tonight inviting people to an online(?) event August 20th and 21st called The Moment of Truth Summit pic.twitter.com/pK2GJZrnWf
— MINDF©️K (@gal_suburban) August 17, 2022
At CPAC, Mike Lindell says to watch the judiciary at the end of the month, because big things are in the works after his new ‘evidence’ presentation: “I’m telling you, after the 20th and the 21st of August .. you’re gonna see the biggest change this country has ever seen.” pic.twitter.com/ehh4cz1hmA
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 6, 2022
Mike Lindell likens watching his upcoming election denial summit to taking a miracle drug to cure disease. pic.twitter.com/TdNvYUqtLF
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 8, 2022
Mike Lindell says his latest multi-day election denier event “will be one of the most important events in history.” pic.twitter.com/opwadAcgxX
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 17, 2022
'It's the murder of our country!' Mike Lindell says 'billion' will watch his election fraud 'summit' https://t.co/PdFg4OdcpN
— BARBBROS / F/NO DMs #🇺🇦 #FvckPutin #DemCast (@ABrosnikoff) August 17, 2022
Ahead of his event, Mike Lindell seeming somewhat disappointed, says "it all comes down to this weekend," adding that he has now spent north of 30 million dollars on chasing down voter fraud claims after the 2020 election — something he says he mostly does in the dead of night.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 19, 2022
One of the events happening at Mike Lindell's "Moment of Truth Summit" this weekend is the "trial of the machines," where he intends to place voting machines — objects that can't speak— on the stand.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 19, 2022
Ahead of his "Moment of Truth Summit" this weekend, Mike Lindell said tonight that his event will have "no breaks" as he's bought "hundreds of thousands of dollars of food" so that there's "no reason to leave" the venue.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 20, 2022
In an attempt to eliminate members of “antifa” (members of the press that easily knocked down bogus claims) at his event this time around, Mike Lindell isn't allowing media outlets to attend his summit in person.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 18, 2022
Mike Lindell believes “bad people way up the ladder” are responsible for the lack of media coverage for his latest election denier conspiracy theories.
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 8, 2022
Lindell: “I’m at a level you can’t even imagine.” pic.twitter.com/oSo98kZmF1
Mike Lindell confirmed that ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis will appear at his election "summit" despite receiving a subpoena to testify in the Georgia election interference case. pic.twitter.com/igCyIonyNQ
— David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) August 17, 2022
The ‘Jesus, Guns, and Babies’ candidate for GA Governor, who said her election was stolen after getting 3.4% of the vote, appears to be on Lindell’s team for his big evidence reveal this weekend. Brian Kemp could be in trouble. pic.twitter.com/hgGFETiMwJ
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 19, 2022
Trump took to Truth Social tonight to promote Mike Lindell’s “Moment of Truth Summit” happening this coming weekend — which is essentially a re-packaging of Lindell’s failed “cyber symposium” event that featured a commercial printer which was billed as a voting machine.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 18, 2022
I have run out of words for the level of lunacy that is spewing from this person. pic.twitter.com/0nbJ049ZwK
— Spiro Agnew’s Ghost (@SpiroAgnewGhost) August 18, 2022
Lindell's tactics are similar to doomsday rapture cult leaders who keep promising the next prophesized date will be the *real thing*.
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) August 7, 2022
I've analyzed the role of dopamine in conspiracy theory susceptibility/cults, & why the non-occurrence of predictions reinforce the belief. 1/ https://t.co/bhRtdbwkQk
Big news from Mike Lindell at CPAC: “Over 54 countries have now been taken by the machines … Venezuela and Australia are gone.” pic.twitter.com/EmeEFuuR5u
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) August 5, 2022
Guys, I'm only now seeing this for the first time -- but Mike Lindell has unveiled MyCoffee.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 12, 2022
Yes, the MyPillow guy is selling his own brand of coffee pic.twitter.com/agM2yc0i0y
Mike Lindell today: “I have millions now on FrankSpeech watching.” (He had 546). pic.twitter.com/YiRpeoTsEE
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 13, 2022