There’s a nice summation of what we know/don’t know here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1556798517208924164
(I used the box as well)
https://mobile.twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1556798517208924164
Feds Mar-A-Lago Tour
by 135 Comments
Scroll up to see beginning of thread (duh).
Ooh, ooh – easier-to-read at threadreader:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1556792702347476992.html
That link is awesome given Twitter now insist you log in to read anything. I blame that Oblong Musk fella.
I’d love to see him skint and in jail, roundly exposed for the cheat and Cnut he is. One has to hope he is sufficiently psychopathic to keep things he shouldn’t, which can be used in evidence. But I’m sure he employs people who stop that happening. But the way he is going, he will not be some minor tosser, forgotten after his death, but a hood for history. Like Adolf Hitler, the more I learn about him, the more I dislike the man.
The article on Trump and his Generals here is fascinating and terrifying. Yep, if you didn’t guess, Dim Don is a fascist: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/letter-from-washington
I’ve long predicted Trump will be banged to rights on a technicality. Like Al Capone was jailed, not for being a gangster, but for tax evasion.
You can’t go through life leaving a trail of destruction and simultaneously covering your back.
I hope so, anyhow.
I doubt he’ll get nailed in his lifetime, whether he is charged or not. He’s not young and there is a lot of legal manoeuvring he can do to buy time. Regardless, he will continue to be a martyr for the looney right. If they’ve stayed with him this far there is literally nothing that can happen that will dissuade them. See also Alex Jones.
How about some bodies being found, videos of him being peed on (he looks the sort), film of him using the n word, or him hitting on 14 year old girls at parties where he provided coke (as he allegedly did after an evening trolling at Studio 54)? He was also a friend of unscrupulous Italian heritage businessmen when he worked in real estate. What more do people need?
Garrett Graff, an American historian of both Watergate and the FBI sez the raid “would have been approved and monitored at the highest level of the Justice Department; hard to even imagine how high the bar of probable cause must’ve been… Bottom line: The FBI & DOJ must’ve known they had the goods.“
Pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease
No Vincent, I doubt that would do anything. Fake news, fake photos, left wing conspiracy etc etc. Look at the JFK assassination as an example of how conspiracy theories can throve for decades despite a mountain of evidence.
And this is what worries me the most: if they ever charged him and he got off, Trump would rise, reborn. He is obviously setting up his kids to take over, so this will go on for decades.
Cheer me up, why don’t you? I know you are right, though. It’s the believers in him that remind us how scary this situation is. And you know what? If he was less impulsive and ignorant, he’d be more successful.
TL;DR There is a good reason to suppose that *something* supporting the Feds’ case is present in the Previous Guy’s gaff, but we don’t know what that is.
I think many will approve of the fact that the po-po haven’t given up on this. I
I what?
It’s an Ali G revival. Booyakasha!
Tend to press reply buttons too quickly. But
As a former President, he’ll never see the inside of a cell.
Stuff like that only happens in 24
If this weren’t a timestamped comment I’d tell you to write down the exact date and time you said that.
Happy to buy you a few drinks should Trump ever get fitted with a jump suit that matches the colour of his face. But….
Should Orangey ever get charged, he’ll have armies of lawyers working round the clock to obstruct and delay proceedings at every step.
Should he ever get found guilty, there will be appeal after appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court.
All of this will will take many years.
Trump is 78 and will be either gaga or brown bread long
before this whole process is exhausted.
Trump does not have a good history with lawyers. He doesn’t want to pay them, and the good ones won’t sit down in the same room with him. And he doesn’t follow their advice. We don’t have to worry too much about him being a genius in this department. Nor about his hiring one.
If he gets to go to court, they’ll be queueing up to work pro bono for the fat fuck.
It’ll be the biggest trial in US history and the exposure for anyone defending Trump will be huge.
Any lawyer working for Trump is working for nothing. No good lawyer is going to join a queue of grifting ambulance chasers. Look at his history – that’s not going to change.
Saul Goodman is going to be on the job market this time next week…
Working for nothing?
Pretty sure that there’s a widely understood Latin phrase for that.
And I’m pretty sure you use “faux” when you could use “fake”.
Is that a faux pas nowadays?
Asking moi?
Maybe he’ll get the ones who worked for Alex Jones.
Spot on Jaygee. I lived and worked in the USA for a couple of years and know an individual who was found guilty of selling sub standard aircraft parts (to the government).Despite a lengthy trial process he plea bargained his way out of a prison sentence and ended up making flower boxes or something as a community sentence.
Thats the year after next. Timing is about perfect….
A bit flummoxed to see
1) an entirely appropriate use of the phrase “the feds”. Usually these days it means “a ParkSmart gadgie on a moped”
2) that one of the drummers from Adam and the Ants seems to be involved in this story
I’m in two minds on this. With the caveat that none of us really has a scooby what’s going on right now, and the available facts might change radically in the not too distant future…..
In normal times, you’d think the DOJ would never have approved this without having an incredibly high degree of certainty that whatever they’d find would be worth the blowback. On the other hand, these aren’t normal times.
If they don’t manage to nail him, or even if they nail him on a technicality, they’re going to utterly martyize him and split that country even more profoundly than it already is. We’ll all celebrate, and it’ll feel like a win, but it’ll sow the seeds of a very dark future indeed.
Obviously, the optimal outcome would be that they come away with clear evidence of some very serious wrongdoing. Let’s keep fingers crossed for that. But in terms of public perception I reckon that will have to be one seriously smoky gun.
I can’t shake the concern that the impetus to stop Trump running again at all costs might be clouding judgement, and that all of this is, in some ways, a placebo for actually delivering a competent and engaged Democrat leadership. The disconcerting truth is that it’s highly likely that Trump is a symptom, rather than the cause.
Well, that’s all true of course. The Democrats have been entirely captured – like the left the world over – by people who think microaggressions and calling all white people racist like some weird Evangelical WE HARE ALL-UH! MISERABLE-UH! SINNUHS-UH! revival are more important than actual social or economic policy. If Trump runs, Biden’s going to actually have to stand on his record (ummm) and rely on idiot blue-haired kids to do all his grassroots. And given said kids think transphobia and abolishing the police are the twin policy priorities in a country riven by poverty and raging inequality, good luck with that.
The old degenerate getting banged up (or dropping dead of that simultaneous heart explosion and catastrophic aneurysm he’s been heading for) is pretty much the only hope for him not getting a second term, and so I don’t want to hope too hard.
Would love to know what Ron DeSantis is thinking privately right now. If Trump makes it through this you’d assume it’s a massive gift and potentially locks up the nomination.
As for the blue haired kids – well, quite. It’s mental that the Democrats have had 6 years now to form a response to Trump and the conditions that created him, and so far all they’ve come up with is business as before and an even deeper quasi-spiritual belief in the divine power of cultural identity.
Re the useful idiocy of blue-hairs and their ilk (which, kerrrr-azily, includes mouth-frothing Brexiteers) has Alexsandr Dugin been discussed on here?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
There’s a longer analysis (from which this wiki entry appears to be an abstract) from a guy at Stanford whose name escapes me at the moment (it’s very late/early, I’m very refreshed/tired) but who I’m sure I’ve got bookmarked; anybody interested, let me know and I’ll find it.
Interesting tweets. Thanks HP , am now following him.
What? Who? Why? Where is he?
Renato Mariotti
Appreciate the effort, but this kind of surveillance work probably best left to the Feds.
Is this the moment when we see the cops knock on his door a la Roger Stone and cuff him? I don’t think it is.
Whatever nails the nasty delusional POS it will be an apparent triviality and happen in the blink of an eye.
The most interesting aspect of this is the theory that the boxes of classified files Trump moved is not something that would normally excite the DOJ. So – what?
Garland, having been seen as a do-nothing wimp (by me, too) is showing some real action here. And everybody (including Former Guy) has been taken by surprise and nobody knows what’s happening. The media has been (quite correctly) shut out, so it’s making of it what it can. Ratings.
Merrick Garland has this, and now investigating the Southern Baptist Convention.
I think he plays the long game, and plays it well.
Agreed – he was great in Adam and the Ants, and that was 40 years ago.
I made that bloody joke.,,,, and it wasn’t even funny then.
This would benefit from a better format, and it’s a month out of date, but nonetheless it’s helpful:
https://www.justsecurity.org/75032/litigation-tracker-pending-criminal-and-civil-cases-against-donald-trump/
This is nice:
Trump appointed the FBI Director who signed off the search warrant upholding legislation that Trump signed into law.
Now a felony. From Politico
“ Notably, Trump — after a fierce campaign against Clinton in which he called for her to be jailed for her handling of classified material — signed a law in 2018 that stiffened the penalty for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents from one year to five years, turning it into a felony offense.”
If only Alanis had written a song about it…
Thank You?
Trump’s been fighting court cases his entire life. He counter sues everyone over everything and nothing ever gets resolved. How many times did we hear he would be impeached, then he would be arrested the minute he left office, the ongoing tax assessments and on and on. Nothing ever sticks. The FBI doing what they’ve done has just added fuel to the fire of indignation that the Republicans need for their supporters to stick with them / Trump. All of the Trump related investigations which are positioned by Trump/Republicans as entirely partisan will be closed down after the mid terms, and then new investigations will start into the Democrats.
Trump will end up President again in 2024, god help us all, as the Democrats can’t put up a viable candidate to oppose him.
What a depressing thought to go to bed on.
I don’t get this “Trump will win” scaremongering. Apart from it being good for ratings.
Nobody here is saying he’ll win, or that they think he will win – just that he won’t lose.
In the unlikely event he’s still around to get sentenced, his jail time
Will be commuted by the sitting POTUS
“Nobody here is saying he’ll win …” – Jaygee
“Trump will end up President again in 2024” – Lord Ted
Didn’t see that. My fault for assuming to speak for everyone else here
My point was – and remains – he’ll never do time.
OOAA
TCATWTMM
ROFLWMFITA
PUMGITTL
More and more I think his time has gone. If he does run again I think he’ll lose and lose heavily. Even though the Democrats bumble on with not a dynamic electable personality within a thousand mile radius of the Capitol
The despicable **** soaks up the rolling news airtime still but on the ground (from the U.K.) I see a growling disinterest. Lawrence O Donnell made the point after the FBI search this week ; where was the physical outrage from the previous Trump Crazies? It seems only a few dozen ‘Trump Won’ flagsholders were spotted milling about outside the Mar-a-largo gates the day after, and they soon wandered away. Where is the alt-right talk show call to arms?
Undoubtedly there will be some but not enough to make it reportable like it would have been perhaps only a year ago.
Trump’s crack legal team is claiming the Feds dumped backpacks full of incriminating evidence at Mar-A-Lago. That’ll get him off the hook.
Crack-head legal team?
This from David Rappaport.
That is somewhat incoherent.
Isn’t it? I’ve since found a few more and they’re not pretty.
He’s been about to go to jail for the last five years. The fact that people want it to happen doesn’t mean it will happen.
“The fact that people want it to happen doesn’t mean it will happen.”
The fact that people don’t want it to happen doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
And five years is a working weekend in legal terms.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about…
Sounds like you’re finally coming round to the DT-won’t-go-to-prison way of thinking, HP
I don’t know if he will or not. Nor does anybody. Having an opinion on it is like having an opinion on what the weather will be like in a few weeks time. Life is full of surprises.
“BREAKING JUST IN: Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.”
He’ll keel over and die from an apoplectic conniption as they try to put the cuffs on him [*], and never see the inside of a jail cell.
[*] In at least 10 years time. Possibly more.
He won’t win in ’24 because the GOP won’t put him forward. He is a useful idiot at the moment but De Santis is gonna be their pick.
Well, yeah. McConnell hates Trump’s guts as much as anybody. All this “Trump will win in ’24” stuff is off the point. De Santis is smarter than Trump, and just as nasty.
If you’re interested in keeping up to the minute on this story (including Garland’s being freed to make the warrant public, as he has requested of the judge) @CalltoActivism tweets are useful.
Unconfirmed just in: AT&T have turned over Margarine Trailer-Grease’s phone data (over J6 period) to the Feds.
(MTG – “Ol’ Foot-Face”)
Now under criminal investigation for potential violations of the Espionage Act.
He’s a card, isn’t he?
NYT:
“The search warrant for Trump’s residence cited three criminal laws, all from Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 793, better known as the Espionage Act, which covers the unlawful retention of defense-related information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary; Section 1519, which covers destroying or concealing documents to obstruct government investigations or administrative proceedings; and Section 2071, which covers the unlawful removal of government records. Notably, none of those laws turn on whether information was deemed to be unclassified.”
TLDR? The man is in very deep shit indeed, and it’s going to be very difficult for even his most stupid supporters to stand in the stench.
He will say that this proves the dark forces that really run things are out to get him and he will adopt a martyr-like status. Jail time will be a great career move and highly lucrative.
One of the boxes they took was called “President of France”. I am sure Macron is on the blower as we speak to Biden, wanting to know what all that’s about.
Am I right in thinking this is more related to his term of office as President rather than his work on The Apprentice?
No, Gary, this is a common mistake! All the investigations into Trump relate to The Apprentice. I understand if they result in conviction, Strictly is next of the Feds’ list!
“very difficult for even his most stupid supporters to stand in the stench”
Oh I think you’re underestimating them there. They’d stand in anything for him. Facts aren’t facts, anyway: the deep state made it all up etc etc. There’s literally nothing you can tell the sort of people who’d attack an FBI field office with an automatic rifle for this guy.
Death Row for Donny!
Death cab for Cutie
Talking of crimes, the Mar-A-Lago complex is up there with the Duckworths’ stone cladding and Hilda’s “muriel”. Oh, and there’s the stuffed lion in his gold-plated office in Trump Tower. And yeah – gimme a special button on my desk so when I press it, a butler comes in with a can of coke like, straight away ! I bet his bed is in the shape of a Batmobile.
Actually, I’d love a Bedmobile.
You naughty man.
Trump appears to be claiming that all of the documents have been declassified. He appears to be saying that he declassified them as POTUS, as was his right. The DOJ says there are procedures for that which don’t appear to have been followed.
I have a personal suspicion that Trump has accumulated those intelligence documents as potential blackmail/bargaining material.
This is gonna run and run.
It’s not just that “procedures weren’t followed” – for material of this nature, there were no procedures he could follow. Beyond his pay grade.
Potential blackmail/bargaining material. Oh the irony, says some dude called Vladimir.
The high grade of secrecy for much of this material means it is simply not able to be declassified by a/the President. Even if he was still President. It’s a “two key” operation, and he only had one of them, and didn’t use it.
Kompromat is something else entirely. Macron’s name has been mentioned – weird surprise.
Good overview here from MSNBC:
I took a book (Doctor Who Dalek Technical Manual) out of my school library in 1986 and didn’t return it. I’m getting worried now.
*nods slowly* The Doctor Who Dalek Technical Manual … ri-ight …
It contained blueprints of how to make a full-size Dalek. I never did get round to building it. I bought two sink plungers and gave up on the idea.
My teenage bedroom was tiny – barely big enough for a bed – definitely not big enough for a full-size Dalek as well.
I won a cardboard cut-out model of a Dalek in a Daily Express competition (I think millions of other kids winning one in no way diminishes my considerable achievement), which sounds ho-hum but it was a spectacular thing. Printed in black and silver on good quality card, it was insanely detailed with rotating head-piece and moveable toilet plunger, and stood about a foot high. I also had a tiny but very beautiful plastic model with a ball bearing in the base so you could scoot it across the kitchen lino. A design failing meant it always faced backwards, rather compromising the intergalactic threat. Ou sont les Daleks d’antan?
I have a “Daleks!” Yearbook from 1976. Now that I am older I can see that it was a rotten cash-in and nothing to do with Dr Who or the BBC or nuffin. A bit like that film about glam period Bowie that couldn’t use any of his lyrics or any of his music.
The exclamation mark should have alerted you. Daleks! are not the same as Daleks just as Ultravox! is not the same as Ultravox.
I want to be a machine – exterminate!
The exclamation mark immediately ups the ante. Even better would be “Ultravox! In Space!”. That would have had me shaking my piggy bank with extreme urgency at the record shop counter.
Might I recommend Neither Washington Nor Moscow by The Redskins?
Go ahead. I suppose you will anyway.
Actually, that was my best attempt so far at ‘punctuation humour for a music appreciative demographic’, which is something I’ve been working on for a while now. I’m quite pleased with how it’s going at this stage.
Ha ha! I knew that! *gives Gar matey punch on upper arm* And very reasonably amusing it was too!
Good question.
His strip mall lawyer, what’s-her-face – one of Jaygee’s many Top Lawyers lining up to work for nothing – said on Morning Joe she “hadn’t talked to my client about whether he’d illegally removed nuclear secrets from the White House and taken them down to his country club illegally in Florida.”
“Sweet Jesus – You didn’t ask the president that question? Your client?”
It’s all good, man. No doubt she has an inflatable Statue of Liberty in parking lot.
Nice bit of misrepresentation of what I wrote there, HP. You’ll be claiming I’m setting up a Gofundme page to pay for his legal costs next!
Just to set the record straight, here’s what I actually wrote:
“If he gets to go to court, they’ll be queueing up to work pro bono for the fat fuck.
It’ll be the biggest trial in US history and the exposure for anyone defending Trump will be huge.”
Now that you put it in quotes it sounds so much more authoritative. The second part is okay – here, let me quote it for you – “It’ll be the biggest trial in US history and the exposure for anyone defending Trump will be huge” – well, duh – but the first (“they’ll be queueing up to work pro bono”, in case you forget) is still a little iffy. The lawyer representing him – for bus fare and bag lunch – will be as dumb as a bowling shoe, and the publicity all bad. That’s a nice bit of writing – let me quote myself – “the lawyer representing him – for bus fare and bag lunch – will be as dumb as a bowling shoe, and the publicity all bad.”
Exposure will be huge – hurr
“Hurr” – wow, now it’s genius
I said this some time ago & see no reason to change my mind.
He will never see the inside of a jail cell
I don’t believe he would ever be convicted, face trial, interviewed, arrested or cautioned.
If I am wrong, the US President of the day, (of either/ any party), will pardon home for the sake of national unity.
But what the fuck do I know?
That’s the point, Jack. Whatever we may think, one way or the other, doesn’t matter, and makes no difference, because we know fuck all. Did any of us (outside the event) predict a mob insurrection, with American citizens storming the Capitol? Did any of us predict the search of Mar-a-Lago? The nuclear secrets? A short time ago I was one of the Garland-does-nothing opinionators. I knew nothing. All we know now is that this is an extraordinary and epic story of corruption and criminality that probably has no equal, and makes Watergate look like the proverbial storm in a teacup. It’s worth putting your own beliefs to one side and letting it all play out in front of you, because that’s what it’s going to do anyway.
Well, yeah. So you’re not asking what we think will happen next, just for our opinions? And if you’re not asking for opinions, then what are you doing?
I could always copy-paste my OP (as The Young People are calling it) in an effort to make things clear for you, Mo, but I don’t really think you’re asking a question any more than I am, you rascal. You’re just being provocative.
(How’s your Lobster?)
Wasn’t that Gérard de Nerval, H.P.?
Or am I missing something here?
It’s what a disappointed friend of mine called his Rolex Oyster, referred to in a beezerthread about watches. Mo bought himself one because (if memory serves) he deserved it, and it runs like it’s on cocaine. It costs hundreds of pownds to get it to calm down, apparently. Nobody deserves that.
*enlightened face*
That one might be due a nudge.
Moosey-chops will be thrilled.
I’m quite a nudger.
It’s fine for many reasons:
I don’t need an atomic clock on my wrist, near enough is fine.
Adjusting it once a month is fine and no hardship.
It’s a beautifully designed and manufactured object and just looking at it makes me happy and I am in no way disappointed with it. But thanks for asking.
(Although those Seiko 5 Sports jobbies look nice too. Just not as nice.)
Quite right too! After all, a need to know the time isn’t why people buy one, anyway.
As you made clear on the watch thread, sir. It’s good to get along, isn’t it?
Go on then.
Those attorneys….
https://imgur.com/gallery/PggQwYj
There was a Jenna Ellis fart incident? Or does she partake of Rudy’s? Anyway, with a roster like that you can see why attorneys will be lining up around the block to take their places.
In rather disappointing news, apparently the Feds didn’t take Trump’s passports and don’t have them and don’t know where they are. So he lied? I can’t believe he’d do that.
Why does he need three passports?
One for him.
A second for his combover.
The third? His ego maybe
Scary the level of sway the tangerine-faced tyrant continues to hold over his followers and the amount of disruption and chaos they can unleash should he snap the fingers on one of his tiny hands
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/16/wyoming-republican-primary-liz-cheney-donald-trump-harriet-hageman
Trump’s continuing difficulties getting adequate legal representation are getting talked about. As well as laughed at.
“Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said, “There’s no question that Trump desperately needs experienced, first-rate federal criminal defense attorney.”
“It’s remarkable that a wealthy former President can’t find a single lawyer fitting that description who will take him on as a client,” Mariotti noted.
“Seasoned lawyers won’t touch this guy but seasoned politicians stick with him,” wrote political scientist Seth Masket. “The big difference, of course, is that to defend Trump you often have to say things that aren’t true. Lawyers get in trouble for doing that. Politicians not so much.”
This just in: Trump appears to have hired Drew Findling as his lawyer. Famous for getting rap stars off the hook, he looks like a greaseball pimp, but he’s suposed to be pretty sharp. It’ll be entertaining, at least.
That’s so last week. Trump is now representing himself apparently.
He’s not. Scroll down the thread a bit and it becomes clear it’s a system delay: the online filing system hasn’t updated properly.
(Edit: less clear now than when it went up last night, because the thread is flooded with people wanting it to be true. But it doesn’t seem to be.)
What this doesn’t show is that Trump refused to represent himself, because he knew he wouldn’t get paid.
More a case of he knew he’d have an idiot for a client
I was yesterday years old when I first heard about Special Masters and what they do. But it appears that in asking for one Trump has blown the whole thing wide open, with the DoJ revealing all sorts of shit in their response. Me, I’m as disgusted by the carpet as anything else.