Trump Charged With 37 counts of Espionage, Obstruction and related crimes

[Sunsilver]

Whoah!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

As I understand it, Kise's work for Maduro would not make it impossible for him to get the necessary security clearance, but it would make it harder.

[Frelga]

I don't know, of course. The tweet says that being registered under FARA does not preclude clearance. I wonder if that depends which country one is an agent of. And if the "illegitimate authoritarian regime" part is relevant.

Will Kise have to return the 3 mil if he doesn't get the clearance?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Brandon Van Grack is a security expert; he would know much better than I would, and he was responding to the question about Kise registering as an agent of Venezuela. But it certainly is a complication. I think that Jim Trusty is the only one of Trump's attorneys that would be able to get clearance relatively quickly.

As for whether Kise would need to return the $3 million, it depends on how the contract is written, but I doubt it. As I understand it, it covers representing him in other investigations (such as the January 6 investigation), not just the espionage/obstruction case.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The latest.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

This analysis caught my eye: Trump Wants Two Weeks to Review 64 Documents; DOJ Expects Review of 500 Documents a Day.

That's (again) from Marcy Wheeler, who believes there's a good chance that Judge Cannon will fire the Special Master, Judge Dearie.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A lot happened today while I was off hiking at Big Basin. This morning the Trump team filed its response to the stay motion in the 11th Circuit, arguing among other things that because Trump might have written on some of the classified documents that might somehow make them privileged. The States of Texas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia filed a proposed amicus brief that its truly nutsy-cuckoo, basically a long extended diatribe against the Biden administration. Then this afternoon there was a hearing with Judge Dearie, in which (so far as I have been able to gather so far) he basically said that if Trump is not willing to prove that the classified documents were not classified he will simply treat them as classified.

[Dave_LF]

We’re in an “open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not” situation with MAGA, and the sooner the good guys accept that and resolve to fight back, the better. There has been some progress lately.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The DoJ filed a reply brief late last night responding to Trump's opposition to their stay request in the 11th Circuit, so the court could rule any time, or they could order oral argument. My guess is that they will not order oral argument, and will issue a ruling in the next couple of days. We do not know who is on the three-judge panel.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The 11th Circuit has granted the DoJ motion for a stay.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The appeals court panel, which includes two Trump appointees, very politely eviscerates both Trump's lawyers and Judge Cannon. My favorite sentence:

For our part, we cannot discern why Plaintiff would have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings.

ETA:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I agree with this.

[N.E. Brigand]

In an interview on Fox News this evening, Donald Trump said that he had declassified these documents -- a claim which his attorneys refuse to make in court -- and he added that a president can declassify documents merely "by thinking about it."

As I've said before, if Trump ever does make that claim in court (he won't), the Dept. of Justice could just have President Biden provide a statement saying that as soon as he became president, he mentally reclassified everything that Donald Trump had declassified as president.

[Frelga]

Wut.

[River]

That's what was in the empty folders. Hillary broke in and retrieved them because she knew this was going to happen. She was very sneaky and left no evidence behind. Cleverly disguised herself so no one recognized her on the security feeds and then just waltzed in and grabbed them from the very secure place Trump had them stashed.

I made that up on the fly, BTW. And I'm only sharing it here. So if someone writes up this fiction on Twitter or elsewhere...it was an obvious leap.

[elengil]

That's what was in the empty folders. Hillary broke in and retrieved them because she knew this was going to happen. She was very sneaky and left no evidence behind. Cleverly disguised herself so no one recognized her on the security feeds and then just waltzed in and grabbed them from the very secure place Trump had them stashed.

I made that up on the fly, BTW. And I'm only sharing it here. So if someone writes up this fiction on Twitter or elsewhere...it was an obvious leap.

But it's okay if she stole them because he had declassified them so she didn't steal any classified documents.

[N.E. Brigand]

Peter Strzok observes that the most important part of this statement Donald Trump made in his interview last night ...

If you're the President of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, "It's declassified," even by thinking about it. Because you're sending it to Mar-a-Lago, or to wherever you’re sending it.

...is the last part, which I have bolded. Is this Trump admitting to having sent classified information to other locations?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It certainly suggests that, but with Trump I don't think you can take anything at face value. But it is at least as significant that it appears to be an admission that he affirmatively sent the material that was marked as classified (whether or not he de-classified it, it was still national defense information for the purposes of the Espionage Act), not some inadvertent action. That is very important for proving the willfulness of his actions.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile,