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

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN reached out to the National Archives about claims made by Donald Trump that the records for other former presidents were stored in bowling alleys and other unsecure locations. Without naming Trump, the Archives says that's false or at best misleading: they stored those former presidents' documents in locations leased by the General Services Administration near to where those presidents' respective future libraries were to be constructed, and those facilities met "strict archival and security standards."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The Solicitor General has filed a response to Trump's request to the Supreme Court.

This application concerns an unprecedented order by the district court restricting the Executive Branch’s use of its own highly classified records in an ongoing criminal investigation and
directing the dissemination of those records outside the Executive Branch for a special-master review.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/ ... %20opp.pdf

[N.E. Brigand]

A few Saturdays ago, I spent a few hours kayaking near here, and I saw a docked boat named "Sua Sponte" (a phrase used at least twice in that filing).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That would be a particularly good name for an autopilot boat.

[N.E. Brigand]

Here's a new essay by Franklin Foer in The Atlantic: "The Inevitable Indictment of Donald Trump."

I have been observing Garland closely for months. I’ve talked with his closest friends and most loyal former clerks and deputies. I’ve carefully studied his record. I’ve interviewed Garland himself. And I’ve reached the conclusion that his devotion to procedure, his belief in the rule of law, and in particular his reverence for the duties, responsibilities, and traditions of the U.S. Department of Justice will cause him to make the most monumental decision an attorney general can make.

That said, eternally skeptical reporter Sarah Kendzior, who warned people against putting their faith in Robert Mueller -- and specifically predicted when Paul Manafort reached a plea deal with Muellers' team that Manafort was merely using prosecutors to advance Trump's ends -- now fears that a public hungry for justice is at risk of idolizing Garland (she has argued before that his role in prosecuting the Oklahoma City bombing has been much exaggerated) and suggests that what some call caution may actually be cowardice.

Stepping back, I'd note that lots of observers have said repeatedly that the just prosecution of Donald Trump, while it would be important step toward restoring confidence in democracy and the rule of law, is less important than people of good will exercising their franchise and voting to keep the criminals out of power.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Remember the claim by Trump's team that was relied upon by Judge Cannon that the documents seized totaled 120,000 pages? Well the DoJ made a filing yesterday that stated:

Tomorrow, the government expects to “make available to Plaintiff and the
Special Master [the Seized Materials as described above] . . . in electronic format with each page
bearing a unique Bates number.” ECF 125, at 3. We understand that the Bates range is
SM_MAL_00000000 to SM_MAL_00021792 (Seized Materials_Mar-a-Lago), for a total
production of 21,792 pages.

Also, two new attorneys have made appearances on behalf of Trump, Jesus M. Suarez and Lazaro Fields. Both are from the same firm of the previously-reported-to-be-sidelined Christopher Kise.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Interestingly, one of the reporters on this byline is none other than Devlin Barrett (the same one who reported the Matt Gaetz and Hunter Biden stories).

ETA:


No, it is not unusual to get a warrant to search "someone's" home, but that's not what is said. It is not just unusual but unprecedented to get a warrant to search a former U.S. president's home, and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's a non-paywall version of the story, which everyone other than Marcy Wheeler thinks is a BFD.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA12TvBW

[N.E. Brigand]

Here's a non-paywall version of the story, which everyone other than Marcy Wheeler thinks is a BFD.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA12TvBW

If I follow Wheeler's argument correctly (not always easy to do; she often writes like Gandalf sometimes talks), what she's saying is that the facts of the case are unchanged, and what's really going on here is Devlin Barrett is using his reporting to give Donald Trump details about a key Dept. of Justice witness. This will make it easier for Trump to identify that witness and attack his or her credibility.

Also she points out that there is a disturbing parallel here to the prosecution of Michael Cohen. In 2019, Buzzfeed published a report by Jason Leopold that Donald Trump had "directed" Cohen to lie to Congress, but soon afterwards, Mueller's office issued a statement that seemed to contradict Buzzfeed's reporting, and Barrett, at the Washington Post, published a story saying Buzzfeed was wrong:

Inside the Justice Department, the statement was viewed as a huge step, and one that would have been taken only if the special counsel’s office viewed the story as almost entirely incorrect. The special counsel’s office seemed to be disputing every aspect of the story that addressed comments or evidence given to its investigators.

In fact, Buzzfeed was correct, provided that you understand that when Trump hinted to Cohen that it would be nice if Cohen lied to Congress, Cohen took that as a direction. Just as when President Trump told FBI Director James Comey that he "hoped" Comey would let the Flynn investigation go, Comey, as he testified to Congress, "took it as a direction." That's how Trump gives orders: he says what he wishes would happen, and he expects his subordinates to make it so.

Barrett could have pushed back on Mueller's statement as I have just done, but Barrett -- wittingly or naively, I can't say -- was more inclined to help get Trump off the hook. By setting up a narrative that Trump's way of giving direction isn't actually "directing," he made it harder for the public to understand that Trump was obstructing justice. And Wheeler fears that Barrett is doing it again.

So does Leopold, who tweeted today, "I have been patiently waiting for the word DIRECTED/DIRECTION to appear" (and then retweeted Wheeler's response to his tweet, indicating that he concurs with her interpretation).

Because the next step is going to be Trump arguing that he never "directed" that this employee move these documents.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is Wheeler that is being naive in thinking that somehow by reporting this story, Barrett and his colleague is giving information to Trump that he doesn't already have.

And that is the kinder interpretation.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There are a number of significant differences between this situation and the Michael Cohen situation. Trump was not charged because, as even Cohen himself acknowledged, he didn't actually direct Cohen to do anything, not because of reporting about the case. Moreover, Cohen was simply an unreliable witness, who for many years willingly did Trump's dirty work and engaged in a host of illegal and dishonest actions. Here we have a situation where the person who allegedly was directed to do something was not a longtime "fixer" for Trump. The type of thing that is alleged to have been directed is simple and straightforward. Even Trump directed the person to move the material to Mar-a-Lago or he didn't. There is no chance that this could be a "will someone not rid me of this meddlesome priest" situation. Undoubtedly Trump would deny that he did so, but this is simply one of many building blocks towards building a case him. Moreover, for Trump to deny that he directed the person he would have to actually testify under oath. And subject himself to cross-examination.

[N.E. Brigand]

Wheeler does have a pretty cynical view of some reporters, it's true. But that fact that Leopold seems to agree with her (at least as how she believes Barrett worked to undermine Leopold's 2019 reporting) matters to me. And it was Leopold who first made the connection today between the two cases.

Regarding Cohen's unreliability, as I have said before, the government has convicted mobsters on the testimony of worse witnesses.

How would Donald Trump know before now who talked to the feds about him moving the boxes? That's not been in any public filing we've seen to date. For all we knew, the witness the government used to secure the warrant might be someone who saw Trump given this instruction, or there might not have been a government witness to this particular order at all, only to the fact that they were moved after Trump's representatives claimed that all materials had been returned. (Edited to add: Also, I don't think we can say with confidence that "Either Trump directed the person to move the material to Mar-a-Lago or he didn't." Trump may have said that certain materials were his, and that he'd like to have his materials with him in Florida, without ever having explicitly told this person to ship them there.)

That said, Allison Gill seems to agree with you: she thinks that Barrett's source is the witness trying "to get out ahead of any spin Trump will concoct."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Donald Trump doesn't know who the person is from this article. The article doesn't name the person. If he knows who the person is he already knew, and the person spoke with the Feds anyway.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[RoseMorninStar]

Is there a system for who gets such a request or is it a random draw? I'm looking at ".. presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court..."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, each justice is responsible for emergency requests from a different Circuit. Justice Thomas is the justice responsible for the Eleventh Circuit, which is why the request went to him. In theory he could have ruled on it himself (in which case the losing party could request that the full court rule on the issue), but usually the justice just refers such requests to the full court. In this case, Justice Thomas did so, and the court ruled extraordinarily quickly. Justice Thomas requested a response from the government by 10/11, a week after Trump made his request. The solicitor general filed her response on 10/11 and the court ruled two days later, without even waiting for Trump to file any kind of reply.

[RoseMorninStar]

Fascinating. That does seem extraordinarily quick considering everything else seems to slog on (and on, and on...)
I know so little about our judicial system.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Department of Justice has filed an appeal of Judge Cannon's entire order that appointed a special master. (Previously they had successfully appealed just the requirement that classified documents be included among the materials to be reviewed by the special master.)

- - - - - - - - - -
We have heard varying reports of how many documents were seized. Trump's lawyers wrote that it was as many as 200,000 pages, but in this appeal -- and Judge Cannon cited that figure in one of her orders -- but the Dept. of Justice says that it's about 22,000 pages. DOJ speculates that the much larger figure provided by Trump is "likely based on vendor estimates," but I don't understand how that would work in practice.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I just finished reading the brief. It is devastating. It doesn't even matter who is on the panel. No appellate judge is going side with Trump and Cannon.

As for the 22,000 pages, I mentioned a couple of days ago that the DoJ had corrected that number in a filing about making the documents available to Trump and Dearie. I don't really get the vendor estimate thing either. It was just an excuse for Cannon to arbitrarily extend the process for no good reason.

Remember the claim by Trump's team that was relied upon by Judge Cannon that the documents seized totaled 120,000 pages? Well the DoJ made a filing yesterday that stated:

Tomorrow, the government expects to “make available to Plaintiff and the
Special Master [the Seized Materials as described above] . . . in electronic format with each page
bearing a unique Bates number.” ECF 125, at 3. We understand that the Bates range is
SM_MAL_00000000 to SM_MAL_00021792 (Seized Materials_Mar-a-Lago), for a total
production of 21,792 pages.

Also, two new attorneys have made appearances on behalf of Trump, Jesus M. Suarez and Lazaro Fields. Both are from the same firm of the previously-reported-to-be-sidelined Christopher Kise.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If you don't want to read all 50-plus pages