Page 15 was particularly good.
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
A fairly key quote from page 10:
In particular, the government developed evidence that a search limited to the Storage Room would not have uncovered all the classified documents at the Premises. The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.
I noted this:
During the August 8 Execution of the Search Warrant at the Premises, the Government Seized Thirty-Three Boxes, Containers, or Items of Evidence, Which Contained over a Hundred Classified Records, Including Information Classified at the Highest Levels.
Is that the first confirmation that classified materials were found in the August search?
And another from page 13:
Moreover, the search cast serious doubt on the claim in the certification (and now in the Motion) that there had been “a diligent search” for records responsive to the grand jury subpoena. In the storage room alone, FBI agents found 76 documents bearing classification markings. All of the classified documents seized in the August 8 search have been segregated from the rest of the seized documents and are being separately maintained and stored in accordance with appropriate procedures for handling and storing classified information. That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the “diligent search” that the former President’s counsel and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.
Echoes of Alex Jones.
I was wondering that myself. I think so.
Anyone know what that Time magazine cover is that he’s got framed?
March 4, 2019, showing potential presidential candidates looking at Trump from outside the Oval Office window.
I think so, too.
I’m still reading the pleading, but I was very happy to see DOJ raised the issue of jurisdiction on page 2. This judicial forum-shopping is absolute bullshit.
No, the search warrant property receipt listed various types of classified documents seized during the search.
It looks like this one: Knock Knock – Tim O'Brien Illustration
The photo of all the Top Secret/SCI cover pages from the August search is priceless. I hope that’s a lead photo in tomorrow’s news.
Something tells me… it just might be.
Read the whole thing. Quite a doc. Pretty effectively carpet-bombs Trump’s entire argument.
If his attorneys have any brains at all, they read this and shit themselves.
If his attorneys had any brains, they would have gotten paid in advance
All over the damn floor. The beauty of it is that the picture is in the DOJ filing immediately after the certification from one of Trump’s lackeys that “based on information provided to me” we ain’t got no classified documents – we looked real hard, and there ain’t nuthin’. We turned everything over to the US Archives. “I swear or affirm that the above statements are true to the best of my knowledge.” Dated and signed June 3, 2022.
So it’s a slam-dunk that Trump responded to a subpoena with blatant lies regarding possession of highly classified information. The only remaining question is how many of those Secret and Top Secret/SCI documents have ketchup stains all over them.
“Mr. Trump, we’re willing to work for you, but we’ll require a retainer up front.”
“No problem. Tell you what – you get working on the matter now, and I’ll have a retainer for you in two weeks.”
And we all know what will happen in two weeks: another excuse to avoid paying the retainer for another two weeks.
No, the walls have ketchup stains. Top secret documents have Diet Coke stains.
Another interesting thing is, I believe, the sole redaction in the document. The name of the person who signed the statement that all documents in the possession of Donald J Trump had been returned is concealed. I take this as some evidence that there could be legal consequences for the person who signed.
Any lawyer - assuming that it’s a lawyer - who shares culpability for the same crimes as Trump has a personal interest in the case and has motive to pin the crimes on her client.
I feel like that’s so strongly evident, already, and would have been even more so to that person weeks ago. If they’re waiting for an official notice of being targeted by the FBI before resigning from the Trump legal team - for a conflict of interest - then I can only say that, that’s one more item of evidence that they’re incompetent.
I’ll also say that the subpoena response certification is immediately fishy. It effectively states:
- I swear that it’s true that this is what I was told by Donald J Trump, and I’m just passing it along.
- The documents sent from the White House to Mar-a-Lago were searched and we’re returning what we found among those.
The subpoena fairly clearly states that they want all government and classified documents in the possession of Trump. There is no limiter like, “Oh, but just the ones that were in the White House.”
The certification feels like the lawyer basically saying, “Yup, we still have more stuff that’s supposed to be returned.” Unless they followed it up by more explicitly ratting Trump out to the Feds, though, I don’t see it helping to keep them out of jail.
ISTM that this latest DOJ filing to argue against the need for a “special master”, is also perhaps the most damning summary of the case against Trump we’ve yet seen. It’s blatantly obvious that Trump stole and then mishandled sensitive US Government secrets, and then obstructed justice by lying about it in response to a grand jury subpoena. He will of course try to throw his so-called “custodian of records” under the bus (“I never even met him/her, but people are saying he/she was a horrible custodian”) but it’s not gonna work this time. At this point it would be amazing if Trump wasn’t charged with multiple federal crimes.
It certainly does, even stating that the subpoena included (but was not limited to) documents with certain named classification markings. A sworn certification that they “diligently” searched a specific set of boxes and didn’t find anything, while stepping over dozens of top secret documents scattered all over the floor containing exactly those markings isn’t going to protect anyone, least of all Trump himself.
It’s on CNN’s front page right now. Surprisingly, Fox News has it, too, though only a small version superimposed over a much larger picture of the Orange Peril himself. The accompanying article on Fox has a bigger version of the pic. It’s definitely making the rounds. The image of all those Secret and Top Secret docs lying around all over, some with cover pages, some without, some half-open, is something to behold. If you wanted to compose a picture to fit the legend “lazy, careless handling”, this would be perfect.
As I said earlier, the juxtaposition with the sworn statement that no such documents existed is delicious, in a schadenfreude sort of way. It’s becoming ever more clear why the search warrant was necessary, and why suspicion of “obstruction of justice” was one of the reasons for it.