He also said they were planted by the FBI. That’s the funny thing about his excuses, they contradict each other. So even if one of his excuses lands, that, almost by definition, proves he was lying about other ones.
Reminds me of this scene from the office (which I can’t find without the stupid captions). Specifically Ryan claiming he can’t go to an an Asian restaurant because he has an MSG allergy, a peanut allergy and he ate there last night.
DON’T SHUT THE FUCK UP, DONNY!
“First of all, I didn’t have those documents. Second of all, if I did have those documents, they weren’t confidential. Third, if they were confidential, I had the right to keep them. Fourth, if I didn’t have the right to keep confidential documents, I made them non-confidential so they’re fine. Fifth…”
Watching that clip with Hannity and the idiot lawyer… and Trump’s messages on TS and now this. Like, OK, I get that some people were confused as to why the documents were splayed out on the floor. But this is really the angle that they’re harping on? Do they really think this is some big gotchaya?
I’m wondering if there are documents in other Trump properties, or even more at MaL, that he shouldn’t have kept. I think a search of his office/bedroom at Trump Tower and maybe his NJ golf course would find even more. I hope the FBI is doing investigations of those places as well as MaL.
The first step to solving a problem is to admit that there is a problem.
Another True Believer folds:
I did not have these documents, they were planted, and it’s completely unfair taking them away from me, I want them back.
It is.
His lawyer, Alina Habba, made the claim again recently and scoffed about the idea that classified documents get marked when they’re declassified. But they are.
32 CFR 2001.25 Declassification Markings
(b) The following markings shall be applied to records, or copies of records, regardless of the media:
(1) The word, “Declassified”
(2) The identity of the declassification authority, by name and position, or by personal identifier, or the title and date of the declassification guide
(3) The date of declassification
(4) The overall classification markings that appear on the cover page or first page shall be lined with an “X” or straight line.NOTE: for clarification, the classification markings on all pages should be lined through .
I’m not sure if she’s ignorant or lying, but either way she’s very wrong.
Her previous major client was a parking garage company in New Jersey, so she’s likely just getting up to speed on national defence issues. Let’s all just cut the newbie some slack! 
Michael Cohen thinks so.
- Michael Cohen thinks Trump could have copies of the top-secret files found at Mar-a-Lago.
- Cohen said Trump might have stashed the documents at his homes in Bedminster and New York.
- Cohen also suggested that these files might also be in the homes of Trump’s children.
I see a number of statements along the lines of “a Trump conviction will make him ineligible to run for POTUS” or “he should agree to a plea to avoid jail if he promises not to run for office again”.
I think it is very unlikely the courts would allow a situation where something like that truly barred a person from running for President. We’ve had candidates run from jail before. And the Constitution is pretty clear on the requirements to run for POTUS and I don’t think the courts would allow Congress to add to those requirements (like needing a clearance or whatever).
The only way to be rid of Trump as an electoral force is to convince enough voters not to vote for him. We did it in 2020, but now the GOP needs to do it in the 2024 primaries. I have my doubts that will happen, even if he is found guilty of federal crimes (or even jailed, potentially).
The DOJ filling cites laws and precedent, going over the rules of warrants, evidence seizure, etc. and, as a side effect of those details, explains specific remedies available to Trump. I don’t have it in front of me at the moment but, for example, “The accused may submit a list of items that he believes the rules require be returned, and the legal rule that applies, requiring the government to return them.”
The Trump Team pretty flagrantly doesn’t contest any of the statements of the DOJ. Like, if Trump’s original argument was, “It’s a fourth amendment violation!” And the DOJ explains that they got a warrant, that it was signed by a judge, that’s exactly what the 4th amendment allows, and here are the statutes that go over the details. Then, Trump’s response is just, “Oh my god, the 4th Amendment, my rights O God! My rights!”
And where they explain what he can do to help himself, he simply does nothing and does not avail himself of the options that he has to improve his situation.
If he is claiming that these are personal and dear items, he can’t seem to recall what they are. If there are documents that are attorney-client privilege, he is not warning the government that there are documents with privileged materials that need to be returned.
To the extent that the response is just “banging on the table and shouting” - something that you do when you have no other resorts - it’s not even a good or compelling version of that and, as laid out by the DOJ, there are steps that Trump could take to improve his situation so taking the time to bang on the table and shout is just legal self-harm and his lawyers are massively incompetent to not see that. Even if (in their view) they must give in to their client on the substance of the shouty portion of the filing, they should still get their client to start listing out things that fall under categories of exclusion and I suspect that a better lawyer could find at least some cursory legal arguments to make beyond, “My rights, O God! My rights!”
Thank you.
To be fair, Cohen could just be saying this in the mindset of putting it out there in the world and going that the universe responds by sending the FBI to raid Ivanka and Eric and Juniors’ houses, giving him some personal revenge on the family.
He might be right, but he’s also a vendetta-driven commentator with no personal knowledge of the matter.
While some of Trump’s attorneys have really been buffoons, I’ve been hesitant to chalk everything and everybody in his orbit up to incompetence.
We all knew that, during TFGs Presidency, everybody that got up in front of a microphone had an audience of one – Trump.
When Trump gets up before a mic, or social media, I presume his audience is always his low-dollar, low-information, easily demagogued donor base.
And I think his legal position is so weak here that his marching orders for his attorneys is the same old, same old: a narrative that his base may be able to understand, that will rile them up to no end, that perpetuates the Rich Man As Victim meme, and will generate cash.
And drags the whole thing out in the process. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
And my guess is that his attorneys don’t really have a better idea at this point.
Pure speculation, to be sure.
Cohen doesn’t have personal knowledge of the documents, correct, but he does have a couple of decades of personal knowledge of how Trump operates. His comment about Trump hauling documents around with him seems to be corroborated by this article, which I posted in the thread speculating on why Trump is hanging on to the docs:
If carting around boxes of docs is part of Trump’s basic personality, then it makes sense to consider whether there are also docs at his other places.
Put another way, given what was found at Mar-a-Lago, would it make sense to say that Trump and his aides were scrupulously careful about ensuring no classified docs ended up at the Trump Tower or the New Jersey golf course?
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in FBI/DOJ land isn’t thinking along those lines.
Why are his lawyers going on TV so much?
I know if I were being investigated by the federal government I would want my lawyers working on polishing their briefs, preparing for hearings, etc. Not going on Fox News to complain about the quality of the FBI picture-taking.
It’s almost like they know the legal argument is lost and all that really matters is generating/maintaining the large angry base of political support to take action during and after the legal process has run its course.
This^^. Bolded for emphasis.
Get your name out there, maybe parlay this into quick money from the perpetually enraged base of Trump loyalists. Trump has completely exhausted the pool of competent and/or qualified lawyers willing to represent him, so the only ones left are the opportunists who think the juice is worth the squeeze. They’re gambling their careers and whatever reputation they have against future blood money.
Based on what’s happened with Cohen and maybe Rudy, they’re also gambling their liberty.