I just watched American Hustle for the first time the other day. I would really like to see a real, successful Abscam.
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
BREAKING:
NYTimes:
Also, from Maggie Haberman:
Also, the stuff that was removed in June would appear to be the stuff Trump didn’t really care about keeping, since a polite visit was all it took for Trump to let them take that stuff.
So now he’s screeching because they came for the other stuff, the stuff he did care about. Why else is there a distinction between what he gave up when they asked nicely, and what they had to take by force? If it was all innocuous, why didn’t he just let them have it all in June?
I said before, I’m pretty sure that this is going to be a big deal. You don’t have someone as careful and slow as Garland making an unprecedented and dramatic move like this unless there’s something huge involved. And there would need to be assurances that it was there, not just an estimate. Reports of an informant cooperating with the feds corroborate that idea.
That would also explain why both sides are cagey about what was taken. Trump is cagey because what was taken is damaging to him. The DOJ is cagey because this is part of a criminal investigation.
It also may be so classified that they can’t say what it is.
May be…
???
I bet it’s about the shooting.
It will be a careful statement, about that I am certain.
Because his wealth gives him all that is common place, he strives to obtain things that other people cannot have. Probably personal communications from powerful leaders but also top secret documents because they are unique. None of his friends have these things.
It’s like having a stolen Rembrandt. You can’t hang it in the living room, but only you can savor it in the basement.
I assume he has materials that implicate his most vociferous allies.
my first and continuing thought on this, is this could be saudi related. it comes on the heels of liv golf at bedminster.
also why i’m wondering if florida is the only place these documents could be.
I felt the same way about the Mueller Investigation, and that turned out to be a dud. I hope it’s different this time around. Teflon eventually wears off, doesn’t it?
But it wasn’t. The Mueller Report pointed out a whole bunch of irregularities (and, no collusion because they were both working for the same goal, so no collusion necessary) that the DOJ couldn’t pursue for … reasons, basically saying “if you want penalties, impeach the SOB”.
I wish he were only just a Teflon president. He’s a whole new beast, a mud monster president.
With the standard Teflon president, mud flung at just slips off leaving his reputation pristine. With Trump the flung mud sticks to him and becomes part of his reputation, everyone knows that he’s a lying racist asshole, but that just makes him stronger with his base.
It’s so important to understand why the Mueller investigation was “a dud.” It wasn’t because Mueller failed. He didn’t. It was because Trump had so corrupted the Republican party and the DOJ that they failed to hold Trump to account for crimes that, when considered within the scope of American history, are simply jaw-dropping.
Mueller’s mistake was to place his faith in the strength of our system. In hindsight, that may have been naive – but in the moment, I have a hard time faulting him for it.
To compare Trump’s DOJ to Biden’s DOJ is a huge mistake, I think.
I think the bigger issue was:
- The Executive was immune from prosecution and from inspection.
- The Executive had the power to pardon anyone implicated in anything, severely limiting the ability of the DOJ to flip witnesses.
I mean, if everyone knows that no one can do anything to you… Really, you just ignore the investigators, draw the process out, and accept your pardon when you eventually lose your case.
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That was DOJ’s assertion, and Mueller was constrained by it entirely. Mueller was told by Rod Rosenstein that he could not disregard the OLC memo. It’s worth noting that the OLC memo has never been tested by any court. It is not a law, it is a rule. But you’re correct; Trump benefited enormously from this protection.
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Agree that Mueller was hamstrung by Trump’s corrupt pardons. That certainly played out in the cases of Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.
ETA: In the end, it never mattered. Republicans were never going to remove Trump from office as was warranted. And that’s what I mean when I say Mueller didn’t fail. Republicans and Bill Barr did.
Update:
2nd tweet:
Here we go!
Slightly different, from MSNBC:
that was a lovely dressing down from garland.
“Ok, you requested it be unsealed, here you go”, drops mic.