This is not hypothetical from 2017.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/09/politics/russia-us-spy-extracted/index.html
CIA and its boss Pompeo refused to confirm and po-poed the allegation. Consider the source.
And where the hell are the translator’s notes from the meetings with Putin that Oranganus took?
Could DoJ use as evidence: just the cover sheets from the classified docs, plus testimony about laws & regs for handling classified docs, plus testimony about the state they were returned in (as described in the affidavit), and testimony to define the acronyms on the cover sheet?
The procedures from handling classified documents are not highly classified. Teaching an uncleared jury about them might be no more complex that the usual situation for any trial of teaching the jurors about applicable law.
Just from the affidavit, Trump violated those laws in more ways than I would have thought possible.
I see what you’re saying. That if we go after Trump for the simple reason that he stole and kept sensitive government documents, some of which may have contained top secret information that should not have been released, and which was kept in a non-secure area…
THEN, the Republicans would possibly gin up some spurious charges and investigations on a Democrat, even in the complete absence of any wrongdoing on the Democrat’s part.
I’m sure this would happen, In fact, I’m sure it has already happened. Multiple times. Many Benghazi hearings. Dozens of court cases trying to overturn an election. Hunter’s laptop. And on and on.
It will happen over and over again in future, whether or not Trump is held responsible for his criminal acts. Going easy on Trump now, will not make things worse. The Republicans who make up bullshit accusations against their opponents will continue to do so, no matter what happens with this Trump case.
I I were trump I would have moved to Russia or Saudi Arabia long ago. Probably the moment I realized 1/6 wasn’t going to end well for me. Sure, it might make him look like a loser/asshole, but, from his POV, he’d be better off living, and probably living well, in either of those countries than facing jail time (or even just dealing with legal issues for the rest of his life). But also, I don’t think he’d have a hard time convincing his supporters that he either A)moved there because of the ‘witch hunts’ from the radical left and/or B)his move was entirely unrelated to politics or his current legal issues, it just seemed like a nice place to live. And, yes, ‘and’, even though A and B are contradictory. Offering entirely contradictory excuses is clearly SOP for him.
Even if his supporters don’t believe it, it’ll be their number one talking point because they seem to think the left will believe it.
Hell, maybe he was using these documents to trade for them taking him in.
During the impeachment trials, didn’t the GOP vow to impeach any dem president for absolutely anything they do that their side doesn’t like? Basically, instead of impeachment being a rather serious and uncommon thing, IIRC, they said they’re essentially just going to use it like any other political move.
Yes. This is who they are. No sense worrying about “will they become assholes if we hold Trump accountable?” They’re already assholes.
I think he pretty clearly is actively selling US secrets.
Last year, a top-secret memo sent to every C.I.A. station around the world warned about troubling numbers of informants being captured or killed, a stark reminder of how important human source networks are to the basic functions of the spy agency.
Honestly, I don’t think Loser Donald is smart enough to have stolen documents with that in mind. He probably didn’t think of the docs as anything more than something to show off to his buddies at Mar-A-Lago and say “Isn’t it cool that I have this stuff, look how important I am”. If foreign powers have acquired secrets from him, it isn’t because he sold them, it’s because he’s a narcissistic idiot.
Why did the Saudis give Jared Kushner 2 billion dollars after Trump left office?
Even if he didn’t, it’s certainly possible someone else in his inner circle did and suggested it to him.
Plus we know his tacky resort was overrun by foreign intelligence. It’s obvious what he was doing.
Greed trumps smarts (pun NOT intended).
Thank you. I was unaware of this.
Indeed. Pompeo in charge of CIA was scarier than Trump in charge of the country.
I think we know.
Hard disagree. One thing Trump knows above all else is how to monetize something. Anything. And that is his only concern: Does it enrich me? Does it protect me?
Agreed and the idea that he’s too dumb to do what he’s doing has been incredibly corrosive, he’s too dumb to be openly corrupt, he’s too dumb to openly plot a coup, he’s too dumb to openly sell American secrets. It’s how he keeps getting away with it, he blatantly disregards laws and norms and we don’t know how to respond.
This. I look on it the other way: maybe seeing Trump in an orange jumpsuit will shock some of them enough to start really thinking about where they’re going.
The rule of law can’t include waivers for political leaders.
Probably because, in 2017, Kushner slipped classified information to MBS which helped foil a plot by MBN, (MBS’s older cousin who was ahead of him in the line of succession), to take the throne. This brought about MBS’s rise to power and pissed off our intelligence agencies, who were aligned with MBN and got good intelligence from him.
This reporter has done some good coverage of the Kushner beat, and if even half of what she writes is true, he’s insanely corrupt. I’m thinking maybe the FBI was concerned that Jared had access to the confidential files, he would definitely sell information.
I do not believe Trump would sell information, that’s not his style. Trump is all sorts of things, including a malignant narcissist, but he’s not traditionally corrupt, he doesn’t do quid pro quo, there is a long list of people -including Vladimir Putin- that have learned the hard way that once Trump has his quid, you’re never going to see your quo.
It always made me laugh to see the men close to Trump……Elliot Brody, Tom Barrack, Michael Cohen…who spent vast amounts of time and money to put him in office, fail miserably as power brokers because once Trump was President he wouldn’t give them the time of day. Brody was paid several million dollars, IIRC, by a crony who wanted to play a round of golf with Trump, and he couldn’t make it happen.
But I do think Trump is capable of trying to illicitly influence foreign policy with the end goal of increasing his political chances in 2024, and he’s definitely capable of using classified information against those he views as his political enemies. I have read reporting that claims the reason he moved to declassify all the Russia investigation material was that he wanted to publicly release all the intimate text messages of FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page - for no reason other than public shaming. I find it believable that he might use other classified information about people he considers to be his political enemies.
Absolutely disagree, Trumps hotel in DC was famously a place to pay him bribes while he was president. Foreign governments spent millions for rooms they never occupied as did contractors looking to pay Trump bribes.
They caught some of them, the stupider ones. Who didn’t they catch?
He could move to Epstein’s island. They were close, after all. And any corrupt deals in the Trump Organization may well have just received the nod from Donny without him being in charge. I can see Donny Jr. trying to impress Daddy with some scheme.
As far as a special master, do we have to worry about some Trump crony being chosen to gum up the works?
But but - Hunter Biden!
I haven’t seen it mentioned so I’ll add this - search warrant affidavits and inventories are not seen by the jury (in the event charges are filed and there is a trial). The defense gets the full document in discovery but I never heard of a public release of that info. The questions to a witness would be “Did you get a search warrant?” “What did you seize?”
Information that might not be admissible in a trial is permitted in an affidavit. Hearsay statements, for one example. Criminal history of the suspect is another. Full public release of an affidavit is a double edged sword. It may reveal sources and methods of the investigators but it could also reveal things that the defense would rather not go public as well as taint a potential jury pool.
To be sure, much of what is in an affidavit comes out in testimony but not everything.