I fucking hate that.
Which, by an amazing coincidence, is in two weeks.
And always will be. The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.
All I want for Christmas is an Indictment, An Indictment, An Indictment.
Put it to music so I can turn it up loud.
There’s that, plus the fact that the Archives requested the return of records from Mar-a-Lago in the months before the search. If Trump had truly designated these as personal records while he was president, he could have denied the request from the Archives on that basis. He didn’t; Trump, through is attorneys, said there were no records at his home. Seems to me that that lie shows consciousness of guilt. And it should shoot this new motion in the foot, too; the first time they’re referring to these as personal records is almost two years after after Trump had the authority to declare them as such.
i have no idea if either of those arguments carry any legal weight, or are appropriate at this stage of the case.
Breaking:
Attorney General Merrick Garland to name special counsel in Trump criminal probe, report says
Smartest move possible by DOJ at this point.
In light of how the mid-terms went, this isn’t really a surprise to me. Garland is going to be very busy pushing back against the House Republicans’ “investigations.” He’s only one person, and he has only so much time in a day.
It’s also intended to insulate him somewhat from accusations of partisanship, but in this, I imagine it’s mostly wishful thinking.
I just hope the special counsel is someone who’s been part of the investigation up to this point who won’t require a lot of time to get up to speed.
I suspect any special counsel will be perceived by republicans as a fig leaf.
I think this is an appropriate time and place to drop this particular gift link. It explains exactly why the DOJ is proceeding with caution and deliberation. It’s well worth a review.
Charging is a minefield. I still believe it will happen.
Clearly, but the only way to satisfy Republicans on this point is not to investigate at all, which is not a legitimate option
Looks like this is our huckleberry:
[I’m guessing it’s okay to post all of this]
(Ellipsis added by Aspenglow.)
jack smith. huh. interesting choice.
“‘Special counsel’ is just another phrase for ‘sweep it under the rug.’” - random Redditor
What’s the SD on how big a step this is?
As stated in the staff notice, I’m not sure. No worries, I edited the quote text and think the link will suffice for those of us who care about this.
My opinion only… you don’t appoint a special counsel except if you plan to proceed. Much easier (if not less politically fraught) to simply decline to prosecute.
I guess “John Smith” sounded phony.
LOL … beat me to it!
You’d think the guy would at least have the courage to reveal his real name! 
Just IMHO of course but, in general, I’d say that having a special counsel put on you when the goal is to investigate allegations against the activities of the in-office President is a very different thing from having a special counsel put on you when you’re out of office and there’s already been a fair amount of work put in, in advance, going through the materials that were seized under warrant from your big room of hidden documents.
My suspicion is that the latter happens when shit going to go down and the DOJ needs a buffer zone.
I’m guessing that Smith will drop the documents thing and continue with the more serious stuff.
It would seem odd to me to get rid of the one surefire conviction, seeing as Trump literally confessed to the crime. Plus the US takes classified information quite seriously. Trump severely damaged national security by letting that level of documents get out.