[www.nytimes.com]

The Justice Department sought a search warrant for former President Donald J. Trump’s residence in Florida after obtaining evidence that highly classified documents were likely moved around and concealed and that Mr. Trump’s representatives had falsely claimed all sensitive material had been returned, according to a court filing by the department on Tuesday.

The filing, which came in response to Mr. Trump’s request for an independent review of materials seized from his home, Mar-a-Lago, paints the clearest picture yet of the department’s exhaustive effort to retrieve the documents before taking the extraordinary step of searching a former president’s private property on Aug. 8.

Among the new disclosures in the 36-page filing were that the search yielded three classified documents in desks located inside Mr. Trump’s office, with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence, including some at the most restrictive levels.

---

Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

They weren't hiding.

They were resting.

Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it?

Beautiful plumage!

---

Trump has to know how grim this is for him.

criminal, traitor


This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and redacted by in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 search by the FBI of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The Justice Department says it has uncovered efforts to obstruct its investigation into the discovery of classified records at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate. (Department of Justice via AP)


Feds cite efforts to obstruct probe of docs at Trump estate
[apnews.com]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Tuesday that classified documents were “likely concealed and removed” from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into the discovery of the government records.

The FBI also seized 33 boxes containing more than 100 classified records during its Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and found classified documents stashed in Trump’s office, according to a filing that lays out the most detailed chronology to date of months of strained interactions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the discovery of government secrets.

The filing offers yet another indication of the sheer volume of classified records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. It shows how investigators conducting a criminal probe have focused not just on why the records were improperly stored there, but also on the question of whether the Trump team intentionally misled them about the continued, and unlawful, presence of the top secret documents.

The timeline laid out by the Justice Department made clear that the extraordinary search of Mar-a-Lago came only after other efforts to retrieve the records had failed, and that it resulted from law enforcement suspicion that additional documents remained inside the property despite assurances by Trump representatives that a “diligent search” had accounted for all of the material.

It also included a picture of some of the seized documents bearing clear classification markings, perhaps as a way to rebut suggestions that whoever packed them or was handling them could have easily failed to appreciate their sensitive nature.

The photo shows the cover pages of a smattering of paperclip-bound classified documents — some marked as “TOP SECRET//SCI” with bright yellow borders, and one marked as “SECRET//SCI” with a rust-colored border — along with whited-out pages, splayed out on a carpet at Mar-a-Lago. Beside them sits a cardboard box filled with gold-framed pictures, including a Time magazine cover.

Though it contains significant new details on the investigation, the Justice Department filing does not resolve a core question that has driven public fascination with the investigation — why Trump held onto the documents after he left the White House and why he and his team resisted repeated efforts to give them back. In fact, it suggests officials may not have received an answer.

During a June 3 visit to Mar-a-Lago by FBI and Justice Department officials, the document states, “Counsel for the former President offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at the Premises nearly five months after the production of the Fifteen Boxes and nearly one-and-a-half years after the end of the Administration.”

That visit to Mar-a-Lago, which came weeks after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for the records, receives substantial attention in the document and appears to be a key investigative focus.

Though Trump has said he had declassified all of the documents at Mar-a-Lago, his lawyers did not suggest that during the visit and instead “handled them in a manner that suggested counsel believed that the documents were classified,” according to the document.

FBI agents who went there to receive additional materials were given “a single Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape, containing the documents,” the filing states.

That envelope, according to the FBI, contained 38 unique documents with classification markings, including five documents marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret.

During that visit, the document says, Trump’s lawyers told investigators that all the records that had come from the White House were stored in one location — a Mar-a-Lago storage room — and that “there were no other records stored in any private office space or other location at the Premises and that all available boxes were searched.”

After that, though, the Justice Department, which had subpoenaed video footage for the property, “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.” The filing does not identify the individuals who may have relocated the boxes.

In their August search, agents found classified documents both in the storage room as well as in the former president’s office — including three classified documents found not in boxes, but in office desks.

“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,” the document states.

It says, “In some instances, even the FBI counterintelligence personnel and DOJ attorneys conducting the review required additional clearances before they were permitted to review certain documents.”
-
The purpose of the Tuesday night filing was to oppose a request from the Trump legal team for a special master to review the documents seized during this month’s search and set aside those protected by claims of legal privilege

Now there will be a claim of this being 'tried in the media' and how 45* will be 'unable to get a fair trial' even with a change of venue.

'So just drop the charges, have another election, a fair election, a beautiful election which I'll win, and make me President Still.'

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Which folder has Epstein's client list?

---

"No Comment"

Now it makes sense why he wanted all of that. Look at the photo. They’re stored with his framed, fake Time magazine covers.

Arguments that he cooperated earlier are gone: It’s his word against their evidence.

Arguments that the FBI “took too much” remain irrelevant, and the rookie Trump-appointee judge keeps looking more foolish each day.

Quote
RAMd®d
Now there will be a claim of this being 'tried in the media' and how 45* will be 'unable to get a fair trial' even with a change of venue.

'So just drop the charges, have another election, a fair election, a beautiful election which I'll win, and make me President Still.'

To be sure, he hopes everyone forgets he started such a “trial.” His style of punching out attacks doesn’t work against a prepared adversary several steps ahead of him.

Also don’t forget that ANYONE who moved them (because Orange Mussolini sure didn’t) should be charged with handling classified documents.

Quote
deckeda
the rookie Trump-appointee judge keeps looking more foolish each day.

What still has me nervous isn't just this judge, but the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit where Trump appointed six of the 11 judges. Then comes SCOTUS, which has turned the law into a pretzel.

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

Tip of the iceberg, my friends, tip of the iceberg.

---

Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

It’s just weird. He must have known what the Feds had. And yet, he just fell back to his old MO of bluster, making his defenders (and lawyers) look like idiots, again and again.

Quote
vision63
Trump has to know how grim this is for him.

It is exactly why he has since demanded to be reinstated as President immediately.

Does the National Archives and intelligence agencies have a list of what documents are missing and were last in his possession. It would be interesting to know what if any are still missing even after the FBI search.

It's also about time for him to go full circle and say that these documents were "planted". Or maybe a new one, "that photo is Photoshopped", which it is in order redact the cover sheets on the documents.

No wonder he is melting down like a sociopath on social media. Not new, just escalated to new levels of clown.

Indictment and prison coming.

Unless we are a country that has completely given up on rule of law, and democracy.

Quote
S. Pupp

Quote
vision63
Trump has to know how grim this is for him.

It is exactly why he has since demanded to be reinstated as President immediately.

After watching him survive the Access Hollywood tape and winning, I don't get my hopes up too much about how grim things are for him.

Well, he's managed to make his disciples turn on the FBI.

No mean feat!

---

Hurts like a bastid...

Quote
cbelt3
Also don’t forget that ANYONE who moved them (because Orange Mussolini sure didn’t) should be charged with handling classified documents.

“Vee vass juust vollowing orters.”

A further note... if ANYONE else had done this, they would be in federal lockup being tried in a secret federal court. This is a breach of national security far beyond Wikileaks...

BTW, in case you’re interested, the actual DOJ PDF with slightly higher resolution than the AP’s version is here, and the photo is on the very last page.

Zooming in, you can see some of the security headings on the actual (whited-out) documents (in addition to the SCI cover sheets), like this:



I thought this one was interesting - they whited out some of the security heading (after “Top Secret”), maybe implying that the material was sensitive enough they don’t want to publicly reveal even that:

Copies have to have been circulated. How to find pot ?

One more. From the same PDF, this is the sworn statement/certification from the duly designated “custodian of records for the office of Donald J Trump”:



…and a closer look at what they specifically swore was true:



a. Obviously not diligent enough; the FBI found more than twice the number of classified records than Trump’s lawyers turned over when subpoenaed.

b.

c. Ditto to a. Not even close.

d. Well, who knows? Can you trust these people?

PS - I can understand why they blacked this lawyer’s sig out at the bottom! I mean, he was obviously doing this at the direction of Trump, but if he knew it was false, they ought to fry his ass.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2022 09:25AM by pdq.

Quote
GGD
Does the National Archives and intelligence agencies have a list of what documents are missing and were last in his possession. It would be interesting to know what if any are still missing even after the FBI search.

I hope they have a list of missing documents.

How could Trump be trusted to NOT have returned everything? It was reported that he personally went through all of the boxes.

---

Northern California Coast

Incidentally, the photo of the docs was taken at Mar-a-Lago, as confirmed by Trump.



Notice it’s not These documents were planted by the FBI!

It’s like, Oh, yeah, I recognize those. On my carpet. I declassified those. I didn’t think you meant those SCI documents in your subpoena.

The thing he takes issue with is how “haphazard” they were.

Dig, dig, dig. Deeper and deeper.

This man is losing whatever he once might have had above the collar.

[www.washingtontimes.com]

Andrew Napolitano - Fox's guaranteed far-right legal analyst says Trump is going to be indicted joining every other legal mind out there.

Even a cursory review of the redacted version of the affidavit submitted in support of the government’s application for a search warrant at the home of former President Donald Trump reveals that he will soon be indicted by a federal grand jury for three crimes: Removing and concealing national defense information (NDI), giving NDI to those not legally entitled to possess it, and obstruction of justice by failing to return NDI to those who are legally entitled to retrieve it.

When he learned from a phone call that 30 FBI agents were at the front door of his Florida residence with a search warrant and he decided to reveal this publicly, Mr. Trump assumed that the agents were looking for classified top-secret materials that they’d allege he criminally possessed. His assumptions were apparently based on his gut instinct and not on a sophisticated analysis of the law. Hence, his public boast that he declassified all the formerly classified documents he took with him.

Unbeknownst to him, the feds had anticipated such a defense and are not preparing to indict him for possessing classified materials, even though he did possess hundreds of voluntarily surrendered materials marked “top secret.” It is irrelevant if the documents were declassified, as the feds will charge crimes that do not require proof of classification. They told the federal judge who signed the search warrant that Mr. Trump still had NDI in his home. It appears they were correct.

Under the law, it doesn’t matter if the documents on which NDI is contained are classified or not, as it is simply and always criminal to have NDI in a non-federal facility, to have those without security clearances move it from one place to another, and to keep it from the feds when they are seeking it. Stated differently, the absence of classification — for whatever reason — is not a defense to the charges that are likely to be filed against Mr. Trump.

Yet, misreading and underestimating the feds, Mr. Trump actually did them a favor. One of the elements that they must prove for any of the three crimes is that Mr. Trump knew that he had the documents. The favor he did was admit to that when he boasted that they were no longer classified. He committed a mortal sin in the criminal defense world by denying something for which he had not been accused.

He's probably now wishing that Merrick Garland had been appointed to the Supreme Court. And will blame this whole thing on Mitch McConnell.

Not only a criminal, a very stupid criminal.

6 years later I'm still in disbelief that this person became POTUS.

Quote
GGD
He's probably now wishing that Merrick Garland had been appointed to the Supreme Court. And will blame this whole thing on Mitch McConnell.

that's good! and it might even happen

Quote
hal
[www.washingtontimes.com]

Andrew Napolitano - Fox's guaranteed far-right legal analyst says Trump is going to be indicted joining every other legal mind out there.

Wow. When the Moonie paper and fellow-elevator-horndog “Judge” Napolitano are giving up on him, that’s bad news for the Don. What’s next, The New York Post? Epoch Times?

Why are people so mean?

Quote

Hence, his public boast that he declassified all the formerly classified documents he took with him.

Well, you have to consider the source - the guy who wrote this helped prosecute Nixon - but this opinion piece in The Hill says that that was impossible:

No, Trump didn’t declassify everything; it’s barred by the Nixon tapes decision

Let the rioting in the street commence, preferably outside Lindsey Graham’s house first.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2022 03:19PM by pdq.

Quote
Lemon Drop
Not only a criminal, a very stupid criminal.

6 years later I'm still in disbelief that this person became POTUS.

His current problems are exacerbated by his inability to bring on competent counsel before acting or speaking. This inability to hire competent counsel is of course a problem of his own making.

Quote
RgrF

Quote
Lemon Drop
Not only a criminal, a very stupid criminal.

6 years later I'm still in disbelief that this person became POTUS.

His current problems are exacerbated by his inability to bring on competent counsel before acting or speaking. This inability to hire competent counsel is of course a problem of his own making.

Yes, his lawyers always end up needing lawyers.

BTW, the passports the FBI “stole” from Trump were apparently found together with some of the classified things - I would bet in his office safe - which kind of forecloses a I didn’t know they were there defense.

Quote
pdq
BTW, the passports the FBI “stole” from Trump were apparently found together with some of the classified things - I would bet in his office safe - which kind of forecloses a I didn’t know they were there defense.

Obviously the FBI "planted" those documents in the safe. What other possible explanation could there be?

Also, apparently the Trump-appointed judge that he was trying to get a second opinion from does not sound amused; she has given Trump’s lawyers until 8 PM tonight to ‘splain themselves.

Is that Eastern Time?

Quote
pdq
Let the rioting in the street commence, preferably outside Lindsey Graham’s house first.

---

Northern California Coast

Also Rolling Stone is saying that

Kristi Noem is back to pushing the The FBI planted the documents dodge.

My head is spinning.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2022 04:00PM by pdq.

Quote
pdq
BTW, the passports the FBI “stole” from Trump were apparently found together with some of the classified things - I would bet in his office safe - which kind of forecloses a I didn’t know they were there defense.

They were in his desk in his office along with more classified stuff

Trump lawyers Christina Bobb and M. Evan Corcoran in the hotseats.

Corcoran was the one who supposedly diligently went through the boxes in the storage room. Bobb was the one that signed the sworn attestation that said Nope! Scout’s honor - no more classified docs! We checked.

…and then when the G-men followed up with a friendly on-site visit,

Quote

…the former president’s counsel explicitly prohibited government personnel from opening or looking inside any of the boxes that remained in the storage room, giving no opportunity for the government to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained,” [today’s DOJ] filing said.

Hoo boy.

NYT:

Quote

“They are potentially witnesses — if not defendants,” Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 2010 to 2017

Gee, ya think?

How does Trump keep finding these people willing to piss away their reputations and careers for him? It can’t just be the money - they must have those weird MAGA-stars in their eyes or something.

Anyway, top legal minds are thinking that Trump will claim attorney-client privilege to keep them from testifying (well, of course he will) but point out it doesn’t work if they were taking part in a crime (which they were).

45* is playing checkers, badly, at a chess match.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

This could be a great remake of House of Cards.

It would probably take at least two seasons to cover all the bunny trails.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Quote
RAMd®d
45* is playing checkers, badly, at a chess match.

He's playing Tiddlywinks.

Quote
Lemon Drop

Quote
RAMd®d
45* is playing checkers, badly, at a chess match.

He's playing Tiddlywinks.

Funny, I was going to say mumblety-peg, and where he's mostly hitting himself with the blade, but also occasionally all of us -- since his aim is so terrible.

---

Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

He's bringing his IQ test results ("Person,woman,man,camera,...,tv") to the legal gunfight.

---

=TC

Wait until he asks for a change of venue to The People's Court

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late