Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Zaydin]

They are just trying the same tactic they used against Hillary Clinton.

Someone probably reminded Comer that McCarthy accidentally telling the truth about the Ben Ghazi hearings cost McCarthy the Speakership that year when Boehner resigned.

[postman1782]

Apparently John Eastman had the gall to actually ask the supreme court to wipe away a ruling that he might have committed a crime with Trump with the fake electors.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/polit...ils/index.html

He really is fucking stupid.

[Breccia]

It's not a defense.

Not from you or the others here, no.

I expect it to be used by his fellow Nazis and probably his lawyer.

[Dontrike]

Apparently John Eastman had the gall to actually ask the supreme court to wipe away a ruling that he might have committed a crime with Trump with the fake electors.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/polit...ils/index.html

He really is fucking stupid.

"The evidence is making us look bad!" - Whiny lawyer

[Edge-]

https://archive.is/A0DDi

Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.

Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said.

Taken together, the new details of the classified-documents investigation suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than has been previously reported. It also broadens the timeline of possible obstruction episodes that investigators are examining — a period stretching from events at Mar-a-Lago before the subpoena to the period after the FBI raid there on Aug. 8.

That timeline may prove crucial as prosecutors seek to determine Trump’s intent in keeping hundreds of classified documents after he left the White House, a key factor in deciding whether to file charges of obstruction of justice or of mishandling national security secrets. The Washington Post has previously reported that the boxes were moved out of the storage area after Trump’s office received a subpoena. But the precise timing of that activity is a significant element in the investigation, the people familiar with the matter said.

Grand jury activity in the case has slowed in recent weeks, and Trump’s attorneys have taken steps — including outlining his potential defense to members of Congress and seeking a meeting with the attorney general — that suggest they believe a charging decision is getting closer. The grand jury working on the investigation apparently has not met since May 5, after months of frenetic activity at the federal courthouse in Washington. That is the panel’s longest hiatus since December, shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to lead the probe and coinciding with the year-end holidays.

Smith also is investigating Trump’s efforts to block the results of the 2020 election. And the former president — who is again a candidate for the White House — has been indicted in New York on charges of falsifying business records and is under investigation for election-related matters in Fulton County, Ga.

Trump has denied wrongdoing in each case. “This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump that is concocted to meddle in an election and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House,” Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, wrote in a statement. “Just like all the other fake hoaxes thrown at President Trump, this corrupt effort will also fail.”

Cheung accused prosecutors of showing “no regard for common decency or key rules that govern the legal system,” and he claimed that investigators have “harassed anyone and everyone who works [for], has worked [for], or supports Donald Trump.”

“In the course of negotiations over the return of documents, President Trump told the lead DOJ official, ‘anything you need from us, just let us know,’” he continued. “That DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted a raid on Mar-a-Lago proves that the Biden regime has weaponized the DOJ and FBI.”

A spokesman for Smith declined to comment. Justice Department officials have previously said they conducted the search only after months of efforts to retrieve all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were unsuccessful.

Of particular importance to investigators in the classified-documents case, according to people familiar with the probe, is evidence showing that boxes of documents were moved into a storage area on June 2, just before senior Justice Department lawyer Jay Bratt arrived at Mar-a-Lago with agents. The June 3 visit by law enforcement officials was to collect material in response to the May 2022 grand jury subpoena demanding the return of all documents with classified markings.

John Irving, a lawyer representing one of the two employees who moved the boxes, said the worker did not know what was in them and was only trying to help Trump valet Walt Nauta, who was using a dolly or hand truck to move a number of boxes.

“He was seen on Mar-a-Lago security video helping Walt Nauta move boxes into a storage area on June 2, 2022. My client saw Mr. Nauta moving the boxes and volunteered to help him,” Irving said. The next day, he added, the employee helped Nauta pack an SUV “when former president Trump left for Bedminster for the summer.”

The lawyer said his client, a longtime Mar-a-Lago employee whom he declined to identify, has cooperated with the government and did not have “any reason to think that helping to move boxes was at all significant.” Other people familiar with the investigation confirmed the employee’s role and said he has been questioned multiple times by authorities.

Irving represents several witnesses in the investigation, and his law firm is being paid by Trump’s Save America PAC, disclosure reports show. A lawyer for Nauta, Stanley Brand, declined to comment.

Investigators have sought to gather any evidence indicating Trump or people close to him deliberately withheld any classified papers from the government.

On the evening of June 2, the same day the two employees moved the boxes, a lawyer for Trump contacted the Justice Department and said officials there were welcome to visit Mar-a-Lago and pick up classified documents related to the subpoena. Bratt and the FBI agents arrived the following day.

Trump’s lawyers gave the officials a sealed envelope containing 38 classified documents and a signed attestation that a “diligent search” had been conducted for the documents sought by the subpoena and that all relevant documents had been turned over.

As part of that visit, Bratt and the agents were invited to visit the storage room where Trump aides said boxes of documents from his time as president were kept. Court papers filed by the Justice Department say the visitors were told by Trump’s lawyers that they could not open any of the boxes in the storage room or look at their contents.

When FBI agents secured a court order to search Mar-a-Lago two months later, they found more than 100 additional classified documents, some in Trump’s office and some in the storage area.

In a court filing in August explaining the search, prosecutors wrote that they had developed evidence that “obstructive conduct” took place in connection with the response to the subpoena, including that documents “were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room.”

Prosecutors also have gathered evidence that even before Trump’s office received the subpoena in May, he had what some officials have dubbed a “dress rehearsal” for moving government documents that he did not want to relinquish, people familiar with the investigation said.

The term “dress rehearsal” was used in a sealed judicial opinion issued earlier this year in one of several legal battles over the government’s access to particular witnesses and evidence, some of the people said. It was used to describe an episode when Trump allegedly reviewed the contents of some, but not all, of the boxes containing classified material, these people said.

At the time, Trump and his legal team were engaged in a back-and-forth with the National Archives and Records Administration over whether he had taken from the White House records and property that were supposed to stay with the government. That dispute over presidential records is what ultimately led to the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — some of them highly sensitive, including information about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities; Iran’s missile system; and intelligence gathering aimed at China.

The former president, the people familiar with the situation said, told aides he wanted to make sure he could keep papers that he considered his property.

That dress rehearsal episode is one of several instances in which investigators see possible ulterior motives in the actions of Trump and those around him. Lawyers for Trump and some of those witnesses, however, have argued in recent months that prosecutors are viewing the sequence of events in too suspicious a light. They say Smith’s team has unfairly dismissed claims that people were not trying to hide anything from the government but simply were carrying out what they considered to be routine and innocent tasks of serving their boss.

Prosecutors separately have been told by more than one witness that Trump at times kept classified documents out in the open in his Florida office, where others could see them, people familiar with the matter said, and sometimes showed them to people, including aides and visitors.

Depending on the strength of that evidence, such accounts could severely undercut claims by Trump or his lawyers that he did not know he possessed classified material.
The people familiar with the situation said Smith’s team has concluded the bulk of its investigative work in the documents case and believes it has uncovered a handful of distinct episodes of obstructionist conduct.

One of those suspected instances of obstruction, the people said, occurred after the FBI search on Aug. 8. They did not provide further details, but the Guardian has previously reported that in December, Trump’s lawyers found a box of White House schedules, including some that were marked classified, at Mar-a-Lago. In that instance, a junior aide apparently moved the box from a government-leased office in nearby West Palm Beach.

And more and more evidence of intentional obstruction appears. As if you know, the year+ of refusing to simply hand over documents in response to lawful requests wasn't enough.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2346007.html

And in an apparent olive branch offering to sweeten the pot for Trump cultists...DeSantis is discussing pardoning Trump if DeSantis wins the election. My how the tables have turned.

[Kaleredar]

https://archive.is/A0DDi



And more and more evidence of intentional obstruction appears. As if you know, the year+ of refusing to simply hand over documents in response to lawful requests wasn't enough.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2346007.html

And in an apparent olive branch offering to sweeten the pot for Trump cultists...DeSantis is discussing pardoning Trump if DeSantis wins the election. My how the tables have turned.

…even though trump can’t be pardoned of state crimes?

Plus, that kind of implies that desantis believes trump did and will be convicted of those things, no?

[Edge-]

Plus, that kind of implies that desantis believes trump did and will be convicted of those things, no?

No, it means that DeSantis will protect Trump against the DEEP STATE(TM) leftists that are engaged in the most outrageous witch hunt of all time, even more outrageous than when they were tossing women into lakes tied to stones, crushing them with stones, and burning them to death to see if they were witches or not!

/s

It's just read meat for the culture war base.

[Poopymonster]

…even though trump can’t be pardoned of state crimes?

Plus, that kind of implies that desantis believes trump did and will be convicted of those things, no?

The Federal charges for documents around Mar-A-Lardo are the ones carrying the largest penalties.
On one hand, that's red meat for the base "DEEP STATE WITCH HUNT! VOTE TO MAKE DESANTIS WIN! MAGA! I'M GONNA GO FUCK MY DAUGHTER NOW!"
On the other hand, that might exclude the 5th amendment defense in other cases.
On the gripping hand, optically that would look like Desatan saved Trump who was in trouble.
Trump's response would be fucking hilarious to that one.

[Edge-]

I think its more meant to embarrass Trump than protection for him.

It is, but it's a play for his base as well.

"If I win you have to vote for me because I'm the only one who will keep your cult leader out of federal prison."

He gets to throw shade at Trump while offering an olive branch to a crowd that kinda fuckin hates his guts.

[Canpinter]

There is no way trump doesn't spend the entire main campaign season badmouthing desantis if trump loses the primary, and no way desantis doesn't take it personally.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

There is no way trump doesn't spend the entire main campaign season badmouthing desantis if trump loses the primary, and no way desantis doesn't take it personally.

If DeSantis (or anyone other than Trump) wins the Republican nomination...I hope Trump runs as an independent just to be a spoiler candidate and to "prove" that the GOP needs him to win.

[Canpinter]

If DeSantis (or anyone other than Trump) wins the Republican nomination...I hope Trump runs as an independent just to be a spoiler candidate and to "prove" that the GOP needs him to win.

Honestly where he could really fuck over the republicans would be to pull his election conspiracy bs again and sue to keep Desantis off the ballet.

[Poopymonster]

Honestly where he could really fuck over the republicans would be to pull his election conspiracy bs again and sue to keep Desantis off the ballet.

You wanna see someone stroke out?
Wanna see someone use so many ALL CAPS Clippy is magically summoned from the Abyss?
He sues to keep DeSatan off the ballot, Supreme Court says "No."
Petty mango man loses his shit all over the internet.
I'd fucking LOVE him to start saying all he did to get Kneel Gorsuck, Amy Covid Bearer and Shouty Beer Man on the court.
Pulling strings to get debt abolished, directing the FBI to only glance in the direction of rape allegations, telling his party to ignore perjury during confirmation hearings, you know, minor things like that. Illegal things.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Honestly where he could really fuck over the republicans would be to pull his election conspiracy bs again and sue to keep Desantis off the ballet.

I think that if he just runs as an independent he pulls enough voters away to ensure neither of them can win.

[Breccia]

Once again, it is not a good day to be Donald Trump.

1) Trump’s Truth Social Faces More Trouble As SPAC Partner Admits Financial Statements Are Unreliable

Digital World Acquisition Corp., which plans to merge with the parent company of Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, reported it made accounting errors in its last financial report, adding to financial reporting issues that have threatened to delist the company from Nasdaq, on top of two investigations that have delayed the deal with Trump.

In a May 18 filing, Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that signed a deal in 2021 to merge with Trump’s media company to take Truth Social public, reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission it had made accounting errors in its annual financial report for 2022.

The year-end report can “no longer be relied upon,” Digital World told regulators, and the company is now developing a remediation plan to address the “material weakness” in its “internal control over financial reporting,” per the filing.

Digital World Acquisition also has not filed an earnings report for the first quarter of 2023, which is required for all companies listed on Nasdaq.

The company has until July 24 to submit a plan or be delisted from the stock exchange—the SEC can then accept or deny the company’s plan, and if it rejects it, Digital World can appeal.

In a public statement on Thursday addressing the SEC’s filing, Digital World said the delisting warning was “expected” and it was working “diligently” to file its earnings before July 24.

Very little, if anything, has gone right for CyberTrump 2077 or its financial backers.

2) Trump is likely the first guest Tucker Carlson wanted on his Twitter show. Maybe. Problem is, he doesn't have any hardware to make the show.

Fox News sent workers to the barn where Carlson filmed episodes of Tucker Carlson Tonight and took back all their toys.

“Fox came in last week and got all their sh*t out of there,” said Carlson’s construction manager Patrick Feeney. “They took the set and everything, all the equipment, the chairs, the desk, the fake walls, everything.”

That means should Carlson want to make do on his vow to get back into filmed monologues, he’s going to have to start from scratch. Indeed, the workers even dismantled his barn set. Getting things back to normal will take at least a month.

Sources also tell the Daily Mail that several FOX News employees quit to work with Carlson.

3) Once again it's time for Guess The Almost Speaker!

One of Trump’s great weaknesses is he talks at a level where third, fourth and fifth grade educations can say, ‘Oh yeah, I get that. I understand it.’

"I think a lot of people would say that?"

Yes. But I changed one word.

One of Trump’s great advantages is he talks at a level where third, fourth and fifth grade educations can say, ‘Oh yeah, I get that. I understand it.’

-- Newt Gingrich, on FOX News

Wanna see the video? It's on Twitter, I'll understand if you don't. Twitter has beEeeeeEe^x
########
int failure_to_launch(int x, string host) {
if(x==45)
return !myPresident;
else
return sql_lookup(x,host);
}
########
and whistled for a baboon.

4) Trump begs Georgia judge to reconsider decision not to further delay election case

I touched on this briefly before. The judge already said no, Team Trump has refiled adding "pretty please" as near as I can tell.

5) Trump’s Lawyers Warn Him: Get Ready to Be Indicted by the Feds

I've read, and should have posted if I haven't, Bill Barr, Ty Cobb and former acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal both saying "he's going to be indicted" after Trump begged Garland to call of Smith.

Speaking to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, Katyal called the letter a "last-ditch effort."

"It's the kind of thing you do right before you think you're about to be indicted, and it is likely—almost certainly—going nowhere," he said.

As for when a Trump indictment from Smith might be issued, Katyal said that given "the scope of the investigation and "how it heated up in the last few weeks," his "expectation is this is going to be soon."

But those were just experienced lawyers talking to the American people. Trump's lawyers telling Trump is different.

Trump’s attorneys and confidants have told Trump that though they view the federal investigation as “bullshit,” they would be surprised at this point if he wasn’t charged — particularly for alleged obstruction of justice — and have urged Trump to prepare for yet another historic fight. “Looks like they’re going for it,” one of the sources says. “People close to Trump have discussed with him what we think is going to happen soon, and how he and everyone else needs to be ready for it … it would be crazy not to.”

"But they're still calling it bullshit!"

Yes. They want to be paid. Anyone telling Trump that Trump is anything other than an infallible god is immediately fired.

The Rolling Stone goes on to say that Trump's response was "what about Biden?"

He's just that insane. He just doesn't get it. Even if Biden was 100% guilty of every imaginary crime Trump and his cult made up, that does not excuse Trump's crimes in any way.

As some of you (such as @Edge- hollaaaaaaaaaaa) posted, DeSaster is now seemingly floating a pardon for Trump in exchange for stepping down. Feds, he can do that. The timing of that pardon offer suggests that this is no longer a big secret.

[Edge-]

3) Once again it's time for Guess The Almost Speaker!



"I think a lot of people would say that?"

Yes. But I changed one word.


-- Newt Gingrich, on FOX News

Wanna see the video? It's on Twitter, I'll understand if you don't. Twitter has beEeeeeEe^x
########
int failure_to_launch(int x, string host) {
if(x==45)
return !myPresident;
else
return sql_lookup(x,host);
}
########
and whistled for a baboon.

I enjoy that he just called "working Americans" all basically big dumb idiots with a 5th grade education at best. Truly it's wild the things that these people say seemingly without realizing it, and without anyone else taking note of it or commenting. Just, "Yep, Republicans have a 5th grade education. Didn't even get to middle school. Highschool? Woah there, nerd alert, brainiac."

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/u...documents.html

The day before a key meeting last year between a lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and officials seeking the return of classified documents in Mr. Trump’s possession, a maintenance worker at the former president’s private club saw an aide moving boxes into a storage room, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The maintenance worker offered to help the aide — Walt Nauta, who was Mr. Trump’s valet in the White House — move the boxes and ended up lending him a hand. But the worker had no idea what was inside the boxes, the person familiar with the matter said. The maintenance worker has shared that account with federal prosecutors, the person said.

The worker’s account is potentially significant to prosecutors as they piece together details of how Mr. Trump handled sensitive documents he took with him from the White House upon leaving office and whether he obstructed efforts by the Justice Department and the National Archives to retrieve them.

Somehow I don't think maintenance workers at Mar a Lago have the security clearance necessary to be touching boxes with classified documents and all. And also isn't that kinda weird that these boxes were treated so casually that aides were just accepting help from random employees?

[cubby]

If DeSantis (or anyone other than Trump) wins the Republican nomination...I hope Trump runs as an independent just to be a spoiler candidate and to "prove" that the GOP needs him to win.

If he loses the nomination, I'm not sure he'd have enough time to run as independent. However, if there was time (and I should know, but don't), one of his evil advisers should convince him to form his own party - the Freedom Party - THAT would fuck everyone in the GOP.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

If he loses the nomination, I'm not sure he'd have enough time to run as independent. However, if there was time (and I should know, but don't), one of his evil advisers should convince him to form his own party - the Freedom Party - THAT would fuck everyone in the GOP.

I know Perot re-entered the Presidential Race as an indenpendent in October of 1992..only one month before the election...but I do not know if there were any special circumsances that allowed him to do so.

[DarkTZeratul]

The only real time limit is when each state finalizes their ballots; there's nothing legally imposing a time limit on him, and since they need to wait for the primaries to be over anyway, he could easily announce an independent run the same day he fails to get the Republican nomination and still be on every ballot as such.

[Kaleredar]

I think that if he just runs as an independent he pulls enough voters away to ensure neither of them can win.

God willing

I enjoy that he just called "working Americans" all basically big dumb idiots with a 5th grade education at best. Truly it's wild the things that these people say seemingly without realizing it, and without anyone else taking note of it or commenting. Just, "Yep, Republicans have a 5th grade education. Didn't even get to middle school. Highschool? Woah there, nerd alert, brainiac."

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/u...documents.html



Somehow I don't think maintenance workers at Mar a Lago have the security clearance necessary to be touching boxes with classified documents and all. And also isn't that kinda weird that these boxes were treated so casually that aides were just accepting help from random employees?

Clearly Trump bestowed them with security clearance with his mind powers. The exact same mind powers he used to declassify the documents in the first place!