Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Kaleredar]

There sure are a lot of really damning leaks from the evidence pool... it's almost as if someone on team Trump is trying to taint any potential jury selection and will move for a dismissal.

I'd imagine being found to leak evidence would come with some form of heavy lawyer-type penalties, and that the strategy of "my client is so obviously and publicly guilty that any prospective jury would be prejudiced against him!" isn't a legal defense that holds much water.

[Cthulhu 2020]

The judge has declined the request to keep the witness list under seal, meaning any and all testimonials from witnesses will be public. This judge is doing what she CAN to be on Trump's side in this. This could lead to witness intimidation.

[Poopymonster]

The judge has declined the request to keep the witness list under seal, meaning any and all testimonials from witnesses will be public. This judge is doing what she CAN to be on Trump's side in this. This could lead to witness intimidation.

This will lead to witness intimidation.
This could lead to witness elimination.

[Breccia]

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

1) First things first:

The judge has declined the request to keep the witness list under seal, meaning any and all testimonials from witnesses will be public. This judge is doing what she CAN to be on Trump's side in this. This could lead to witness intimidation.

It makes more sense than it seems at first.

The ongoing concern of the special counsel is that Trump tends to use his loyalists to threaten and attack those who might speak in court. Trump has been told multiple times he's not allowed to talk about the case with any of the witnesses. That doesn't mean his children, allies, staff or supporters can't attack or target witnesses.

"In fact, it appears she rejected their effort to file it with the court at all," tweeted NBC News' Lisa Rubin. "Defense counsel has the list already. The only question now is whether the rest of us can or will and on what timeline. After all, she questions whether it needs be filed with the court, period."

Speaking to MSNBC's Ari Melber on Monday, former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal explained that she wasn't saying that the list should be made public or private but asking for more information from the government.

"With respect to the sealed witnesses piece of the orders today, you know, it's a little bit odd what she did because Trump didn't even oppose the government's motion to seal these 84 witnesses," he said. "But actually, she made a good point, Ari. Maybe we can avoid this issue entirely. I don't even need to see these 84 witnesses right now, so maybe we can sidestep the issue. She's not giving it a firm no to the government right now. She's saying tell me more."

Another issue he pointed out is the trial timeline to begin in Dec. 2023.

"Judge Cannon seems to be buying into that, and I don't think Jack Smith was taking a delay," he said. "I think that the interim date that was picked by Judge Cannon was generated by computer. There are all sorts of evidentiary issues that are going to take place, so December is a realistic trial date. She has said she's signaling that as well to the defense, and I think the most important piece here is, you know, you and I have talked about classified material in investigations, that often delays trial for a long period of time. But there's an exception. If you've got the buy-in from the top of the intelligence community, things can move fast."

He said that the intelligence piece likely would be resolved by the intelligence community and may have already been.

Defense already has the list, by the way. It's not a crystal clear reason, but it's not complete nonsense.

2) Intentional Trump ally and traitor to the country John Eastman's trial is not going well.

The subject arose in Eastman’s ongoing California State Bar disbarment hearing that stems from the same dirty pool of election denialism as the efforts to throw the 2020 election for Trump. Law360 reported Friday that Eastman, who advised Trump on how to retain the presidency despite losing to Joe Biden, “cited a truck driver’s affidavit as evidence of election fraud” but “didn’t know the witness was also a so-called ghost hunter because he did no research to assess his credibility.”

You might be saying "ghost hunter's a bit crazy, but not so bad". And you might even have a point.

*ahem*

But.

In December 2020, the York Daily Record described the truck driver as having “a lengthy history of drug abuse, mental health issues and allegations of domestic violence,” citing court records.

Yep.

3) Surprising nobody, Mary Trump says Ivanka/Jared fled from Trump because

Every single relationship in the Trump family is "transactional," Mary Trump said in a Deep State Radio podcast aired on Friday. The likes of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have no choice as no legitimate company would hire them, and so are stuck upon which side their bread is buttered, she said.

Ivanka Trump "actually reminds me of my grandfather a little bit, which is not a compliment," Mary Trump, a psychologist by profession, said. She has always been highly critical of Fred Trump, calling him a "high-functioning sociopath" father who shaped Donald Trump's childhood.

"Ivanka isn’t getting as much out of this as she was putting into it and she happens to be married to a legitimate, well to a man who’s from a legitimately wealthy family," Mary Trump said.

4) But of course, the big one.

By now, we've all heard of CNN's exclusive audio of Trump flat-out discussing that he had what he knew were classified government records. Any sane person would say that's a problem.

To pick a purely random example from the dozens of options, former Trump WH Counsel James Schultz.

“Does that full context of the tape as you hear all of it change anything for you in terms of the strength of this evidence for the special counsel?” CNN’s Abby Phillip asked Schultz.

“No,” Schultz answered. “Really, if anything it bolsters it, right? If this evidence is admissible – and I imagine they’re going to try to challenge on a number of different fronts, I’m not sure where they make their argument here to exclude this evidence. But if it is admissible in court, it’s certainly troubling for their defense.”

“It bolsters the government’s claim under the Espionage Act,” Schultz continued. “It also bolsters their claim, you know, under the obstruction case because one of the things he’s been saying all along is that he can just wave a magic wand and these documents are declassified. And in this instance, in his own words, he’s saying it’s not declassified. So that’s very troubling for him, no doubt about it.”

Just a reminder, this is a lawyer Trump hired on purpose to defend him.

Trump, of course, is not a sane person.

In a post on his Truth Social account on Monday, Trump claimed Special Prosecutor Jack Smith: "illegally leaked and 'spun' a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe."

"This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!" he added.

So, yeah, first he accused Agent Smith of leaking the info. I know some of you think he leaked it himself. But I don't think anyone here actually believes Smith, whose sole goal in this role is putting Trump on trial, would intentionally damage his own case or get himself in trouble.

Second, he says he's exonerated.

"Based on what?"

Literally nothing. He just says it.

But he wasn't done. The next target was Bret Baier.

"The FOX News host that interviewed him? Didn't he say the interview was wonderful?"

Yes. He still does.

Appearing on Newsmax a few days after trashing Baier’s employer as “hostile,” Trump was asked about how he’d feel about participating in the GOP’s first scheduled primary debate in August, which Baier and Martha MacCallum will moderate.

Trump began by reiterating that it’s difficult for him to see the need to debate considering his wide polling lead. He then griped, again, that Fox News is “hostile” toward him.

“When I did the interview with Brett, I thought it was fine. I thought it was OK,” Trump told Eric Bolling in a lukewarm manner. “But there was nothing friendly about it. You know, it was nasty, and I thought I did a good job. I’ve been getting credit for doing a good job.”

Trump then gave the impression that he felt like Baier should have behaved more like a campaign surrogate.

“Everything was like an unfriendly… everything was unfriendly: no smiling, no ‘Let’s have fun, let’s make America great again.’ Everything was like a hit.”

Then he just kept going.

Trump jacked up threats Monday that he will skip at least the first Republican debate, complaining that one of the sponsors, Fox News, has ignored his recent campaign events.

Fox did not broadcast Trump's weekend speeches in Washington, D.C., and Michigan and "then wants me to show up and get them ratings for their 'Presidential' Debate, where I’m leading the field by 40 points," Trump said on Truth Social.

"Sorry FoxNews, life doesn’t work that way!!!" Trump added.

I posted quite recently that Trump thinks he can win by making more and more enemies. Meanwhile, many of you have pointed out that Trump gets free advertisements from media coverage...which this attack will lower. Either way, or both why not, he's intentionally damaging his own campaign.

Trump is flailing. Trump is panicking. He knows he's guilty, he knows he's caught, and he's running out of lawyers willing to "die" for him.

[Breccia]

It’s like the idiot lives in the moment, never thinking about the future ramifications of his actions.

I have seen two leading theories on this. (There are likely others)

One: Yep. That's correct.

Two: He does think about them, but along the lines of "what do I have to do to avoid these consequences?" Business, politics, or courtroom, we've seen him walk away from his bankruptcies, failed promises, and Trump University -- just to name a few. He got off to a great start, being born very rich and very white, and he's been losing money ever since effectively buying forgiveness.

In the case of a massive state trial, where he won't be pardoned, the difference will be miniscule. Once he realizes he can't pay off NYState or Georgia, for example, he'll flip out just as crazily either way.

We're seeing the push for moving state crimes to federal crimes, however, and the GOP pushing to pardon him. Which means, yes, there is a difference.

We'll find out eventually. None of the trials are happening this week.

[postman1782]

This will lead to witness intimidation.
This could lead to witness elimination.

Just like with the women that sued Trump when he was running in 2015 and 16, and they dropped their lawsuits because they were threated with death if they didn't.

[Darththeo]

Trump supporters are already trying to say that the bigger issue is the documents were about a potential attack on Iran and that could be yet another war for the United States to get involved in. I am like, yeah, I know absolutely that the US government has plans that involve attacking Iran, I am not stupid. However, having plans for something and actually doing it are two different things that these people don't understand. The military has a lot of "What if" plans because it is better to have a plan and never use it then not have a plan and need it.

So, they now know he took documents, but they don't care. The bigger issue is that the "Deep State" was planning a war with Iran so Trump should have whistleblower protections ... I wish I was making this up, but I see it push around on Twitter.

I just can't anymore with Trump supporters. They literally could have video of him raping and murdering multiple women and they would still support him. And they outright deny they are a cult.

[Edge-]

Trump supporters are already trying to say that the bigger issue is the documents were about a potential attack on Iran and that could be yet another war for the United States to get involved in. I am like, yeah, I know absolutely that the US government has plans that involve attacking Iran, I am not stupid. However, having plans for something and actually doing it are two different things that these people don't understand. The military has a lot of "What if" plans because it is better to have a plan and never use it then not have a plan and need it.

So, they now know he took documents, but they don't care. The bigger issue is that the "Deep State" was planning a war with Iran so Trump should have whistleblower protections ... I wish I was making this up, but I see it push around on Twitter.

I just can't anymore with Trump supporters. They literally could have video of him raping and murdering multiple women and they would still support him. And they outright deny they are a cult.

wait wait wait

are you telling me the joint chiefs would have a wide variety of plans for all kinds of potential combat situations as a precaution?

seriously, literally every time someone shows an example of "smart planning literally every successful organization does" Republicans lose their god-damned minds and can't make heads or tails of it.

On brand for reactionaries. They'd rather be caught with Americas pants down and no plans in place than have the people who work for the government do something productive like wargame out what a variety of potential conflicts with Iran might look like so that, should any occur, we've got some options on the table that we can immediately look to.

instead of taking the bill o'reilly approach -

[Corvus]

Trump supporters are already trying to say that the bigger issue is the documents were about a potential attack on Iran and that could be yet another war for the United States to get involved in. I am like, yeah, I know absolutely that the US government has plans that involve attacking Iran, I am not stupid. However, having plans for something and actually doing it are two different things that these people don't understand. The military has a lot of "What if" plans because it is better to have a plan and never use it then not have a plan and need it.

Obviously they don't know their history, as post World War 1, the US had a bunch of war plans devised to deal with many situations, including War Plan Orange (to fight Japan, even though when they first came up with it was just after WW1 ended when Japan was still allied), War Plan White (to deal with a domestic uprising) and War Plan Red (a war against the British Empire.) Yes, the US had plans in place to fight against the entire British Empire right after just having allied with them in WW1.

[Orange Joe]

Obviously they don't know their history, as post World War 1, the US had a bunch of war plans devised to deal with many situations, including War Plan Orange (to fight Japan, even though when they first came up with it was just after WW1 ended when Japan was still allied), War Plan White (to deal with a domestic uprising) and War Plan Red (a war against the British Empire.) Yes, the US had plans in place to fight against the entire British Empire right after just having allied with them in WW1.

I have no doubts there is a plan of action for invading Canada....

[Shadowferal]

I have no doubts there is a plan of action for invading Canada....

Hmm...too late!

[Edge-]

I have no doubts there is a plan of action for invading Canada....

That's just the movie Canadian Bacon, actually.

[Ivanstone]

I have no doubts there is a plan of action for invading Canada....

War Plan Red was to invade Canada to prevent us from being a base of operations for the British Empire.

[Breccia]

Trump had a good day in court for once!

"Yeah! MAGA!"

Ivanka Trump. The NYState lawsuit against her was dropped because everything was outside the statute of limitations.

Donald Trump's lawsuit covers recent material and is, therefore, ongoing.

[Masark]

War Plan Red was to invade Canada to prevent us from being a base of operations for the British Empire.

Red was the Empire overall. Canada was War Plan Crimson (and we had our own plans). They also had Ruby (India), Scarlet (Australia), Garnet (New Zealand), and Emerald (Ireland).

They had plans for wars with basically everyone that mattered geopolitically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...of_color_plans

And if their planners are still doing their jobs, they still have such plans filed away somewhere, sans the snappy codenames, and they take them out and dust them off every few years.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Red was the Empire overall. Canada was War Plan Crimson (and we had our own plans). They also had Ruby (India), Scarlet (Australia), Garnet (New Zealand), and Emerald (Ireland).

They had plans for wars with basically everyone that mattered geopolitically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...of_color_plans

And if their planners are still doing their jobs, they still have such plans filed away somewhere, sans the snappy codenames, and they take them out and dust them off every few years.

Batman does the same thing with the Justice League.

[Masark]

Batman does the same thing with the Justice League.

And on the other company, there's the Xavier Protocols.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

And on the other company, there's the Xavier Protocols.

Hell, even Spider-Man does it:

[postman1782]

Apparently Trump stupidly went on Fox and said he wasn't holding up a classified document in the audio recording he was recorded for the indictment. Which guarantees he was holding that classified attack plan on Iran just in case. Because as we all know, if Trump claims something, almost always the opposite is true.

[Gorsameth]

"I totally wasn't holding a classified document while talking about having a classified document in my hand and before a raid found a whole bunch of classified documents in my residence"

That is quite the leap they are trying to make there, and they don't even need to prove he was holding a document at that time because its not relevant to the case. He admitted he had them, and that he knew they were still classified. Those are the parts that matter