By Bonchie
The DOJ was apparently open late on Tuesday night after they dropped a filing in an attempt to block Donald Trump’s request for a special master regarding the Mar-a-Lago raid. The FBI searched the property and took boxes of classified information on August 8th. For Trump’s part, he has steadfastly asserted he declassified everything he took, and his presidential powers would have given him that ability prior to leaving office.
Following a recent admission that the FBI took attorney-client privileged information, the former president asked the court to appoint a third-party special master to review all the documents. The judge in the case then released a preliminary decision to do just that, which sent the DOJ into fits of rage.
That’s basically what their filling consists of. It’s the same tired, weak excuses about “national security” in an attempt to never be held accountable. It also included a picture of the documents scattered on the floor that is causing hearts to flutter. Jonathan Turley offers some insight.
The arguments raised by the Justice Department are not just familiar but transparently weak. The government argues that Trump lacks standing because the records belong to the United States, not him…https://t.co/3P4HZv5wBd
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 31, 2022
The Department makes many of the same claims that it used to opposed the release of a redacted affidavit, claims shown to have been misleading and exaggerated after the magistrate ordered the release. Notably, this filing contained details that were likely redacted in the affidavit but just released on the public record.
In the most direct challenge to the former President’s public claims, the Justice Department claimed that he and his staff had failed to turn over classified material and that the Department had no choice but to search areas outside of the storage room. Indeed, it says that it found three classified documents in Trump’s desk without indicating the level of classification or subject matter.Frankly, the idea that a special master would harm the nation’s security just makes no sense. This is the same DOJ that has been leaking details of what they found like a sieve, including a claim about nuclear documents. Now, we are supposed to believe that a third party with a security clearance sorting through the material and generally noting what he’s found is dangerous. That doesn’t begin to wash, and it sounds like the same weak excuse given as to why the affidavit couldn’t be released.
Besides, isn’t it a little ironic to release a picture of the classified documents while at the same time claiming they are so sensitive a special master can’t view them? I understand the cover sheets don’t say much, but the visual alone is moronic.It is curious that the DOJ would release this particular picture which suggests classified material laying around on the floor. The point is to state a fact that hardly needs an optical confirmation: the possession of documents with classified cover sheets. Indeed, the top of roughly half of the documents are redacted in photo. The government could simply affirmatively state the fact of the covered pages and would not likely be challenged on that point without the inclusion of this one photo.
For critics, the photo may appear another effort (with prior leaks) to help frame the public optics and discussion. Clearly the court did not need the visual aid of a picture of documents with covers. It seems clearly intended for public consumption.As Turley notes, the photo is going to be seen by many as another attempt to push a public narrative (because it is). The photo itself adds nothing to the DOJ’s case. We already knew classified information was found because Trump himself has admitted to having it. The only reason to release that photo is to make it seem like Trump had classified documents strewn all over the floor. The picture is clearly staged, with all the “top secret” cover sheets perfectly framed for the camera, and the DOJ isn’t even denying that they laid the documents out that way.
Trump responded to the filing on his social media network.
https://twitter.com/PartymanRandy/status/1564961234482614273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1564961234482614273%7Ctwgr%5Ef4069b576d5d1f919397f8d2902d9b60bd7d4630%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Fbonchie%2F2022%2F08%2F31%2Fdoj-releases-supposedly-damning-photo-in-late-night-filing-donald-trump-responds-n620527
Trump’s assertion about declassifying the documents remains the cardinal issue. It does not matter what the FBI found if the president had the right to possess it, and there is no question that presidents have total power over document classification.
Look closely at the bottom of that photo.
It admits all these papers were “recovered from a container in the 45 office.”
So, in small print the DOJ/FBI admits this photo’s set up is their doing NOT Trump’s.
Also, if you listened to Donald Trump over the years you’d know he LOVES to read all the fine print in contracts and documents.
He also has a fine memory.
One example was when he was in business and had a pile of important papers on his desk, someone asked him if he had a certain person’s phone number.
He lifted up some of the papers and then thumbed thru a few of them coming up with that man’s name and contact number.
All the time people talk about how Trump remembered them when they see him again, even picking up important parts of their last conversation, even about health of their family.
He’s also fastidious.
He doesn’t make messes for others to pick up after him.
And he doesn’t sit on the floor (at age 76) to read when he has desks in his offices.
Does anyone aside from a fool think that the FBI is saying that’s how they were stored?
@Michael
Well, the FBI DID say Trump was a Russian asset even though they had proof the accusations were all lies, so I would say anything is possible and they don’t exactly do anything to dissuade anyone from that assumption. Of course, they do direct their propaganda at the stupidest among us.
And that summarizes the entire issue. He did not break any laws. This is a farce to cover their corrupt, criminal asses just like Mueller and all the rest of it was. These shitbages are scared and cornered. Hopefully more whistleblowers will come forward. My understanding is that the rank and file agents are absolutely livid with all of this.
More legislative districts need to do what LD3 in Arizona did yesterday and vote to stop cooperating with the FBI. They need to be neutered and since the system of checks and balances at the federal level is broken to the point of being non-existent, the states and local governments need to step up.
Gee, I wonder what the security camera footage is going to show?
I think the left’s desperation is showing. They’ve dug themselves a hole and don’t know how to get out of it. Everything they do smells of set up and conspiracy.
If they somehow knock Trump out of the race, DeSantis, with the Republicans that don’t want Trump, will pick up ALL of Trump’s supporters. He’ll have it ALL. I don’t know if there is that much election fraud in the world to swing that election without even Rachael Maddow noticing.
This could have been photo shopped, but considering Twitter suspended her account the day it was posted lends credibility to the belief that she did indeed post it.
https://americasbestpics.com/video/we-the-entire-world-knows-it-tweet-hallie-biden-bid-UpiD6kpp9
Big nothingburger
There is no Donald Trump. He’s a reality TV character played by a formerly unemployed actor. All of the news about him is a total fabrication.
Morons.
Wow
Is that your argument for today dickless greg?
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Your arguments are beyond weak and totally meaningless. Advocacy on your part for your fascist side only shows sunlight of how despotic and regressive your fellow followers are.
It shows that you have your head firmly implanted in your own ass. Keep up what you think is great work zipperhead
@Greg
Then who is it that you make all these lies up about?
That’s your own imbecilic argument thrown back in your stupid faces, though I doubt if you’re smart enough to recognized it when you see it.
@Greg
Where are the records that any President has declassified anything?
Why don’t you address my questions about Hillary?
Haha.
Now you’re getting it, dipshit.
The legendary, Billionaire real-estate Mogul who then succeeded in show business with a number one rated tv show has had his failures (as every successful man from Mark Bezos to Barack Obama) as is required of any demonstrably successful executive such as Trump.
On top of all his achievements, he WON THE HIGHEST OFFICE IMAGINABLE IN BOTH THE COUNTRY, THE WORLD, AND HISTORY…all without having served in politics before.
What a f*cking legend.
He succeed at that as well, actually spending ONE BILLION of his own money, rather than getting banks and tech to pay six billion to install him for their own interests.
There is no Donald Trump. There are only freedom-loving Americans who vote for him, in the majority, so much so that the corrupt deep state illegal federal government had to release a pandemic, rig an election, stage a false flag, and perform an illegal raid with NO cause.
I love when you make a Freudian slip, you dumbfuck.
All the news about him, including the vacuous drivel you post, is indeed a total fabrication.
^^^ The greatest self-own greg’s dumbass has written, yet ^^^
No, Trump didn’t declassify everything; it’s barred by the Nixon tapes decision
@Greg
Not only could Trump declassify his documents, but he DID declassify them. So, they aren’t classified and they aren’t of interest to the FBI.
But, if they WERE classified and Trump had them, why is this a big deal now when it wasn’t when Hillary had classified documents at her home on her secret, private, unsecured server which was hacked by Russia, China and probably more? She had documents on her server that the investigators didn’t have the security clearance to view, and she had no such authority to declassify or have them. So, if that was not prosecutable, why is Trump’s case prosecutable? If Trump is prosecuted, why wasn’t Hillary?
The answer is pretty simple: Trump has committed no crimes and the left is so afraid of Trump restoring the nation to greatness again and the entire persecution is nothing but a political attack. Democrats are utter scum.
As the linked article and referenced Executive Order and statutes therein explain, neither Trump nor any other president has sole authority to unilaterally declassify certain documents without formal consultation with the authority that classified them to begin with. That SPECIFICALLY applies to documents regarding nuclear weapons AND documents regarding intelligence agents.
This document has been published in the Federal Register. Use the PDF linked in the document sidebar for the official electronic format.
Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009 (This was never rescinded, and remains currently in effect.)
U.S. Code § 3121 – Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources (This is also current law, and was in effect in its current form throughout Trump’s entire term of office.)
This isn’t piddling stuff or minor technicalities. It’s about as serious as national security regulations get.
@Greg
This addresses how people who aren’t the President of the United States (like idiot Biden, for instance) declassify documents. The President has the authority to declassify anything himself.
We might agree that the process is dangerously loose and undefined, but it is an established fact that the POTUS has the authority to declassify anything. Thus, Trump has broken no laws or rules.
@Curt
But Greg says Obama lifted his scepter, parted the sea and declared only HE can declassify.
“So where’s the record that he did so?”
It’s already with the FBI. Trump declassified the documents.
No crime.
He has docs on the Russia Collusion Hoax.
The FBI is trying to cover up their crimes because they Trump will prosecute.
Glad we cleared that up for you.
@DM
He declassified them on January 19, 2021.
linked article
Nope. As explained above, NO president has unilateral power to declassify certain categories of classified documents. Repeatedly claiming that he did doesn’t make it so. It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of written directives and law.
@Greg
Obama, though a god in your eyes, does not have the power to unilaterally remove from the POTUS a Constitutional power. Unless you think Obama went through this process 30,000,000 times with HIS documents HE removed from DC.
You need to look up how Executive Orders work. Unless they’re created with an expiration date, they remain in effect until they’re rescinded by the president who issued them, or by a successor president.
That isn’t unique to Obama. That’s how it ALWAYS works. If it didn’t, all standing Executive Orders would expire the moment a president left office, resetting everything to zero and leaving the executive branch without procedural command and control until it was all rebuilt from the ground up—a process that would take months or years.
NO government or nation could function in this fashion. They’re be a complete absence of continuity and a prolonged window of vulnerability on every side.
@Greg
You need to realize how the Constitution works. Presidents, even Lord Obama, don’t issue an executive order that supersedes decades of precedent and established law.
Like I said, I guess you expect us to believe Obama followed this process on all 30 million of the documents he took and still has. It is the precedents set by others that proves this is nothing but a political witch hunt.
So where’s the record that he did so?
Probably you’ll next assert that there doesn’t have to be any record; that if Top Secret documents concerning undercover operatives were in with his personal golfing memorabilia, that’s sufficient evidence of declassification.
@greg
Like the boy who cried wolf, no believes you idiots any longer.
Trump is now the MOST VETTED presidential candidate in the history of the United States.
The Certified, cleanest.
Your treachery has only guaranteed Trump’s success. Watching all the Democrat lies, the deep state crimes…
Voters will remember in November.
Trump’s arguments and behavior ARE borderline incoherent. If he declassified a Top Secret document simply by removing it from the Oval Office, this would mean that EVERYTHING he removed could be publicly exposed without any consequences to the person doing so, no matter the danger to covert agents working in hostile settings, and no matter what the resultant threat might be to national security. THAT’S CRAZY. Do you want to argue that Trump is crazy? I’m perfectly willing to agree.
When the consequences of something are crazy, arguing in favor of it is crazy, and doing it is crazy.
@Greg
I wonder why you can never use a credible source to back up your points? All you ever have at your disposal seems to be far leftist sources with a long and storied history of lying at the behest of the Democrats.
Trump could declassify the documents and DID declassify the documents. Why do you think he willingly showed them to the FBI when they visited him months ago? If he ILLEGALLY held documents, he would have obliterated them like Hillary did. No, he invited the FBI in to look at his documents, chatted with them, thanked them, they thanked him and they went back to plot their next nefarious moves.
Can a president secretly declassify information without leaving a written record or telling anyone?
Trump did no such thing.
Can an illegal and corrupt Federal Government continue to lie and invent charges on a candidate legal, voting adults in America actual want without being torn down and replaced legally?
This “raid” is so flimsy. No American believes you.
Trump declassified the docs legally.
@hemaphroditegreg
More stale drivel and complete lie
Your head is still up your ass
Along with lots of other “things” no doubt. I’m surprised there’s any room left.