Trump lawyer falsely claiming classified docs returned + MAGA denial tactics : Fake return letter mixing into planting of evidence hysteria.
One weird dish of conspiracy thinking thrown together
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(CNN)One of former President Donald Trump's attorneys signed a letter in June asserting that there was no more?classified information stored at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence,?according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The letter signed by the attorney raises fresh questions about the number of people who may have legal exposure in the?ongoing investigation?into the handling of classified materials from Trump's time in the White House.
The probe reached dramatic heights earlier this week when?the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, with agents removing 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked as "top secret/SCI" -- one of the highest?levels of classification.
That inventory list contradicts the attorney's letter. The removal of that classified information after the letter was sent could explain why prosecutors cited an obstruction law in their search warrant request.
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In some of my correspondence, with MAGA heads, I had HYSTERICAL references as to the June letter , asserting that this was IRREFUTABLE proof of a "plot" to plant classified documents on poor pitiful Trump
UM, NO
Also here is a brief summary of hysterical MAGA plots and themes which made their way into my mail box, and which I also read about more generally
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A. FBI Agents Went Rogue
B. FBI Agents Planted Evidence
C. Nuclear Secrets May Not Be That Secret
D . The FBI Loves Democrats
E. Obama Took Documents With Him, Too
F. Maybe It Was Aliens
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A weird soup dish of RAGING paranoia
Meanwhile, in the REAL world
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The FBI search also comes on the same day that The New York Times' Maggie Haberman?revealed photos?of torn-up notes appearing to bear Trump's distinctive penmanship in toilets -- one of which was in the White House.
That's consistent with?this CNN reporting?from mid-February:
"Three former White House officials told CNN they saw Trump, on numerous occasions, manually destroy papers he was no longer interested in or had finished reviewing -- a practice that made it difficult for White House staff secretaries to preserve presidential records. Those officials said the former President sorted through file boxes in a rather methodical way -- tearing up newspaper clippings or drafts of tweets that he had rejected and tossing them to the floor, or stacking papers he wished to hang on to in a disorderly stack atop his desk."
Disposing of notes, emails and other forms of presidential communication is against federal law as laid out in the?Presidential Records Act. (Under the Act, all correspondence of a president is owned, ultimately, by the public.)
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and the grand slam
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Hours later, Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to then-President Trump's trade adviser, took to social media to also name the agents,?The Daily Beast?reported.?
"This is one of the two feds who signed the 'Receipt for Property' form, which detailed—at a very high level—the fishing expedition that the FBI performed at Mar-a-Lago," Ziegler wrote on both Truth Social and Telegram, per the outlet.
Along with the message, Ziegler shared the FBI agents' date of birth, work emails, and supposed links to family members' social media accounts, according to the outlet.
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I cannot tell you the impression this latest one made on me
quo
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Trump lawyer claimed no classified material was at Mar-a-Lago in signed letter to Justice Department
By?Evan Perez,?Kaitlan Collins?and?Sara Murray, CNN
Updated 6:06 PM ET, Sat August 13, 2022
(CNN)One of former President Donald Trump's attorneys signed a letter in June asserting that there was no more?classified information stored at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence,?according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The letter signed by the attorney raises fresh questions about the number of people who may have legal exposure in the?ongoing investigation?into the handling of classified materials from Trump's time in the White House.
The probe reached dramatic heights earlier this week when?the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, with agents removing 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked as "top secret/SCI" -- one of the highest?levels of classification.
That inventory list contradicts the attorney's letter. The removal of that classified information after the letter was sent could explain why prosecutors cited an obstruction law in their search warrant request.
The sources did not identify when the letter was signed or by whom. It was part of an ongoing correspondence with the Department of Justice over the issue.
The New York Times?first reported?the existence of the letter.
CNN previously reported that following a June meeting at Mar-a-Lago, where Justice officials left with classified information, investigators developed evidence, including from a witness, that led investigators to believe there still was more classified information in documents stored at the complex.
Court documents unsealed and released on Friday identify three federal crimes that the DOJ is looking at as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. The inclusion of the crimes indicated the department had probable cause to investigate those offenses as it was gathering evidence in the search. No one has been charged with a crime.
The June meeting included Trump lawyers Evan Corcoran, Christina Bobb and federal investigators, including Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterintelligence and export control section at the Justice Department, CNN has previously reported.
A separate source maintains that Trump representatives told investigators in the June meeting that Trump had declassified all the documents.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said in a statement to CNN: "Just like every Democrat-fabricated witch hunt previously, the water of this unprecedented and unnecessary raid is being carried by a media willing to run with suggestive leaks, anonymous sources, and no hard facts."
The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort -- including some that were classified.
The warrant released Friday capped an unprecedented week that began with the search of the former President's home -- an evidence-gathering step in a national security investigation.
The FBI search at the resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday was followed by days of silence from the Justice Department, as is the department's normal practice for ongoing investigations.
Then on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the department had moved to unseal the search warrant and two attachments, including an inventory list, but also stressed that some of the department's work must happen outside of public view.
"We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations," Garland said, while explaining that he would not provide more detail about the basis of the search.
Trump's legal team had agreed to release the historic search warrant earlier Friday, the Justice Department told a federal court.
This story has been updated with additional background.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
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Also
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Here's How Republicans Are Brushing Off The FBI Search Of Trump's Residence
They're blaming an FBI that supposedly loves Democrats and planted evidence ― or maybe it's all about aliens.
By?
Aug 13, 2022, 08:00 AM EDT
Republicans?have been furiously working to explain away the unprecedented?FBI?search of former President?Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in search of classified documents this week.
They’ve expressed no concern over what documents Trump may have had at the resort ― which is also accessible to the public ― even though The Washington Post has reported that?nuclear secrets?may have been among the papers.
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Instead, they’ve relentlessly criticized the FBI and vowed to investigate the agency as soon as they get the power to do so. In the midst of all this, on Thursday,?a man with right-wing ties?― who appeared to be?a prolific poster?on Trump’s social media site ― and armed with?an AR-15?rifle threatened officials at the FBI’s office in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Here are some of the ways that Republicans are trying to brush off any potential wrongdoing by Trump:
FBI Agents Went Rogue
Republicans?went hard?after the FBI as soon as news broke about the search.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted, “We must destroy the FBI.”
“DEFUND THE FBI!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) added.
Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), the House’s second-ranking Republican, further stoked distrust in the FBI by suggesting, without evidence, that some FBI agents went rogue.
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“It concerns everybody if you?see some agents go rogue,” he said Thursday on Fox News.
That conspiracy theory was too much even for host Steve Doocy, who pressed Scalise: “Steve, who went rogue? They were following a search warrant.”
First of all, as Doocy noted, the FBI had?a search warrant. And a few hours after that interview, Attorney General Merrick Garland held a news conference in which he said he personally signed off on the search. So it was not agents going rogue.
FBI Agents Planted Evidence
Trump and his supporters have been alleging that the FBI is corrupt and agents actually?planted evidence?during their search.
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Right-wing influencers, including Newt Gingrich, Charlie Kirk, Alex Jones and Steve Bannon, all aired the?conspiracy theory?on Tuesday. Fox News host Jesse Watters?amplified the baseless claim?on his show that evening.
And then on Wednesday, Trump himself picked it up.
“Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting,’” Trump?wrote?on his own social media platform, Truth Social, since he is banned from Twitter. “Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?”
That same day, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) echoed it.
“Do I know that the boxes of material that they took from Mar-a-Lago, that they won’t put things in those boxes to entrap him?” Paul?said on Fox News. “How do we know? Their lawyers weren’t allowed to see the boxes go.”
And on Friday, after The Washington Post reported that some of the documents may contain nuclear secrets, Trump?again repeated his theory.
Nuclear Secrets May Not Be That Secret
The Washington Post has reported that some?documents related to nuclear weapons?were among the items the FBI sought in its search of Trump’s house.
But maybe it wasn’t so bad that he took those home with him, according to his GOP allies.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee held a news conference Friday that tried to spin away the trouble Trump appears to be in.
“I can tell you that there are a number of things that fall under the umbrella of nuclear weapons but that are?not necessarily?things that are truly classified. Many of them you can find on your own phone,” said Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio), the committee’s top Republican.
Later in the day, The Wall Street Journal reported that FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, “including some marked as top secret and meant to be only available in special government facilities.”
The FBI Loves Democrats
Between playing down the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol ― and the experiences of the officers who tried to defend the building ― and going after the FBI, Republicans have quickly been shedding their image of being the party that backs law enforcement.
On Friday, the GOP House Intelligence Committee members spent barely any time at all addressing the incident at the FBI building in Cincinnati, instead focusing on the 2017 shooting of Scalise at a congressional baseball game. Turner, who represents the state where the FBI building was targeted, faulted the FBI for its performance after the shooting and used it as an example of how the agency has supposedly long been biased against Republicans.
The FBI is led by Director Christopher Wray, who was nominated by Trump.
It wouldn’t be a GOP news conference without a mention of Hillary Clinton. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) claimed there was no “media frenzy” over the 33,000 classified emails on Clinton’s private email server that she used while secretary of state.
First of all, there certainly was a media frenzy over Clinton’s private server ― one that her supporters would no doubt argue contributed to her loss against Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Second, there were not 33,000 classified emails. As Politifact noted, “Of the tens of thousands of emails investigators reviewed, 113 contained classified information, and?three?of those had classification markers.”
And Republicans’ favorite chant in 2016 was, of course, “Lock her up,” a belief that now seems to be gone when it comes to Trump.
Obama Took Documents With Him, Too
On Friday, Trump put out a statement claiming that his presidential predecessor, Barack Obama, also took plenty of documents with him when he left the White House: “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!”
The National Archives and Records Administration responded a few hours later, explaining how presidential libraries work. The agency explained that it “assumed exclusive legal and physical custody” of the records when Obama left office, as outlined by the Presidential Records Act.
“NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area where they are maintained exclusively by NARA,” it added. “Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area. As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”
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In other words, the two situations aren’t the same at all.
Maybe It Was Aliens
Maybe Trump didn’t have nuclear documents. Maybe ― it was something about aliens?
On Friday, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) claimed the FBI is not being forthcoming enough about the search, and for some reason he brought up aliens.
“Was it nuclear? Was it ― heck, maybe it was aliens. That’s the point,” he said. “We don’t know. We are asking them to tell us.”
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Also
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-search-analysis/?dicbo=v2-e71086b220e470aa36418862d8e1c614&hpt=ob_blogfooterold
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The vise is tightening around Donald Trump as 2024 decision looms
Analysis by?Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 8:15 AM ET, Tue August 9, 2022
Former President Donald Trump takes the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, on August 6, 2022.
(CNN)The?FBI's search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate?on Monday makes one thing crystal clear: The legal vise is tightening around the former President even as he weighs whether to run for president again in 2024.
"My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents," Trump posted on Truth Social, his preferred social network, on Monday evening. He added that "they even broke into my safe." Agents appear to be focused on the area of the sprawling estate where Trump's living quarters and offices are located.
It was not immediately clear what the FBI was after -- or what, specifically, the agents were looking for. Boxes of items were taken during the search, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.
We do know that federal investigators?issued a subpoena?to the National Archives and Records Administration in May for access to classified documents that were taken to Trump's home in Florida -- part of?a grand jury investigation?into whether Trump or anyone else close to him mishandled classified documents that he took with him after leaving the White House last January.
Earlier this year,?15 boxes?of White House records that Trump had brought to Mar-a-Lago were retrieved and returned to the National Archives. Among the items in the returned boxes included letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and former President Barack Obama.
The FBI search also comes on the same day that The New York Times' Maggie Haberman?revealed photos?of torn-up notes appearing to bear Trump's distinctive penmanship in toilets -- one of which was in the White House.
That's consistent with?this CNN reporting?from mid-February:
"Three former White House officials told CNN they saw Trump, on numerous occasions, manually destroy papers he was no longer interested in or had finished reviewing -- a practice that made it difficult for White House staff secretaries to preserve presidential records. Those officials said the former President sorted through file boxes in a rather methodical way -- tearing up newspaper clippings or drafts of tweets that he had rejected and tossing them to the floor, or stacking papers he wished to hang on to in a disorderly stack atop his desk."
Disposing of notes, emails and other forms of presidential communication is against federal law as laid out in the?Presidential Records Act. (Under the Act, all correspondence of a president is owned, ultimately, by the public.)
The FBI's execution of a search warrant also comes just days after the news broke that lawyers for Trump are in touch with the Justice Department in regards to its ongoing investigation into the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.?As CNN first reported:
"The talks revolve around whether Trump would be able to shield conversations he had while he was president from federal investigators.
"In recent weeks, investigators have moved aggressively into Trump's orbit, subpoenaing top former White House officials, focusing on efforts to overturn the 2020 election and executing searches of lawyers who sought to aid those efforts."
Trump, CNN has also reported, has quizzed his legal team of late as to whether he might be indicted, although he himself is skeptical it will come to that. (Worth noting: Trump is not a lawyer.)
The series of developments -- culminating with the high-profile search of Trump's home on Monday -- reinforce a fundamental fact of Trump's situation: He is far more likely to see a 2024 run for president curtailed by legal problems than political ones.
Politically, Trump remains the 800-pound gorilla in the Republican field. Over the weekend, he?convincingly won a straw poll?at a conservative gathering in Texas. And, he has all but announced his intention to run again, with the major question at this point being when he will announce his candidacy -- not whether he will do so. Trump posted a campaign-style video on his Truth Social site Tuesday morning, saying "the best is yet to come."
Trump's mounting legal woes -- or at least the clear sense that this variety of investigations is getting closer and closer to him -- complicate all of that. Trump under legal fire is one thing for Republicans to accept. Trump under indictment is something else entirely.
We are, of course, not there yet. But, Monday's FBI activity suggests that Trump's legal problems are likely to get worse before they get better. And they may get way, way worse.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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And the grand slam
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An ex-Trump aide and right-wing Breitbart News have been separately accused of doxxing the FBI agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago raid
Alia Shoaib?10 hours ago
Breitbart and a former Trump aide have been accused of doxxing the FBI agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and a former Trump aide have been separately accused of doxxing the FBI agents involved in the Mar-a-Lago raid.
The Breitbart News website revealed the identities of two agents on Friday when it published a leaked copy of the warrant that authorized the search.
The version officially released hours later?redacted?the agents' names from the inventory receipt section of the warrant.
Several?observers?took to?Twitter?to note that publishing their names exposes them to threats and harassment.?
Doxxing is defined as publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, often with malicious intent.
Hours later, Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to then-President Trump's trade adviser, took to social media to also name the agents,?The Daily Beast?reported.?
"This is one of the two feds who signed the 'Receipt for Property' form, which detailed—at a very high level—the fishing expedition that the FBI performed at Mar-a-Lago," Ziegler wrote on both Truth Social and Telegram, per the outlet.
Along with the message, Ziegler shared the FBI agents' date of birth, work emails, and supposed links to family members' social media accounts, according to the outlet.
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Andrew Beckwith, PhD