#Classified documents case

[follow-up-news]

Judge Aileen Cannon said on Monday that she would not block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. However, Cannon scheduled a court hearing later this week on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s plan to share with some lawmakers the part of Smith’s report dealing with the classified documents probe. In the meantime, she is continuing to halt the department from disclosing that aspect of the report to anyone outside of the agency. The new order from the Trump-appointed judge is the latest twist in a court fight that has upended the Justice Department’s preparations for winding down its investigations into Trump before he is sworn into office next week, while jeopardizing the transparency Congress and the public have into those probes. The department has historically released the final reports on special counsel investigations into presidents, including while those presidents were still in the White House.

[imkeepinit]

The Trump Mar-a-Lago search was justified

[latestnews-now]

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has requested the dismissal of two major federal criminal cases against Donald Trump following his 2024 presidential win. Learn why the Justice Department's policy shields sitting presidents from federal prosecution and what this means for Trump's second term. Discover the ongoing implications for his legal battles at the state level.

[scottguy]

I wonder if Smith was able to point out the long-standing bias and all of Judge Canon's decisions up to that point?

I really used to wonder how people could have supported Hitler. But Hitler probably ALSO had people like Judge Cannon standing up for him in his dictatorial powers. It's people like her who are *really* responsible for the murder of six million Jews. There were people who were in a position to stop a madman, but they didn't. Kind of like mainstream media could declare Trump a national security threat tomorrow if they wanted... but they don't.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal appeals court Monday to reinstate the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, saying a judge’s decision that dismissed the prosecution was at odds with longstanding Justice Department practice and must be reversed.

Smith’s team said U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon made a grievous mistake by ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. That position, prosecutors wrote in a brief filed with the Atlanta-based appeals court, runs counter to rulings by judges across the country as well as “widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government.”

If allowed to stand, they warned, it could ”jeopardize the longstanding operation of the Justice Department and call into question hundreds of appointments throughout the Executive Branch.”

[profittrek]

Mary Trump reads Donald Trump's recording of admitting having Top Secret...

[nelkcats]

Paranormal Department

Something strange was happening in the world, something that even the League would not have prevented. It seemed that the United States government had been fighting things they didn't stand a chance with, and this almost ended in disaster if it wasn't for the kindness of what they were dealing with. The details were highly classified and encrypted so Batman didn't know the details and it was frustrating him.

All that trouble resulted in Justice League Dark working steadily with the "Paranormal Department", there wasn't much information on their members and they worked in the shadows (Bruce wasn't amused, he needed contingency plans) but Zatara claimed they were excellent allies, despite their strange use of modern technology.

Bruce didn't know what they were about, or what agreement the president had made, but he didn't trust this "new department". They could betray them at any second. That's why when Constantine informed him that they would take over the "Lazarus pits" he flatly refused. Apparently his refusal didn't matter at the end since the "Department" got jurisdiction over the case.

Team Phantom, which was now headquartered in downtown Amity Park (and had many new members like Paulina and Dash) was having fun pissing off the Bat. While Danny had made an agreement with the government to deal with threats from the Realms, one of the clauses was not to tell the heroes they existed (After years of living with the Fenton's Danny was not amused that anyone knew ways to eliminate him, Clockwork was backup enough). Sam thought it was childish but didn't stop him.

Sam handled all the legal stuff, but it seemed like they had jurisdiction over all the cases that interested them (more than JL, since they were an elite team in that field), and no one could reveal their identities, which relieved Danny greatly.

Their main job was to send the ghosts home and close the rifts, plus deal with demons, or creatures that came out of said rifts. Easy enough for them, but probably extremely risky if you were inexperienced. Honestly, since they dealt with the GIW themselves, Danny didn't trust the heroes, however JLD was fine.

[hayquetenerpatience]

If you think Trump is some kind of "threat" to our country... if you think Trump is some how not qualified to hold the office of the Presidency... if you think that he is some how doing a terrible job as President, and 12 months ago you were in this guy's camp for re-election, then you are either incapable of making accurate political judgments OR you hate a man more than you care for your country, it's future, and its ability to provide for your kids and grandkids.

If that is the case, you really need to take some time to reflect! There is NO EXCUSE to support this guy as President or his re-election regardless of who he was running against. These audio tapes reveal what most of us could see without being told. NOW - YOU ARE BEING TOLD.

Click on the X link and hear the evidence for yourself!

[evilmark999]

Declassy-fied!

Quick everyone post the documents I declassified

[world-of-sunit]

Oh? How do you know so much about Sunit? Do you go often?

[follow-up-news]

The federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against President-elect Donald Trump issued an order Tuesday temporarily blocking the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation. The injunction lasts until three days after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on a pending request to block the release of the report over a separate matter involving Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira filed a motion Monday night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report, citing the judge’s previous ruling that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.

[news-of-the-day]

I'm going to attempt typing a bit and explain the Trump cases because I know they can be confusing. I'll start with one that's easy to understand: the classified documents. I went over it before last July, but I'll do it again in much greater detail.

After Trump left the White House in 2021, the National Archives realized he hadn't handed over all of the classified documents he's supposed to as required by law. After reaching out, he returned 15 boxes but the National Archives knew it wasn't everything. In May 2022 the DoJ issued a subpoena demanding the rest of the documents, and then later the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and discovered many, many more. In June Trump and one of his staff Waltine Nauta were indicted for retaining classified information, obstructing justice, withholding statements, and other charges you get when you don't play ball with an investigation.

With the indictment, prosecutors presented a lot of their evidence and it's pretty copious due to the amount of witnesses, texts, emails, etc. If you want to read the 60 pages, it's here and it's pretty amazing. Please keep in mind everything I'm relating after this is an allegation from the DoJ and needs to be proven.

It seems after that May 2022 subpoena, Trump had a meeting with his lawyers, who promptly told him to just relinquish the documents. He resisted that idea and threw out some suggestions, like just not responding to the DoJ, replying there are no documents, or hinting that perhaps his lawyers could take the fall for this.

However at the end of the meeting, he agreed that the lawyers should go to Mar-a-Lago and review what was there. Before they could do this though, Trump ordered Nauta to remove and hide 64 boxes so the lawyers couldn't find them (although later he returned 30). Trump and Nauta are also accused of contacting the IT director at Mar-a-Lago to see if the security camera data of this venture could be deleted after the FBI asked for it. When the lawyers did find the remaining classified documents, Trump hinted that he wanted them to hide some of them in the lawyers' hotel rooms, but they didn't do it. Instead the lawyers returned what they thought were all the documents to the FBI and certified this was everything. This caused problems for Trump personally because now his lawyers are witnesses against him and will undoubtedly be required to break the attorney-client privilege, and (in my personal opinion) they may be angry because they unwittingly became accessories to a crime. When the Mar-a-Lago search warrant was issued, there was a lot of discussion about how these lawyers may be ejected from the bar for lying to the FBI, that's how serious this was.

You may ask why Trump is being treated differently than Pence and Biden, both of whom also held onto classified documents. Unlike Trump, they immediately worked with law enforcement to retrieve everything and cooperated, which kinda hints it was accidental on their part. Not great, and you can still be prosecuted for that nevertheless, but at least there didn't seem to be anything intentional. Trump is only being charged for documents he held onto after that initial 15 box return to the National Archives, and what he did keep was vital information about the US' military capabilities, CIA information about other countries, nuclear secrets... and this was left initially on a ballroom stage, then a bathroom shower, and finally in storage where anyone could go through it. In fact at one point Mar-a-Lago staff found papers lying all over the floor in the storage room.

So why did Trump do this? It seems purely for bragging rights; he liked to show off some of the documents to visitors. Unfortunately for him one of those meetings was recorded in which he admitted he knows it's classified. And in another meeting, a witness came forward stating Trump showed him a document but told him not to come too close because it's classified.

A lot of his 38 charges carry a $250K fine and up to 20 years in prison, but federal guidelines for sentencing probably means he'll only be imprisoned a year or two if he's found guilty. (Federal guidelines take into account whether it's a first offense and other factors. I would explain it, but I'm not a lawyer and got confused when I tried reading up on it.) The case is set to be heard for May 2024. Trump's trying to get it delayed until after the election, but it's been denied.

Reuters, CNN, AP

[youthchronical]

Fact-Checking Trump’s Justice Dept. Speech on Crime, Immigration and His Cases

President Trump repeated a number of well-trodden falsehoods on Friday in a grievance-fueled speech at the Justice Department, veering from prepared remarks to single out lawyers and prosecutors and assail the criminal investigations into him. His remarks, billed as a policy address, were wide-ranging, touching on immigration, crime and the price of eggs. Here’s a fact-check. His legal…

[shellhawk]

I seldom post anything political here, but I felt that this was a good time to post this essay from 2022 on why, exactly, you can't declassify classified documents by the power of your (rat-infested) brain.

This is an important read for everyone who has to deal with the utter insanity of people who think that classified document theft is no big deal.

[evilmark999]

Judge Aileen Cannon does not have a strong voice of her own; rather, she has Federalist Society and MAGA Conservative support bolstering her decision-making, with their roots in her life dating back to at least 2005...

Quick aside: Although MAGA didn't exist in name prior to Donald Trump's political presence, the conservative radicals that welcomed him with open arms had been there all along, just under differing monikers...

Skip ahead if you like; otherwise, for reference on what I originally stated:

Judge Aileen Cannon has not issued an actionable, appealable order in the Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents case since 2022! That is EXTREMELY unusual. It's unprecedented in it's scope. And she seems to be intentionally oblivious to these ethically suspect - and, at times, decidedly flawed - actions of hers...

For those that don't know, Judge Cannon has been using ONLY "paperless" scheduling orders - which to this point have been regarded as unappealable - to maintain the appearance of keeping the case moving. However, there doesn't appear to be a threshold measure for her very curious actions, and the case may soon be heading into "fuck around and find out" territory in that regard...

For me, personally, for daily legal information on the case, almost live as it happens, I've found Michael Popok to be an EXTREMELY level-headed and reliable source for all such analysis, "full stop." The excitable Ben Meiselas, too, will leave you smarter than you were after watching his legal takes as well. Head to The Meidas Touch Network via YouTube to see both in action...