All I know is that today is a good day for Jack Smith and DOJ. He has an audio tape in his possession.
Trump really looked confused and overwhelmed.
Worst job in the world has to be a Trump lawyer.
Trump simply does not understand that he is not in trouble for a Presidential Records Act violation. He is charged with willful retention of classified documents, and obstruction of the FBI investigation/false statements.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
This idiot trump is leading in the polls for the GOP primary.
This the guy who admitted he had the documents. "But I was busy." They were mixed in with my golf shirts but they were not documents they were newspapers and magazine articles. Newspapers and magazines? Sure mixed in with plans on how to attack Iran and nuclear secrets.
This moron was president and is running again. How could he get clearance to even look classified information?
He should have been removed during the first or second impeachment. His crimes are/were so freaking obvious to anyone still capable of thinking critically. Nobody will ever prove to me that he’s not in Putin’s pocket. Nobody. The right sucking up to Putin, and wanting to cut off Ukraine is the second most unAmerican thing I’ve ever seen. First is J6, also on the orange oaf and his deplorable minions. And Trumpians are all for cozying up with that monstrous dictator Putin and acting like he’s from a desirable leadership model. This infuriates me. This is also why I have nothing but disgust and hate for ANY republican right now. Sorry if you’re a good person still hanging with the cult, you can deny your support, but the polling on Trump for 2024 doesn’t lie. Nobody admits they want Trump while over 50% do in the polls.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 06/20/2306:48 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Something you won't hear the GOP telling their faithful is the actual resume' of Jack Smith. They wish for their base to believe all the crap about the DOJ being weaponized. Jack smith has a long career of investigating and prosecuting members of both parties. He's probably about as non bias in that department as anyone that could have been chosen. Sometimes the story is much easier to manipulate by the facts people leave out than the allegations people make that have no substance. This outlines his resume' at the time he was first appointed to run the investigation on trump.........
Special Counsel Tapped by Merrick Garland to Investigate Trump Formerly Prosecuted Top Democrats and Republicans
Jack Smith, who was tapped on Friday as special prosecutor to probe the conduct of former President Donald Trump, has a history of prosecuting both Democrats and Republicans for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Smith was head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., for five years, according to a 2017 press release that contained a biographical sketch. That press release was issued when Smith, by then the acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, announced plans to step down in August 2017.
The Tenneseean reported at the time that Smith, while in the D.C.-based corruption unit, “oversaw the corruption cases against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, former Arizona U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi and New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.” Additionally, while in Tennessee, Smith prosecuted former Nashville General Sessions Judge Cason “Casey” Moreland on obstruction of justice charges, the newspaper indicated.
Silver, who died earlier this year, was a longtime New York Democrat who held considerable power over the Empire State’s political winds and financial coffers. Moreland is also a Democrat. Renzi and McDonnell are both Republicans.
Moreland pleaded guilty, according to a DOJ press release from 2018. The McDonnell and Silver convictions were later overturned, the Tennessean noted.
The press release announcing Smith’s departure from the Middle District of Tennessee listed him as a 16-year DOJ veteran who moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to serve as First Assistant U.S. Attorney in 2015. He became the Acting U.S. Attorney when David Rivera resigned in March 2017. Smith took over at that time, announced plans to leave in August 2017, and was planned to remain in office until early September 2017 when his replacement, Donald Q. Cochran, assumed office.
“Though not looking to leave the Department of Justice, Smith said he had been offered an incredible opportunity and after much consideration, he had decided to leave the DOJ,” the press release said.
“This was one of the most difficult professional decisions that I have ever been faced with,” Smith said at the time in a prepared statement. “I truly love representing the American people and seeking justice on their behalf. I will profoundly miss the close relationships I have developed with the exceptional public servants in our office, as well as the consummate professionals of our law enforcement community. While I am leaving the Department of Justice, I remain committed to our serving our community here in Nashville in other ways in the coming years.”
An even earlier press release — which claims to have been updated in 2015 but which also appears to have been amended concomitant to Smith’s duties in the Middle District of Tennessee — provided more details about Smith’s background:
Jack Smith was appointed First Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee in February of 2015. Prior to his appointment, from 2010 to 2015 Mr. Smith served as Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice, supervising the litigation of complex public corruption cases across the country. From 2008 to 2010, Jack served as Investigation Coordinator in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands. In that capacity, he supervised sensitive investigations of foreign government officials and militia for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Mr. Smith joined the ICC from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where he served for 9 years in a number of supervisory positions, including Chief of Criminal Litigation and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. As Chief of Criminal Litigation, Mr. Smith supervised approximately 100 criminal prosecutors across a range of program areas, such as public corruption, violent crime and gangs, and white collar and complex financial fraud. Before becoming an Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Smith served for five years as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Smith is the recipient of the Director’s Award from the Department of Justice, the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Federal Bar Association’s Younger Federal Attorney Award, the Eastern District Association’s Charles Rose Award and the Henry L. Stimson Medal by New York County Bar Association. Mr. Smith is a [censored] graduate of Harvard Law School and a summa [censored] laude graduate of the State University of New York at Oneonta.
Another biography maintained by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers & Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, where Smith most recently worked, says he left the DOJ to work for as “Head of Litigation for the Hospital Corporation of America, the largest non-governmental health-care provider in the United States” in September 2017. From there, he took office as Specialist Prosecutor on Sept. 11, 2018.
As Law&Crime previously reported on Friday, the special counsel investigation will be two-fold: Smith will determine (1) whether to charge Trump with offenses related to his handling of classified materials, and (2) whether Trump engaged in crimes surrounding his alleged efforts to disrupt the lawful transfer of power.
According to Business Insider, Smith is “registered to vote as an independent.”
The very purpose of appointing a special counsel in cases like this are to separate the DOJ from the investigation and remove them from making the decision as whether to prosecute or not. The very reason special counsel is appointed to run such investigations is to remove any bias that people may accuse the DOJ from committing.
Smith isn't bias and his resume' proves it. But when people don't care to look into something and would rather simply parrot what they are being told, this is how it looks.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Interesting new development---what Trump did isn't very important and he shouldn't be held responsible. News flash, Kendra Kingsbury, former FBI intel worker sentenced to nearly FOUR years in prison for .....wait for it.....storing SECRET information in her bathroom. Note- Trump has two levels higher secret- Top Secret and SCI- special compartmental intelligence- stored/kept in his bathroom. No harm/ no foul---former President Trump should go to prison if our justice system is equal.....time will tell.
"You've never lived till you've almost died, life has a flavor the protected will never know" A vet or cop
JMHO, I'm upset because Smith DIDN'T charge Trump with a charge he DEFINITELY could have and should have been charged with...check this quote for New York Times- I know, fake news. "As the Times is reporting, there was no mention of Section 2071 of the federal criminal code, "which prohibits the concealment and mishandling of sensitive government documents" which, upon conviction, would have meant Trump "shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.” Easily he could have been charged....guess Smith thought possibility of civil unrest due to number of idiots supporting the "completely innocent EX-President, who still hasn't admitted he LOST to Biden", he/Smith didn't want possible chaos. Double standard- normal person would have been charged.
I have an Agnew-esque resolution. Trump pleads guilty to the charge above and avoids jail time. But it has to be as his request, the government won't offer, simply because the government has overwhelming evidence. Trump has to take the plead, admit guilt and would never hold elected office again. Not that I want this to happen, but it is a plausible out. The only other option that Trump has involves prayers for the judge or jury pool to be tainted.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
Trump Prosecutors Struggled Over Motives. Then They Heard the Tape. Audio recording became a significant find in the classified-documents case
Former President Donald Trump speaking in Bedminster, N.J., on the day of his indictment in Miami. CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES By Aruna Viswanatha Follow and Sadie Gurman Follow June 23, 2023 5:30 am ET
WASHINGTON—Justice Department and FBI officials disagreed back in August about whether their investigation into the handling of sensitive documents justified the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Fewer officials had doubts earlier this month, when prosecutors took an even bolder step: asking a grand jury to indict the former president on 37 counts.
What turned the tide was an audio tape and other evidence investigators confirmed around February from meetings Trump held almost two years earlier and a thousand miles from the former president’s Palm Beach, Fla., resort, according to people familiar with the matter.
That crucial evidence, along with notes from a Trump lawyer describing his response to the investigation, helped spur prosecutors to push forward with a criminal case, the people said—an unprecedented step that might have been avoided if Trump had cooperated even late last year, as some of his lawyers had urged him to do.
Y In the indictment of former President Donald Trump, federal prosecutors allege that he kept national-defense information that he knew he wasn’t supposed to have. Photo illustration: Xingpei Shen Former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise, for one, whom Trump hired in the aftermath of the August search, sought a conciliatory tack. He aimed to de-escalate the criminal investigation and head off charges by promising to return all documents, according to people familiar with the matter. He hoped that would give Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department an off-ramp before the political and legal pileup bound to accompany any decision to indict a former president.
Such an approach might have found fertile ground at the Justice Department last year. When Garland appointed Jack Smith special counsel in November to take over the probe, investigators had found clear evidence that boxes that might have contained classified documents had been moved after Trump received a subpoena, and weren’t provided to his lawyer searching for such material. But investigators were struggling to identify a nefarious motivation for Trump’s possible retention of national-defense documents even after he was ordered to return them, according to people familiar with the matter.
At the time of the search and in the ensuing months, investigators had only heard rumors of Trump’s sharing sensitive documents with donors or other political allies, including on his plane, some of the people familiar with the matter said. They hadn’t established whether such claims were credible.
An image showing boxes of records stored in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago is included in the indictment. PHOTO: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/ASSOCIATED PRESS Investigators had obtained no evidence that Trump was trying to use the information to help his business or blackmail political opponents, and some officials were wary of using such a show of force against someone who, less than two years earlier, had the ultimate authority to classify or declassify whatever he saw fit.
Before the search, agents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington field office wanted to give Trump’s legal team the opportunity to have agents search Mar-a-Lago with Trump’s consent and to give Trump’s lawyers a heads-up before executing any search warrant. “We were adamant about, you know, talking to the attorney first,” Steven D’Antuono, who ran that field office until he retired late last year, told congressional investigators behind closed doors earlier this month, according to a transcript of his testimony. “I got overruled in a sense,” he said.
Some officials at the time, even with evidence Trump might have obstructed the response to the May 11, 2022, subpoena demanding the production of classified documents, said their main interest in conducting the Mar-a-Lago search was to return any such material to the government’s possession.
Momentum shifted around February of this year, when investigators got hold of an audio recording of a July 21, 2021, meeting at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where Trump and his aides met with people working on an autobiography of his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
In the audio, the former president could be heard showing them a document that laid out a U.S. plan to attack Iran. Trump seemed to be brandishing it to dispute an article published a few days earlier in the New Yorker. That article said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had tried to stop Trump from attacking Iran at the end of his presidency.
In the recording, Trump clearly stated that he was sharing it despite knowing the information remained classified because he hadn’t declassified it as president. That gave prosecutors direct evidence that Trump knew what he was doing was wrong.
Trump told Fox News on Monday that he didn’t have a classified document in the meeting.
“I didn’t have a document, per se,” he said. “There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
In March, prosecutors used the recording to confront Trump aide Margo Martin, one of several staffers who had followed the former president to Mar-a-Lago from the White House and was in that Bedminster meeting, people familiar with the matter said. Any prospect of a settlement now looked vanishingly remote.
The Trump team’s line had hardened too. Instead of cooperating with prosecutors, as Kise had urged, Trump heeded the advice of other lawyers and allies who encouraged a more aggressive approach.
A spokesman for Trump, Steven Cheung, said the former president said early on that he would assist the probe. “Sadly, the weaponized DOJ rejected this offer of cooperation and conducted an unnecessary and unconstitutional raid on the president’s home in order to inflict maximum political damage on the leading presidential candidate,” Cheung said.
Kise and other lawyers for Trump advanced an argument in November that his team is likely to reassert: that any records the former president transferred from the White House were personal papers rather than government documents and that as the departing chief executive, he alone had the authority to determine which ones to disclose.
Chris Kise is member of the Trump legal team who early on advocated a conciliatory approach with the prosecution. PHOTO: WILFREDO LEE/ASSOCIATED PRESS Prosecutors also obtained evidence that Trump had allegedly shown a classified map related to a military operation to a political ally at Bedminster in 2021, a few weeks after the meeting that was recorded.
While the Bedminster incidents indicate to investigators that Trump had shared information he knew he wasn’t supposed to, they also hint at a potential defense for Trump, by showing his motivation in hanging on to documents that appear to be reminders of his time in office, or as props he would use to make political arguments as he spoke to allies.
Officials also discussed why Trump’s possession of documents was different enough from the ways in which Hillary Clinton, Mike Pence and Joe Biden handled classified material, ultimately determining that Trump’s deliberate misleading of authorities stood in stark enough contrast to warrant a case.
To make their case, prosecutors also drew on Trump’s remarks during campaign events in 2016, when his supporters, chanting “lock her up,” demanded that Clinton be charged with a similar crime for storing classified information on her personal email server.
Still, authorities appeared at times to give Trump’s team the benefit of the doubt, including in allowing his lawyers late last year to certify that they had found no additional classified documents at Bedminster, without requiring the FBI to do the search itself.
In bringing the case, Smith appears to be continuing to take a careful approach, charging dozens of counts but deferring to Trump’s legal team in other ways that are unusual, compared with how the Justice Department treats most federal criminal defendants facing similar charges. A spokesman for Smith declined to comment.
Prosecutors, for example, didn’t seek to have Trump detained during his arraignment last week and requested few restrictions on his release, allowing him to travel and keep his passport. By then, of course, Trump was a declared candidate, and the front-runner, for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination.
—Alex Leary contributed to this article.
Write to Aruna Viswanatha at aruna.viswanatha@wsj.com and Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com
He’ll take a sweet deal and then he’ll break the deal and be applauded by the trump brigade. Just watch. The dude and his followers have little education with no scruples.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. – Jackie Robinson
Chinese Company Trump Relieved of Sanctions As a ‘Personal Favor’ Is Reportedly Linked to Cuba Spy Base Story by Alex Griffing • Thursday
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that workers from ZTE, a state-owned Chinese telecommunications company, had been tracked by U.S. officials “exiting suspected Chinese spy facilities in Cuba.” ZTE had been under U.S. sanctions since 2016, but the Trump administration lifted those sanctions in 2018 allowing the communications equipment maker to resume business in the U.S.
“Intelligence reviewed during the Trump administration contributed to suspicions at the time that the companies might be playing a role in expanding China’s ability to spy on the U.S. from the island, according to the people,” reported Kate O’Keeffe in the Journal – referring to Huawei Technologies as well as ZTE.
Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on ZTE was met with bipartisan condemnation in 2018. “ZTE should be put out of business. There is no ‘deal’ with a state-directed company that the Chinese government and Communist Party uses to spy and steal from us where Americans come out winning,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said in a statement at the time.
“The department will remain vigilant as we closely monitor ZTE’s actions to ensure compliance with all U.S. laws and regulations,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at the time as well, addressing the criticism. In 2017, ZTE pleaded guilty to illegally exporting U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea.
Trump’s lifting of sanctions on the company sparked divisions within Congress as the Senate moved to block the Commerce Department deal allowing ZTE to pay a hefty fine in order to lift the export restrictions. The Senate passed the Defense Department budget in 2019 with a provision both blocking the deal to lift sanctions and banning the federal government from buying Huawei and ZTE products. The House eventually stripped the provision blocking sanctions relief from the defense budget authorization and Trump signed it into law, only keeping the ban on the federal government buying ZTE products.
Trump’s motivation to help ZTE do business in the U.S. has long been a controversial topic in U.S. national security circles. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro raised eyebrows in June of 2018 when he told Fox News, “It’s going to be three strikes you’re out on ZTE. If they do one more additional thing, they will be shut down. We have a bad actor in ZTE…President (Donald Trump) did this as a personal favor to the president of China as a way of showing some goodwill.”
Furthermore, following the May 2018 announcement by Trump that he would lift sanctions on ZTE, China announced a $500 million loan to help fund a theme park in Indonesia with a Trump-branded hotel and golf course attached.
“The Chinese government is extending a $500 million loan to a state-owned construction company to build an Indonesian theme park that will feature a Trump-branded golf course and hotels,” read the lead of a National Review article from May 2018.
Later that same month, speculation abounded that Trump’s sanctions relief was related to his daughter Ivanka Trump seeking trademarks in China. New York Times ran an article titled, “Ivanka Trump Wins China Trademarks, Then Her Father Vows to Save ZTE.” While the Times makes clear the connection between Ivanka’s trademarks and ZTE is “probably” a coincidence, the article argues “the remarkable timing is raising familiar questions about the Trump family’s businesses and its patriarch’s status as commander in chief.”
“Even as Mr. Trump contends with Beijing on issues like security and trade, his family and the company that bears his name are trying to make money off their brand in China’s flush and potentially promising market,” wrote Sui-Lee Wee at the time.
ZTE employees’ presence at the spy base in Cuba, which China allegedly has maintained since 2019 – while Trump was still president – is certain to raise even more questions as to ZTE’s ability to do business in the U.S. and why sanctions were removed in the first place.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
I just finished listening to the audio and for me this clinches it. He's as guilty as can be.
As for what politicians will do or say, your guess is as good as mine. But if I was going to guess, I'd say there are a group of Republicans that fall under the tag line of MAGA, they'll defend it.,
I'm still having a hard time believing some MAGA types want to expunge trumps impeachments. I don't even think that they can do that but they'll try.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
I didn't think I would listen because I expected it to be a bad recording and mumbling and people would argue over what was said or who said it. Learning that he knew he was being recorded brings a different dimension to the discussion and evidence. . . I mean it's black and white. There is no ignorance of what he was doing or belief that he had declassified anything. Any other person on the planet would probably already be behind bars.
Last edited by mgh888; 06/27/2307:25 AM.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
If it were not so serious and peoples lives were at stake. This would be comical.
Yes donnie this does prove your case.
You are guilty. You sob.
It is so perfect that this moron is bragging about this to people who are meaningless. Reporters. He is bragging to reporters and showing them highly classified documents. They think it is funny.
He is unfit to be anything other than what he is; a criminal.
Donald Trump Slams 'Deranged' Prosecutor Jack Smith Over Leaked Audio Files
Donald Trump has blamed Special Counsel Jack Smith, the Department of Justice and the FBI after CNN released audio which purports to show the former president discussing classified documents in his possession, in 2021.
In the clip, broadcast on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday, Trump appears to brag about having "highly confidential" papers, and admits he doesn't have the power to declassify them.
Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom this month to 37 counts linked to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Despite his arrest, polling indicates Trump remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, meaning the former president's legal battles could play a big role in who occupies the White House from January 2025.
The newly released recording features Trump speaking with a staff member and a writer who was helping Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, work on a memoir. The former president knew the meeting, held at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, was being recorded, according to CNN.
During the audio clip, whilst referring to Pentagon attack plans, Trump comments: "These are the papers. This was done by the military and given to me.
"See as president I could have declassified it. Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
Responding to the leak on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, 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!"
The Republican frontrunner didn't provide any evidence that Smith, the Department of Justice or the FBI played any role in the audio being published. CNN reports the audio recording is one of two cases in which Trump allegedly shared classified documents with others who lacked security clearance, according to the indictment.
Trump later added: "COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THIS PSYCHOS' FANTASY OF THE NEVER USED BEFORE ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917.'SMITH' SHOULD BE LOOKING AT CROOKED JOE BIDDEN AND ALL OF THE CRIMES THAT HE HAS PERPETRATED ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, INCLUDING THE MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HE EXTORTED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES!"
It is unclear why he put Smith inside quotation marks, and he didn't provide any evidence to support his claim Biden had "extorted" millions of dollars from other countries.
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Justice for comment via its official press contact form.
In an emailed statement sent to Newsweek, a Trump campaign spokesperson insisted the former president wasn't guilty of any wrongdoing.
"The audio tape provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all.
"The President is speaking rhetorically and also quite humorously... The media and the Trump-haters once again were all too willing to take the bait, falling for another Democrat-DOJ hoax, hook, line, and sinker," the spokesperson said.
Trump's remarks in the recording appear to contradict his previous assertion that he'd declassified the confidential documents prior to leaving the White House.
Responding to the leak on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, 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!"
And all across America there are many really, really stupid people who believe him. There are no doubt many media sycophants and scumbags who will support these derranged lies. He's STILL the overwhelming favorite to be the GOP nomination....
Last edited by mgh888; 06/27/2312:32 PM.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Yeah, it's been hilarious. I think the only point Hannity made is since they haven't found the document in question, that trump is still, to this very day, continuing to hide more documents they have not yet found.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
I think it's great they (Smith & DOJ) finally going up the tree- "Former federal prosecutor Noah Bookbinder, the head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, wrote that Giuliani's interview is "very significant" because he had a "front row seat to Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and was himself a leading force behind that effort." CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen pointed out that there is only "one reason" Smith's team would take a proffer from Giuliani. "They're considering ways to move up the Jan. 6 food chain," he wrote. "That's ominous for Trump." Maybe justice will be served and the LEADER will have his day in court. WOW- potential new "firsts" for ex- President Trump-----wasn't he great. This is how to "Make America Great Again"- MAGA- what a loser.
"You've never lived till you've almost died, life has a flavor the protected will never know" A vet or cop
I think it'd be more damning if they had the document... I think not having it hurts the prosecution and lets Trump say that he was talking about a news article...
I'd like to hear what those in his presence during that tape have to say... surely they can testify to what he was holding/talking about...
I think it's pretty damning but not sure it's the nail in the coffin that some think it is...
The interesting thing is THINGS keep changing, bit by bit--"Ackerman, speaking on MSNBC, was asked by host Ari Melber about the implications of the "proffer" interview Smith conducted with the former Trump attorney and former mayor. Some experts have suggested that Giuliani is aiming for a deal. Ackerman said that Giuliani was "smack-dab in the middle of everything." "If he comes totally clean here, Donald Trump is in big trouble, John Eastman is in big trouble, right down the line, possibly General Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon," he said."
Wouldn't it be great if they could roll up all the scum- folks in one ball and put them all where they belong. All wearing stripes.
"You've never lived till you've almost died, life has a flavor the protected will never know" A vet or cop
I'd like to hear what those in his presence during that tape have to say... surely they can testify to what he was holding/talking about...
I think it's pretty damning but not sure it's the nail in the coffin that some think it is...
Many of the people at that meeting have been questioned and knowing how the feds operate, I'm pretty sure they have one or more corroborating witnesses to the event. Case in point........
Top Trump aide revealed as individual he allegedly showed classified map, report says
hows that possible when trrump and his supporters claimed the documents were fake and planted by the feds?
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Trump demanded Arizona governor find evidence of 'fraud' to overturn 2020 election in newly revealed call Charles R. Davis Jul 1, 2023, 10:21 AM GMT-4
Trump demanded former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey overturn the 2020 election in a previously unreported call. Ducey told a Republican donor he was under "pressure" from Trump, The Washington Post reported. President Joe Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.
When former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey was certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, he received a call, during the ceremony, from the loser: Donald Trump.
When the two later spoke, sources familiar with the conversation told The Washington Post, the former president demanded that the Republican look into false claims of fraud that, in his view, would provide cover for overturning the election.
Ducey, who left office earlier this year because of term limits, later told a major Republican donor that he felt "pressure" to do the former president's bidding, according to the Post. The outlet also reported that Ducey expressed surprise that he has not been asked about the call by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump's efforts to remain in power after losing an election.
A spokesperson for Ducey noted that no officials have ever found any evidence to support Trump's claims of massive voter fraud. He lost Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.
The former president called Ducey several times after the 2020 election, the Post reported. But he also enlisted his vice president, Mike Pence, in the lobbying campaign. Sources familiar with Pence's calls said he did not pressure Ducey like Trump had, but urged him to report back if he found any evidence of fraud.
Trump's demand that Ducey find enough evidence of fraud to overcome his five-digit loss is reminiscent of his efforts in Georgia, where he asked Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" him 10,000 votes.
The prosecution has an airtight case. It’s the MAGA trump brigade that has doubts and believe every lie trump spins.
we'll see... I don't think it's airtight, but honestly haven't followed closely... I just looked up when the trial date is set, which looks to be August... I hope it actually holds so we can get this thing over with... I don't believe everything (or most things) that Trump says.... but I also think 90% of what media says is political spin, so it's hard to tell what's truth at times...
I'd like to hear what those in his presence during that tape have to say... surely they can testify to what he was holding/talking about...
I think it's pretty damning but not sure it's the nail in the coffin that some think it is...
Many of the people at that meeting have been questioned and knowing how the feds operate, I'm pretty sure they have one or more corroborating witnesses to the event. Case in point........
Top Trump aide revealed as individual he allegedly showed classified map, report says
I figured they had to be deposed already... you'd figure that what the say would significantly help out one side of this case depending on what they say...
The thing has been kept under wraps pretty well. What I can say is that federal prosecutors most always have a pretty tight case when they bring charges forward. Their conviction rate from what I've seen ranges between 95% and 99% depending on the source. But this one is a somewhat different animal being such a high profile case. The fact they are holding the trial in Miami is one thing of note. It's a large city with a Republican majority of voters and Republican Mayor which in and of itself is somewhat odd.
Then there is the fact that the judge herself was appointed by the defendant. Which on the surface seems like a huge conflict of interest.
At any rate, getting a jury from a majority Republican city with a trump appointed judge in charge of a politically fueled case makes this case completely different than any other I've heard of.
Sadly you keep hearing trump claiming this is a witch hunt and purely political when the stage couldn't have been set any better for him.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Trump Showed Classified Documents to Mar-a-Lago Visitors, Ex-Comms Director Says
Stephanie Grisham, former Communications Director and Press Secretary under ex-president Donald Trump, told MSNBC’s Alex Witt that Trump had shown classified documents to visitors at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach resort. “I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio,” Grisham said. “So he has no respect for classified information. Never did... to be showing [classified documents] to people who haven’t gone through the extreme vetting that you go through to get a clearance, it’s you know, it’s a disservice to the country, but it also puts people in danger potentially.”
In Trump case, Justice Dept. unseals previously blacked-out portions from search warrant application
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Wednesday disclosed some of the previously blacked-out portions of a warrant application it submitted last year to gain authorization to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida property for classified documents.
Key portions of the document had already been made public, but media organizations including The Associated Press had pressed for further unsealing in light of a 38-count indictment last month charging Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, with concealing classified records at Mar-a-Lago from investigators. A magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, declined to order the Justice Department to unseal the search warrant affidavit in its entirety but did require prosecutors to publicly file a less-redacted affidavit.
The newly revealed paragraphs lay out important evidence that prosecutors had gathered well before the search took place, recounting how surveillance footage from inside the property showed dozens of boxes being relocated by a Trump aide in the days before FBI and Justice Department investigators visited the home to collect records.
During that June 3, 2022 visit, law enforcement officials were handed an envelope of 38 classified documents and told that all records sought by a subpoena were being turned over and that a “diligent search” of the home had been done. But investigators had reason to believe that was not true based on the relocation of boxes that they had observed on video, and that additional records remained at the house.
The movement of boxes by Nauta was detailed in last month’s indictment, but its inclusion in the search warrant affidavit helps explain why the Justice Department felt it had probable cause to search Trump’s home on Aug. 8, 2022 and why investigators were concerned that documents were being intentionally withheld from them.
The affidavit recounts how someone identified only as “Witness 5” was seen on multiple days carrying either cardboard or bankers’ boxes in and out of the anteroom at the house. The affidavit does not mention Nauta by name, but the dates of the actions — as well as of an FBI interview “during which the location of boxes was a significant subject of questioning” — line up with the dates cited in the indictment.
Nauta is set to be arraigned in federal court on Miami on Thursday. Trump has already pleaded not guilty to more than three dozen felony counts, many alleging willful retention of national defense information.
