I think Garry Kasparov would do well to sit down and learn a little strategy from Merrick Garland. He is playing a masterful hand this week. Thursday afternoon he called Donald Trump’s bluff by making a rare appearance to clarify what the Department of Justice had done with respect to the FBI appearing on the doorstep of Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
Garland verified that the execution of the search warrant was personally known to him and done with his knowledge.
Most importantly, Garland’s coming forth took the wind out of the sails of Trump world and the ridiculous claims that FBI agents refused to hand over the search warrant or inventory list.
Merrick Garland: "First, I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter. Second, the department does not take such a decision lightly." pic.twitter.com/q6h0BbNBrY
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 11, 2022
The beauty of this is that it takes down the most recent conspiracy theory that right-wing media grabbed hold of and which became wall to wall coverage on Fox News, the notion that the FBI planted evidence at the scene.
Trump is in over his head. Merrick Garland’s request to unseal Trump warrant is a beautiful chess move.
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) August 11, 2022
And here’s Trump lying his ass off as usual.
It was not technically a “raid” it was the execution of a search warrant, although it is being referred to as the Mar-a-Lago raid and will continue to be. The FBI agents did not wear blue windbreakers. The operation was discreet and timed for a day when Trump would be out of town and could not make a photo op out of it.
Let’s see what happens next. This is going to be amusing to see what Fox News does with it in the next few days. My best guess is that they’re going to backpedal. They’re going to want to go with their golden boy DeSantis because the optics of nuclear weapons material being sought at Mar-a-Lago could not be worse.
This is probably why Trump decided to say that evidence was “planted” by FBI agents, because it was going to look so awful.
Material about nuclear weapons is especially sensitive and usually restricted to a small number of government officials, experts said. Publicizing details about U.S. weapons could provide an intelligence road map to adversaries seeking to build ways of countering those systems. And other countries might view exposing their nuclear secrets as a threat, experts said.
One former Justice Department official, who in the past oversaw investigations of leaks of classified information, said the type of top-secret information described by the people familiar with the probe would probably cause authorities to try to move as quickly as possible to recover sensitive documents that could cause grave harm to U.S. security.
“If that is true, it would suggest that material residing unlawfully at Mar-a-Lago may have been classified at the highest classification level,” said David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence section, which investigates leaks of classified information. “If the FBI and the Department of Justice believed there were top secret materials still at Mar-a-Lago, that would lend itself to greater ‘hair-on-fire’ motivation to recover that material as quickly as possible.”
The GOP has done incalculable damage to this country by putting the TV game show host where they put him, at the top of their ticket.
Bravo Merrick Garland!
Don’t be surprised if Trump lawyers don’t want the search warrant or inventory list unsealed.
They have the opportunity to object. In writing. To the judge who signed off on it. Response due by 3pm (EDT) tomorrow. Which, since they’re the ones who have been complaining about it, is pretty much one move from checkmate.
You can read the docs here:
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/64872441/united-states-v-sealed-search-warrant/
Thank you for providing the link.
This is why I never got as panicked as the rest of the “Garland is doing nothing!” crowd (including on this site…you know who you are). As Andrew Vachss taught me, good trial work is all in the prep. Prep takes time and research because you want to hit your shots the first time, especially if you are a prosecutor. Now that we’re seeing it pay off, maybe people will back off.
I only speak for myself & refute your characterization of those of us who have wondered loudly what they are doing. No one I saw said they weren’t doing anything, just that, given the number of obvious crimes this man has been doing FOR YEARS, he has not faced arrest, like any other citizen would. I don’t just type here, I call everyone & raise questions or hell, depending on who it is & what they’ve done or not done. I also don’t hide using monikers. I’ve talked to the FBI. I’ve talked to the secret service. I’ve been called by the capital police cuz Burr’s office didn’t like my characterization of his traitorous criminality. I called the justice department to compliment merrick & to keep it up. However, I seriously doubt he would have gone public if a dumbass Trumper hadn’t attacked the FBI & gotten shot in the process. He would still have left the public airwaves to the liars. Big mistake. Call it providence or just trump’s big mouth, but revealing stuff himself opened up the playing field. To assume things will move smartly along is just that…an assumption. But I will say it’s reassuring to see merrick has some fight in him. The FACT is none of us know which way this goes. Trump may never see a day in prison & THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY POINT…THERE IS NOT EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER THE LAW. FACT. If you don’t believe me…go commit a felony in front of everyone & see how long it takes before YOU are arrested. Hey just go smoke pot on the steps of the police station & count the minutes before you are staring facedown at the pavement. Trump has done much much worse FOR YEARS, including the violent overthrow of the government he was the president of & still he sits on his ass in Florida 19 months later. I’ll believe he pays WHEN HE GETS PERP WALKED OUT TO THE WAITING POLICE VEHICLE. Until then, I and the skeptical are just as correct as you think you are. If he doesn’t go to jail, then not only am I on point, it will, once again prove the rich make the rules…the poor do the time. Hopefully merrick is a man of his word & he won’t be deterred by fear, politics, etc. I’m of the Scots & NO ONE has my loyalty until they prove what they are about. Maybe merrick will do just that. It’s not about me or YOU…it’s about JUSTICE. NO JUSTICE NO PEACE. NO DEMOCRACY. As a veteran from a family with vets in every war, I took an oath to defend this democracy & that’s what I’m doing now that I’m too old to put back on the uniform. But not to old to fight in my way.
Unless you bothered to LEARN how this works from people who would know (see Teri Kanefield) as opposed to people who fed your outrage for clicks, then all that is just after-the-fact ass-covering. Mixing in your expectation of Garland to deliver your preferred revenge fantasies on top of it is just gross. Signed, a Scots who is embarrassed FOR you.
You must be talking about your own fantasies. I only want him to pay for his crimes…like the little people do.
Bare let me ring in as a Scot who sees more of a strategy of give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves. Oh so true in Trump’s case. But Garland may be less a legal genius and more a slugger who now knows he’s got Trump on the ropes and is going in for the inevitable kill. And the fallout!!!! Lordy lets just see Lindsay Graham get elected next time around when he goes to Georgia and takes the fifth 240 times like the Trumpster did
Bravo AG Garland. You’ve asked to unseal the warrant and inventory, if they object, how can they possibly explain that? Why wouldn’t they want everyone to know what was taken? Excellent chess move.
tuckedd: What other move was possible? But the genius was in the timing, I’m still chuckling, giggling deliriously in fact. First the OUTRAGE from the GOP minions Cruz and company. But wait for it, wait for it. Next Fox News jumped in with both feet “Breaking interviews for the OUTRAGED minions” and Fox Hosts leading the charge!!!! No mere subpoena now it was a full fledged RAID on a citizens home OUTRAGE!!!! OUTRAGE they decried!!!! And then…..the boom dropped, ya asked for it ya got it??? And now…………..crickets……..chirp, chirp.