Things are moving faster and faster, so don’t go anywhere for awhile. There have been two breaking developments today on the FBI’s national security investigation into Trump pilfering classified documents from the White House. And both are consequential.
First things first. I thought a day or so that I was right that the DOJ was by no means done with Traitor Tot with the retrieval of the classified documents. Now I know it for a fact. As Holmes used to say, Elementary my dear Watson!
In the aftermath of the FBI’s search of Mar-A-Lago, the first knee jerk reaction of Trump supporters was to demand the search warrant and taken item inventory. This was a full out pea-in the shell con, since Trump already had copies of the documents! All he had to do was release them. Instead, Garland called Trump’s bluff and petitioned the court to unseal the documents, which it did. Enough egg on GOP faces for a freshman HS souffle class.
Nothing succeeds like success. Emboldened by the release of the warrant and inventory, several national news networks and organizations filed a FOIA request with the same court to unseal the affidavit as well. There is a hearing scheduled for tomorrow morning in a Florida federal court.
This time the DOJ is on their toes fighting to keep the affidavit sealed. No bluff calling this time. And their written arguments says it all. It claims that unsealing the affidavit would provide a detailed roadmap on an ongoing, sensitive criminal investigation involving National Security implications. If all the DOJ wanted was the return of the documents, they wouldn’t fight the unsealing of the affidavit. Instead they refer to an ongoing national security criminal investigation. Any guesses who they’re investigating?
The second one is just as big, and maybe bigger. MSNBC reported that today the DOJ served the National Archives with their own federal grand jury subpoena. The subpoena demands that the Archives turn over All presidential records demanded from, and delivered by the National Archives to the committee.
This is a smart move to make. As the committee found, once they served a subpoena, it took the Archives weeks to find and collate the information before starting to turn it over the to committee. And even then, it came over in tranches. But now, having just gotten it ready for the committee, they should have their own copies handy and ready to comply with the DOJ’s subpoena.
But why the sudden hurry? The DOJ has plodded along like a 3 toed sloth on Valium for a year and a half now. Why all of a sudden this need for speed? There are two reasons that immediately come to mind.
First, there is an insane public and media interest in this case because of the titillating aspect of searching a former President’s private residence. SO far the DOJ and FBI have been a brick wall of silence, but that can’t last forever. Too many people have too many connections. I believe the DOJ wants an indictment ready to unseal before sensitive information from the affidavit leaks.
Second, there are the midterm elections coming up in just over 80 days. And when James Comey is not in office, there is a standing rule that No investigations or indictments will be announced within 60 days of a general election. Whether it’s for Trump and/or sitting members of congress, the DOJ would love to be able to announce indictment(s) by no later than September 7th. Why? Because if the DOJ has to go radio silent for 61 days, that’s just that much more time for sensitive information to leak, and blow everything up.
Like I said, this is moving fast, so buckle up. The red hot affidavit that everybody wants to see was for a personal search of Trump’s home, for documents that he personally stole. There is a definite time limit for how long information that sensitive can be kept under wraps, and 85 days may be too long. Don’t touch that dial.
The former guy isn’t a candidate for any office open this year, so they can announce whenever they’re ready. (That 60-day thing only applies to candidates in actual elections, not to people talking about running in two years.)
Understood, but the general rule is to not make a decision in those 60 days that can be SEEN as political, abd thereby sway general election voting…
You are partially correct. Trump is not himself a candidate and will not be on any ballot in November. However, this is one of those “spirit of the law/rules” situations and I’m sure DOJ wants to as much as possible adhere to both the letter and spirit of the policy in question.
However, there’s another aspect you might have overlooked. A helluva lot of politicians have not only been making pilgrameges to Trump’s FL lair since those documents were stolen and taken down to FL. Some of them have even taken direct part in some of the crimes Trump himself is being investigated for. And let’s face it, Jared probably isn’t the only person who has used some of that national security stuff for his own benefit. The benefit might not even be strictly financial. Take RoJo the clown from WI who would love to know just what the National Security apparatus has on his activities with Russia. And he’s not the only one. So there could very well be people on ballots who are implicated in some way with those documents. Remember, one of the things that alarmed the FBI was Mar A Lago security footage they saw of people apparently accessing where that stuff was!
So in the end I think IF the DOJ is ready to file charges prior to the 60 day threshold they would want to. Because having to stay silent for that long could itself compromise their ability to build on their cases.
you’re correct, he’s not on the ballot this November but his legal troubles are part of the political discourse and will impact the election. There are pols using his crimes in their stump speeches, etc. That grifter Zinke is trying to get elected to the H.O.R. and never misses an opportunity to mention how he’ll shutter or at least take the teeth away from all federal agencies: the FBI gets a lot of mentions by this grifter. I doubt he’s an outlier.
😀
don the con is dead meat, buzzard meat