https://www.newsweek.com/trump-tower-golf-courses-stake-ny-trump-pleads-fifth-expert-1732903
Friday, August 12, 2022
Trump Tower, Golf Courses 'At Stake' in N.Y. as Trump Pleads Fifth: Expert
"This is a civil case—so the court can draw an inference of liability," he wrote. "This is exactly what the AG was hoping to achieve. The case is now even stronger."
Garland, in going public, pushes back at cable news firestorm
Just before Garland’s public remarks, The New York Times reported that Trump received a subpoena this spring in search of documents that federal investigators believed he had failed to turn over earlier in the year. The news of the subpoena suggested that federal officials had tried more gentle approaches to reach some kind of agreement with Trump over the return of the documents in question.
Garland on Thursday said a Trump attorney was on site during the search, and there has been no evidence to suggest anything was planted by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago.
Merrick Garland Puts Pressure on Trump to Make Search Warrant Public
Garland's statements came days after FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago as part of a federal investigation about the possible violation of laws related to classified records that Trump allegedly took with him to Florida upon leaving the White House, but that belonged to the National Archives.
It was reported on Thursday, ahead of the DOJ's press briefing, that Trump received a subpoena for the documents in the spring before the FBI took the step of sending agents to his home.
Merrick Garland calls Trump’s bluff
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/11/merrick-garland-trump-bluff-00051297
Though Trump has had the option to release the search warrant since Monday, it took a DOJ gambit to force the issue. Though the department typically closely guards search warrants, particularly in cases that have not yet yielded indictments, top DOJ officials said that the “public characterizations” of the FBI search by Trump and his attorneys effectively waived the need for secrecy. DOJ cited Bobb’s comments to the press, describing the focus of the search as “presidential records or any possibly classified material.”
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Alex Jones and the Lie Economy
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/10/alex-jones-and-the-lie-economy-00050731
To describe Jones as a Lie Economy worker is not to declare false everything he says and broadcasts. Not even his imagination veers to that polar extreme. But a review of his greatest hits attest to the low truth-value of many of his comments. He has broadcasted warnings about a government weapon being used against Americans. In addition to calling the Sandy Hook massacre a staged event that employed actors, he called Robert Mueller a demon and pedophile, said John McCain was the real leader of the Democratic Party, accused the government of the 9/11 attacks, spread the bogus “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, and claimed the Pentagon has devised perfumes that make men gay to prevent them from procreating.
An Informer Told the FBI What Docs Trump Was Hiding, and Where
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-informer-told-fbi-what-docs-trump-was-hiding-where-1732283
Both senior government officials say the raid was scheduled with no political motive, the FBI solely intent on recovering highly classified documents that were illegally removed from the White House. Preparations to conduct such an operation began weeks ago, but in planning the date and time, the FBI Miami Field Office and Washington headquarters were focused on the former president's scheduled return to Florida from his residences in New York and New Jersey.
"They were seeking to avoid any media circus," says the second source, a senior intelligence official who was briefed on the investigation and the operation. "So even though everything made sense bureaucratically and the FBI feared that the documents might be destroyed, they also created the very firestorm they sought to avoid, in ignoring the fallout."
Team Trump says it’ll keep Mar-a-Lago search warrant under wraps
Remember, Republicans have spent the last couple of days working from a certain assumption: Federal law enforcement, they’ve claimed, “raided” the home of a former president as part of an outrageous abuse of power. Team Trump could theoretically bolster those assumptions by releasing the search warrant that was executed, shedding light on the investigation and its direction.
If the basis for the warrant were flimsy, disclosing it would prove Republicans right. If the rationale for the search lacked merit, releasing the warrant would help on this front, too.
It was against this backdrop that observers from the left and the right encouraged Team Trump to simply make the voluntary disclosure, bringing key facts into the light.
All of which led to, “No, we’re not releasing a copy of the warrant.”
It’s the sort of thing that should, at least in theory, give Republicans scrambling to defend the former president pause.
The Justice Department is in a no win situation as Trump's fury rages
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/11/politics/justice-department-trump-fury-analysis/index.html
And Trump, after all, could publish the search warrant himself if he wanted. The fact that he has failed to do so and the increasingly unhinged tone of his attacks on the Justice Department are only deepening the impression he has something to hide. As is the fact that he, and not the FBI or Justice Department, broke news of the search in a transparent attempt to set a media narrative that he had been unfairly treated.
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
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