Mar-a-Lago raided

[Doctor Phibes]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

But I do wonder why they are refusing to release the affidavit.

Well, the Popehat guy, who's an attorney, says it never happens. Doesn't that answer the question?

[Mik]

Not after they were going on about doing it. If this is unprecedented, the reasons for it need to be clear. I just want to impose the same rigor on both parties.

[Doctor Phibes]

I can readily imagine the scenario that this raid was a total screw-up, and the FBI have once again acted like imbeciles.

I can also imagine the opposite, that Trump's really fucked up and taken something he shouldn't have.

We don't have the information to know which case is reality at this point.

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

I can readily imagine the scenario that this raid was a total screw-up, and the FBI have once again acted like imbeciles.

I can also imagine the opposite, that Trump's really fucked up and taken something he shouldn't have.

We don't have the information to know which case is reality at this point.

I think both are possible.

1. The FBI has fucked up by the numbers on most things Trump. If nothing else, they need to answer some serious questions about equal justice under the law and SWAT techniques on non-violent crimes.
2. I doubt Trump packed his own boxes. It's pretty normal for something classified to follow an ex-President home. I also can see Trump arguing about whether he had the right to take a document. In either case, nothing except a clear and present danger to the Republic warrants a FBI raid. Send three or four guys in a van with a warrant and knock on the damn door.

[Mik]

I think both is the most likely scenario.

[Mik]

The judge who signed the warrant is considering releasing the affidavit.

Bring it on. It's the only way to justify this to the voters, or to reveal malfeasance.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/federal-judge-to-consider-unsealing-affidavit-that-led-to-mar-a-lago-search/ar-AA10MYMl?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=968d505484ee459aa221bf2575596f47

[Jolly]

Well, the judge has received a lot of heat for possible bias.

I say release it.

[Mik]

We deserve to know what is behind this.

[Horace]

There will be no there there but for some technical illegalities that it was literally the judge’s job to not ignore. I’m sure there was a point for discretion about whether to pursue a search warrant, but that point was before the documentation landed on the judge’s desk. That point would have been where the bias came in, if any.

[89th]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

We deserve to know what is behind this.

Agreed, although I do respect operational or intelligence reasons to keep things secure until the investigation is either complete or at a stage where the revelation of details is appropriate.

My prediction is there will be a very good reason why the FBI took this action, and there will also be a good portion of the country who won't care, even if there is a smoking gun. Biden won by 7 million votes and a Trump-defined landslide of electoral votes, but a good chunk of the country isn't swayed by those facts either.

[Mik]

I know, but I keep hoping sanity will return to both sides, and particularly to the voters.

We get the government we deserve.

[George K]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

We deserve to know what is behind this.

Unsealed, but with redactions:

The affidavit central to the FBI’s search of former President Trump’s Florida home will remain under seal for at least another week, a federal judge ruled Thursday, giving the Justice Department seven days to redact the detailed document in a way that would not undermine its ongoing investigation if made public.

The judge, who signaled he is willing to unseal some of the document, said from the bench that he would make a determination next Thursday.
Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart convened the hearing Thursday after multiple media outlets, including the Washington Post, called on the court to release all filings related to the search for classified documents at Mar-A-Lago, Trump’s Florida home and residence.

The Justice Department has been adamant that the affidavit should remain sealed. A Justice Department official told the judge Thursday that its investigation is “open and in its early stages.” Unsealing the document now, the government contends, “would provide a roadmap and suggest next investigative steps we are about to take.”

Attorneys for several media outlets have argued that the affidavit should be made public given he “historic importance” of the Justice Department’s investigation.

“Transparency serves the public interest in understanding and accepting the results. That’s good for the government and for the court,” Charles Tobin, a lawyer for the media outlets, said in court on Thursday. “You can’t trust what you cannot see.”

[Mik]

What utter bullshit. It will say he had classified and secret documents, which we already know.

[Jolly]

Yep.

[Mik]

I'll tell you what, I do not want Trump to be the candidate in 2024, but if they come up empty handed against him again, I may have to change my mind on voting for him.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

I'll tell you what, I do not want Trump to be the candidate in 2024, but if they come up empty handed against him again, I may have to change my mind on voting for him.

I'm thinking about changing citizenship. But I'll still live here and be quite vocal about how my own country is so much better. It won't fix things, but it'll invite some irate trolling, which would at least be entertaining.

[Mik]

You kind of have to wonder if he didn't orchestrate the whole thing. He's a cagey son of a buck.

[George K]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

You kind of have to wonder if he didn't orchestrate the whole thing. He's a cagey son of a buck.

4-D chess again, eh?

[Catseye3]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

You kind of have to wonder if he didn't orchestrate the whole thing.

That has occurred to me. As he said, "I always find a way to win."

And he'll never give up.

[Horace]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

You kind of have to wonder if he didn't orchestrate the whole thing. He's a cagey son of a buck.

Easy to imagine. If he knows there’s no there there, at least politically if not legally, and it dawned on him that some bureaucrats were getting uppity about some boxes, he might have done the math about the political fallout if he called their hand. It doesn’t have to be much of a plan, just an opportunistic play that the government handed to him.