Mar-a-Lago raided

[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.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

I'm thinking about changing citizenship.

To where? Being the reprobate you are, who the hell would take you? I mean, the family has a good chance, but you???

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

I'm thinking about changing citizenship.

To where? Being the reprobate you are, who the hell would take you? I mean, the family has a good chance, but you???

My family's my in.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

My family's my in.

Fucking anchor babies.

[Mik]

@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

My family's my in.

Fucking anchor babies.

[George K]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

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

Andy McCarthy makes some interesting points. The tl;dr version:

we are a ways away from seeing even a comma of the affidavit, and that still may not happen

affidavits often do not become public until months later, when indicted defendants make motions to suppress evidence seized pursuant to the warrant.

It is a closely held document because it provides information from people who may be covertly cooperating with the government.

He (Garland) said, for example, that the Justice Department routinely uses the evidence-collection method that is least intrusive under the circumstances, and that its searches are narrowly tailored to collect relevant evidence. The case, however, involves not only the unprecedented execution of a search warrant against a former U.S. president, but the most intrusive kind of search — a search in someone’s home, and all its most private places, by more than two dozen FBI agents.

the warrant was the antithesis of a narrow tailoring, authorizing agents to scoop up every scrap of paper generated during the four years of the Trump administration. Then, it became manifest that the agents had not done a careful, methodical job — despite the breadth of the warrant, it clearly did not cover Trump’s passports, but the FBI took them anyway. That suggests the bureau indiscriminately grabbed things ...

Still another unforced error: In arguing that disclosure of the warrant affidavit could mortally wound their investigation, prosecutors told Reinhart that they were still at an early stage of their probe. I imagine this was just a sloppy way of saying they were not yet at the point of deciding whether to file charges. Nevertheless, they just performed an unprecedented search of a former president’s home, under circumstances in which the AG claims that DOJ tries not to be gratuitously intrusive. Is that really the kind of drastic step you take early in an investigation? If investigators were in the early stages, why didn’t they attempt less intrusive means of obtaining the records in Trump’s possession?

[Jolly]

You do illogical things when you are mad or scared.

[George K]

@Jolly there's a lot more at the link.

Also, it was reported that Garland spent weeks agonizing over the decision to authorize the raid search. If there was an urgency, because, also reprortedly, there were nuclear codes, why take weeks to make a decision?

I found Garland's self-serving press conference statement to be disingenuous on several points. Most notably, when he invoked the character and apolitical nature of the FBI when, presumably, all the information about what was taken comes from leaks, within the FBI.

And don't get me started on Mr. Strzok.

[Jolly]

We all know the nuclear leak was BS. By its very nature, the raid was a fishing expedition.

Whatever the outcome, Garland has ruined his reputation.

[Mik]

@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

Also, it was reported that Garland spent weeks agonizing over the decision to authorize the raid search. If there was an urgency, because, also reprortedly, there were nuclear codes, why take weeks to make a decision?

This. It makes no sense whatsoever that if there were something that rises to the level of espionage, why would you wait, especially when the subject knew what you knew?

[Jolly]

Just as a personal political opinion:

The Resident's party is doing everything they can, both politically and through their advocacy arm, the MSM, to blunt the Red Wave in November. They've had some success.

1. They passed the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which doesn't reduce inflation, but sounds good. Contained within the act are provisions which keep the Wall Street types happy. There's also that EV money, that the automakers immediately sucked up through price increases. Of course, they'll proudly point out that the act authorizes a huge drilling lease sale (without saying anything about actually letting anybody put pipe in the ground).

2. They've managed to wound some of the GOP Senate candidates, such as Walker and Oz.

3. They're pushing Cheney right now, mostly for the January 6th narrative. Most of the country no longer gives a rat's ass about the Capitol Riot, but the Beltway is still obsessed. I think they're trying to invigorate their base and bring some in the middle back to the fold, but I just think the issue doesn't resonate broadly enough.

4. Trump. The Resident is so far in the crapper, the GOP is trying to take advantage and nationalize the Congressional elections. Dems are desperately trying to make the election about Trump. Again, the emphasis on January 6th, but it's also why the Whitehouse leaned on Garland to raid Trump's home (yeah, they say they didn't know and I have this bridge...).

5. COVID. The Dems are finally figuring out most of the country has moved ahead of them. They will no longer pay for vaccines in a country where 95% of people have been vaxxed or have natural antibodies, especially since current vaccines are markedly less effective. They've also quit scaring people with mortality numbers...They know that is no longer a winning strategy. Plus, the CDC has publicly said they are overhauling procedures, since they fucked up by the numbers. Watch for vaccine mandates to end in Federal agencies.

It's going to be interesting to see what the Dems will do between now and November. Throw money around trying to buy votes, lie about the economy, play "look at the shiny object" politics, just anything to tread water and keep their losses to a minimum.

[Catseye3]

@Mik said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

It makes no sense whatsoever that if there were something that rises to the level of espionage, why would you wait,

I don't know . . . firstly, Washington never does anything fast. Second, 100 lawyers would weigh in on the meaning of "rises to the level of espionage" versus Trump's rights. Meetings, confabbing.

Third, what acts of espionage are they thinking about, talking about? Nuclear secrets can mean many things. What acts might have already been committed? What is possible? What is probable? How much of it is even real versus media/social bullshit? More dithering meetings.

I'm not defending anybody. I'm saying nothing is ever simple in Washington. Most relevant where thee and me are concerned, we will never know a fraction of it.

[Renauda]

@Catseye3 said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

@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.

Maybe he wanted to get one up on Putin with a “genius” move on his own?

[Catseye3]

@Renauda said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

Maybe he wanted to get one up on Putin with a “genius” move on his own?

That is certainly possible. Everything Trump does is all about Trump.

[Renauda]

@Catseye3

Am sure that the very idea that Putin could be out geniusing him in Ukraine kept Trump awake nights and rolling over in bed.

[George K]

Former Clerk to Justice Gorsuch:

Read the thread:

His OpEd.

[Mik]

Very interesting.