Garrett M. Graff, Watergate and FBI Historian:
1) The idea the FBI launched a raid on a former president would have been approved and monitored at the highest level of the Justice Department; hard to even imagine how high the bar of probable cause must've been for the Bureau to initiate such a politically sensitive search.
2) A search warrant means an independent federal judge ALSO signed off on the probable cause and, independently, believes evidence there was likely a crime committed AND that more evidence would be found at Mar-a-Lago. That's huge too.
3) The fact the search apparently didn't leak until basically when word came from Donald Trump himself shows the FBI and the Justice Department conducted this search by the book and a high degree of integrity. No leaks? Impressive. Surely only a small team knew inside DOJ.
4) Taken together, this is one of the most significant, sensitive, and politically explosive actions the US Justice Department and FBI has ever taken—one of a tiny handful of times it's ever investigated a president.
Bottom line:
The FBI & DOJ must've known they had the goods.
**********************
High level and probably multiple cooperating inside witnesses to tell them exactly where and what to find. Especially if it only lasted an hour or so, and they specifically checked the safe.
And let's not forget this about the current FBI director:
World to Donald: You have the search inventory.
So: Put up or shut up.
25 comments:
The hands of justice move slowly. But they are moving and the rope is tightening. May it strangle him
For all the people too lazy to learn what it takes to get a warrant and search a private citizen's home, let alone a former president, here's the relevant text from the Constitution, Article 4...
One clueless commenter I read stated this... "Even Nixon received a subpoena for his tapes as opposed to to a raid. A fishing expedition."
That comment could be easily dismissed were it not so ignorant. Yes, even Nixon received a subpoena, as did Trump, or the "raid" would not have happened. The "raid" that specified Trump's safe and specific documents.
Here's another breathless take from a MAGAster... "Even if people do not like President Trump for some reason there is a respect for the office and no former President ever has been treated like this."
He's right in one aspect... no former president has ever been treated like this. Because no former president has been found to be in possession of US documents that belong to the people of this country and by law, are to be safeguarded and kept in the National Archives.
One last take... I get that conservatives are angry that Hillary Clinton basically got a pass. I didn't vote for her because I believed she did not have a strong relationship with the truth. She did in fact possess electronic copies of sensitive and/or secret papers.
But for some reason, neither the DOJ or the various congressional committees, many led by the GOP, found her criminally liable.
That does not mean however, that if former President Trump broke the law, he too should get a pass. Two things can be true at the same time.
Did you see the incredibly stupid tweet from Gym Jordan and the House GOP Judiciary Cmte:
"If they can do it to a former President, imagine what they can do to you.
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 8, 2022"
Well duh! Yes, if you break the law and flaunt it, like TFG does, expect nothing less.
Here's what someone on the Mother Ship wrote about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lardo:
"bocopro says:
August 9, 2022 at 3:21 am
The mental midget with the lowest approval rating in history had his goons raid the private home of the guy most likely to replace him next genelec. Himmler would be SO proud."
Joe Biden doesn't tell the DoJ what to do! That was the criminal Trump who did that. But Trump's cultists don't know how the US government works and they believe everyone in it is as corrupt as Trump!
The FBI and the federal judge who ordered the raid would not have done so without hard evidence that Trump committed a crime. But the Trump cultists don't understand that point of law because they worship a law breaker!
Anonymice
Here's an interesting comment from DU:
"I'll give Republicans credit for one thing ...
... they know how stupid the average Republican voter is.
"The January 6th insurrection was a normal tourist day."
"The 2020 election was stolen, despite a complete lack of evidence thereof."
"The FBI raid on Mara-Lago was about nothing more than a 'document dispute'."
The PTB in the GOP know that these kinds of soundbytes will be swallowed whole by their constituents, washed down with a hefty swig of Kool-Aid, and driven home with a few carefully-crafted statements about "the deep state", "political persecution", and "Hunter Biden's laptop".
When it comes to the GOP, you can't fault them for not knowing exactly how pathetically easy it is to manipulate their "base" - the low-IQers, the hopelessly gullible, the proudly ill-informed, and the dumbest people on the planet."
Mark Levin is right! The GOP Senate leadership should be speaking out and supporting law enforcement as they investigate and look for the truth.
We already know that Trump illegally took records from the White House. We have the tapes of him returning boxes of material. So whether it happened or not is not in dispute.
The problem is that Trump has destroyed US property, the records, and more likely, did not return all the documents.
And yet, yes, the Senate GOP leadership, breathless in their condemnation of Hillary Clinton for her sloppiness and evasiveness when asked about her emails and more, is too silent.
And like most conservatives supporting Trump, hypocritical.
The dems have been after trump for over six years and they will keep trying until they get a conviction for something. Russian collusion was proven false and the FBI to be incompetent. No special counsel for hillary destroying 30k emails and using her own computer for doing secure government business. No special counsel for hunter laptop which shows the VP selling access for money but let trump indicate he is going to run against biden again and RAID, RAID, RAID.
The dems need to just throw him in jail and be done with it. They don't need proof of anything but this is not what they want. They just want to keep trump in the news until November.
IRONY.
Didn't the Cult Daddy keep chanting "Lock Her Up"?
Trumpy not only did the crimes but also tried to cover them up (by flushing evidence down the toilet for an example) and taking highly classified docs to Mar-a-Largo and not returning them (THOSE DID NOT BELONG TO TRUMP, THEY BELONGED TO THE US GOVERNMENT!) Trump broke the law. AGAIN!
But his deplorables are angry that the law is being followed and that Trump is not above the law! Their hero is a criminal.
skud You really should brush up on the Hilary email facts. She was cleared by the FBI (something you deliberately ignore), and the guy who cleared her of any wrong-doing was the same guy (James Comey) who, weeks before the 2016 election announced to the country that an investigation was opened against Hilary, and that was a major reason for her losing the election.
But you ignore that.
Trump incited an insurrection against his own government! Why do you ignore that? Trump said his own vice president deserved to be hanged! That means KILLED! Why do you ignore that? The Mueller investigation said that if Trump had NOT committed a crime, it would have said so -- THAT MEANS THE MUELLER INVESTIGATION FOUND CRIMINAL ACTS that Trump committed!
Just yesterday, Paul Manafort admitted that he shared private polling numbers with the Russians, which probably helped them help Trump get elected. Why do you ignore that?
I'm sick of people pretending the world is against Trump when it is crystal clear that he's the most corrupt person whoever defiled the Oval Office.
You, skud, apparently don't give a flying donut that Trump broke all kinds of laws and tried to illegally install himself for a second term -- no other president has ever behaved in such a criminal way while in office.
The law will not be mocked, even if Trump supporters do so and continue to advocate for this despicable, corrupt charlatan.
skudrunner said...
The dems have been after trump for over six years and they will keep trying until they get a conviction for something. Russian collusion was proven false and the FBI to be incompetent. No special counsel for hillary destroying 30k emails and using her own computer for doing secure government business. No special counsel for hunter laptop which shows the VP selling access for money but let trump indicate he is going to run against biden again and RAID, RAID, RAID.
The dems need to just throw him in jail and be done with it. They don't need proof of anything but this is not what they want. They just want to keep trump in the news until November.
One of the most ridiculously stupid comment of late from a so called conservative.
Republicans are more upset about Mar-a-Lago being searched than they were about the Capitol being sacked.
Maybe skud is on the Trump payroll. If he isn't he should be.
Criminals attract other criminals to support them and then defend their cult leader's criminality.
That, in a nutshell, is essentially what the Trumpublican party has become since Trump lied his way into office.
But the long arm of Karma will not be denied. Trump's egregiously criminal actions against this nation and its good people will ultimately cause him great suffering. A response well deserved by him.
And the beat goes on.
Oh Ms. Shaw, If you read my comment is said no special council for -H-. If you look at the performance of the FBI both with comey he has little credit. I never said trump was not guilty because I am sure he is but so was -H- and so is hunter but they are given a pass. Why did the FBI not make hunters laptop available and deny anything was on it until after the election. Now we know he was selling favors. That's OK, it is all about trump and not about all of the crooks in DC.
My apologies... my response above included a cut and paste of the 4th Amendment, not Article 4, and for some reason it was white text on a white background. A too frequent mistake when cutting and pasting.
Here's the text from the 4th Amendment...
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Skud... the GOP had control of both the House and the Senate for a number of years during which they could have named a special counsel for both the Clinton and hunter Biden investigations.
Ask yourself why, if they were so sure of wrongdoing, that they chose not to do so.
And just when you think all the stupid phrases in the world have been exhausted, someone posts this in public as a critique of Pres. Biden...
"If only Trump would say things as rotten as Biden has and lied as much as Biden does he’d be better regarded."
Apparently he forgot about...
"Grab them by the pussy"
"Shithole countries"
"Mexico will pay for the wall"
“We’re going to produce phenomenal health care. And we already have the concept of the plan. And it’ll be much better health care, we’ll be announcing that in two months, maybe less.”
“... she's a crazed, crying lowlife”
“...she's a dog with the face of a pig.”
And dozens more.
skud: "I never said trump was not guilty because I am sure he is but so was -H- and so is hunter but they are given a pass."
Hilary was never indicted nor was she subpoenaed. Trump had 4 years to go after her. He didn't. Why do you suppose he didn't? Why didn't the Trump DoJ open another investigation on her? Did it ever occur to you that it was because she had not committed a crime? Just because she wasn't again investigated and indicted doesn't mean she got away with anything. It means she was not guilty of anything. Did you not follow the BENGHAZI! hearings? Her 11 hours of being questioning? And then the REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE itself that ran the investigation and committee admitted THERE WAS NO WRONG DOING!
"The FBI has determined that a new batch of emails linked to Hillary Clinton’s private email server “have not changed our conclusion” that she committed no criminal wrongdoing, FBI director James Comey told congressional leaders in a letter on Sunday." --11/7/2016
You and people like you decide someone's guilty, and when the law says that person IS NOT GUILTY of what you want her to be guilty of, you then say she got away with it! Do you ever do any self-examination?
The investigation on Hunter Biden is ongoing. He hasn't be found guilty of anything so far.
But here you are saying you know that Hilary and Hunter are guilty. I hope YOU never get chosen to serve on a jury for anything! You do not believe in American justice. You believe in vigilante justice. "If they're Democrats; they're GUILTY! Even when the evidence says they're not.
Dear Gawd! No wonder our country is a mess.
Dave
See my latest post. I read the Mother Ship's blog today and was astonished at the complete breakdown of all reason and rational discourse. A commenter posted something he read on a fortune teller's blog -- some calumny about Jill Biden, and the Captain of the Mother Ship found it interesting! A normally sane person would have deleted that swill.
Her blog is devolving into another WYD, where mudslinging and crazy conspiracy theories thrive. It would be comical if it didn't represent millions of Trump cultists. They all think like the folks who post there!
Shaw... we should probably add another apparently non existent lie from Trump to the list...
"I'll release my taxes soon"
How anyone with half a brain can listen to Trump, admit he says stuff with no proof, and not see that as lying, I'll never understand.
Maybe half a brain is too much credit???
I remember when the GQP said they were all about law and order, backing the FBI and Law Enforcement and holding everyone to the highest legal standards. Now, not so much, and to read Skidmark and the rest of the hypocrisy Tour 2022, in fact they have made a complete 180 turnaround and now bash the FBI and law enforcement constantly and only want Democrats held to some shape-shifting standard that only they seem to understand. Meh -- I'm so glad to not be a part of them anymore. A pox on all of them.
Blue... if anyone wants more evidence as to the rot of the GOP, this article from Bill Saletan pretty much sums it up. In a thousand words or so, and a few tweets, he shows in vivid detail the hypocrisy of GOP politicians.
And lest ppl trot out "that's them, not me" meme, let's remember the views he exposes run all the way to folks like Skud and the sailors on the Mothership. After all, they all claimed the statements to defund cops a year or so ago would lead to anarchy and lawlessness.
As Saletan points out, now as they call to abolish the FBI, not so much.
A Trump appointed judge approved a warrant from a Trump appointed FBI director to search for evidence of a crime that would not be a felony without Trump having changed the law in 2018.
The only thing "planted" on Trump's property is Ivana.
Great article, Dave. Thanks!
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