Topic: HUGE DEVELOPMENT: Report Alleges FBI "Had Personal Stake" in Mar-a-Lago Raid... (Read 42 times)

Update (1537ET): Politico reports that based on the search warrant, the FBI is investigating former President Trump for "removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and violating the Espionage Act," while Breitbart has the actual statutes from the warrant.


Hugo Lowell
@hugolowell
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NEW via Breitbart: Trump under investigation per search warrant for:
18 USC 2071 — Concealment, removal or mutilation
18 USC 793 — Gathering, transmitting or losing defence information
18 USC 1519 — Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations
11:42 AM · Aug 12, 2022



The documents, which are expected to be unsealed later Friday after the Justice Department sought their public disclosure amid relentless attacks by Trump and his GOP allies, underscore the extraordinary national security threat that federal investigators believed the missing documents presented. The concern grew so acute that Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the unprecedented search of Trump's estate last week.

Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for Trump, said the FBI's move was "not just unprecedented, but unnecessary -- and now they are leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponization of government against their dominant political opponent. This is outrageous." -Politico



This fishing expedition is so insane that under the federal legal definition of "Presidential Records," a McDonald's menu that Trump scrawled his lunch order on during a meeting in the Oval would be included (44 U.S.C. 2201).

The FBI raided Trump's house for that. INSANE. https://t.co/WP4ULjXS8f pic.twitter.com/A2zMLws370

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 12, 2022



An interesting point:


Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
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WSJ: "Mr. Trump’s lawyers argue that the former president used his authority to declassify the material before he left office."

But as @charlie_savage points out. NONE of the 3 crimes cited in the warrant turn on whether the information is classified.

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nytimes.com/live/2022/08/1


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As reported earlier today — President Trump declassified a binder on January 19th, 2021 that contains hundreds of pages about the Crossfire Hurricane scandal. It contains damaging information about the corrupt actors involved with our government. Two different DOJ Attorney General's have defied President Trump's direct lawful order to publish the binder in the Federal Register. It's been 19 months as the DOJ defies the order, and every FOIA request to make it public. Can we now raid the homes of acting AG Monty Wilkinson, and Merrick Garland?

The DOJ had already made redactions to protect sources & methods, and returned the binder back to the White House. But the corrupt FBI also wanted to hide names. So at the last minute, the DOJ demanded the binder comply with the 1974 Privacy Act. The Act requires any "agency" that releases records to also hide personal or identifiable name information. The DOJ knew this Act doesn't apply to the White House, it was a stall tactic. The courts decided this 22 years ago that the Privacy Act was based around FOIA requests, and the White House is not an agency.

Hours before Trump left office on January 20th, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows gave the binder back to the DOJ, along with this memo. He asked the DOJ to make any Privacy Act redactions "out of an abundance of caution". In the memo he asks they expeditiously release the binder when finished. Meadows foolishly expected this would take 3-4 days. It's been 19 months and still not released. Just the News recently obtained the Meadows memo from the National Archives, who also denied having a copy of the declassified binder.

Meadows admits in interviews various agency's often stalled or defied Trump's orders. Meadows knew better than to rely on the DOJ to release this damaging binder after they left the White House. He should have released the binder to the public himself. But in doing so, there was a chance he would become a target of the DOJ and FBI. The memorandum below is what Mr. Meadows sent to the DOJ Attorney General on January 20th, 2021.

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Republican Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini called for the state to arrest FBI agents conducting law enforcement outside Florida's purview and to sever ties with the Department of Justice Monday.

"It's time for us in the Florida Legislature to call an emergency legislative session & amend our laws regarding federal agencies," Sabatini wrote in the wake of the FBI raid of Donald Trump's Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. "Sever all ties with DOJ immediately … Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight."

Many Republicans have described the raid of Trump's residence as a politically-motivated abuse of power. He said state legislators needed to put pressure on the FBI by limiting local agencies' cooperation with them and by requiring them to seek permission from the state before conducting operations in Florida.