Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

'Height of irresponsibility': ex-Trump aide says new audio proves he is lying about docs



Former Donald Trump White House adviser Alyssa Farah Griffin tore into her former boss on Thursday for his conduct in the Mar-a-Lago classified document theft investigation.

Trump has long claimed he has blanket declassification authority, but new reports show he was caught on audio discussing a highly classified document laying out an attack plan against Iran, and admitting he doesn't have full authority to declassify military secrets — something that should come as no surprise, Griffin argued, because she saw firsthand that Trump understood this.

"I mean, we talked about the former president wanting to keep documents, or wanting to keep some documents," said anchor Anderson Cooper. "Does it make sense to you what's — what we now learned yesterday?"

"This latest reporting is probably the most damning around the classified documents. I mean, obviously, the former president's argument hinged on this notion of A), he could declassify anything, and that anything he had in his possession has been declassified. But he obviously acknowledges that he knows he simply can't declassify things. There is a process. I've said before when I was serving in the West Wing, there were a number of times he wanted to declassify documents, and he ran through the hoops of trying to do that, talking to his national security adviser, his then-director of national intelligence."

In fact, Griffin continued, "I can think in a number of cases where we weren't able to declassify something because he knows of the hoops he would have to jump through. He knows how the process works."

"What you also can't forget in this — we're not talking about a keepsake like a love letter from Kim Jong-un, as absurd as that sounds," said Griffin. "We're talking about war plans with Iran. Something that is actionable U.S. intelligence that has broad impact that is sitting at a country club in New Jersey. This is the height of irresponsibility, recklessness. And if we have any laws governing how we handle classified documents, this is a rock-solid case."

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[Rick Plant]

Paul Charlton: Trump would face charges under Espionage Act if he took classified military docs

New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker, Politico White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire, and former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton join Andrea Mitchell to react to a 2021 recording in which former President Donald Trump acknowledged that he took a classified military planning document and to analyze the impact on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. “The Department of Justice will not have to prove that the document President Trump had in his hand is a classified document to show a violation of the Espionage Act. There would be other charges that may very well meet that definition, if in fact this was a classified document,” says Charlton. “Holding classified documents at a golf country club is wholly inappropriate, and that is a violation of the law as well.”

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[Rick Plant]

Trump kept classified documents to help him 'control the narrative': law professor



Donald Trump's defense that he was allowed to mentally declassify the top-secret documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago has been thrown into chaos by reporting showing that audio tapes exist of Trump telling people he possessed a document showing plans to attack Iran, but didn't have the authority to show it to them.

But more interesting, argued New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, is the reports that Trump apparently wanted to use the document to embarrass Gen. Mark Milley and pin efforts to invade Iran on him.

"There were boxes and boxes of this stuff, storage rooms of this stuff," said anchor Erin Burnett. "Some of it obviously highly classified. We're talking about one document here ... and this is significant because we have Trump on tape talking about it. Its existence and his inability to declassify it which goes against his court event."

"What is the best possible explanation for Trump's motivation in keeping the documents?" asked the host.

"So the CNN reporting is in some sense a breakthrough on this particular question, the one that is hanging around that hasn't been answered: what is his motive?" said Goodman. "And here we have him, it seems like, in this situation using them for the motive of his public image. He's trying to control the narrative. There's been a report out that Milley stopped him from potentially attacking Iran in his final days. He says, no, I have the document that counteracts this, and Milley had a plan."

"That's him trying to control the narrative and his image, and that would be a reason to hold on to the documents because he could use them," Goodman continued.

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[Rick Plant]

How Giuliani and Scalia figure into Trump’s hush money case
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-hush-money-filing-alvin-bragg-scalia-giuliani-rcna87033

[Rick Plant]

'Too dumb to even play dumb': Legal expert says Trump is in deep trouble even if Iran document is lost



New reporting suggests that lawyers for former President Donald Trump are unable to locate the highly classified document detailing an attack plan against Iran that he was caught on tape telling people at his Bedminster club he possessed.

On MSNBC Friday, national security analyst Michael Schmidt said this could make the case harder to charge — but former Solicitor General Neal Katyal believes just the opposite.

"I have to say that classified documents about Iran are pretty high up on the list of things that you don't want to lose at a country club," said Katyal. "...This is not a hard case to prove to this prosecution. If anything, it's easier to make a case against Trump than it is against others. Trump is his own worst enemy when it comes to his legal troubles. He opens his mouth in all sorts of ways that implicate him even further."

"I don't think Mike (Schmidt) is right when he says the question here is whether or not they can find this document about Iran," Katyal continued. "Whether or not they find this document or not, that's not what the prosecution is going to be based on. The relevance of this whole story and this tape is not for the document itself. It's about — it goes to Trump's state of mind.

"The defense he's been articulating ever since the search on Mar-a-Lago is, I declassified this stuff in my mind. I had a standing order. I took stuff out of the White House. It was automatically declassified. Here he's saying, there is a document I took out on the White House, and that document is classified, therefore, I can't show it to you. That blows a hole in the defense."

"Whether Trump exerted incompetence with respect to that document or mishandled that document, that's an interesting question," added Katyal. "Prosecutors, of course, should get to the bottom of it. The real point is they found the goods. They found more than 100 classified documents in his house after they swore he didn't. And the one defense he's been articulating since the search is now contradicted by his own words. It's as if Donald Trump is too dumb to even play dumb, which was his defense."

"The analysis report being in The Times makes clear that Trump is on tape acknowledging that he had items that hadn't been declassified by him or anybody else," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "Could potentially blow a hole through all of the public defenses. That is Mike saying, yeah, there are legal defenses. It seems to always boil down to this stupid and chaotic defense, if the past is prologue. But what do you make of what is known to be — to be evidence that Jack Smith put before the grand jury?"

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[Rick Plant]

Here’s why the Trump tape puts the former president in serious legal jeopardy



The blockbuster CNN report earlier this week that federal prosecutors are in possession of an audio recording of Donald Trump in which he admits to keeping a classified document describing a potential attack on Iran, could have major legal implications for the former president, The Bulwark reports.

According to the CNN report, Trump is heard on the recording suggesting that, although he wishes to share the information, he’s aware that as a former president he can’t declassify them, multiple sources told the cable news channel, indicating he understood he was in possession of classified material.

Kim Wehle writes for the Bulwark that, if reports of the recording are true, it could provide compelling evidence for special counsel Jack Smith, who took over two sprawling investigations of the former president; the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Smith in the Mar-a-Lago case will have to prove what in legal circles is called “mens rea,” which is Latin for proof of a guilty mind.

Wehle writes that “Smith’s team would have to prove in some fashion that Trump acted willfully, knowingly, or intentionally and not just out of hubris, ignorance, or neglect in taking the materials and then repeatedly blowing off the FBI. In general, prosecutors can prove mens rea using circumstantial evidence, which relies on inferences. But direct evidence is better.”

Wehle notes the typical example of indirect evidence would be determining whether it had been raining through inference.

“The Bedminster audio recording, if authentic, is of the direct kind—it presumably reflects Trump’s own words in his own voice expressing his knowledge or belief that he possessed classified information, that he isn’t supposed to share it, and that he does not have the authority anymore to declassify it,” Wehle writes.

“Coupled with his preposterous public talking point that ‘If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying ‘it’s declassified,’ even by thinking about it,’ the audiotaped meeting suggests that Trump knew he had stuff that he had no legal authority to have.”

Wehle believes the audio may provide the “mens rea.”

“Given how cavalier Trump is about saying the quiet stuff out loud (his town hall attacks on E. Jean Carroll after her $5 million jury verdict produced a request for even more punitive damages), it would be surprising if, Lordy, there aren’t more tapes out there,” Wehle writes.

“So far, the Mar-a-Lago scandal hasn’t weakened Trump’s hold on the GOP base. But as Carroll’s case showed, juries are different. Assuming the reports about this audio recording are accurate, it seems ever more likely that Trump will be held to account, and the American public will have its day in court.”

Read the full article here: https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/why-trump-tape-matters-for-mar-a-lago-case



'Sharply incriminating': ex-federal prosecutor explains how Jack Smith has upper hand in docs probe



Donald Trump's criminal intent in the classified documents investigation won't be difficult to prove if Jack Smith does have a copy of the audio in which the former president admits to possessing military plans and discussing them with others.

If special counsel Smith has the audio, which purportedly includes an admission that he knew he couldn't just instantly declassify documents and was first reported by CNN, that could mean a lot, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner. Kirschner.

Appearing on MSNBC on Friday night, Kirschener was asked by host Ali Velshi if the audio recording actually provides help in the area of criminal intent. Kirschener said it's important to remember that "everything you say is admissible in the court of public opinion" but not in a court of law.

"Guess what? Prosecutors get to introduce at a trial any statement they want that Donald Trump made," he said. "Because under the rules of evidence, it is a statement of a party opponent. They will surgically introducing statements."

The same doesn't go for Trump's side, Kirschener added.

"Donald Trump's lawyers are prohibited, under the rules of evidence, from introducing any of Donald's out of court statements to prove the truth of the matter asserted," he said. "So when we see these statements, conflicting statements from Donald Trump, prosecutors will exploit them by presenting the jury one statement where Donald Trump said I declassified everything with my mind, or automatically when I took them with me."

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[Rick Plant]

Fani Willis' Trump election fraud probe expands into 'several other states': Washington Post



Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' probe of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results is reportedly no longer just a Peach State affair.

The Washington Post reports that Willis' probe of Trump and his allies' post-election activities has expanded to include "activities in Washington, D.C., and several other states," which the Post notes is "a fresh sign that prosecutors may be building a sprawling case under Georgia’s racketeering laws."

In particular, Willis' team has been investigating the fact that Trump's campaign hired two different companies to investigate voter fraud accusations and then buried their results when they came back empty handed.

Given that these firms did work not only in Georgia but in other key swing states Trump lost, it's forced Willis' office to go beyond state borders for evidence.

Trump currently faces a slew of legal problems, including a civil lawsuit over allegedly fraudulent business practices from New York Attorney General Letitia James; criminal charges related to his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels; two different investigations into his efforts to illegally remain in power after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden; and an investigation into his decision to stash top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump was also recently found liable for sexually abusing and defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll.

Read More Here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/02/trump-georgia-election-investigation-fulton-county/



CNN legal analyst tells Trump to brace for new indictment: 'Spidey Sense tells me they're near the end'



CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Friday suggested that former President Donald Trump needs to be prepared for another potential indictment coming his way, this one courtesy of special counsel Jack Smith.

After breaking down a timeline of Trump's actions in the Mar-a-Lago documents scandal, Honig went through the elements of a criminal case that prosecutors will have to prove to successfully convict the former president.

"When you get down to the law, prosecutors have to prove, one, Donald Trump had knowledge, did he know he had these documents? Obviously he's acknowledged that many times including in this recording," Honig explained. "Two, did he have some sort of criminal intent, and one thing we've learned from the reporting, he was doing something with those documents. He was using them to try to shape the public narrative about his time in office."

Honig also pointed out that Trump's false statements would be a boon to prosecutors looking to show criminal intent.

"He has made these repeated false public claims about whether he declassified," he said. "We remember at the town hall [CNN host Kaitlan Collins] asked whether Trump had ever showed classified documents to anyone, and Trump responded, 'Not really, I would have the right to, by the way, they were declassified after.' We know that's not true. Here he is after office saying these are still classified, I can't show them to you, and that goes to criminal intent."

Given all this, Honig said it would be fair to expect another Trump indictment will be handed down soon if Smith chooses to prosecute him.

"My prosecutorial Spidey-Sense tells me they are near the end," he said.

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