Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Trump's own voice on the documents tape will be 'devastating' in a courtroom: legal analyst



Legal analyst Danny Cevallos walked through the possible charges that Donald Trump could face after a recording of him surfaced last week.

The discussion began with Julia Ainsley of the NBC News Investigative Unit saying, "An indictment, at this point, would set them up well to be able to end a trial before the 2024 election, at least give that 60 to 90-day buffer. You also hear about that the Justice Department takes into account, what they don't want to be interfering in an election. They could see this timeline as being very conducive to trying to wrap up this business before the election."

The questions before the grand jury are whether Trump wrongfully retained classified documents and did he later obstruct the government in trying to get them back.

"Question number one, and to some degree, question or two, really depends on what federal criminal statute you're looking at," explained Cevallos. And there are some that don't even really require classification or non-classification. It isn't a fundamental issue as to whether there is a crime. One of these is the Espionage Act."

He explained that Ainsley's article discussed the specifics of whether or not a document is classified and the level of potential harm it could cause. Those things determine whether it would fall under the Espionage Act.

"So, those two questions that you ask are the key ones," said Cevallos. "Were they wrongfully detained, and afterward, when there is notice that, hey, these are not yours. You must return them, was there obstruction? So, really, you have a couple of different statutes involved. But [there are] two really different fundamental questions: the first one could be explained away by mistake. It could be excusable. The problem with the second one —"

Host Yasmin Vossoughian cut him off to say that Donald Trump has said over and over that he took them because "they are mine."

"How much of that is gonna come back to bite him? Secondly, when you look at the Washington Post reporting, 'dress rehearsals,' documents removed, the day before the FBI agent showed up at Mar-a-Lago," she said, later noting it says, "obstruction" to her.

"Right, you have a number of good arguments there," Cevallos said. "The defense is, if you look at Trump's defenses, they have holes in them as well. First, he signaled at least this whole, I can classify anything defense. It isn't very powerful. When he says, he can do it by thinking about it."

Vossoughian said it doesn't pass the smell test.

Cevallos cited James Comey, who called the tapes a horrible development for Trump, "I once said, Lordy I hope there are tapes."

"I can tell you, he is right, they're devastating," Cevallos continued. "The problem is exactly that. You may have tapes that are made by someone who is a lying liar. It doesn't matter. If they recorded it, it doesn't matter if they're criminal, doesn't matter if they have credibility issues. If they authenticated it, they get on the stand and say, 'I recorded this,' that is so-and-so's voice, and the jury can hear the voice. In this case, we really need to authenticate Donald Trump's voice. Who doesn't know that voice? He's not an unknown quantity. You press play, and it doesn't matter who your witness is, and how unreliable they are. It is the tape, it is the person's own voice that will bury them. It happens all the time. Increasingly so now that prosecutors and FBI have sworn smaller recording devices. White color cases are routinely made with tapes, and I can't tell you how powerful they are and how devastating they are as a defense attorney."

He also said he doesn't like to predict a timeline for indictments but said: "It could be right around the corner."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'Green light': Legal expert suggests Jack Smith has been given the go-ahead to indict Trump



Reflecting on a reports that the grand jury empaneled by special counsel Jack Smith will meet again after a month-long quiet period, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade suggested there is always the possibility that Smith used the downtime to gain approval to indict Donald Trump.

Speaking with MSNBC host Ana Cabrera, McQuade was asked what could be going down this week when the grand jury looking into Donald Trump's mishandling of sensitive documents meets after having already heard from a wide array of witnesses.

"Here's one possible theory, just a theory. They last met May 5th, a period of quiet, and are now coming back," she said.

"It could be that after the grand jury has done all its work, heard all the witnesses and testimony, Jack Smith would need time to put together a prosecution memo, submit that to [Attorney General] Merrick Garland and get approval, " she continued.

"Remember he [Garland] can reject a recommendation by the special counsel if he finds it's unwarranted by law or inappropriate under the Justice Department policies," she elaborated. "I imagine that process would have taken a few weeks. It could be that he has now been given the green light and he's ready to go back and present an indictment to the grand jury."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Trump indictment will come this week



Former FBI general counsel and special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said Monday he thinks the indictment of Donald Trump will come this week.

The prediction was part of a conversation with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace about the possible venue for trial if Trump is indicted — Florida or Washington, D.C.

Secrets and Laws, an account that purports to be run by a former CIA lawyer, mentioned that there has been little conversation about the potential venue. Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department national security official, is hoping for Washington, while national security analyst Marcy Wheeler expects Florida will be the location. Another commentator, LegalNerd, walked through the potential charges and what the law says about the venue.

Weissmann agreed that the open issue is where charges would be brought and who would be charged alongside Trump.

"Those charges may be ones that can only be brought in a different jurisdiction because there are constitutional rules about where charges can be brought," he explained.

"I should say, ...it is conceivable that Donald Trump would be charged in Florida and not D.C. I don't think that will be the case. But I do think the one thing I'm pretty confident of is that we are going to see charges with respect to the classified documents case, and it seems by all accounts it's going to be this week because I think that DOJ will feel that internal pressure to move this along."

He later said in the Manhattan case with D.A. Alvin Bragg, Trump's lawyers came in to speak before the grand jury before the indictment, and he explained at that time it was an indicator that they were at the end of the probe.

Trump's lawyers met with the DOJ on Monday,

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Earlier today Jack Smith personally met with Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorneys in the classified documents probe, and the timing and the circumstances make it pretty clear that this was the ‘We’re indicting your client’ meeting. Now more of the details are pouring out this evening about Smith’s probe – and Trump’s alleged antics.

Two months after the DOJ had the FBI seize classified documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, one of Trump’s employees drained a swimming pool in a way that ended up flooding the room where the surveillance records were kept, according to a surreal new report from CNN. Prosecutors have known about this for awhile and even gotten testimony about it.

It’s not clear from the reporting whether prosecutors think this flooding happened on purpose. In any case, the surveillance evidence wasn’t damaged, and best anyone can tell, Jack Smith has all that surveillance evidence as part of his criminal case. For this kind of thing to be the basis of an obstruction of justice charge, there would need to be proof that Trump or someone else instructed the employee to flood the surveillance room on purpose, and nothing along those lines is being reported.

Still, this all keeps getting stranger. Either Trump has the kind of inept idiots working for him who can’t drain a swimming pool without accidentally flooding the building, or Trump has the kind of inept idiots working for him who purposely tried to destroy a room full of evidence by flooding it, and didn’t manage to destroy any of it.


Exclusive: Mar-a-Lago pool flood raises suspicions among prosecutors in Trump classified documents case

Washington CNN — An employee at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence drained the resort’s swimming pool last October and ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious.

At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.

The incident, which has not been previously reported, came roughly two months after the FBI retrieved hundreds of classified documents from the Florida residence and as prosecutors obtained surveillance footage to track how White House records were moved around the resort. Prosecutors have been examining any effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 for classified documents.

Prosecutors have heard testimony that the IT equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood, according to one source.

Yet the flooded room as well as conversations and actions by Trump’s employees while the criminal investigation bore down on the club has caught the attention of prosecutors. The circumstances may factor into a possible obstruction conspiracy case, multiple sources tell CNN, as investigators try to determine whether the events of last year around Mar-a-Lago indicate that Trump or a small group of people working for him, took steps to try to interfere with the Justice Department’s evidence-gathering.

Subpoenas for surveillance

Agents first subpoenaed the Trump Organization for Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage last summer, before the August search by the FBI. But as more classified documents were found through the end of last year, investigators sought more surveillance footage from the Trump Organization, sources tell CNN. That included an additional subpoena after the FBI search in August and a request from the Justice Department for the Trump Organization to preserve additional footage in late October, according to one of the sources.

At least two dozen people – from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Trump’s inner circle at the Florida estate – have been subpoenaed to testify in front of the federal grand jury investigating the former president’s handling of classified documents and possible obstruction of justice, CNN previously reported.

Prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith have been asking questions in recent months about the handling of surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago resort and discussions Trump’s employees had about the surveillance system after the subpoena last summer for the footage, according to multiple sources.

Recently, investigators have asked questions indicating they are trying to determine if workers at Mar-a-Lago received specific direction from above, particularly from Trump himself, to obstruct the investigation.

Investigators have in recent weeks asked Trump employees whether it’s possible there are gaps in the surveillance footage that was turned over, and whether it could have been tampered with, according to the sources. That detail was first reported by the New York Times. The special counsel’s office declined to comment for this story.

Focus on Trump employees

Prosecutors from the special counsel’s office have focused their obstruction inquiries around Trump, Trump’s body man Walt Nauta and a maintenance worker who helped Nauta move boxes of classified documents ahead of federal agents searching the property last summer, and potentially others, sources told CNN.

The sources say that the maintenance worker is the person who drained the pool that led to the flooding of the IT room where the surveillance footage was held.

Last month, longtime Trump Organization executives Matthew Calamari Sr. and his son Matthew Calamari Jr., who each held senior roles overseeing security at Trump properties and the surveillance of the Florida club, appeared before the grand jury.

At the time, Investigators were interested in both the maintenance worker’s conversations and a text message from Nauta to Calamari Sr. where Nauta asked to talk. An attorney for Nauta declined to comment for this story. A spokesman for Trump and an attorney representing the maintenance worker did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Moving boxes

In addition to asking about the surveillance tapes, prosecutors have questioned witnesses about Nauta and the maintenance worker moving boxes after the Justice Department first subpoenaed Trump for classified documents last May.

Three weeks after that subpoena, Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran searched a storage room where boxes with documents from the White House had been kept. Corcoran found about three dozen classified documents, and he turned them over to FBI agents the following day when investigators came to Mar-a-Lago on June 3.

Corcoran told the DOJ at the time that he was led to believe by many people that there were no additional classified or White House documents at the resort and that all White House documents would be in the storage room when he searched it.

But surveillance footage that was subsequently turned over to the Justice Department showed Nauta and the maintenance worker moving document boxes around the resort, including into that storage room just before Corcoran searched it for classified documents. Corcoran handed over 38 records he found to the FBI the next day, yet the FBI found more than a hundred more documents with classified markings in August, both in Trump’s office and in the storage room.

The Justice Department has subsequently said in court that it believes “government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room.”

Detailed notes Corcoran took from that time period about his efforts representing Trump also made no mention that he was aware of any boxes of documents being moved in or out of the storage room he was directed to search to comply with the DOJ’s demands, one source told CNN.

Earlier this year, prosecutors took the extraordinary step of subpoenaing Corcoran, arguing that attorney-client privilege did not apply because his discussions with the former president may have been part of Trump’s attempt to advance a crime. In March, a judge ordered Corcoran, who has recused himself from representing Trump in the Mar-a-Lago case, to provide additional testimony. The sealed court proceeding made clear, sources have told CNN, that Corcoran is not a target of the investigation.

When Nauta spoke to the FBI last year, he initially said he hadn’t handled boxes or sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago, CNN previously reported. But after the FBI obtained the surveillance footage, he changed his story and said Trump had directed him to move the boxes, according to the previous CNN reporting. Nauta stopped speaking with investigators last fall after changing attorneys.

The maintenance worker more recently spoke to investigators in an interview, and his phone has been seized, some of the sources now tell CNN. Neither has been charged with any crime.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/politics/mar-a-lago-pool-flood-suspicions-prosecutors-trump-investigation-classified-documents/index.html

[Rick Plant]

When it was first reported yesterday that Jack Smith’s team would be meeting with Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorneys this week, I pointed out that this leak had to be coming from Trump’s side, and that we should therefore be wary of it. I also pointed out that if such a meeting really were happening, it would have to be the ‘we are indicting your client‘ meeting. Sure enough, Jack Smith’s team really did meet with Trump’s attorneys today.

Various news outlets have reported that the meeting lasted a couple hours, and that Trump’s attorneys spent the meeting raising concerns about how Smith had the courts strike down attorney client privilege in the case. In other words, this was definitely a ‘we’re indicting your client‘ meeting.

Prosecutors hold this kind of preindictment meeting for two reasons. One is fairness, to give defense attorneys the opportunity to raise legitimate concerns about why the case shouldn’t be brought. But the real reason this meeting happens is so prosecutors can find out the defense team’s trial strategy in advance. And sure enough, trumps lawyers revealed what they intend to harp on at trial, meaning, the DOJ gets a headstart on picking it apart.

As expected, major news outlets are reporting that Attorney General Merrick Garland was not present for this meeting. Of course he wasn’t. He already publicly denied Trump’s attorney’s request for a meeting a week or two ago, saying that this is Jack Smith’s case.

So now we know we are just days away from Jack Smith and the DOJ criminal indicting Donald Trump in the classified documents probe. And it will be days. At this point, there is nothing left for the grand jury to do but bring the indictment, which can typically be done in a day or two of grand jury time. So yeah, get your popcorn ready!


Special Counsel Jack Smith was at meeting with Trump's lawyers: report

Special Counsel Jack Smith was at the meeting former President Donald Trump's lawyers had with Department of Justice officials Monday, the New York Times reported.

Several reports revealed Donald Trump's lawyers asked for the meeting, where they requested that investigators do not indict Trump following a grand jury investigation into classified documents the former president is accused of keeping at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Following the meeting, The New York Times revealed that Smith – who has headed the probe – attended the meeting while Attorney General Merrick Garland did not.

Read More Here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/us/politics/trump-justice-dept-classified-documents.html


Trump lawyers ask DOJ not to indict during meeting: report

Donald Trump's attorneys met with the Department of Justice to argue against a possible indictment.

The meeting Monday suggested that special counsel Jack Smith had nearly completed his investigation into Trump's mishandling of classified documents, although sources familiar with the probe say the special counsel has broadened his investigation of possible White House involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Sources told the Post the lawyers aimed "to argue against any indictment of the former president over his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort."

Trump lawyers John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan had requested a meeting with attorney general Merrick Garland ahead of a possible indictment, but neither he or deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco had been expected to attend Monday's meeting.

Smith's team has recently sought testimony related to the documents investigation in southern Florida, and sources told the Journal that was apparently an effort to tie up loose ends in the probe.

Read More Here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/doj-donald-trump-lawyers-document-probe-e8c8e7c3

[Rick Plant]

Donnie has been rage posting and melting down on his failed social media site all evening. He clearly knows he is going down. Demanding and begging Merrick Garland not to indict isn't going to save Donnie.

Donnie's former White House attorney Ty Cobb was one of the first people to go on television and state his expectation that Trump is going to prison. Now that Jack Smith has met with Trump’s lawyers and presumably informed them that Trump is indeed being indicted on espionage charges that will put him in prison, Trump is going nuclear – about Cobb of all people.

Trump is throwing a fit on his social network, calling Ty Cobb "a disgruntled former Lawyer, who represented me long ago, and knows absolutely nothing about the Boxes Hoax being perpetrated upon me by the DOJ.” Trump then continues ranting for awhile, before threatening to take legal action against Cobb.

This is bizarre. There’s nothing here for Trump to even take action on. Ty Cobb is merely stating his expectation that Trump will go down for his classified documents scandal, the same expectation being expressed by most legal experts. Trump is frantically out of his mind about being indicted for espionage, and he’s lashing out in more panicked fashion than ever.

[Rick Plant]

Why does Jack Smith have classified document grand juries in Washington DC and Florida? He may be indicting Trump in DC since that’s where Trump first stole the docs, and indicting the underlings in Florida since that’s where they first got involved in obstructing the documents.

It could also be that Smith is indicting Trump for classified documents in DC because he’ll also be indicting Trump for January 6th and wire fraud in DC, and wants all the charges against Trump to be in the same circuit.

We’ll find out soon enough why Smith is doing it this way. But the real story is that none of us knew until TODAY that Jack Smith even had two different grand juries in the classified documents case. That’s just how little we know about what all Smith has been doing.

The video below has more info on the meeting yesterday.


Trump lawyers meet with Special Counsel Jack Smith amidst ‘jail time’ warning: Melber report

Lawyers representing Donald Trump in the classified documents scandal met with Special Counsel Jack Smith at the Department of Justice in Washing today. This meeting follows the discovery of an audio tape of Trump discussing possible classified war plans. The Federal Grand Jury investigating is expected to meet this week. The Wall Street Journal reporting this signals the probe is “all but wrapped up.” MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports.