Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Nerves are fraying at Mar-a-Lago': Legal expert says Jan. 6 sentences should worry Trump

A federal court may have fired a warning shot to Donald Trump by imposing lengthy sentences for some of the organizers of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

District Court judge Amit Mehta sentenced Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and ordered his top lieutenant, Kelly Meggs, to serve 12 years for the same crime, and legal expert Dennis Aftergut wrote a column for The Bulwark analyzing the message that sent to Trump and his supporters.

"As a general matter, judges typically reserve longer sentences for those higher up the ladder of culpability," wrote Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor. "Rhodes got six more years than Meggs; Rhodes was a leader of the Oath Keepers but not, as his lawyer and [Capitol police officer] Harry Dunn both emphasized, of the whole insurrection."

"We’re waiting for Special Counsel Jack Smith to indict the true leader," he added. "Nerves are fraying in Mar-a-Lago."

Greene should also be worried about the harsh sentences meted out to the militants, whom she has described as "political prisoners."

"The court’s response to Rhodes was a heavy-duty sentence, the language the law speaks to extract accountability for violence and the lies that motivate it," Aftergut wrote. "MTG has only hinted at violence in support of her lies, but the court, when it said to Rhodes that 'You . . . present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country,' may as well have been speaking to her."

Read More Here: https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/four-messages-stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers



Trump understands he's in serious trouble here' after new Mar-a-Lago bombshell: Morning Joe



Reacting to a bombshell report from the Washington Post that the Department of Justice has evidence that employees at Mar-a-Lago engaged in a "dress rehearsal" where they moved sensitive documents before his office receipt of a May 2022 subpoena, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough suggested that Donald Trump knows the DOJ has him cornered.

As the Post reported, "Taken together, the new details of the classified-documents investigation suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than have been previously reported. It also broadens the timeline of possible obstruction episodes that investigators are examining — a period stretching from events at Mar-a-Lago before the subpoena to the period after the FBI search there on Aug. 8."

During the "Morning Joe" panel on the report, with the Post's Perry Stein filling in the details, the MSNBC host also noted that Trump reportedly left the documents sitting about where anyone could see them.

"Donald Trump understands he's in serious trouble here," the MSNBC host told the panel.

"And when you have a judge in this case that has already pierced the attorney/client privilege because -- well, the only time a judge can do that is when they believe a crime may have been committed through that attorney/client privilege. -- at that point, you get this information about the boxes being moved the day before the DOJ and FBI come down."

'Donald Trump does understand, has to understand, and everybody around him has to understand, this is not going to end well for him or people that are close to him," he added.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

They got Donnie on tape committing his crimes!


Prosecutors have a recording of Trump and a witness in hush-money case: report

Prosecutors have obtained a recording of a phone conversation between Donald Trump and an undisclosed witness in the Stormy Daniels case, according to a document that was made public Friday, CBS News reports.

The document, which is called an automatic discovery form, describes the nature of the charges a defendant is facing along with evidence prosecutors expect to use at a preliminary trial.

Media organizations and Trump’s legal team had sought the public release of the document since Trump’s April 4 arrest in a 34-count indictment on allegations he falsified business documents in an effort to conceal hush money payments to an adult film star.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in the automatic discovery form reveals it has shared with Trump’s legal team a “recording of a conversation between defendant and a witness."

The document also indicates that prosecutors plan to release additional recordings between the witness and other people.

Not all the information was made available, according to the report, which notes that, "some information, labeled 'Limited Dissemination Materials' by prosecutors, will only be available to Trump in the presence of his attorneys."

Read More Here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-criminal-case-prosecutors-recording-of-trump-and-a-witness/



Next stop for Jack Smith is Trump's financial ties to the Saudis: columnist

A report from the New York Times that investigators working for special counsel Jack Smith have issued a subpoena demanding information from the Trump Organization regarding its international business dealings led Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton to suggest Smith and his people should place their emphasis on financial ties to the ruling family in Saudi Arabia.

According to the Times report, "The subpoena — drafted by the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith — sought details on the Trump Organization’s real estate licensing and development dealings in seven countries: China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, according to the people familiar with the matter.

The subpoena sought the records for deals reached since 2017, when Mr. Trump was sworn in as president."

Parton wrote an investigation is definitely warranted into his boosting of the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour, which has converted the former president into a vocal cheerleader for the Saudis despite their execrable human rights record.

"At least someone is finally taking a look at what exactly was going on while Trump was running his business out of the Oval Office." Parton wrote, adding that Trump's golf courses have been hurting since the PGA abandoned them due to his many controversies, making the former president ripe for the plucking.

Although there is no direct appearance of deals during Trump's brief four years in office, there is likely much to look at since he lost his 2020 re-election, with an even greater concern about his third presidential bid.

"If Trump were just retiring to his golf resorts and taking advantage of all the contacts he made while president, it might be reasonable just to let it go in the interest of never having to think about him again," the Salon piece read.

"But he's the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination and he's openly helping the Saudi regime 'sportswash' its human rights record while taking unknown millions from it," the Salon columnist wrote before adding, "Let's hope that unlike Robert Mueller, who refused to exceed his mandate and look at Trump's finances, Jack Smith sees this for the blatant corruption it is."

You can read the Salon article here: https://www.salon.com/2023/05/26/and-the-saudis-is-jack-smith-finally-looking-at-this-clear-cut-corruption/



Legal expert reacts to new report about Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents

The Washington Post is reporting that former president Donald Trump moved boxes of papers at Mar-a-Lago a day before the Justice Department visited the former president's residence to collect classified documents and witnesses claimed that Trump displayed classified information to visitors.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Trump in danger of heightened espionage charges after bombshell report: legal expert



According to one legal analyst, if a bombshell report from the Washington Post is accurate, Donald Trump could be facing even more serious charges under the Espionage Act from the Department of Justice.

In a column for MSNBC, attorney Norm Eisen wrote there is already plenty of evidence to indict the former president for obstruction of justice for not returning the stolen government documents hidden away at Mar-a-Lago, but reports that Trump left documents sitting around in plain view and may have shared them with others makes his legal peril infinitely worse.

According to Eisen, the new report means Trump's legal problems went from "bad to worse" this past week.

"If Trump had really showed off classified documents to people at Mar-a-Lago, then that would add to what we already know of his legal liability," the attorney explained. "Just by retaining the documents, Trump would face liability for apparent willful possession and retention of the classified documents pertaining to national defense. Under section 793(e) of the Espionage Act, it is a criminal offense for a person without authorization to willfully retain classified documents and fail to deliver them to an officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them."

However, he explained, the new reports indicate the former president could face even more serious charges.

"... purposefully showing classified documents to others without authorization, in the manner reported by the Post and the Times, would go beyond retaining classified documents as prohibited by the statute. It likely constitutes an even more egregious violation of the Espionage Act under the clause prohibiting the willful communication, delivery or transmission of classified documents," he elaborated.

According to Eisen, the case by the DOJ "against Trump is becoming clearer and potentially more damning — and the possible consequences for Trump more dire."

He went on to note that there may be more that special counsel Jack Smith could have on the ex-president and added that Trump's "habit of lying his way out of accountability for his transgressions will not fly in the courts, and in facing the rule of law."

Read More Here: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-classified-documents-mar-a-lago-rcna86497



Key Trump defense in Mar-a-Lago doc case 'off the table' after new revelations: former prosecutor



Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday morning, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade explained how a report from the Washington Post that DOJ investigators now have evidence that Mar-a-Lago employees working for Donald Trump knowingly hid documents from the FBI will ultimately cripple his attorney's defense options if the former president is indicted as expected.

With reports that the former president's legal team is preparing him for another day in court on possible obstruction and espionage charges, McQuade said that -- if the Post report is accurate -- things just took a turn for the worse for Trump.

"Well, that reporting would really catch the eye of a prosecutor because it suggests potential for obstruction of justice," McQuade told "The Saturday Show" host Jonathan Capehart.

"When prosecutors are considering pressing charges for the mishandling of classified documents, they're typically looking for some aggravating factor beyond an innocent mistake," she elaborated. "And so here, if they really were moving boxes the day before they knew the Justice Department was coming to visit to look at them, that could suggest that they were trying to conceal or interfere with the case."

"That could be significant for a couple of reasons," she continued. "One is the charging decision, but the other is that it would really take off the table any suggestion that this was just an honest mistake, it would take off the table any question about whether it mattered about whether they were classified or not classified documents or whether Donald Trump believed that he could declassify them simply in his mind because the obstruction of justice is simply a different crime."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Donnie could be indicted again in just a couple of days!


Trump staff moved boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago day before DoJ visit, report says
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-moved-boxed-classified-documents-b2346023.html

'Likely to be indicted soon’: Trump might face seven different felonies, government watchdog says



It's no secret the U.S. Dept. of Justice is investigating Donald Trump for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and for his likely unlawful removal, retention, and refusal to return hundreds of documents with classified and top secret markings.

Earlier this week Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal reported, "Special counsel Jack Smith has all but finished obtaining testimony and other evidence in his criminal investigation into whether former President Donald Trump mishandled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort."

And while it's unknown if or when Trump will be indicted, a government watchdog says the ex-president who is once again staging a White House run is "likely to be indicted soon." The organization is offering details on what it claims could be seven felony charges he might face.

"The next criminal charges former President Donald Trump may face could well come from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s possession of nearly 300 classified documents — including some marked as top secret — at his Mar-a-Lago residence and business in the year and a half after he left office," Betsy Schick and Debra Perlin of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) state in a lengthy report published Friday.

"While Fani Willis’ Fulton County, Georgia investigation into election interference continues, as does a federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Alvin Bragg has already indicted Trump in New York for his role in false statements connected to hush money payments to Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) during the 2016 presidential campaign, an indictment by Smith in the Mar-a-Lago investigation would yield the first federal charges against the former president," CREW notes.

"Trump may face charges ranging from obstruction of justice and criminal contempt to conversion of government property and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material."

Here is a list of "possible crimes" Trump might be charged with, according to CREW:

Obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. § 1519)

Criminal contempt (18 U.S.C. § 402)

False statements to federal authorities (18 U.S.C. § 1001)

Conversion of government property (18 U.S.C. § 641)

Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material (18 U.S.C. § 1924)

Removing and concealing government records (18 U.S.C. § 2071)

Gathering national defense information (18 U.S.C. § 793(e))

CREW also offers that Trump's attorneys may try to argue several different defenses, including:

No “knowing” removal

Deference to the intelligence community

Challenging the constitutionality of the Special Counsel regulations

Additionally, several reports this week also appear to suggest an indictment might be coming, and soon.

Citing a Washington Post report published Thursday, several top legal experts are predicting DOJ will charge Donald Trump, and those charges will include obstruction and violations of the Espionage Act.

Earlier this week NYU School of Law professor of law Ryan Goodman said Dept. of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith had struck “gold” after obtaining the contemporaneous notes of a Trump attorney who counseled the ex-president on his possibly unlawful handling of classified documents.

Read More Here: https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/05/obstruction-espionage-act-top-legal-expert-says-trump-attorneys-notes-show-evidence-of-willfulness/

Read the article from The Washington Post Here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/25/trump-classified-documents-mar-a-lago/

[Rick Plant]

Jack Smith investigation is ‘Trump’s worst nightmare'

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Prosecutors say they have a recording of Trump and a witness in Manhattan DA case

In a court filing made public Friday, the DA's office informed Trump's attorneys of some of the evidence against him, including the recording.



Prosecutors in New York have informed attorneys for Donald Trump that the evidence in their hush money case against the former president includes an audio recording of him and a witness, a court filing made public Friday shows.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office made the disclosure in a filing this week called an automatic discovery form and said the evidence had already been disclosed to Trump's attorneys.

The filing does not identify the witness or say when the recording was made or when Trump's lawyers were made aware of it. NBC News has reached out to attorneys and a spokesperson for Trump for a response.

A key witness in the case, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, previously released a secretly taped audio recording of a discussion he had with Trump about the hush money payments in 2016. It's unclear if the recording referred to in the court filing is the same one.

The filing is dated this past Tuesday — the same day Trump made a virtual appearance in Manhattan criminal court to be formally notified about a protective order barring him from speaking publicly about evidence his lawyers were slated to receive from the DA's office.

Trump was charged last month with 34 counts of falsifying business records and has pleaded not guilty. The charges involve hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign to prevent them from speaking about their allegations of affairs with him.

Trump has denied having affairs with both women.

In the previously disclosed recorded September 2016 conversation between Trump and Cohen, the pair can be heard discussing how to structure payments to McDougal. At one point, Trump appears to ask “what financing?” and seems to ask “pay with cash?”

Cohen responds, “No, no, no, no, no, no, I got ...” before Trump is heard saying the word “check.”

The filing said several other recordings that don't directly include Trump will also be turned over to his defense team, including phone conversations between two unidentified witnesses, a phone conversation "between a witness and a third party" and "various recordings saved on a witness’s cell phones."

Other evidence includes unidentified statements from numerous books on or involving the former president, including books by Cohen, Daniels, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, former Trump adviser and current son-in-law Jared Kushner and five of Trump's own books.

The case is scheduled to go to trial on March 25, 2024.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/prosecutors-say-recording-trump-witness-manhattan-da-case-rcna86517

[Rick Plant]

Proof that Trump shared Mar-a-Lago docs 'changes the game' for Jack Smith indictment: Guardian reporter



Appearing on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell claimed Donald Trump might have avoided being hit with violations of the Espionage Act if it had not been reported that he shared highly sensitive government documents with friends at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

According to Lowell, who has been reporting that the documents may have been hidden from Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran, a new report that Trump left documents laying about and might have shown them to others makes it more likely he'll face more severe charges if that is true.

"The Washington Post reported this week about how prosecutors seem to have evidence that Trump was showing highly sensitive documents to other people," Lowell began. "That's really interesting because that's the kind of aggravating move that a prosecutor looks for when they're trying to prosecute Section 93e of Title 18 which is the Espionage Act."

"There's two parts," he continued. "The first part is willful retention. Willful retention alone is very rarely charged, and I think in the case with the former president, with prosecutors, that was the only thing they might consider not charging."

"But if they have evidence that Trump was showing people and they have the second part of that clause, which is willful transmission and dissemination, that changes the game entirely," he added. "That is the sort of thing that they would charge. That is really concrete evidence that Trump has a lot of problems."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

So, Criminal Donald spent the early part of his Memorial Day raging like an unhinged lunatic melting down on his failed social media site, as he prepares to be indicted by the Department of Justice. Let's also not forget that Donnie once called our fallen heroes "losers and suckers" as this draft dodger lied about having "bone spurs" to get out of serving in Vietnam. Donnie can rage all he wants, he committed his crimes and now he will pay the price for doing them. Donnie is going to prison, and he knows it, which is why posted this psychotic rant today.


Report: Trump disparaged US war dead as ‘losers,’ ‘suckers’
Sep 3, 2020
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/09/03/report-trump-disparaged-us-war-dead-as-losers-suckers/


Trump's all-caps Memorial Day message: 'We must stop the communists, Marxists and fascist pigs!'



Former President Donald Trump paid tribute to America's fallen military servicemembers on Monday by posting an all-caps rant attacking his political foes.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, the former president linked the struggles faced in the past by soldiers in assorted American wars with the battles he's engaged with his own domestic enemies.

"HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, BUT ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO GAVE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR THE COUNTRY THEY LOVE, AND TO THOSE IN LINE OF A VERY DIFFERENT, BUT EQUALLY DANGEROUS FIRE, STOPPING THE THREATS OF THE TERRORISTS, MISFITS AND LUNATIC THUGS WHO ARE WORKING FEVERISHLY FROM WITHIN TO OVERTURN AND DESTROY OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY, WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN IN GREATER PERIL THAN IT IS RIGHT NOW," Trump wrote. "WE MUST STOP THE COMMUNISTS, MARXISTS AND FASCIST “PIGS” AT EVERY TURN AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Trump has been ratcheting up his rhetoric against law enforcement officials lately as he 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.

AFP