The DOJ submitted a 36 page response to Judge Cannon’s request for more information before she decided on whether to appoint a special master to review the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago. Joyce Vance helpfully breaks it down from legalese to human in her substack article “Trump in Trouble”.
Short summary: Trump ain’t never going to get that stuff back. It didn’t belong to him in the first place. The materials were found in close proximity to Trump’s personal items, like his passport, in his desk, in his office.
The documents recovered were of grave national importance and if they have fallen into the wrong hands, could pose a severe threat to the US and its allies.
I’m going to guess that Trump never thought that his office would be searched so he didn’t GAF how the documents were stored. But somebody who had access to his office clearly thought otherwise.
So, the three questions are still unanswered:
1.) Why did Trump have TS/SCI documents at his personal residence?
2.) What was he planning to do with them? The DOJ response made clear that Trump and his lawyers assured DOJ over and over again that they had no more documents. But the ones that Trump retained were among the most valuable and dangerous secrets our country has.
He must have saved those particular documents for a reason. What is it?
3.) Who turned him in? Was it secret service? Family member? The usual suspects from the 1/6 planning days? Someone tipped off the federales after June 2022. Who visited Mar-A-Lago since June 2022 who might have been shown around Trump’s office?
(That’s how you know it’s real, MAGA fans. Someone turned him in.)
I highly recommend the Vance breakdown. It’s easy to read so there’s no excuse to not read it. Which is probably why his staunchest defenders won’t read it.
But the Trump allies with law degrees are going to see the writing on the wall. It doesn’t matter when Merrick Garland pulls the trigger on an indictment, whether it’s before or after the midterms. Trump is going to get indicted for obstruction of Justice at the very least. It remains to be seen whether he shared the country’s national security with people who clearly shouldn’t have had it.
Who are we kidding? Of course he shared it. He probably has screenshots on an SD card or on a private server just waiting for a Julian Assange type person to get the mayday signal from Trump or his associates to release the Kraken. After 7 years of Trump, we know this man’s character very, very well.
There are going to be more revelations of an ugly nature. There have to be if several informants cooperated with the FBI. There may have been a line that even the scum of the earth were unwilling to cross.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
My favorite part of the response… Exhibit F:
I especially like the fact that these documents were SO important he stored them next to all of his framed Time covers.
ARGHH… image did not imbed. Here’s the link
I’m interested in who is the brains behind this operation? We all know that Trump is careless and stupid; too careless and stupid, in my opinion, to have the foresight to have taken these documents, to understand their importance or to know what to do with them. My guess would be Roger Stone. He’s the primary asset/agent. Trump was certainly aware of what was happening but he’s not the prime mover behind the operation (although he is an asset). It’s Stone. Interestingly, both Stone and Trump were protégés of Roy Cohn. I suspect Cohn always knew Trump was stupid but he was useful nevertheless; a pretty boy when he was young, with a massive ego and unsavory connections via his father. But Stone was the smart guy. He got that pardon, didn’t he? He probably knows that Trump has outlived his usefulness. Stone may have been one of the people who turned Trump in after having gotten copies of everything of importance.
What would the Rosenbergs say?
Probably something like “ARGHRETGYYGGHHH123))56))!!!”
We’ll see if the judge who said the other day that she was leaning toward appointing a Special Master, which was ridiculous, given the circumstances, and also strongly objected to by the DOJ, which said that it could delay, and risk national security, still appoints one. Where do they get such judges? Well, they make them.
She’s a federalist society unqualified hack. We should spend the next 3 decades campaigning against the federalist society. The damage they have done to our country is not yet to be fully realized.
After all this if I were Biden, I would ask the 3 appointed by Trump to step down because they were put on the supreme court by a traitor & don’t belong there. I am sure they would not resign so I would use that as an excuse to expand the court to 13.
13 circuits, 13 justices!
That should be the rallying cry.
Yes, if somehow Trump were found guilty of something, that would be at least a compelling argument just regarding the justices Trump appointed, but in general, that one president should not be allowed to choose a third of the Court, maybe almost half, if he gets two terms. Having a larger group would lessen the influence of any one President, and it seems like a legitimate argument just on that basis. This increases the importance of having Trump convicted, though if the DOJ is really not even going to indict until after the midterms, that slows it down.
Couldn’t Trump’s request for a Special Master backfire against him? It has allowed the DOJ to release information that it would not otherwise have been able to release in response to the judge’s request, hasn’t it? That information appears quite damning to Trump’s case.
Yes, it is not helping him in anything but trying to slow it down. Some think that the first thing a Republican House would do, is impeach Biden; just for spite and revenge, and it would also serve as a distraction, where the media could run headlines like “Biden and Trump on trial?” Anything to deflect.
It’s interesting that there’s been no mention yet of CNWDI or DOE RD documents, which I would have expected given the comments about “nuclear secrets” around the time of the raid. “SCI” is an intelligence agency type marker – it’s not used by DOE.
Prop, please explain what those first two acronyms mean. Me not have security clearance.
CNWDI (pronounced “sinwiddy”) == “Critical Nuclear Weapons Design Information”
RD == “Restricted Distribution”
It’s important because the handling of those documents is specified by the Atomic Energy Acts of 1946 and 1954 (including the procedures for declassifying them and criminal penalties for mishandling them).
Thank you! Googling doesn’t really explain things very well.
From the Atomic Energy Act of 1954:
That’s all in addition to any charges under the Espionage Act.
Okay, I know how to google. I don’t need no fancy security clearance.
CNWDI: Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information
DOE RD: Department of Energy Restricted Data
Off topic: I don’t know any day more “in-between” than Wednesday.