“A Coat Rack with Suit Jackets, as Well as Interior Décor Items Such as Wall Art and Frames”
As expected, MJ Bruce Reinhart has released a less redacted version of the Trump search warrant affidavit.
The newly unsealed information pertains to the two grand jury subpoenas — the May 11 and the June 24 one. The description of the second one confirms what I’ve been noting: that the video surveillance subpoena was dated June 24, not June 22 as Trump’s people have been saying.
It requested video going back to January 10. Trump’s camp had said they only turned over two months of video (which may be true — they may simply not archive more than two months of video). But DOJ attempted to get video from before Trump packed up the first set of boxes returned to NARA, suggesting they’ve known all along how he was sorting this.
Trump provided DOJ with the video on July 6, just about the date I guessed they would have gotten it. That means DOJ only took a month to write the affidavit to search Trump’s home.
There’s a slightly different description of the classifications of the documents that Evan Corcoran turned over. It reveals that at least one of those documents was marked FISA, as was true of the first batch.
The newly unsealed passages also reveal that along with all his stolen documents, Trump had, “a coat rack with suit jackets, as well as interior decor items such as wall art and frames.”
Finally, it appears that Jay Bratt or the FBI specifically asked Corcoran if he knew of documents stored “in any private office space.” He said no.
Update: Here’s the government reply on their motion for a stay. My favorite sentence is where DOJ has to point out to Judge Cannon that she can’t invoke Executive Privilege for Trump, nor can a Special Master.
In any event, it is Plaintiff—not the Court and not a special master—who would need to make an assertion of executive privilege and supply reasons supporting that assertion. He has provided none.
And then they spend a whole paragraph describing how, if Trump is really trying to assert ownership over classified documents via a claim he both declassified and designated them privileged, then he can’t withhold via an Executive Privilege claim from an investigation into 18 USC 793.
Plaintiff’s suggestion that he “may have categorized certain of the seized materials as personal [records] during his presidency” pursuant to the PRA, D.E. 84 at 15, if true, would only supply another reason that he cannot assert executive privilege with regard to those records. If Plaintiff truly means to suggest that, while President, he chose to categorize records with markings such as “SECRET” and “TOP SECRET” as his personal records for purposes of the PRA, then he cannot assert that the very same records are protected by executive privilege—i.e., that they are “Presidential communications” made in furtherance of the “performance of his official duties.” Nixon v. GSA, 433 U.S. at 447, 456; see 44 U.S.C. § 2201(3) (defining “personal records” as records “of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President”). In any event, whether Plaintiff declared documents with classification markings to be his “personal” records for purposes of the PRA has no bearing on the government’s compelling need to review them, both for national security purposes and as part of its investigation into the potentially unlawful retention of national defense information.
Ryan Goodman posted a version with newly unredacted text highlighted, to save reading and comparison time:
https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/just-security-fbi-mar-a-lago-afidavit-wth-fewer-redactions.pdf
A few talking heads were pointing to the section in the affidavit where Corcoran says that no documents were stored in a private space and highlighting that the affidavit says that Corcoran relayed he was *advised* that no documents were in a private space. The implication, in their telling, was that Corcoran was told this lie by Trump, and DOJ is pointing the finger at him, as evidence of obstruction. Does this carry any water with you?
Sure. Except that it won’t be as simple as that, as I’ll lay out tomorrow.
Thank you! Looking forward to it
It does seem as if every Trump lawyer avoids conducting due diligence before attesting to facts, and just relies on whatever TFG says. I suppose that’s in the belief that he’s untouchable, or that if he isn’t, all is lost anyway.
But it begins to look more like aiding and abetting than reasonable reliance, especially as his lawyers studiously avoid filing sworn affidavits of fact to back up their improbable claims.
Trump may be slippery, if not untouchable (so far), but this doesn’t provide an umbrella for his attorneys. For an attorney to attest that information provided to them by another party (particularly Trump) is factual, without doing a deep dive to verify every detail, leads one to wonder “WTAF were they thinking?”
& that’s why the Kraken team got into trouble in MI & why Sydney Powell is facing disbarrment in TX
The actorless passive was kind of conspicuous. Also they’re calling Bobb “Individual-2”.
Isn’t the wording odder than that? Counsel “stated that he was not advised there were any records in any private office space or other location”, as opposed to being advised that there were no records in those places.
As Marcy said earlier, it is not as simple as that. But it arguably ought be. The only time a lawyer ought sign an affidavit is as to his own conduct, never that of client or their conduct. You don’t do that.
Sure, I was just noting that not advised X is different to advised not X.
Yes, echoes of the ever popular passive voice “mistakes were made” versus “X made mistakes.”
A few talking heads were pointing to the section in the affidavit where Corcoran says that no documents were stored in a private space and highlighting that the affidavit says that Corcoran relayed he was *advised* that no documents were in a private space. The implication, in their telling, was that Corcoran was told this lie by Trump, and DOJ is pointing the finger at him, as evidence of obstruction. Does this seem accurate?
So much to address here… Bratt’s question pinned Corcoran down into a charge of lying to investigators which is what sent Martha Stewart up the river in the past. MAGA takes new meanings in that respect. The other thing is that FISA is pretty much classified by definition, since it uses the super-secret FISC court to handle things like data collection of foreign nationals and doubtless has information on sources and methods. Even though Individual-1’s current defense team (including media) keeps trying to pretend there were no classified docs at M-a-L, this alone would satisfy a basis under the Espionage Act IMHO, though IANAL.
OT, Ken Starr is dead, good riddance to bad rubbish. LGM already has weighed in with three (3!) posts about him, I can’t wait for the extended versions.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/09/a-starr-is-unborn
And yet his hellspawn lives on in the form of Brett Kavenaugh, Starr’s gift to America
“I never wished him and dad but I have read some obituaries with great satisfaction”
“I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a card noting my approval.”
– Mark Twain
the once real possibility of a Trump second term is (I think) dead, regardless of where this goes, so Happy Doodle for that
a public trial will give to Trump the world stage to hurl both his bullshit and our national secrets, so no outcome belongs in the “likely” column yet
Second term dead? Keep in mind TFG controls the largest single voting block in the US, namely the 80-90% of the GO, or about 40-45%. of the electorate, who worship him like an Orange God. He could get the GOP nomination without breaking a sweat and anything could happen in a head to head–or worse if lefties decide Biden isn’t lefty enough–to 3rd head.
Think about 25-30% really, and that’s just a historical abstraction; things change, variables are and will be quite different than the 2020 electorate
I don’t think I’ve posted a link here before, so I hope I am doing this right. But here is data that conflicts with your opinion. https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_affiliations_of_registered_voters
New version of Clue: who killed democracy?
It was President* Trump in the unlocked storage room with a coat rack.
It was Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor with a Supreme Court nomination.
It takes a village.
Strangled in its crib by the ancient Athenians who coined the word – demos+kratia = the people rule – and then made the people who did the ruling only free adult men who were citizens – about 10% of the total population. As a certain Mr Mellencamp might say re: far too much of our history, “Ain’t that America?”
More (?) grimly: whose reckless behavior may have led to the deaths of countless CIA assets?
One hopes (hard) that if any CIA assets died because of Trump’s illegal lack of care of classified documents, then Trump gets tried for murder, or similar crimes related to the deaths caused by his actions.
Kenneth Starr, died after an extended illness. One hopes, hard, that it involved a painful disease, and that he was violently allergic to narcotic pain relief medication, as my mom was. I held her basin while she wretched after her frozen shoulder procedure, and she had pressed the button for more morphine. Starr should be so lucky!
Huff Post says he died after complications from surgery https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ken-starr-clinton-impeachment-dead_n_6320e6bee4b046aa02398af2?
I read also 4 months in ICU – that’s serious (and expensive!) complications.
Well earned, as payback for Monica and Baylor’s victims.
Four months? Starr was a very bad human, but yikes that is a lot of time for anybody to be in ICU.
Having had a child in the NICU multiple times for extended stays measured in months, it is not a world or an experience I would wish on anyone. It is well enough he, Mr. Starr, is not suffering such a life anymore, and we can still be satisfied to be done with him.
* our son is home with us now, happily, though prayers have not healed his body, he’s 28 and cannot know life is a mystery and a gift in a puzzle, yet he seems happy, which makes his Mother glad, and most days that is enough!
thank you for your indulgence, but should we try not to wish suffering on others?
I’m sorry your Mom suffered, J R in WV. That’s awful. It’s very hard to be unable to relieve such suffering, too.
But I would like to ask everyone: is this a site where it’s okay to wish horrific suffering on one’s political enemies? Would any of us like to see such sentiments expressed about our political allies, or anyone we care about? Is that the kind of discourse we wish to encourage? The kind of person we want to be?
It’s natural to feel that way sometimes, but we don’t have to encourage the feeling.
My wishing violation / horrific suffering on enemies corrodes my humanity and, I think, toughens me up such that when I need to break down in tears at a deathbed I’m instead standing still with a dazed look on my face.
No. This is not the place for that.
Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich in the 80’s
w Leonard Leo hiding in their drawers,
that rough beast waiting to be born.
Self-proclaimed Tiger Mom (a strict advocate of over-achievement in one’s children), Asha Rangappa, was an FBI agent, a deanlet at Yale law, and is now director of admissions for the university’s institute for global affairs. She is also an MSNBC commentator. She keeps saying that the DoJ is “late to the game,” regarding its criminal investigation(s) into Donald Trump, and specifically its attempts to recover government documents from MAL.
Bmaz is unreserved in his critical assessment of Merrick Garland, but Marcy has waged a campaign to suggest the DoJ has been much more active than it revealed publicly. I read the two as not mutually exclusive. But one thing they do not suggest is that the DoJ has been late to any game.
Oh, no, I have been mostly, if not entirely, supportive of Garland. Every bit as long as Marcy. Just not since his cockup as to the SW Rule 6e failing.
Well, according to FRC 12.1 I hereby notify your honor that we both should take the rest of the night off and have a drink. Macallan’s works for me, then bed. Tea’s good, too (with a shot of Macallan’s)
Did somebody hack your username? :-)
I vote for the Macallan’s.
If I get a vote, Bunnahabhain
re: SW Rule 6e failing
do you have any inkling why Garland might have gone that way? was it really just a phenomenally bad call?
No. Wish I did.
Asha is among the TV lawyers who has no familiarity with anything that doesn’t show up in NYT, and of late, I’ve found only Alan Feuer’s reporting on Trump investigations to be accurate. So…
Rangappa has never been good. Do any TV lawyers ever really go to court?
Someone had to tell the bees about their dead queen. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/world/europe/bees-queen-elizabeth.html
Does Trump have any bees?
A coat rack, you say?
Maybe it was a gift from this guy, to help Trump remember his glory days in DC and to inspire him to return.
Looks like a nice coat rack.
The collective memory at EW is something to behold.
This says it all:
https://ragingpencils.com/2022/9-13-22-trump-sisyphus.html#previous
Maybe he thought “SCIF” stands for Suit Coats, Images, and Frames
Nice!
Right, just like LGBT stands for ‘let’s get back together’.
Person, Woman. Man. Camera. TV
They had it covered! Why did this not make the motions? Also, hilarious.
Nice!
I believe the chief usher handles that: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/who-is-the-chief-usher
SO WHAT?! Why is this a thread? Would it be less of a crime if he kept them in a locked vault guarded by alligators? Oh, and by the way, while he was casually storing national secrets by the coat rack, the Dept. of Jackasses, led by a somnolent old man who didn’t want the job, DID NOTHING FOR MONTHS except ask him very nicely several times. Do they actually think their 2-year deference in this matter is going to help their case with the public, or the courts? It will actually backfire, and they know it, because they have no intention of indicting an ex-president. EVER. DOJ is there to serve power – not you and I. The talking head apologists for DOJ on TV are pathetic liars.
Pin this: No one will ever be indicted for any of this. But keep up your brilliant work building your brand parsing legal filings for morons, Marcy.
Captain, I’m detecting cynicism. Adjusting tricorders… nope, it’s still cynicism.
I’m detecting a lot of desperate wishful thinking. The screaming headline of this story for now and forever is that the DOJ screwed this up badly, because they are hopelessly politicized, and always have been. ONE single conviction from the 2008 crash. And they didn’t want to hear it about Madoff until it was too late.
Do you have something better to do with your time than preaching hopelessness on the Internet? Also, strangely, you don’t seem to have much negative to say about Twitler…does this happen to you a lot?
“In any event, it is Plaintiff—not the Court and not a special master—who would need to make an assertion of executive privilege and supply reasons supporting that assertion. He has provided none.”
The reminds me of the times – too many to count – where a Trump minion was explaining that they could not comply with an invitation to testify, or (failing that) a subpoena, because TRUMP might invoke executive privilege, even though he never did, because then someone could have dragged him into court to explain why he thought the information under discussion was privileged.
Honestly, it feels like Trump expected that dodge to work for the next half century, and it’s thrilling to see someone point out the obvious in a legal document.