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Return to Sender: DOJ Seized Evidence that Up to 90 Highly Sensitive Documents May Have Disappeared

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emptywheel
In addition to all the classified documents DOJ seized on August 8, they seized 46 empty CLASSIFIED document folders and 42 empty "Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide" folders. Each of those is a highly sensitive -- and now missing -- document.
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Kellye SoRelle: Oath Keeper Capper or Potential Pivot?

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emptywheel
Kellye SoRelle was charged, by herself, in a conspiracy to obstruct the vote count on January 6. Undoubtedly, DOJ believes it can prove she conspired with the Oath Keepers. But do they intend to prove she conspired with others, including lawyers involved in the fake elector plots?
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No One Puts Roger Stone in a Box

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emptywheel
The DOJ response to Trump's bid for a Special Master suggests that the clemency for Roger Stone that Trump apparently stashed in his desk drawer is something he doesn't want to be made public.
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That Bratt-I-Am, That Bratt-I-Am, I Do Not Like That Bratt-I-Am

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Peterr
In the far-away land of Mar-A-Lago sits a once-vaunted leader, now brought very low. And then come his lawyers, with news of a guest, A visit un-looked for, unwelcome, unblessed. . . .
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How DOJ Continues to Build Its Case that Trump Improperly Retained National Defense Information

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emptywheel
By giving DOJ an opportunity to lay out all the ways they continue to closely hold the documents Trump stole, Trump's lawyers are only making any hypothetical criminal case against him stronger.
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Christina Bobb Claimed No Copies of the Stolen Classified Documents Had Been Made

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emptywheel
According to the narrative offered by DOJ of the June 3 meeting at which Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb handed over just a fraction of the classified documents that remained at Mar-a-Lago, Bobb offered up a claim that none of those classified documents had been copied.
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Trump Stored Some of the Nation's Most Sensitive Secrets with His Framed Time Magazine Cover

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emptywheel
Trump was keeping some of the nation's most sensitive secrets next to a framed Time Magazine cover.
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"The President Was ... Working in a Filing Room"

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emptywheel
Back in February, Trump tried to lead the public to believe 15 boxes returned to the Archives were full of junk like newspapers and magazines. They were! But amidst all that, there were classified documents stripped of their classified cover sheets.
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One Big Potentially Pending Question: What Happens to Trump's Impeachment 1.0 Papers?

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emptywheel
There are several categories of documents seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago that might be privileged but that a judge might decide is evidence of the crimes covered by the warrant. The most difficult would be papers involving White House counsel lawyers who were part of Trump's first Impeachment defense.
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Key Details about Evan Corcoran that Evan Corcoran Did Not Disclose to Judge Aileen Cannon

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emptywheel
Evan Corcoran, in a filing that failed to disclose his own role in the events under investigation, falsely suggested to Judge Aileen Cannon that this was a search about the Presidential Records Act and not an investigation into violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction. He didn't even tell her that he is named in the affidavit showing probable cause of obstruction.
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Six Days: Trump's Second Whack Filing Is Too Late

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emptywheel
By the time Trump's lawyers serve DOJ in their lawsuit asking for a Special Master, DOJ will have had three times as long as it took to do a preliminary review of 15 boxes of documents in May.
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Did Kash Patel Already Confess to Illegally Disseminating Carter Page FISA Information?

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emptywheel
If there was an unredacted copy of the fourth FISA application targeting Carter Page in the stash of documents Donald Trump stole from the White House, it would amount to a separate violation of FISA, on top of any exposure under the Espionage Act.
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The Elements of the Offense for an 18 USC 793e Prosecution

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emptywheel
These are the questions a jury would consider if Trump were ever tried under 18 USC 793e.
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Trump Had Human, Signals, and FISA Intelligence in an Insecure Room at Mar-a-Lago for a Year

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emptywheel
Trump stored signals, human, and FISA intelligence in a storage room in his spy-targeted resort.
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How To Be a Handmaiden to Corruption, Barr Memo Press Coverage Edition

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emptywheel
Some of the reporting on the Barr Memo treats it as something four judges have said it's not: a predecisional memo on whether Trump could have been charged, rather than an effort to pitch a preordained decision to announce he couldn't be as if it were a measured legal decision.
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Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart Accepts DOJ's Proposed Redactions

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emptywheel
Bruce Reinhart has ordered the government to release a redacted version of the Donald Trump affidavit.
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Two People Plead Guilty in Conspiracy to Transport Ashley Biden Diary

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emptywheel
Two people in the case involving Project Veritas' payment for a diary stolen from Ashely Biden pled guilty today.
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The Word "Pardon" Doesn't Appear in the Barr Memo

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emptywheel
Bill Barr stated, three times, that trading pardons for false testimony would be a crime. And then he didn't even address that crime in his memo declining prosecution before Trump went on to pardon three witnesses against him.
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Bill Barr Performed the Corruption He Was Trying To Deny

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emptywheel
Because the analysis in the Barr Memo declining prosecution of Donald Trump was so shoddy, it set off a snowball of further corrupt actions. But you don't have to get beyond the nine page memo to see that Barr was performing precisely the corruption he was trying to deny.
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