4 months after the #FBI raided #MarALago, Trump’s attys discovered 4 docs marked #classified in his personal bedroom.
That revelation was among several cited by US District Judge Beryl Howell in a newly unsealed 2023 opinion that found prosecutors had presented compelling #evidence that #Trump#knowingly stashed #NationalSecurity docs in his home & then tried to conceal them when the #DOJ tried to retrieve them.
Throughout the opinion, Howell — who was chief judge of the Washington, DC federal district court at the time — described w/varying degrees of incredulity how 4 documents w/ classification markings could have been discovered in #Trump’s private quarters months after prosecutors had subpoenaed them & the #FBI conducted its own exhaustive search of the property.
“Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago,” Howell wrote.
In a footnote, #Howell also noted that another #Trump adviser connected to his SaveAmerica #PAC had acknowledged scanning the contents of the box that contained the #classified materials in 2021 & storing them on a personal laptop provided by the PAC.
Related: Chief Judge Boasberg denied#Trump “body man” #WaltNauta’s request to transfer some #GrandJury materials from DC to #Florida, says #Nauta failed to make specific case.
The High Court of Justice in London granted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange permission to bring a new appeal against extradition to the U.S. after his lawyers argued the case against him in America is politically motivated. The U.S. Justice Department argues that Assange, who has been resisting extradition in the U.K. for over a decade, endangered lives when he leaked confidential information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. BBC News has more.
#Trump has a huge posse today, including #KashPatel; #GerryKassar, a #conservative party leader in NY; #BernieKerik, fmr NYPD commissioner who was imprisoned for tax fraud & false statements; #AlanDershowitz, lawyer who defended Trump during his first impeachment, & #BorisEpshteyn, legal adviser who was #indicted in AZ for attempts to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.
#ChuckZito, helped found in the early 1980s the NY Nomads chapter of the #HellsAngels, the infamous club that started in California. The #DOJ described the org as a #criminal enterprise & linked the NY chapter to the #Gambino#crime family. Zito later left the biker group to try become a movie star in Hollywood.
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
Before entering the courtroom, #Trump potentially violated the #GagOrder forbidding him from talking about prosecutors in the case, other than Bragg. He made what sounded like a reference to Matthew #Colangelo, one of the prosecutors, saying, "a lead person from the #DOJ is running the trial," & baselessly adding, "So #Biden's office is running this trial." Colangelo USED TO work at the Dept of #Justice, & Trump has used similar language to describe him in the past.
The letters were sent hrs before #GOP-led #House Oversight & Judiciary cmtes were to advance a #contempt resolution against AG #Garland for defying a #subpoena demanding the recordings, which include hrs of Special Counsel Hur interviewing #Biden. #DOJ also sent #HouseRepublicans a letter Garland wrote Biden on Wed requesting he assert #ExecutivePrivilege bc releasing the tapes would “damage future #law enforcement efforts," as investigators request voluntary cooperation from #WhiteHouse ofcls.
I have followed the #TrumpTrial pretty closely & my takeaway from today is that it is effing appalling that #Trump, his admin, & his #DoJ in particular, stand credibly accused by #Cohen of obstructive & corrupt activities far beyond anything charged here, & the faux pious #Speaker of the US House is there to bless all of it. Just shocking. #msnbc
In a 2022 interview with NicolleDWallace, former CIA Officer Tracy Walder expressed concern that the documents unlawfully retained by former President Donald Trump could be linked to the deaths of CIA informants overseas. What caused her concern? The known timeline.
On May 6, 2021, the #USNatArchives
contacted the representatives of the former president demanding he return the documents that he had unlawfully retained and concealed.
#Boeing whistleblowers are dropping like flies. John Barnett died of “suicide” in March. Boeing Quality Auditor Joshua Dean died of a bacterial infection last week. Boeing engineer and whistleblower Sam Salehpour says he is being silenced and threatened.
There’s a petition asking the #DOJ to investigate these deaths. Seems like Boeing must be paying everyone off. From cops to politicians to media owners.
Trump told Bob Woodward he knew in February that COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' but wanted to 'play it down'
“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed, and so that’s a very tricky one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.” -dt
dt told reporters at the White House on Feb. 27: "This is a flu. This is like a flu."
Arguably “Negligent Homicide” is a legal term irt the unlawful killing of another person through gross negligence or without malice.
The response to the COVID-19 pandemic by criminal defendant Donald’s administration has been a topic of significant outrage. The administration’s response was deceptive, slow, inadequate, citing issues such as testing availability, communication of risk, and coordination with states.
The whitewashing of what Donald Trump did during the pandemic is stunning.
In fact, 400,000 Americans were confirmed dead of COVID-19 during the Trump administration—with the estimated undercount at that point being an additional 75,000.
The next 200,000 to die died because of negligent practices Trump pushed while in office and before President Biden could do anything about it.
Trump rhetoric continued to spur deaths thereafter. Negligent homicide.
Garcia: I want to remind everyone about the real #TrumpCrimeFamily. Why did Saudi Arabia give Jared Kushner $2 billion just months after he left the White House? Why did they spend hundreds of thousands at Trump properties while he was still in office? 🧵