So the FBI has raided Trump’s club/home/heist room-Mar-a-Lago and the ex-president is none too happy about it. “They even broke into my safe!” Trump complained in a press release that is real, yes he really said this. If this raid sends us crashing into a civil war, at least we ha a few laughs along the way.
On Twitter,, lots of laughter. Here are some highlights. Then feel free to discuss the raid in the standard open thread way; add links to news articles, tweets, memes, whatev.
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I think my favorite was how conservatives made Jeffrey Epstein trend with identical tweets asking why the FBI doesn’t raid people associated with him.
I mean…they just did?
I wonder if Kevin McCarthy is busy shredding documents now, or is he going to wait for the 4am door knock from the FBI?
@gijoel: He probably started shredding them within 30 seconds after the first video of the FBI search went online.
My fear, and I don’t think it is unfounded, is that Proud Boys, et al will take this as an excuse to murder people they view as enemies. People need to be ready to protect themselves from the fash shock troops.
Wow. This FBI raid couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy. Lock him up.
Given the threats, attempts to distract & outraged screaming, it seems to me that the GOP is very worried about this search. I read this morning – I think it was Heather Cox Richardson’s daily report for Monday- that if a person is convicted of not turning over classified documents, they may never again hold high office. Possibly the reason for Mitch McConnell’s silence is that he is praying that the FBI will find something serious, & Trump will be convicted & out of his hair.
Remember, Garland wouldn’t have done this, nor would a judge have signed off on the warrant if they weren’t pretty sure that there was something major to find.
This should be interesting.
I did initially wonder, because of the timing, whether this might have something to do with the release of the Alex Jones material.
Chatting with some ex FBI lawyers though, they were saying that to go for a warrant this big, they will have spent weeks getting the paperwork right.
They essentially have to show probable cause; and the scope of the warrant. That would have involved categorising each sought after document, or at least the class of document, and explaining why it fell within the provisions of the Archive Act.
There will have been some very lengthy affidavits. So this has probably been on the cards for some time. It’s interesting that they didn’t first try to subpoena the material. But apparently there had been some informal requests going back months and they had had no cooperation. They may also have been concerned that tipping off might have lead to the documents being moved somewhere else.
Merrick Garland has a reputation for being meticulous – when he and his team were handling the prosecution for the OKC bomber, he reportedly told his team that they were NOT going to lose this case due to clerical error or other negligence.
I’m slightly amused that Trump is, once again, revealing more than he probably realizes. It’s not too dissimilar from the Trump children fondly reminiscing about how their late mother would beat them when they were naughty.
I’m trying to get a copy of the warrant.
It’s $3.00; so I’m hoping someone else has already got it. Just asking around.
Well, at least we saved ourselves $3.00
MSNBC reported that some of the documents sought by the FBI in the raid were so sensitive that they can’t even be described to the public.
Of all the things to loathe about the king of Marm-a-Lardo, his handling of classified information has always been personally offensive to me in the extreme. I know from personal experience what an invasive and intense process getting a security clearance is. It’s also a chore to maintain and this is all by design.
On a lighter note, it mystifies me that anyone would just tear up documents and try to (sometimes unsuccessfully) flush them down a toilet. Anyone who has been to the briefings knows that the right way to do that is to pulverize them in a blender with water first! This also works well if you’re into paper making, btw.
I’m guessing removing classified info from the White House is a treasonable offence?
I find Trump as a character strange because he seems to lack empathy, imagination, sensitivity etc but does have a weird self-protective cunning. He’s a fascinating specimen, in a nausea-inducing kind of way.
Good news! I’ve been afraid he might run for president again and win, which would destroy the country. I live in a red state and see Trump signs even now.
@Dreamer
It no longer matters if Cheeto Hitler runs again; any Rethug that’s capable of winning the nomination would destroy the country if they win the presidency in ‘24.
Hell, if the Rethugs take the House this year, we’re basically fucked, because they’ll cast the ‘24 election results as “corrupt” and throw the election to the House, which will dutifully appoint the Rethug – who will invariably have lost the popular vote by millions – as Dictator-for-Life…sorry, “President.” The only real question is whether or not the country splits apart at that point, but either way, it’s going to get very bloody.
@Alan Robertshaw:
The last time they tried to subpoena stuff, the January 6 SS texts went up in smoke.
They’ve learned from that event.
@Dreamer:
Good news! I’ve been afraid he might run for president again and win, which would destroy the country. I live in a red state and see Trump signs even now.
Nearly two years after the fact, this PSA by Tom McGovern remains unhappily relevant:
As other folks have been pointing out, when you get right down to it, mishandling of classified information (or at least claims of such) was the core claim of why Trump’s people were chanting ‘lock her up!’ about Hillary Clinton for years, and why ‘but her emails!’ was a meme.
Yet another case of ‘It’s OK If You’re A Republican’.
And I’ve also been hearing the talk about ‘some of the documents were so potentially sensitive that they couldn’t be described in an open filing and all the FBI agents sent in had to be ones cleared to deal with classified information’. Reminds me of Maxime Bernier here in Canada back in 2008 or so… he lost his post as Foreign Affairs Minister (and eventually left the Conservative Party) in part because he left classified documents at his girlfriend’s place. He would later go on to found the People’s Party of Canada, which is exactly the sort of quasi-libertarian proto-fascist group we should all be worried about after we’ve seen what has been happening in the U.S… and they get disturbingly high vote totals in some ridings.
And then there’s Garland… Garland would have been on the Supreme Court if Mitch McConnell hadn’t decided to screw over Obama’s nomination and then fast-track Trump’s later, and I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten that either.
Annnnnnnnnnd no surprise, but reportedly Sean Hannity has revealed the name of the judge who signed off on the warrant.
Whoever from the US Marshals is on that judge’s protection detail, I hope they are prepared.
@ Vicky P
I have to say it only took us a few minutes on PACER to find the name, so I suspect the judge will have been well aware of what’s about to be unleashed. It is unfortunately all part of the job. Although I think people know what I think about attacks on judges, whether rhetorical or physical, merely for doing the job they uphold to do.
Expect lots of conspiracy theories arising from some of his former clients from when he was in practice.
At first it seemed a curious choice. One might have thought that for a matter of this gravity they may have gone higher. But this level of judge doesn’t require any formal political approval. So there can be fewer accusations of bias on the ground they are a political appointee. That’s our theory anyway.
It would be good to see if beauracracy works against the rich and powerful this time. Unlike all the other times.
@Ooglyboggles:
The thing you have to remember is that lots of rich and powerful people also absolutely loathe Trump and his low-class attitude, for many of the same reasons Trump’s supporters love him. I remember reading a comment that apparently Forbes had a ‘Trump Rule’ well before he became President: ‘If you want to know how much Donald Trump is worth, ask him; then divide it by three or four, and it will probably be closer.’ Forbes isn’t exactly a space where the rich and powerful are routinely disparaged…
We’ve already seen a lot of Trump’s rats leaving the sinking ship. I doubt there will be too many new people climbing on, though a lot of the people who already tied themselves to his career are certainly not going to let go now if they haven’t already.
@ oogly & jenora
I am normally a bit resigned to the fact that politicians hardly ever face comeuppance. It’s not in politicians’ interest to see that happen even to their political enemies; it sets too dangerous a precedent. So it’s all so performative but with no real consequences.
However…the Feds will be very well aware of all the accusations of partisanship and witch-hunts. And the traction that would be gained by those pushing that narrative should this lead nowhere. It would be so easy to portray as politivally motivated harassment of an innocent man.
So, in the same way they obviously had a watertight argument for probable cause, I suspect they may well be quietly confident that this case has proper legs; and may well result in genuine, and functional, legal proceedings.
LOCK HIM UP! Every accusation is a confession with MAGAts and their ilk, as @Jenora said.
@Gaebolga: There’s credible rumors that the big money and smoke- filled rooms are uniting behind Ron DeathSantis. Because while he’s every bit as terrible politically, at least he’s not a splodgy orange buffoon with a dumb hairstyle and the personality of a toddler. Looks much more presentable to the rich.
Me, I’m doing a Snoopy dance and then gonna get my stuffed tiger and do a Calvin and Hobbes dance.
@ gss ex-noob
Fight Club is just Calvin & Hobbes grown up.
@Alan
Oh my god, it really is!
I’d never heard that before; thank you!