Another excellent update of the Mar-a-Lago DOC case also from SALON.com directly aimed at Trump regarding his switcharoo gimmick
to fool and mislead the DOJ-FBI search of his property in FL with this headline:
“Legal expert says Trump’s
trusted Mar-a-Lago aides may soon be “testifying witnesses" against him”
Main points from this updated article: An employee at Mar-a-Lago who assisted with moving boxes of documents last June was questioned regarding his behavior in relation to a government request for surveillance footage from Trump's property (according to The Washington Post).
The employee has been questioned several times by
authorities after video footage revealed their involvement in assisting Walt
Nauta, a Trump aide, in moving boxes into a storage room at Mar-a-Lago a day
before DOJ officials came with FBI agents to collect classified material in
response to a subpoena (the
WaPost reported last week).
Temidayo Aganga-Williams,
partner at Selendy Gay Elsberg and former senior investigative counsel for the
House January 6 committee said: “If true that the President Trump's
employees moved classified documents ahead of a DOJ visit to Mar-a-Lago, those
actions, if linked to President Trump, could be demonstrative of his intent to
unlawfully prevent the retrieval of the documents.”
Aganga-Williams then
said: “The DOJ's next likely step is to seek the formal cooperation of both
employees in its case against President Trump. The employees could very
possibly be testifying witnesses in any future trial.”
Aganga-Williams then added: “Their testimony could strengthen the special counsel's case against President Trump by demonstrating his intent to not only obstruct the DOJ's investigation, but also his knowledge that his continued retention of the classified documents was unlawful.”
DOJ's S/C Jack Smith's investigators are trying to determine whether Trump or people close to him attempted to obstruct justice in response to a grand jury subpoena requiring the return of classified documents, or if they lied about what happened, people familiar with the matter told the Post.
As part of the investigation, authorities have also looked
into incidents in mid-July related to a separate subpoena that sought
surveillance footage from the property.
During that period, the employee reportedly engaged in a
conversation with an IT worker at the site, discussing how the security cameras
worked and asked about how long images were stored in the system a person
familiar with the investigation told the newspaper).
The employee later informed investigators that he had no
intention of concealing anything from the authorities and was unaware of the
investigation or the existence of the subpoena at the time of the conversation,
according to another person familiar with the matter.
John Irving, a lawyer representing one of the two employees involved in moving the boxes, told The Post: “The worker was unaware of their contents and was only trying to help Nauta, who was using a dolly or hand truck to move several boxes. The employee helped Nauta pack an SUV when Trump left for Bedminster for the summer.” Before receiving the subpoena in May, Trump and his associates had engaged in what some officials have referred to as a “dress rehearsal,” which involved the movement of government documents that he wished to retain.”
Prosecutors also have evidence of Trump keeping classified documents in his office and sometimes showing them to people. Legal experts have said that the report suggests the former president may be facing more serious charges than obstruction.
Recent reports indicate that Smith's team is in the final stages of concluding its investigative work.
All the previous posts and updates follow from here:
More updates on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents and
Trump’s involvement and again excellent reporting by SALON.com
with this headline – plus a lot of facts and details follow below this update:
“Legal experts:
Trump could be charged under the “Espionage Act” over report that he showed off
docs”
Prosecutors obtained evidence that former President
Donald Trump kept classified documents in his office and sometimes showed them
to people (from The Washington Post).
Former federal
prosecutor Kevin O'Brien told Salon that legal experts say the report suggests
the former president may be facing more serious charges than obstruction,
adding: “The news report suggests an escalation in the seriousness of the
charges Trump faces. Evidence that he showed highly sensitive documents to
third parties implicates the Espionage Act, which forbids willfully conveying
such a document “to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully failing
to deliver the same on demand to a government officer or employee entitled to
receive it.” Trump appears to fall under both prongs of the statute, which is
punishable by up to 10 years in prison per violation.”
As the investigation into the former president's retention
of national security materials at Mar-a-Lago nears its end, the FBI and the DOJ have discovered instances of potential obstruction that provide more
detailed and specific information than what was previously disclosed, the Post
reported.
It also expands the timeline of possible instances of
obstruction under investigation, extending from events at Mar-a-Lago prior to
the subpoena to the period following the FBI search conducted on August 8,
according to the Post.
Prior to receiving the subpoena in May, Trump had engaged in
what some officials have referred to as a “dress rehearsal” (more on that below
and here, too) which involved the movement of government documents that he
wished to retain.
Prosecutors have collected evidence related to this matter,
according to individuals familiar with the investigation.
Former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade, and now a University of MI Law School
professor, told Salon: “Disclosing classified information to an
unauthorized person is a different and more serious offense than simply retaining
classified information. And a disclosure to a foreign government is the most
serious offense of all. If a disclosure is made with reason to believe that the
United States would be injured or the foreign government advantaged, the
penalty is up to life in prison or even death, as in the case of the Rosenbergs.”
Prosecutors have also
uncovered evidence in recent weeks indicating that Trump's employees at
Mar-a-Lago brought boxes of documents back to the storage room just one day
before the visit of justice department officials who were scheduled to collect
the classified documents that had been subpoenaed (that too from The Washington
Post).
Since last year, the DOJ has been investigating the
retention of sensitive records after the National Archives found 15 boxes of
materials from when Trump served as president. In August, the FBI conducted a
search at Mar-a-Lago, leading to the discovery of over 100 documents labeled as
classified at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.
Trump has maintained no wrongdoing in the matter and has
claimed that the investigation is part of an alleged Democratic scheme to
prevent him from serving as president again.
Temidayo Aganga-Williams, partner at Selendy Gay Elsberg and former senior investigative counsel for the House January 6 committee, told Salon: “Even prior to the most recent reporting, Trump faced serious criminal exposure for allegedly retaining highly sensitive documents. As with any criminal case, the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in charging decisions is central. If true then President Trump not only unlawfully retained classified documents, but also showed them to others. That will make it more likely that special counsel Jack Smith will seek authority to charge the former president.”
Also, this breaking news
event should surely nail Trump and the classified docs case pending with S/C
Jack Smith vis-à-vis the docs at Mar-a-Lago – the lastest update is here from SALON.com with this
headline:
“Experts: Report that Trump lawyer was “misled” about Mar-a-Lago search”
Trump's attorney Evan Corcoran told
associates that he was “waved off from searching Trump's Mar-a-Lago office
where the FBI found classified documents,” thus suggesting that he was
“materially misled” by the former president's team (according to The Guardian).
Corcoran, whose claims of attorney-client privilege
were pierced earlier this year after
a judge agreed with the DOJ that it was more likely than not that Trump used his services in
furtherance of a crime, told associates that several Trump
aides told him to search the storage room where he found 38 classified
documents, according to the report. When he asked whether he should search any
other locations he was steered away.
The FBI ultimately
executed a court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago months later and found an
additional 101 classified documents in Trump's office and elsewhere. The office
was “where the most highly classified documents had been located” (according Hugo
Lowell at The Guardian). It's unclear who dissuaded Corcoran from searching the
office or whether it was Trump himself.
Corcoran testified to the grand jury examining evidence in that case that Trump: “Did not personally convey that false information (re: The NY Times). But he said that Trump also did not tell his lawyers of any other locations where the documents were stored, adding: Which may have effectively misled the legal team.”
Trump’s response as
usual was: “This is completely false and rooted in pure fantasy. The real
story is the illegal weaponization of the DOJ and their witch-hunts targeted to
influence an election in order to try and prevent President Trump from
returning to the White House.”
More Posts from Here: Startling and very worrisome story from SALON.com vis-à-vis classified
documents at Ma-a-Lago that Trump hid there with this headline:
“Claim that
Trump showed classified docs to donors could be what brings him down: former
FBI agent”
Bombshell revelations claiming former President Donald
Trump was showing classified documents to donors at his Mar-a-Lago home could
be what brings him down says former FBI agent Peter Strzok and others.
Speaking to MSNBC’s host Nicolle Wallace, Peter Strzok, the former
FBI agent, cited a Washington Post article claiming that the DOJ had obtained new evidence that
proves obstructions of justice in the classified case. Before that report,
Trump could reasonably claim that he knew nothing about the documents, the
report said. He could say his staff had packed them into boxes when he moved
from the White House, without Trump's knowledge. But if he were showing them
off to visitors, that argument would be killed.
Former Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who
joined Strzok on Wallace's panel, explained that these facts remove Trump's
ability to use that excuse since it ties Trump directly to
obstruction.
Katyal said: “That's
where the reporting from yesterday comes in that's so important. It ties Trump
directly to the scheme. If it holds up and, of course, we don't know — and
Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence and all that, but if that's
what S/C Jack Smith is looking at and looks like what he got, that's going to
be very devastating.”
But it was ultimately
Strzok that connected the dots between all of those details warning: “Trump
is quite encircled on the conspiracy to obstruct the documents probe. I think
part of the reason he hasn't been charged yet — remember one of Trump's key
lawyers, Evan Corcoran, was engaged in this long fight about whether or not
he'd be compelled to testify before the grand jury and recently he did go ahead
and do that. This article very clearly points out that special counsel Smith's
folks are asking whether or not he shows this information to donors. So, if
you're trying to figure out the 'why,' what's your theory of the case, why on
Earth did he want to do it, if he's using this to convert it for fundraising
and showing it to people who absolutely have no business seeing it and he's
hiding it at the same time. That really starts to flesh out the story about,
one, why this occurred and, two, how integral Trump was to this entire
enterprise.”
Host Wallace then read the piece of the Post report saying: “That Trump would flash his classified documents, including maps, to political donors.”
NOTE: This isn't the first time Trump is
accused of playing fast and loose with the nation's secrets or security. During
the early years of the Trump presidency, Mar-a-Lago club members were
seen having their photos
taken with the nuclear football, the briefcase that
contains all authorization for a president to launch a nuclear attack while
away from the White House.
Additional past report
that is also potentially devastating to Trump is also here from SALON with this unbelievable
headline from October 8, 2022 – same subject:
“Trump plotted
to trade Mar-a-Lago files for 'sensitive documents' about his 2016 campaign
Russia ties”
Key introduction:
Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt (NY Times) wrote: “The former president pressed aides to lie about what he took and was hiding, thus also putting them, and his attorneys, in legal jeopardy. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the FBI investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the NARA for its unwillingness to hand over sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims.”
Schmidt then added:
“In exchange for those documents, Trump told advisers, he would return to the NARA
the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago.”
Now this amazing story is
added that shows one of Trump’s lawyers who got caught flat-footed about the Mar-a-Lago
documents reported here from RAWSTORY with that headline:
“Trump attorney
caught flat-footed when grilled on new Mar-a-Lago revelations”
Note: This part is tied to those revelations reported above
in the other SALON articles.
Brief Introduction
(April 3 article): The Washington Post reported that the DOJ has evidence
that the former president went through the boxes of documents at his Mar-a-Lago
estate, and that some of the files were labeled as confidential, with security
camera footage backing up the new accusations.
During her appearance on CNN, host Don Lemon tried to get Trump’s attorney. Alina Habba, to address the new accusations and she parried his questions when he asked her: “I want to turn now to the DOJ case in the classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. This is, according to the Washington Post saying that federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, that Trump looked through the content of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession. Do you know whether he reviewed certain classified documents after receiving the subpoena?”
Habba
shot back: “No, I have nothing to do with that case. I do not know.”
My 2 Cents: Full story details at all the links cited above. From there
it went downhill very fast for Trump, and yet it still continues so stay tuned.
And, yes, this post is
long and very detailed, but it needs to be told in the most factual way
possible to emphasize the deep legal trouble regarding national security that
Trump got himself into without any doubt that also may have (or probably has
already) damaged national security one helluva lot. We may never know which is
disturbing.
S/C Jack Smith I have no
doubt has a strong and compelling case against Trump, enough I suspect to put
him away for a very long time which he deserves for this high crimes against
the country.
Thanks for stopping by.
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