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  1. #476
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    "And the crescendo reviewer had to be the Attorney General of the United States. That makes it the most important search warrant in the history of the United States."

    From the link......

    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    FBI's search warrant


    • To obtain and execute a search warrant, the FBI must have an affidavit that sets forth probable cause that at least one crime was committed.
    • Search warrants also require a connection between the crime and the place that is being searched; federal agents must be able to list the specific items that are going to be searched; and the evidence has to be relatively fresh.
    • When a search warrant is requested for a major figure, including a president or other elected official, "it goes through a long review process," Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, told Axios.


    In Trump's case, for instance, the FBI first works with prosecutors at the Department of Justice to review the search warrant, Rossi said.


    • Chris Wray, the Trump-appointed director of the FBI, had to sign off on the warrant before it was sent for review to senior DOJ leaders, including Attorney General Merrick Garland.


    The bottom line: "This search warrant for the former president of the United States of America was looked at by a ton of people, it was perused by every prosecutor and agent you could find. And it went through multiple layers of review," Rossi said.


    • "And the crescendo reviewer had to be the Attorney General of the United States. That makes it the most important search warrant in the history of the United States."


    _____________




    Only a handful of people who were “very close” to former President Donald Trump could have tipped off federal investigators about boxes of classified documents being stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort, onetime White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday.

    The FBI raided Trump’s ritzy residence in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday in search of sensitive papers that the 45th president purportedly removed from the White House at the end of his term of office.

    Multiple outlets have reported that the Department of Justice opted to apply for a search warrant after a person with knowledge of the storage arrangement blew the whistle.

    “This would be someone who was handling things on day-to-day, who knew where documents were, so it would be somebody very close, inside the president,” Mulvaney told CNN Thursday. “My guess is there’s probably six or eight people who had that kind of information.”

    Mulvaney added that whoever talked to the feds was so close to Trump they knew the existence and location of a safe at Trump’s home.

    ​”​I didn’t even know there was a safe at Mar-a-Lago, and I was the chief of staff for 15 months​,” he said.
    Last edited by S Landreth; 12-08-2022 at 04:54 PM.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  2. #477
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    “This would be someone who was handling things on day-to-day, who knew where documents were, so it would be somebody very close, inside the president,”
    We shall call them.... "Deep Anal".


  3. #478
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    News is saying there was no plausible reason for Trump to have classified documents at his personal residence. I wouldn't put it past Trump that he thought he could sell them to Saudi Arabia or Russia at some point.

  4. #479
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    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    News is saying there was no plausible reason for Trump to have classified documents at his personal residence. I wouldn't put it past Trump that he thought he could sell them to Saudi Arabia or Russia at some point.
    LOL, or try to impress others of how important was once upon a time...

  5. #480
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    Quote Originally Posted by thailazer View Post
    News is saying there was no plausible reason for Trump to have classified documents at his personal residence. I wouldn't put it past Trump that he thought he could sell them to Saudi Arabia or Russia at some point.
    My first thought to be honest.

  6. #481
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago on Monday removed 11 sets of classified information from the Trump property, including some marked as "top secret," the Wall Street Journal reports.

    Why it matters: The inventory — which was reviewed by the WSJ along with the warrant from the search — confirms the FBI removed classified documents that were only meant to be kept in secure government facilities.


    • The revelations undercut Trump and his allies’ claims that the search warrant was baseless.
    • The full contents of the documents are still unknown.
    • The Justice Department is currently seeking to unseal the warrant and inventory.
    • The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the FBI sought some classified documents relating to nuclear weapons in their search. Trump denied on Truth Social the reports of possessing any materials related to nuclear weapons.
    • Trump’s legal team has not confirmed the report and Axios has not independently verified the contents of the warrant.


    Driving the news: The FBI found four sets of "top secret documents", three sets of "secret documents", and three sets of "confidential documents" — all of which the Justice Department argues are federal property, the WSJ found.


    • The FBI seized roughly 20 boxes of materials in total, including binders, handwritten notes, the executive grant of clemency for Roger Stone, and information about the "President of France."
    • One set of documents was labeled “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” referring to top-secret and sensitive compartmented information.


    Trump’s lawyers argue the president used his authority to declassify the documents before he left office.


    • As the WSJ notes, a president has the power to declassify documents, but there are federal regulations that dictate that process.


    The backdrop: Republicans immediately went into an uproar following the news of Monday's FBI search and demanded to see the Justice Department's warrant while claiming — without evidence — that Trump is victim to a corrupt and rogue Biden Justice department.


    • On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced he "personally approved the decision" to seek the warrant.
    • Garland noted the decision to do so was unusual and not taken "lightly," but he felt it necessary following the repeated calls from government officials to do so, as well as in response to the attacks on the FBI and the DOJ's credibility.
    • Trump's legal team also had the ability to publicly release the warrant but chose not to do so.

  7. #482
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The FBI’s search warrant for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence shows the former president is under investigation for possibly violating the Espionage Act.

    The search warrant, which a federal judge unsealed Friday at the request of the Justice Department, also states Trump is being investigated for potentially removing or destroying records and obstructing an investigation. All of those crimes may be punished with fines or imprisonment.

    A list of documents the FBI gathered from Trump’s Florida home, reported that some of the documents collected were marked “Various classified/TS/SCI documents” ― an acronym for “top-secret” and “sensitive compartmented information” that indicates one of the highest levels of government classification.

    The Espionage Act was established in 1917 to prohibit anyone from obtaining defense information with the possible intent of using it against the U.S. or to further the interests of a foreign country.

    Twenty boxes were taken in total, including 11 marked with various degrees of classification. The list also denoted binders of photos, a handwritten note, the executive grant of clemency for Trump’s campaign advisor Roger Stone and information about French president Emmanuel Macron. No further information about the materials was included.

    Trump suspected of violating Espionage Act, according to search warrant





    https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...854.17.0_7.pdf
    Last edited by S Landreth; 13-08-2022 at 04:13 AM.

  8. #483
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    I edited out the intro to skip right to the Statutes

    Feds’ Bombshell Search of Trump’s Home Investigated Possible Intent to Commit ‘Injury’ to the ‘United States’ — Here’s What the Statutes Say

    Let’s discuss the statutes one by one.

    • 18 U.S.C. § 793


    This statute under the Espionage Act covers the “[g]athering, transmitting or losing” of “defense information.”

    The warrant doesn’t facially explain which subsection of the statute may be at play, but subsection (a) involves an interesting element.

    That subsection criminalizes the “obtaining information respecting the national defense” by someone with the “intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”

    Subsection (d) of the statute covers an individual “lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document.” This particular subsection criminalizes the communication, delivery, transmission of material “relating to the national defense” if the possessor of the material “has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.” Subsection (d) also criminalizes the willful retention and failure to deliver such material “on demand” to an officer or “employee of the United States entitled to receive it.”

    Subsection (f) makes it a crime punishable by a fine or by imprisonment of “not more than ten years, or both” to, with “gross negligence,” permit the aforementioned types of materials “to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed.” It also makes it a crime to “hav[e] knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fail[] to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer.”

    Subsection (g) contains a conspiracy element: “[i]f two or more persons conspire to violate any of the foregoing provisions of this section, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy.”

    • 18 U.S.C. § 2071


    This statute covers “concealment, removal, or mutilation generally.”

    It reads, in full, as follows. Note the section about forfeiting one’s office and being disqualified from future office:

    (a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

    (b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.

    • 18 U.S.C. § 1519


    This statute involves the “[d]estruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy.” Specifically, it involves making a “false entry” in certain records.

    It is also brief; the full text is here:

    Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

    Background

    The National Archives has for months been communicating with Trump echelons about documents which it expected to receive under the Presidential Records Act.

    On Feb. 7, the Archives released the following:

    In mid-January 2022, NARA arranged for the transport from the Trump Mar-a-Lago property in Florida to the National Archives of 15 boxes that contained Presidential records, following discussions with President Trump’s representatives in 2021. Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives.

    As required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA), these records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021.

    On Feb. 8, the Archives released a follow-up:

    Throughout the course of the last year, NARA obtained the cooperation of Trump representatives to locate Presidential records that had not been transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Trump administration. When a representative informed NARA in December 2021 that they had located some records, NARA arranged for them to be securely transported to Washington. NARA officials did not visit or “raid” the Mar-a-Lago property.

    Discussion

    Good read in the link above

  9. #484
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    Trump has claimed they were declassified documents. The President has the authority to declassify them, but is there an actual process to make it official? Or are there certain documents that can't be declassified ever, even by the President?

  10. #485
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pickel View Post
    Trump has claimed they were declassified documents. The President has the authority to declassify them, but is there an actual process to make it official? Or are there certain documents that can't be declassified ever, even by the President?

    Yes, there is a process. You can bet he didn’t follow it nor can he declassify them after the event of being discovered with them.

  11. #486
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    What is the process?

    He's a sneaky worm, and I'm just wondering what his strategy is.

  12. #487
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    ^Hope it helps……..

    Part 3. Declassification and Downgrading




    After news of the search emerged, the former president claimed in a post Friday on Truth Social that the material "was all declassified." In the coming weeks, that claim will likely be evaluated by the government, and possibly, the courts. It's not clear how much information the public will have about how it unfolds.

    As for the president's power to declassify materials, here's some background on how it works, according to current and former intelligence officials familiar with the declassification process.

    First, a U.S. president does have uniquely sweeping declassification abilities, though there is a process that involves written documentation and several other steps.

    It's not the case that a president can declassify documents with just verbal instructions. His instruction to declassify a given document would first be memorialized in a written memo, usually drafted by White House counsel, which he would then sign.

    Typically, the leadership of the agency or agencies with equities in the document would be consulted and given an opportunity to provide their views on the declassification decision. As the ultimate declassification authority, however, the president can decide to override any objections they raise.

    Once a final decision is made, and the relevant agency receives the president's signed memo, the physical document in question would be marked — the old classification level would be crossed out — and the document would then be stamped, "Declassified on X date" by the agency in question.

    Former Trump administration officials have claimed that Trump previously declassified the documents taken with him to Mar-a-Lago, but that the classification markings had not been updated.

    "The White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that doesn't mean the information wasn't declassified," former Trump defense official Kash Patel told Breitbart in May, regarding other material that had earlier been removed from Mar-a-Lago. "I was there with President Trump when he said 'We are declassifying this information.'"

    Courts may ultimately have to decide how sweeping a sitting president's declassification powers can be. But U.S. officials familiar with the classification process to date point out that, unless and until the documents are stamped "Declassified" by the requisite agency, and following the submission of a written memo signed by the president, they have historically not been considered declassified.

    It is also unclear how central a legal question the classification process and the president's role in it could be. As the New York Times points out, none of the statutes cited in the warrant rely on whether the records were classified or not. The search warrant signed by the Florida magistrate judge entails items "illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. § § 793, 2071, or 1519."

    That first code, Section 793, and more commonly known as the Espionage Act, applies to defense information. It applies, for instance, to material illegally removed "from its proper place of custody" or that is lost, stolen or destroyed.

    The next statute, Section 2071, bans concealing, removing, mutilating or destroying records filed with U.S. courts. And the final one, Section 1519, prohibits concealing, destroying or mutilating records to obstruct or influence an investigation.

  13. #488
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    ^
    Thanks for that.

  14. #489
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Mar-a-Lago search warrant's clues

    The FBI seized documents from former President Trump's home that may have been kept in violation of the Espionage Act, as well as other federal laws, according to documents released yesterday.

    Why it matters: The search related to highly sensitive documents that could carry national security concerns.


    • Trump on Friday afternoon said in a statement that "it was all declassified" and insisted that "they didn't need to 'seize' anything. They could have had it at anytime."
    • The Justice Department has rebutted those claims.


    Driving the news: Affidavit B in the redacted search warrant materials made public on Friday called for seizure of "all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of" 18 U.S. Code § 793, 2071, or 1519.c


    • That covers the Espionage Act as well as laws against removing government records or obstructing justice.
    • The search warrant described Mar-a-Lago as a 17-acre estate with 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms. The search applied to the "45 office" as well as storage rooms and other rooms used by the former president and his staff. It didn't cover private guest suites or other areas for third parties and not available to Trump or his staff.


    What they're saying: "It doesn't matter if he was holding on to the information because he was using it as memorabilia or wanted to trade it for financial benefit" or whether his motives were "petty or corrupt," said Ryan Goodman, an NYU law school professor and former special counsel at the Department of Defense and founding co-editor of the Just Security online national security forum.


    • "That's why I think he's in very serious trouble," Goodman said. "If the Justice Department wanted to pursue a criminal case, based on the available information known to the public to date, they appear to have a very strong case."


    But, but, but: The search — and the many boxes and binders seized — does not guarantee there will be an indictment, Goodman said.


    • Obtaining and securing the most sensitive documents may have been the overarching objective.


    Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, told Axios that "we should be careful" not to rush to conclusions because "there's still a whole lot we don't know."


    • Still, he said, a reference to the Espionage Act on a search warrant for the home of an ex-U.S. president "is really quite stunning."
    • "This is about more than just, ‘President Trump took some stuff home with him that he shouldn't have.’"


    Details: The inventory shows the FBI removed 11 sets of classified information from the Trump property, including some marked as "top secret." Agents collected ...


    • "Various classified/TS/SCI documents" — referring to documents containing "top secret" or "sensitive compartmented information."
    • 21 boxes of "miscellaneous confidential documents," "miscellaneous secret documents" or "miscellaneous top secret documents."
    • The executive grant of clemency for Trump's associate Roger Stone, "Info re: President of France," a leatherbound box of documents, two binders of photos and a handwritten note.


    What we're watching: The affidavit to support the search warrant was not included in the materials unsealed Friday. Its contents could reveal a great deal more about the circumstances and information behind the execution of the search and seizure.

  15. #490
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    former Trump defense official Kash Patel told Breitbart in May, regarding other material that had earlier been removed from Mar-a-Lago. "I was there with President Trump when he said 'We are declassifying this information.'"




    It's like the Catholic vicar proclaiming the beef is now fish so he eat it on Fridays.

  16. #491
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    Still, he said, a reference to the Espionage Act on a search warrant for the home of an ex-U.S. president "is really quite stunning."
    "This is about more than just, ‘President Trump took some stuff home with him that he shouldn't have.’"
    It's also more than he might sell it to the Saudi's or Russians. The AG had to have had probable cause, meaning they had some pretty strong evidence of espionage.

  17. #492
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrWilly View Post
    It's also more than he might sell it to the Saudi's or Russians. The AG had to have had probable cause, meaning they had some pretty strong evidence of espionage.
    Yeah that. It might be that he was somehow making initial contacts with a foreign entity on what he had and that was snagged by the NSA or DIA.

  18. #493
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrWilly View Post



    It's like the Catholic vicar proclaiming the beef is now fish so he eat it on Fridays.
    Reminds me of a comment by Judge Jeanine Puerile, On The Five Fools yesterday.

    “Trump didn’t get a copy of the warrant! I spoke to Eric Trump, yesterday!”

  19. #494
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    ^^ & ^^^ At first I was leaning towards concealing records to obstruct or influence an investigation.

    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    The next statute, Section 2071, bans concealing, removing, mutilating or destroying records filed with U.S. courts. And the final one, Section 1519, prohibits concealing, destroying or mutilating records to obstruct or influence an investigation.
    The January 6th investigations and Trump’s actions/inactions taken before/during that date.

    Sedition


    Although it is not the same as treason — which involves actually levying war against the U.S. or helping enemies of the federal government — seditious conspiracy is a very serious charge and carries a 20-year maximum sentence.

    Seditious conspiracy is an extremely rare and challenging crime to prosecute, as well. It is hard to prove, politically charged and requires federal prosecutors to show conspiracy amongst two or more members who agreed to use force to overthrow the government. The law was first enacted during the Civil War after Southern states succeeded from the Union.

    It’ll be interesting to see what charges will be filed against the fat orange loser trump


    Last edited by S Landreth; 14-08-2022 at 11:40 AM.

  20. #495
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    former Trump defense official Kash Patel told Breitbart in May, regarding other material that had earlier been removed from Mar-a-Lago. "I was there with President Trump when he said 'We are declassifying this information.'"
    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    "The White House counsel failed to generate the paperwork to change the classification markings, but that doesn't mean the information wasn't declassified
    Umm . . . quite sure that not following procedure invalidates the intent in a legal context . . . where the heck do they get these muppets?

  21. #496
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    "Jon Sale, a prominent Florida defense attorney who had been part of the Watergate prosecutorial team, confirmed he was asked this week to represent Trump — and declined. He called the request a 'privilege' but said that because of 'other professional commitments,' he did not have the time to provide the kind of lawyering he believed Trump will need."


  22. #497
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The unsealing of the search warrant that the FBI executed at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property revealed that the agency believes Trump may have violated the Espionage Act of 1917, among other potential crimes.

    The warrant was made public on Friday after the Justice Department filed a motion to request that it be unsealed. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he made the decision given the intense public interest in the situation and because Trump chose to publicly reveal that the search occurred.

    The warrant revealed that FBI agents recovered 11 sets of classified items during the search, including one labeled “various classified/TS/SCI documents,” meaning top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information.

    Officials took three items labeled “confidential,” three labeled “secret” and four labeled “top secret.”

    The Espionage Act makes it illegal for anyone who has information related to national defense to use it “to the injury of the United States” or “to the advantage of any foreign nation.”

    Under the Espionage Act, it is also illegal for anyone who lawfully has possession of information related to national security to provide it or attempt to provide it to those not permitted to obtain it. These individuals also cannot “willfully” retain and fail to deliver documents or other materials on demand to an officer of the United States who is allowed to receive them.

    Anyone convicted of violating the law could face a fine or up to 10 years in prison.

    Derek Bambauer, a law professor at the University of Arizona, said the act is a “core” part of national security law and was designed to allow the government to prosecute people with sensitive information that could put the country’s national security at risk. He said it can apply to people who deliberately transfer the information to someone not authorized to have it or store it in a place it should not be.

    Former President Wilson signed the act into law a few months after the United States entered World War I. The law was passed to prevent interference with the war effort or recruiting soldiers and to prevent Americans from supporting the country’s enemies during wartime.

    Bambauer said the law tends to be invoked at times of “perceived crisis,” but courts typically give deference to the government in enforcing these types of laws and determining when a national security issue is considered a threat.

    For the FBI’s search warrant of Mar-a-Lago to be approved, the agency needed to show probable cause that a crime had been committed and that evidence was located in a specific place. A federal judge signed off that the FBI demonstrated probable cause before the search happened.

    Bambauer said a noteworthy feature of the law in this situation is that whether the information or documents are classified is “wholly irrelevant” to potential violations. The information only needs to be sensitive and a threat to the security of the country.

    Trump and his allies have claimed that he declassified the documents found at Mar-a-Lago while he was still serving as president, so there is no legal issue.

    Bambauer said Trump may have declassified certain information while president, but classification status is not mentioned in the law.

    “The language of the law, the Espionage Act, doesn’t talk about classification at all, which is not surprising because classification, at least as a structural concept, didn’t exist at the time this was passed,” he said.

    Gerry Gleeson, a lecturer at Michigan State University and former state prosecutor, said any criminal investigation into violations of this law would look at national defense, not classification status.

    He said probable cause, needed to obtain a search warrant, is a different standard than beyond a reasonable doubt, needed for someone to be found guilty of a crime. He said grand juries usually issue indictments for who a U.S. attorney wants to indict in most cases, but the government needs to consider if it can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

    “Career federal prosecutors are serious people, and that’s a serious inquiry that they would take before they decide whether they want to pursue charges against anyone, whether it’s a politician or an individual citizen,” Gleeson said.

    The Espionage Act consists of more than half a dozen provisions, each laying out different circumstances where a violation may occur. Experts said the varying levels of intent required to meet the standard of breaking the law could have implications for Trump.

    Bambauer said a “state of mind” provision is common in criminal law in that some level of knowledge or intent is required. He said many of the provisions in the Espionage Act are similar, but one way they differ is in terms of state of mind.

    The first provision of the law states that someone must have intent or reason to believe that the information would be used to harm the U.S. A defense could argue that someone accused of violating the law did not know the information could threaten national security, if plausible, Bambauer said.

    But the sixth section states that someone who lawfully possesses a document could violate the law if they permit it to be taken from its proper place through “gross negligence.”

    Bambauer said that section could be relevant in leading to charges, based on what the public knows.

    Gleeson said the act makes a distinction between information and documents, with the latter requiring less intent than the former.

    He said the fourth section of the act only states that a person must have reason to believe that documents or other materials could be used to harm the U.S. Part of the section also states that anyone who “willfully retains” the materials and refuses to provide them on demand from an officer or employee of the United States could face charges.

    Gleeson said this part could play a role in Trump’s case based on reporting that Trump received a subpoena for national security documents months before the search took place.

    “It doesn’t have to be top secret,” he said. “It just has to be information related to the national defense that could be possibly used to injure the United States.”

  23. #498
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    John Dean, former President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, predicted on Sunday that media supporters of former President Trump will have a “egg all over their face” when the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into matters involving classified documents comes to an eventual end.

    During an appearance on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” host Brian Stelter asked Dean for his thoughts on the conservative media’s response to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in which many right-leaning voices have lobbed attacks on law enforcement and claimed the probe is politically motivated.

    Some TV cable news hosts such as Fox News’ Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity have gone so far to say “they have declared war on us and now it’s game on” and that the search was a “clear and gross abuse of power.”

    When asked to respond to an array of news clips over the past week, Dean said: “Well, I think that they don’t seem to want to appreciate that the FBI and other federal law enforcement as well as state and local, they enforce search warrants every day, against every kind of person.”

    “And there’s a reason Trump provoked this. He’s the one who didn’t cooperate. He’s the one who forced [Attorney General] Merrick Garland’s hand. We don’t know what it is he has or had.”

    “Garland isn’t a risk taker, he isn’t a guy whose bold and goes where no one else has ever gone. He’s somebody who does it by the book so I think these people are going to have egg all over their face when this is over,” Dean added. “While they may not ever admit it, there, there certainly should.”

    Dean is famously known for his role in initially covering up the Watergate scandal but later cooperated with federal prosectors and testified against Nixon during hearings on the congressional investigation into the scandal.

    The FBI and DOJ have faced a series of attacks since a search warrant was executed on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence nearly one week ago. In rare public remarks, Garland said last week the department would seek to unseal the warrant and reveal documents that were taken, in which some were determined to be classified and top secret.

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    New targets




    Conservative media outlet Breitbart is facing criticism for publishing the names of FBI agents involved in the raid of former President Donald Trump's home.

    Breitbart published a leaked version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, including the names of an FBI special agent and supervisor agent, on Friday. The agents both signed their names on receipts for property seized from Trump's home, including boxes of classified documents that reportedly may have included nuclear secrets. A redacted version of the warrant, which omitted the names of the agents, was officially released hours later.

    Commentators soon took to Twitter to accuse Breitbart, an outlet previously managed by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, of doxxing—the practice of identifying a person or releasing personal information about them, often with the aim of enabling targeted harassment. Some also accused Trump of leaking the warrant to Breitbart in hopes of targeting the agents.

    "[U.S. Attorney General Merrick] Garland called Trump out to make warrant public," tweeted digital strategist Alan Rosenblatt. "Trump tried to get one over on Garland, releasing warrant to Breitbart, w/out redacting FBI agents names. That's right, Trump doxxed FBI agents serving a legal search warrant. Once again, Trump is inciting violence."

    "It's also worth noting that they published the names of the FBI agents, which serves no purpose other than opening them up to threats and harassment," legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted. "Breitbart is also confused about what 'SSA' means. It refers to Supervisory Special Agent, a FBI supervisor."

    "Trump, via Breitbart, released unredacted copy of property receipt containing names of FBI agents," tweeted attorney Mark S. Zaid. "Based on his history, this can only be interpreted as intentional to cause these Special Agents (one of whom I know) & their families grief & subject them to possible threats."


    "From what I can tell, the court unsealed it - but before that could happen, Trump himself leaked it to Breitbart," author Tessa Dare tweeted. "But the version he leaked had the FBI AGENTS' NAMES in it, whereas the official unsealed one kept those redacted to protect them and their families. A**hole."

    "[Breitbart] incl the names of the individual FBI agents involved in the search," Elephant Journal tweeted. "The court issued release of the warrant redacts that sensitive information. Team Trump just put a target on the backs of the agents & their families. That is 100% the intent."

    "Trump's social media platform sent a push alert this afternoon to an article with an unredacted version of the search warrant that included the names of two FBI agents," tweeted CNN correspondent Donie O'Sullivan. "Those agents' names are now circulating on pro-Trump social media and are being villainized."

    "So... when Trump leaked the warrant docs to WSJ, Fox & Breitbart this afternoon, the names of the FBI agents in moved were not redacted," news anchor Ed Greenberger tweeted. "Anyone who thinks Trump cares about America, or Americans, is a damn fool."

    ____________




    Donald Trump is under fire for allegedly leaking the entire unredacted warrant and “endangering” FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago home as part of an investigation into the removal of official records from the White House.

    A judge unsealed a redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant documents, which show the Justice Department recovered 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked with the highest levels of classification.

    “The disgusting, vile, deranged former POTUS just leaked the entire warrant,” a viral tweet by user ‘Spiro Agnew’s Ghost’ claimed. “The one his lawyers said he didn’t have with the FBI agents’ names unredacted, so he could purposefully endanger them.” However, the handle did not offer proof that Mr Trump was behind the leak.

    Meanwhile, Breitbart faced flak for publishing a leaked version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant that included the names of an FBI special agent and supervisor agent, with users claiming Mr Trump himself leaked the document to the right-wing organisation.

    A law enforcement source told CNN that the FBI is investigating an “unprecedented” number of threats against bureau personnel and property in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago search, including some against agents listed in court records as being involved in the recent search.

    On Friday, the names of the two agents who signed the search warrant paperwork circulated online.

    The names had reportedly been included in a version of the search warrant that was leaked prior to the official unsealing of the documents as the version released by the court redacted the names.

    This week, some violent threats against attorney general Merrick Garland surfaced online.

    The threats state that Mr Garland “personally approved” the decision to seek a warrant of the search.

    Furthermore, the biography and contact information of the federal magistrate judge who signed the search warrant was also wiped from a Florida court’s website after he too became the target of violent threats, according to CNN.

    Mr Trump denied reports that he had documents related to nuclear weapons at his home and accused the FBI of “planting information.”

    Mr Trump lashed out on his media platform Truth Social in response to a report from The Washington Post published Thursday evening that claimed the FBI agents were looking for documents relating to nuclear weapons.

    Mr Trump compared the report to the investigation into Russia interfering with the 2016 presidential election and the special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller.

    “Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax, two impeachments were a hoax, the Mueller investigation was a hoax, and much more,” he said. “Same sleazy people involved.”

    The former president also asked why the FBI would not allow inspection of Mar-a-Lago with his lawyers present.

    According to a copy of the warrant and inventory of documents recovered from Mr Trump’s property which was obtained by The Independent, agents recovered from the ex-president a set of papers bearing markings identifying them as Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information – a level of classification above the top secret level which is often applied to intelligence sources as well as the US nuclear arsenal.

  25. #500
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    I so badly want to see baldy orange cunto's perp walk.

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