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  1. #651
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The Justice Department moved to quickly dismantle the independent review of documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, contending that the review — ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon — is impeding its criminal investigation.

    In a 15-page filing asking a federal appeals court to speed its consideration of the issue, prosecutors complained the “special master” review prevents DOJ from accessing thousands of non-classified records recovered from the former president’s estate.

    While those documents don’t present the same urgent national security concerns as the smaller volume of classified materials DOJ successfully fought to regain access to earlier this month, Justice Department officials said the continued blockade on non-classified materials had slowed investigators’ efforts to determine how some of the classified records were transferred to Mar-a-Lago and whether any of them were improperly accessed.

    “The government is … unable to examine records that were commingled with materials bearing classification markings, including records that may shed light on, for example, how the materials bearing classification markings were transferred to Plaintiff’s residence, how they were stored, and who may have accessed them,” DOJ officials, including counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt, wrote in the filing with the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. “The records not marked as classified may also constitute evidence of potential [obstruction] and [concealment or removal of government records].”

    Can we explain Trump’s reaction to the DOJ probe in 2 minutes? A POLITICO reporter tries (and fails, again)

    The Justice Department is seeking an expedited review of its appeal of Cannon’s order establishing the special master review. Though legal briefing in the appeal was slated to carry through mid-December or longer, DOJ’s proposed expedited schedule would conclude that process by mid-November and have oral arguments set soon thereafter.

    The filing also hints at prosecutors’ irritation with Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed days after his defeat in the 2020 election. The Justice Department noted that she has repeatedly overruled decisions made by the special master she appointed at Trump’s suggestion, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie. Those rulings could significantly delay Dearie’s review, prosecutors indicated.

    “Based on the district court’s orders thus far, the government is barred from accessing all of the materials except those with classification markings recovered in August pursuant to a lawful search warrant — and it may continue to be barred from doing so until mid-December or later,” the officials wrote as they asked the appeals court to weigh in promptly on the legal issues, including Trump’s claims of executive privilege.

    “Absent such resolution by this Court, the special master proceedings could result in prolonged litigation, including through seriatim appeals to the district court from reports and recommendations and other rulings issued by the special master,” the prosecutors wrote.

    The Justice Department’s motion also seeks to capitalize on a ruling earlier this month from an 11th Circuit panel which unanimously granted the government’s request to exclude about 100 documents with classification markings from the special master review. Prosecutors suggest that decision may have created a precedent that undermines Cannon’s essential rationale for the review.

    Despite press reports that one member of Trump’s legal team, attorney Christopher Kise, has stepped back from involvement in the special master litigation, the government’s new filing says Kise was the lawyer prosecutors consulted about Trump’s position regarding the government’s request to expedite the appeal. Kise said Trump’s side plans to oppose it, according to the filing.

    https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000...7-b7be49d40000

    __________




    Former President Trump is scheduled to give testimony on Oct. 19 in a deposition for the defamation suit filed against him by a woman who has accused him of rape.

    A letter filed in court Friday from the attorney of E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s, revealed the scheduling. Trump’s legal team had argued that a deposition was a “more practical” way for Carroll to obtain the information she is seeking instead of providing documents.

    The filing comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday that Trump has legal protection through a federal law that provides broad immunity to government employees. The ruling was a partial victory for Trump, but the court asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to weigh in on whether Trump was acting “outside the scope” of his office when he allegedly defamed Carroll.

    Trump has denied Carroll’s allegation that he raped her and has accused her of lying. He has also attacked her physical appearance.

    Carroll’s lawyer argued that the Second Circuit court’s ruling did not impact the main question of whether the United States should be substituted in for Trump in the lawsuit since he was the president when he made his comments.

    Trump’s attorney had asked a federal judge to deny Carroll’s request that Trump sit for a deposition, but Carroll’s attorney said Trump should not be able to avoid the deposition just because the question of substitution is still unsettled.

    The Justice Department, under Attorneys General William Barr and Merrick Garland, has argued that Trump’s comments were made in the context of his responsibilities so the U.S. should be substituted in. Carroll’s attorneys have said that she plans to file a separate civil suit against Trump for sexual assault.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  2. #652
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The National Archives and Records Administration said on Friday that it is still missing some records from the Trump administration.

    “While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter to the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

    The National Archives does not have some messages that members of the Trump administration sent and received in unofficial accounts while conducting official business for the president, Wall said.

    While the Archives has been able to recover these types of records from some former Trump officials, Wall said they are still missing messages from others who have not yet handed them over.

    Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro has refused to turn over the messages from his unofficial account without a grant of immunity. The Justice Department sued Navarro for the documents in August, noting that he does not deny that he had the unofficial account or that the messages are the property of the U.S. government.

    Wall did not provide an update in Friday’s letter about the records held by former President Trump himself, instead referring the committee to the Justice Department’s investigation.

    The National Archives, with the help of the Justice Department and FBI, has recovered hundreds of presidential records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence over the last year, including dozens of classified documents.

    Disputes over the status of the Mar-a-Lago documents has resulted in an ongoing legal battle between the DOJ and Trump. Following Judge Aileen Cannon’s recent decision to extend the timeline of the case, it is now expected to drag into 2023.

  3. #653
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Calls the LGBTQ+ community paedophiles.
    Fiddles with kids.

    Yep, sounds like a Republican to me.
    Uncanny . . . fits them quite nicely

  4. #654
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    Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro has refused to turn over the messages from his unofficial account without a grant of immunity. The Justice Department sued Navarro for the documents in August, noting that he does not deny that he had the unofficial account or that the messages are the property of the U.S. government.

    Why are these people getting away with this shit?
    Why aren't they being arrested for what is obvious and flagrant lawbreaking?

  5. #655
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    But remember Hilary's emails!

    Now that the shoe is on the other foot the blatant hypocrisy of Trump and his gang is just astounding.

  6. #656
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case about whether the Justice Department (DOJ) can use “filter teams,” such as the one enlisted by the DOJ to begin a review of evidence collected at former President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago to determine whether they are privileged.

    The Justices denied a writ of certiorari in Korf v. United States, which questioned the legality of “filter team” protocols that allow teams of federal prosecutors and agents not assigned to a given case to review seized documents claimed to be privileged before the privilege question has been resolved.

    The DOJ used a filter team to begin a review of the evidence collected during the execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence before Trump successfully pushed for a “special master” to review the documents he said were privileged.

    FBI agents at the Palm Beach, Fla., resort recovered classified documents taken from the White House and kept past the end of Trump’s time in office.

    The former president’s defenses for how and why the documents ended up at Mar-a-Lago has shifted, but one of his claims stymying DOJ review of the materials is that the documents contain privileged information.

    In Korf, a “filter team” of DOJ attorneys reviewed materials seized during an investigation before a court had responded to claims of privilege on those documents.

    The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit allowed the protocols to proceed without requiring the filter team to show that an exception to privilege may have applied to the documents.

    ____________



    The National Archives asked former President Trump's lawyers to account for correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in May 2021 as part of a bid to locate boxes of presidential records, according to email correspondence released Monday.

    Why it matters: Exactly eight weeks since the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago, the former president and his legal team have still not explained why he took more than 11,000 government documents and refused to return them on request.

    The National Archives said it released email correspondence in response to more than 50 freedom of information requests related to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago this summer.
    Details: On May 6, 2021, National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern asked Trump's lawyers for their "immediate assistance to ensure that NARA receives all Presidential records as required by the Presidential Records Act."

    "For example, the original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un were not transferred to us; it is our understanding that in January 2021, just prior to the end of the Administration, the originals were put in a binder for the President, but were never returned to the Office of Records Management for transfer to NARA."

    "It is essential that these original records be transferred to NARA as soon as possible," wrote Stern, who also pointed to a missing letter from former President Obama.

    "We know things were very chaotic, as they always are in the course of a one-term transition ... But it is absolutely necessary that we obtain and account for all original Presidential records."

    Other requests released Monday referenced deleted Trump tweets that weren't properly archived.

    The big picture: Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records must be immediately transferred to the national archivist as soon as a president leaves office. Some of the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago during the FBI's search were classified, according to the Justice Department.

    Trump has claimed he had a "standing order" dictating that documents taken from the Oval Office to his residence were "deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them."

    Former Attorney General Bill Barr and former national security adviser John Bolton, who both worked in the Trump administration, have disputed the claim.

    Now embroiled in a legal battle with the DOJ, Trump faces a special master who appears deeply skeptical of the arguments put forth by his legal team.

    ___________

    Extra




    The Supreme Court on Monday rejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s bid to fend off a defamation lawsuit the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems filed over his far-fetched claims about the 2020 presidential election.

    The justices’ decision not to hear the case means a federal judge’s ruling in August 2021 that allowed the lawsuit to move forward remains in place.

    ______________

    Little more


    • Trump attorney lawyers up — and says she’s willing to cooperate with DOJ in Mar-a-Lago case


    At least one member of former President Donald Trump's legal team has hired her own attorney — and allies are urging another to follow suit, according to The Washington Post.

    Trump attorneys Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran affirmed to the Justice Department that Trump had handed over all classified records from his Mar-a-Lago residence in response to a May subpoena. But prosecutors said their response was "incomplete" after the FBI searched and found more documents at Mar-a-Lago and cited evidence of "obstructive conduct" in response to the subpoena.

    Bobb has since hired her own lawyer, Florida-based former prosecutor John Lauro, and "made it known to Trump allies that she is willing to cooperate and be interviewed by the Justice Department," according to the Post. And colleagues have similarly urged Corcoran to hire a criminal defense lawyer because of his response to the subpoena, according to the report, but he has insisted it is not necessary.

    Asked if she was negotiating to sit for an interview with the DOJ, Bobb told the outlet, "I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to talk about it."

    Bobb signed a document affirming that Trump handed over "all documents that are responsive to the subpoena" after a "diligent search." Corcoran then met with DOJ officials and made a similar statement. Investigators ultimately found more evidence that there were additional documents at Mar-a-Lago and secured a warrant to search the premises in August.

    Bobb, a former OAN host who helped push Trump's legal challenges following the 2020 election, has insisted to Trump allies that she believes the document she signed was accurate, according to the Post. But she also told the pro-Trump Right Side Broadcasting Network that she was not acting as Trump's attorney while serving as a custodian of records when responding to the subpoena, according to the report, meaning that the DOJ could compel her testimony more easily than if she were acting as Trump's lawyer at the time.

    "Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran need their own criminal lawyers," former DOJ inspector general Michael Bromwich tweeted, citing their "multiple misrepresentations" to the DOJ.

    https://www.salon.com/2022/10/03/att...o-case-report/

    ___________

    Something desperate


    • Trump sues CNN for defamation


    Former President Trump has sued CNN in federal court in Florida for defamation.

    In the lawsuit filed Monday, Trump’s attorneys claim CNN “has sought to use its massive influence — purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source — to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically, culminating in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election.”

    The former president is seeking $475 million in punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.

    Trump announced his intent to sue the network earlier this summer, saying in a statement he would “also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election.”

    The former president’s attorneys allege in the filing that CNN “has undertaken a smear campaign to malign the Plaintiff with a barrage of negative associations and innuendos, broadcasting commentary that he is like a cult leader, a Russian lackey, a dog whistler to white supremacists, and a racist.”

    It also cited anchors, personalities and pundits on CNN using the term “Big Lie” to refer to Trump’s repeated false statements about the 2020 election and voter fraud as evidence of the outlet attempting to associate him with Adolf Hitler.

    In order to prove defamation, public officials and other public figures must prove journalists acted with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth in their reporting, a high legal bar to clear given First Amendment protections granted to the free press under the Constitution. The New York Times, for example, has not lost a defamation case in more than 50 years.

    CNN is a frequent foil of Trump, his followers and allies, as well as conservatives more generally.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3...or-defamation/
    Last edited by S Landreth; 04-10-2022 at 07:54 AM.

  7. #657
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    President Trump’s legal team on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its legal battle to have a third party review the thousands of pages of government records he stored at his Florida home.

    The filing from the Trump team asks the high court to lift a stay granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that allowed the Justice Department to review more than 100 classified records taken from Mar-a-Lago during its August search.

    Trump’s lawyers, in court papers, argued that the federal appeals court erred by allowing the Justice Department to appeal a move that was procedural in nature.

    “Nonetheless, the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay of the Special Master Order, effectively compromising the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review and ignoring the District Court’s broad discretion without justification,” they wrote. “This unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master.”

    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...s-petition.pdf
    __________




    Soon after former President Donald Trump returned 15 boxes of presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration earlier this year, he instructed one of his lawyers to tell the agency that all of the materials the Archives had requested had been returned from his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

    The former Trump Organization attorney, Alex Cannon, had been working with Archives representatives since 2021 to facilitate the return of records that had been taken to Trump’s Florida residence and resort at the end of his presidency. Because Cannon was based in New York and had been assisting with the records matter from afar, he was unsure whether the Archives had received everything in Trump’s possession and thus refused the former President’s request, said people familiar with the matter. Trump told Cannon not to involve himself further, the sources said.

    The relationship between the two men had already become tense after months of stonewalling by Trump and his questioning why he needed to return items in the first place.

    “My understanding is it was a mutual decision for Alex to no longer deal with Archives,” said one of the people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.

    National Archives alerted lawyers for Trump about missing letters with North Korean leader in May 2021, records show
    Unfazed by Cannon’s refusal, Trump dictated a statement to aides in February declaring that all records had been returned to NARA and decrying reporting that his relationship with the agency had become fraught as “fake news.” Two people familiar with the statement, which was never released, said it inexplicably went on to mention German pipelines. The statement was circulated to several Trump aides for approval, including his spokesman Taylor Budowich, who was among several advisers who cautioned the former President to consult his attorneys before releasing it.

    Ultimately, a version of the statement was released that did not reference giving all documents over but said the papers were returned “on a very friendly basis.”

    ___________




    Former President Donald Trump’s first secretary of State took the stand Monday in the foreign agent trial of Trump’s longtime friend, testifying that he was unaware that real estate investor Tom Barrack was relaying nonpublic information about the Trump administration’s discussions to officials from a foreign government or that he was otherwise involved in Trump’s foreign policy deliberations.

    Rex Tillerson, who served as the Trump administration’s top diplomat for a little over a year before being fired by tweet, is the first member of Trump’s administration to testify in Barrack’s trial, which began last month in federal court in Brooklyn.

    Barrack, along with his former aide Matthew Grimes, were charged last year with acting as foreign agents of the United Arab Emirates without notifying the attorney general as prosecutors contend they should have. Barrack is also accused of obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

    Defense attorneys for Barrack have sought to argue that officials within the U.S. government, and potentially the president himself, were aware that their client was backchanneling with the Emiratis, and during the trial they have asserted that Barrack was under the direction or control of no one but himself.

    But Tillerson, who was called as a witness by federal prosecutors, testified that he was unaware that Barrack was privy to what he said were “sensitive” internal discussions, nor did he ever request that Barrack serve as a conduit between Washington and Abu Dhabi.

    “You don’t want outside parties to have that information and try to use it to their advantage,” Tillerson said of such deliberations.

  8. #658
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    An appeals court on Wednesday granted a motion from the Department of Justice to fast-track its appeal in the special master case involving documents seized in the FBI's search at Mar-a-Lago.

    Driving the news: "Having consulted with the Chief Judge, the appeal will be assigned to a special merits panel from the classified appeals log randomly selected by the Clerk," per the filing.


    • The 11th Circuit in the Wednesday filing also set the deadline for all briefs to be submitted to the court by Nov. 17.


    The big picture: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the DOJ last month and granted the department's request to resume reviewing classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.


    • The DOJ on Friday asked the 11th Circuit to expedite its ruling on the special master’s appointment, contending that its inability to review non-classified documents was impeding its investigation, Reuters reports.
    • Trump on Monday opposed the DOJ's request to speed up its appeal, saying "the government has not and cannot possibly articulate any real risk of loss or harm resulting from a more deliberative process."


    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...ted-appeal.pdf


    ____________


    Kyle Cheney - JUST IN: DOJ says they and Trump have finally contracted with “third-party vendors” to process and share the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/stat...62267499831296

    https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...8763.137.0.pdf



    ____________

    Extra



    • Steve Bannon's fraud trial expected in November 2023


    A judge said Tuesday that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's trial for allegedly defrauding donors to build a southern border wall is expected late next year, the AP reports.

    Driving the news: Bannon has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include two counts of money laundering stemming from his work with Trump's "We Build the Wall" campaign, as well as fraud and conspiracy charges.

    Prosecutors in New York accused Bannon of defrauding donors by diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to third parties.

    Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said Bannon’s legal team has until February to go over evidence and submit any pretrial motions, AP reports.

    Prosecutors said there are four terabytes worth of evidence, which translates to millions of written pages or hundreds of hours of video, per AP.

    Background: The case, filed in New York, mirrors a federal case that was dismissed in 2021 after a presidential pardon from Trump.

    https://www.axios.com/2022/10/04/ste...all-trial-2023
    Last edited by S Landreth; 06-10-2022 at 06:10 PM.

  9. #659
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Special Master Agrees to Send Cache of Mar-a-Lago Documents to DOJ ‘Case Team’ Assigned to Investigate Possible Crimes

    The special master tapped to oversee a review of documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort has agreed to ship a tranche of the seized material to a U.S. Department of Justice or FBI “case team.” That move came after the former president’s attorneys failed to assert several forms of privilege over the subset of paperwork in question.

    The “case team” is made up of “law enforcement personnel conducting this investigation,” earlier documents indicate; in essence, it is tasked with reviewing whether any violations of law occurred. Before it can review all of the material seized from Mar-a-Lago, a separate “privilege team” was tasked with reviewing the documents. The goal of that process is to ensure that criminal investigators won’t see any material they are legally not permitted to examine or to use should a criminal case be filed.

    In an order issued Friday, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, appointed as special master to oversee the process, said the DOJ and Trump’s lawyers filed a “Log of Disputes for Filter Materials,” also known as a “Filter Log,” under seal.

    “The Special Master has reviewed the Filter Log and has confirmed that Plaintiff is not asserting attorney-client privilege or attorney work product doctrine for the above-listed documents,” Dearie wrote after listing 37 documents by page number. “Pursuant to the parties’ agreement, the Privilege Review Team is directed to furnish the above-listed documents to the Case Team on or before October 10, 2022.”

    From there, Dearie directed the case team to “confer” with Trump’s lawyers in an “attempt to resolve or narrow the disputes regarding claims of executive privilege and designations pursuant to the Presidential Records Act.”

    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...22-ecf-138.pdf

    ____________

    Extra.




    The tough-talking former mayor who made his name putting lawbreakers in jail ran up against a tough-talking judge who’s ready to do the same — to him.

    Rudy Giuliani has been warned: either produce the records of payments he says he made to his ex-wife or expect a deputy to haul him away.

    “I mean, the sheriff is on notice to come at a moment’s notice,” Manhattan Civil Court Judge Michael Katz said Friday. “This is a very serious matter.”

    Katz had already ordered the former mayor and presidential adviser to pay ex-wife Judith Nathan $235,000 as part of their 2019 divorce settlement.

    Giuliani, who missed a recent court date, claims the amount is a “gross exaggeration,” and that he has the paperwork to prove it. Only, he hasn’t produced all of it yet, and the judge is getting tired of waiting.

    “I don’t understand why it takes two months to get checks from Citibank,” Katz said. "I could get my bank records from entering my passcode on a computer. Nonetheless, he has now presented them. I have no desire to remand someone in custody until I am assured that he has truly not fulfilled his obligations.”

    _____________

    Little more



    Mike Lindell Says DOJ ‘Improperly Obtained and Executed’ Cell Phone Search Warrant, Asks Judge to Fast-Track Document Request

    A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to file a swift reply to Mike Lindell’s demand for an “expedited” review of a request for copies of search warrant materials the government used to justify seizing Lindell’s cell phone.

    According to the court docket, Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright told the DOJ to respond to Lindell’s request for an expedited review by 9 a.m. on Thursday. The reply will reveal how quickly the DOJ wishes to move forward on the matter, but it will likely not directly or immediately resolve the question of whether or not Lindell will immediately obtain copies of the paperwork in question.

    The order for a DOJ response is limited to the issue of the speed of the timeline at play. Still, it came after Lindell’s attorneys filed a collection of court papers which together seek access to the documents and in an expedited fashion — namely, a copy of the affidavit the FBI used to secure the search warrant.

    The affidavit should explain in particularity the probable cause developed by federal authorities to convince a magistrate to sign off on the warrant.

    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...through-42.pdf

  10. #660
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    As the Justice Department's investigation into the classified documents found at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago property continues, new questions have arisen about whether all of the sensitive materials taken from the White House have been returned. Neal Katyal, former acting U.S. Solicitor General, joins Geoff Bennett to discuss the latest developments.

  11. #661
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Christina Bobb, the attorney who signed a letter certifying that all sensitive records in former President Donald Trump's possession had been returned to the government, spoke to federal investigators Friday and named two other Trump attorneys involved with the case, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

    The certification statement, signed June 3 by Bobb, indicated that Trump was in compliance with a May grand jury subpoena and no longer had possession of a host of documents with classification markings at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, according to the three sources who do not want to comment publicly because of the sensitive nature of the sprawling federal investigation.

    Their accounts correspond with federal court records, though the Justice Department did not name her as the attorney who signed the statement, or identify any others involved, in its filings.

    After Justice Department officials were given the statement, the FBI subsequently determined the substance of the certification was untrue and, on Aug. 8, agents executed a search warrant and seized more 103 more records with classification markings, court documents show.

    Bobb, who was Trump’s custodian of record at the time, did not draft the statement, according to the three sources who do not want to comment publicly because of the sensitive nature of the sprawling federal investigation.

    Instead, Trump’s lead lawyer in the case at the time, Evan Corcoran, drafted it and told her to sign it, Bobb told investigators according to the sources. Bobb also spoke to investigators about Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, who she said did not help draft the statement but was minimally involved in discussions about the records, according to the sources.

    Epshteyn’s cellphone was seized last month by the FBI, according to a New York Times report, citing sources familiar with the matter. Two sources confirmed to NBC News that his phone was seized.

    Bobb did not return messages seeking comment, nor did Corcoran. The Justice Department did not comment.

    Before Bobb signed the document, she insisted it be rewritten with a disclaimer that said she was certifying Trump had no more records “based upon the information that has been provided to me,” the sources said of what she told investigators. Bobb identified the person who gave her that “information” as Corcoran, the sources said.

    “She had to insist on that disclaimer twice before she signed it,” said one source who spoke with Bobb about what she told investigators.

    The source said she spoke freely without an immunity deal.

    “She is not criminally liable," the source said. "She is not going to be charged. She is not pointing fingers. She is simply a witness for the truth.”

    ___________




    Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson is reportedly cooperating with an Atlanta district attorney’s investigation into former President Trump, his allies and their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported on Monday that Hutchinson — who served as a special assistant to former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — is cooperating with the inquiry led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D).

    Hutchinson was a key witness for the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, relaying information about what occurred at the White House in the lead up to and on the day of the riot. She testified with the panel behind closed doors and during a public hearing, where she delivered a number of explosive accounts.

    Multiple news outlets reported in July that Hutchinson was cooperating with the Justice Department’s probe of Jan. 6.

    The Hill has reached out to Hutchinson’s attorney and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for comment.

    News of Hutchinson’s reported cooperation in the Peach State comes after Willis in August filed petitions for Meadows to testify before a special grand jury. The prosecutor also requested testimony from pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and James “Phil” Waldron, who met with Meadows.

    The Fulton County district attorney’s investigation into Trump and his allies was sparked by the January 2021 call that the then-president placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking that he “find” the number of votes needed to give Trump a win in the state.

    Meadows was present on the call.

    The probe, however, has since grown in scope, including baseless claims of election fraud, fake elector plots, attempts by individuals to get a hold of voting machines in a county in the state and threatening remarks targeting election workers, according to CNN.

    Meadows visited Cobb County, Ga., in December 2020 when a review of absentee ballots was underway. Hutchinson spoke about the trip with the House committee behind closed doors.

    “The primary purpose of this trip was to visit family. His son lives in Georgia, and they went down to see his son for Christmas. Conveniently, his son lives in close proximity to Cobb County, and Mr. Meadows had discussed at length coordinating any visits with Georgia State officials during this trip,” she said.

    “Now, there was a point where I was going to go with him because he was going to conduct a few more meetings, but then it was decided that he would make it a little bit more informal and casual, which is when he decided to go watch the ballots being counted,” she added.

    CNN reported last week that Willis is looking to conclude her investigation after the November midterm elections and could start indicting individuals in December, according to sources familiar with the situation.

    She has said the probe will enter a quiet period this month to steer clear of the impression that the investigation is attempting to sway the midterms, according to CNN.

  12. #662
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    I always wondered why an attorney would sign such a declaration.
    Why wasn't Trump's signature on it?

  13. #663
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    Lawyers act on a client's behalf

  14. #664
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    Quote Originally Posted by TizMe View Post
    I always wondered why an attorney would sign such a declaration.
    Why wasn't Trump's signature on it?
    Once trump signs a declaration like that he becomes personally responsible for the accuracy of the document. When his lawyer signs it, the lawyer is responsible for its accuracy.

  15. #665
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    The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to turn down former President Donald Trump’s bid to get a set of about 100 documents marked as classified back into the hands of an independent “special master” reviewing materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

    Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in a brief filed Tuesday afternoon that there’s no reason for the high court to step into the dispute over what role the court system should play, if any, in overseeing investigators’ access to the records the FBI recovered from Trump’s Florida home.

    Trump is seeking to get the records with classified markings back into the special master review in what appears to be an attempt to raise arguments that he declassified the records while he was president or that he declared them to be personal files not subject to the Presidential Records Act.

    “Applicant has never represented in any of his multiple legal filings in multiple courts that he in fact declassified any documents — much less supported such a representation with competent evidence,” Prelogar wrote in the 32-page brief.

    https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000...f-f8fe05290000


    _____________




    The National Archives, without naming former President Trump, pushed back Tuesday on claims he made over the weekend that other past presidents had mishandled their White House records with the help of the agency.

    Trump had previously claimed his predecessor, former President Obama, had mishandled his own records, but expanded that claim during rallies in Arizona and New Mexico to include several prior presidents, including Republicans.

    At one point Trump even claimed, without evidence, that records from President George H.W. Bush’s administration were stored in a Chinese restaurant and a bowling alley “with no security and a broken front door.”

    The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said Tuesday that while records are transported to president’s libraries, any temporary storage has “met strict archival and security standards, and have been managed and staffed exclusively by NARA employees.” It added that any insinuations that records were stored in substandard conditions “are false and misleading.”

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    Hey, the former president can afford to keep trying to delay things....he's got his super PAC with millions to pay for lawyers.

  17. #667
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    ^trying. It’ll catch up to him maybe sooner than later




    A Trump staffer has told federal agents about moving boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago at the former president’s specific direction, according to people familiar with the investigation, who say the witness statement — along with security camera footage — offers a key clue. evidence of Donald Trump’s behavior when investigators requested the return of classified material.

    A witness account and footage described to The Washington Post provide the most direct insight yet into Trump’s actions and instructions that led to the Aug. 8 FBI search of a Florida residence and private club in which agents searched for evidence. potential crimes, including obstructing, destroying government records, or misusing classified information.

    People familiar with the investigation said agents have taken witness statements that suggest that after Trump’s advisers received a subpoena in May about classified documents left at Mar-a-Lago, Trump ordered people to take the boxes to his residence. This account of events was corroborated by security camera footage that showed people moving boxes, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

    Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.

    Trump’s spokeswoman, Taylor Budowich, declined to answer detailed questions for this article. “The Biden administration has weaponized law enforcement and engineered document fraud in a desperate bid to maintain political power,” Budowich said in a statement. “Every other president has been given the time and respect to manage records because the president has the ultimate authority to categorize records and what material should be classified.”

    Budowich accused the Justice Department of “a sustained effort to leak misleading and false information to partisan allies in fake news” and said it “is nothing short of dangerous political interference and unequal justice.” Simply put, it’s un-American.

    Classified documents were routinely mishandled in the Trump White House, former aides say

    The employee who worked at Mar-a-Lago is cooperating with the Justice Department and has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents, who declined to identify the employee, according to people familiar with the situation.

    In the first interview, these people said the witness denied handling sensitive documents or boxes that might contain such documents. As evidence gathered, agents decided to re-interview the witness, and the witness’ story changed dramatically, these people said. In another interview, a witness described moving the boxes at Trump’s request.

    The witness is now considered a key part of the Mar-a-Lago investigation, these people said, providing details about the former president’s alleged activities and providing instructions to subordinates that may have been an attempt to thwart federal officials’ demands for the return of classified information. and government documents.

    Several witnesses have told the FBI they tried to get Trump to cooperate with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department as those agencies requested for months to get back sensitive or historic government documents, people familiar with the situation said.

    But pleas from advisers and lawyers to push the documents back on Trump fell on deaf ears, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Trump became angry this spring after launching an investigation by the House Oversight Committee, telling aides that they had “messed up” the situation, according to people who heard his comments. “These are my documents,” Trump said, according to an aide who spoke to him.

    Details shared with the Post reveal two key parts of the criminal investigation that have been shrouded in secrecy: the report of a witness who worked for and received instructions from Trump, and the way Mar-a-Lago security footage was made. played an important role in supporting witness statements.

    Together, the evidence helped convince the FBI and Justice Department to seek a warrant to search Trump’s residence, office and storage room at Mar-a-Lago, which led to the seizure of 103 documents marked classified that had not been turned over to the government in response to a May subpoena. Some of the documents describe top-secret US operations that are so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are unaware of them. The August 8 search also yielded about 11,000 documents that were not classified.

    The failure or possible refusal to return classified documents in response to a subpoena is at the center of the Justice Department’s Mar-a-Lago investigation, one of several high-profile, ongoing investigations into Trump. The former president remains the most influential figure in the Republican Party and is openly talking about running for the White House in 2024.

    Trump has been in orbit for months with accusations and theories about who might be working with the federal government. Some of the former president’s closest aides have continued to work with Trump even after seeing FBI agents show up at their homes to question them and serve subpoenas.

    Status of major investigations into Donald Trump

    The witness’ account has been kept under wraps at the Justice Department and FBI as agents continue to gather evidence in a high-stakes investigation. In addition to wanting to keep the information gathered so far under wraps, people familiar with the situation said, authorities are also concerned that if or when the identity of the witness eventually becomes public, that person could be harassed or threatened by Trump supporters.

    In the application submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Department lawyers referred to witness statements and video footage. when they wrote, “The FBI discovered evidence that the response to the grand jury subpoena was incomplete, that additional classified documents likely remained at Mar-a-Lago, and that there was likely an effort to obstruct the investigation.”

    Since the Aug. 8 search, Trump has offered several public defenses about why the classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago, saying he deleted the classified documents, suggesting the FBI planted evidence during the search, and suggesting that the former the president may have had the right to keep classified documents. National security law experts have largely rejected such claims, saying they range from far-fetched to nonsensical.

    Among the items seized at Mar-a-Lago: a document on a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities

    Officials at the National Archives began requesting the return of the documents last year after that began to believe that some of the Trump administration’s presidential documents — such as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s letters — were unaccounted for and may have been in Trump’s possession.

    After months of back-and-forth, Trump agreed to turn over 15 boxes of material in January. Archivists found 184 classified documents, including 25 documents marked as top secret. they are scattered in boxes, in a specific order, according to court filings.

    The discovery suggested to authorities that Trump had not turned over all the classified documents in his possession. In May, a grand jury subpoena demanded the return of classified documents under many different designations, including a category used for nuclear weapons secrets.

    In response to that subpoena, Trump advisers met with government agents and prosecutors at Mar-a-Lago in early June, handing over a sealed envelope containing 38 more classified documents, including 17 top secret, according to court documents. According to government documents, Trump representatives claimed at the meeting that the club was thoroughly searched for all classified documents.

    That meeting, which included a visit to a storage room where Trump advisers say boxes of relevant documents were kept, did not satisfy investigators, who were not allowed to view the boxes they saw in the storage room, according to government lawsuits.

    Trump’s team initially said the Mar-a-Lago boxes were just news clippings

    Five days later, a senior Justice Department official, Jay Bratt, wrote to Trump’s lawyers to remind them that Mar-a-Lago “does not contain a secure location authorized to store classified information.” Bratt wrote that the classified documents “appear not to have been properly handled or stored in an appropriate location.”

    “Therefore, we are asking that the room at Mar-a-Lago where the documents were stored be secured and that all boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago (along with everything else in that room) be stored in that room in their current condition until further notice.

    Agents continued to gather evidence that Trump apparently failed to comply with either the government’s requests or the subpoena. After careful consideration, aware that it would be highly unusual for federal agents to search the former president’s home, they decided to seek a judge’s approval to do so.

    The Aug. 8 search turned up 103 classified documents within hours, including 18 top secret ones, according to court papers. The equipment included at least one document that described a foreign country’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.

    _____________




    Former President Trump’s attorney is pushing to delay proceedings, including Trump’s upcoming deposition, in a defamation case brought by a woman who accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s.

    A federal appeals court handed Trump a partial victory last week by ruling that presidents are covered by a law granting broad legal immunity to government employees, but the panel asked the top local court in Washington to rule on whether Trump was acting “outside the scope” of his presidency under D.C. employment law when he made the allegedly defamatory statements casting doubt on the accuser’s credibility and demeaning her personal appearance.

    Attorneys for E. Jean Carroll, Trump’s accuser, revealed in a Friday filing they are slated to depose Trump on Oct. 19.

    But with the verdict now hinging upon the local D.C. court’s opinion, Trump’s attorney is asking the court to stay the proceedings.

    “The D.C. Court of Appeals’ forthcoming ruling will be case-dispositive and, therefore, it would be highly prejudicial and inequitable for Defendant to engage in time consuming and expensive pre-trial preparation — much less proceed to trial — until this issue has been conclusively resolved,” wrote Trump attorney Alina Habba.

    Carroll’s attorneys pushed back on Habba’s argument, saying the requests amounted to a delay tactic, also noting Carroll plans to sue Trump next month for the alleged sexual assault itself under a new New York law set to take effect in November.

    ___________




    A federal judge issued a ruling Wednesday that could lead to former President Donald Trump testifying as soon as next week in a lawsuit stemming from his response to a New York writer’s claim that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

    U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan turned down Trump’s request to halt fact-finding in the libel case, brought three years ago by E. Jean Carroll after Trump repeatedly denied her rape allegations and crudely described her as “not my type.”

  18. #668
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Could hardly wait to post this up.

    The conservative Supreme Court just told trump to go fvck himself





    SCOTUS Shows Trump the Door Just Nine Days After Former President Asked Justice Thomas to Take Up Mar-a-Lago Docs Case

    Siding with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to accept an application by former president Donald Trump to vacate a circuit court ruling connected to a search executed at Mar-a-Lago.

    Trump filed the application with Justice Clarence Thomas on Oct. 4. The U.S. Department of Justice, via Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, asked the Court not to take the case.

    On Thursday, the Court agreed with Prelogar and the U.S. Government.

    Trump filed the petition before Thomas because he is the justice who handles incoming matters from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Within that circuit sits Mar-a-Lago and the lower court case in question.

    Justice Thomas referred Trump’s application to the full Court for consideration on Thursday, the Court’s docket indicates.

    “Application (22A283) to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on September 21, 2022, presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court’s docket reads.

    There were no noted dissents.

    At issue are documents seized by the FBI from the former president’s palatial home and resort facility on Aug. 8 pursuant to a search warrant signed by a federal magistrate judge in Florida. The U.S. Department of Justice has characterized some of the material as both classified and secret — to varying levels of severity. Specifically, the DOJ told the Court that “the search recovered roughly 100 records bearing classification markings, including markings reflecting the highest levels of classification and extremely restricted distribution.”

    The DOJ has characterized the dispute about the material, which Trump took to Florida after he vacated the White House, as a criminal investigation under the Espionage Act. No criminal charges have been filed over the matter. Trump and his attorneys have countered by suggesting that the locus of the dispute is the Presidential Records Act, which they say affords Trump broad powers when it comes to the material in question from his administration.

    Federal prosecutors say FBI agents seized these materials from Mar-a-Lago. The contents of the documents were redacted with white squares. (Image via an Aug. 31, 2022 federal court filing.)

    Trump filed a concomitant lawsuit against the U.S. Government to assert various forms of privilege and other protections surrounding the documents. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered a special master — Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie — to review the material and to ferret out any claims of privilege.

    One of the privileges asserted by Trump is executive privilege. The DOJ has long averred that Trump, as a former executive, cannot assert that type of privilege against the administration of Joe Biden, the current executive, because the privilege belongs to the branch of government itself and not to the specific individual who from time to time may be the elected president.

    In asking the Supreme Court to hear the matter, Trump’s attorneys suggested that federal prosecutors were trying to “pin some offense on him” through a scurrilous charade of “political judicial theater.”

    Trump wanted the Supreme Court to vacate the stay issued by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The circuit court’s stay had in turn paused the implementation of an order by District Judge Cannon.

    To explain, it’s necessary to unwind the clock.

    Cannon stopped federal prosecutors from engaging in a criminal review of the Mar-a-Lago documents until the special master — an independent third party — had vetted Trump’s assertions that some of the materials were enshrouded in various protective cloaks of privilege. Judge Cannon also wanted the special master to ascertain whether some of the material seized from Mar-a-Lago was actually classified.

    The DOJ appealed on a limited basis, and the 11th Circuit allowed the DOJ to continue its criminal review of the matter — which already involved various internal filter teams. A panel of appellate judges on the 11th Circuit determined that the public interest favored examining security breaches that could hypothetically result in “exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”

    Trump’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate “to a limited extent” the 11th Circuit’s stay of Judge Cannon’s ruling. They argued that the 11th Circuit had no power to issue its stay because Cannon’s order was procedural and therefore “simply not appealable on an interlocutory basis.”

    Trump’s legal team also argued that Trump was special and therefore deserved special protection: “The unprecedented circumstances presented by this case — an investigation of the Forty-Fifth President of the United States by the administration of his political rival and successor — compelled the District Court to acknowledge the significant need for enhanced vigilance and to order the appointment of a Special Master to ensure fairness, transparency, and maintenance of the public trust.”

    The DOJ’s response to the Supreme Court said the executive branch must have “broad discretion” to “determine who may have access to” classified information and that Trump has no personal property interest in the government documents seized.

    “In this Court, applicant [Trump] does not challenge the stay insofar as it reinstates the government’s authority to use the documents bearing classification markings in its ongoing criminal investigation,” the DOJ told the Supreme Court. “Applicant instead seeks to partially vacate the stay to the extent it precludes dissemination and review of those documents in the special-master proceedings. Applicant is not entitled to that relief for multiple independent reasons.”

    The DOJ noted that Trump “abandoned” his claim that he could assert executive privilege over the materials by the time the case wound its way to Justice Thomas. It also noted that Trump “never represented in any of his multiple legal filings in multiple courts that he in fact declassified any documents — much less supported such a representation with competent evidence.”

    The latter appeared to be a reference to multiple Trump statements — including ones to Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity — that he could have declassified some of the material merely “by thinking about it.”

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...322zr_2d8f.pdf

    your days are numbered

  19. #669
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    An outside review of documents the FBI seized from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate should be halted because it interferes with prosecutors’ authority and is legally unjustified, the Justice Department said in a filing with a federal appeals court Friday afternoon.

    Prosecutors said Aileen Cannon, the judge who ordered the “special master” review last month at Trump’s request, erred in her ruling because there was no indication of malfeasance or infringement of Trump’s rights in connection with the search a magistrate judge ordered.

    “The uncontested record demonstrates that the search was conducted in full accordance with a judicially authorized warrant, and there has been no violation of Plaintiff’s rights—let alone a ‘callous disregard’ for them,” Justice Department attorney Jay Bratt and other prosecutors wrote in the brief filed Friday with the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

    If the DOJ wins this round in federal court, it would represent another legal setback for Trump, who has lost one ruling after another in recent weeks related to the Mar-a-Lago document seizures.

    Bratt also argued that Trump hasn’t shown the requisite need for the special master process, which is very rarely used in federal investigations.

    “Plaintiff has failed to meet his burden in establishing any need for the seized records—indeed, a substantial number of them are not even his—or in establishing any irreparable injury in their absence, and Plaintiff does not lack an adequate alternative remedy at law,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote.

    Trump’s attorneys have argued that the special master process was needed in order to protect his right to claim attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. The former president’s attorneys have also fought to use the process to assert that seized records bearing classification markings like “Top Secret,” may have been declassified by Trump before he left office.

    DOJ attorneys continued to emphasize that Trump has never actually asserted in court that he declassified any of the records stored at his estate, nor has he claimed executive privilege or asserted attorney-client privilege over any of them. Rather, Trump’s lawyers have floated those possibilities hypothetically, even as Trump has publicly claimed to have declassified all sensitive documents found at his estate.

    In any event, the classification issue appears to be off the table for now due to a ruling from an 11th Circuit panel last month which effectively carved out the roughly 100 documents with classification markings from the broader review. Trump asked the Supreme Court to put those records back into the process, but the high court turned that down Thursday.

    In the new filing, the Justice Department emphasized that investigators need access to the 11,000 unclassified records also found at his estate as part of its investigation. Under the rules Cannon set, those documents were put off limits to prosecutors and criminal investigators until Trump’s side has a chance to raise objections and the special master, New York federal judge Raymond Dearie, resolves them.

    “The dates on unclassified records may prove highly probative in the government’s investigation,” DOJ contended, adding, “For example, if any records comingled with the records bearing classification markings post-date Plaintiff’s term of office, that could establish that these materials continued to be accessed after Plaintiff left the White House … The government may need to use unclassified records to conduct witness interviews and corroborate information.”

    Prosecutors said Trump’s claims of executive privilege are illogical in the current context, because the Justice Department, the FBI and others involved in analyzing the records are also in the executive branch.

    “Neither Plaintiff nor the district court has cited any instance in which executive privilege was successfully invoked to prohibit the sharing of records or information within the Executive Branch itself,” the Justice Department brief says.

    Trump’s brief to the appeals court is due Nov. 10. A court panel could hear arguments on the matter in late November or December.

    However, the bulk of the special master review could be completed by that time, so a ruling that it was unnecessary might have limited impact.



    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...ca11101422.pdf
    ______________




    Attorney General Tish James asked a state court Thursday to freeze the Trump Organization’s New York assets and install an independent monitor in her civil suit targeting the former president and his real estate business.

    James alleged last month a years-long scheme to fraudulently overvalue the Trump Organization’s portfolio by billions of dollars. And on Thursday, she warned the state Supreme Court that Trump might be shifting his holdings outside of New York — and the reach of its courts.

    “Since we filed this sweeping lawsuit last month, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have continued those same fraudulent practices and taken measures to evade responsibility,” she said in a statement. “Today, we are seeking an immediate stop to these actions because Mr. Trump should not get to play by different rules.”

    The allegations are the latest new strand in Trump’s expanding web of legal woes, which stretches nationwide as he tangles with lawsuits and probes related to classified presidential documents in Florida, the ramifications of the Jan. 6 riots in Washington and fallout from his election denial in several states. It also ratchets up an long-running battle between New York’s top lawyer and the ex-president.

    In the new court papers, James says Trump incorporated a new “Trump Organization LLC” in Delaware on Sept. 15, then registered the company with New York as “Trump Organization II LLC” on the day her lawsuit was filed on Sept. 21.

    James’ suit seeks monetary penalties up to $250 million and an order blocking Trump from real estate transactions in New York for five years — moves that could doom his unraveling empire. But she now says his lawyers won’t assure her that Trump’s not moving assets out of state in advance.

    Trump attorney Alina Habba called James’ filing “a thinly-veiled attempt” at keeping the case in front of Justice Arthur Engoron — who previously held Trump in contempt for not complying with an attorney general probe — and out of the state court’s commercial division.

    “We have repeatedly provided assurance, in writing, that the Trump Organization has no intention of doing anything improper. This is simply another stunt which Ms. James hopes will aid her failing political campaign,” Habba said in a statement, repeating a common line of attack against James, who is fundraising off her legal fights.

    James, who is is asking for an October 2023 trial date, wants the court to prohibit the Trump Organization from transferring material assets to anyone not a party to her lawsuit, or otherwise disposing of property without the court’s blessing.

    She also wants an independent monitor to oversee the company’s forthcoming 2022 financial statements and to ensure he does not employ the same accounting tricks alleged in her complaint last month. For instance, James contended that Trump continues to count $93 million held in a Vornado partnership as his own cash, even though he shouldn’t.

    Engoron will consider James’ requests at an Oct. 31 hearing, according to an order entered later Thursday.

    _____________


    • Trump’s Executive Privilege Push Is Collapsing


    The Washington Post reported on Friday that a judge overruled the former president's effort to prevent a former White House aide (Marc Short) from testifying in the Jan. 6 investigation

    Yada, yada

    He’s also tried to use executive privilege to prevent a federal grand jury from hearing testimony regarding an investigation into his alleged role in the events of Jan. 6. The Washington Post reported on Friday, however, that a judge overruled Trump’s objections, and that Marc Short, a former aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, could sit for questioning. He did so on Thursday.

    Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell’s ruling signals that “attempts by Trump to invoke executive privilege to preserve the confidentiality of presidential decision-making were not likely to prevail,” according to the Post.

    Short reportedly already testified before the grand jury in July, but didn’t answer some questions after his lawyer, Emmet Flood, argued they were protected. The Post reports that the DOJ asked Howell to force him to cooperate. She did, but Trump appealed, delaying Short’s testimony until Howell said enough was enough this week.

    The Post notes the ruling could impact other witnesses, as well, including former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy, Pat Philbin, who appeared before the grand jury last month but may still have questions to answer. Regardless, the walls are continuing to close in around the former president as he desperately tries to fend off multiple investigations into a smorgasbord of potentially illegal activity. The only thing that could truly protect him is returning to the White House, a fact Rolling Stone has reported Trump is well aware of as he mulls whether to declare his candidacy.

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ng-1234611501/
    Last edited by S Landreth; 15-10-2022 at 11:51 AM.

  20. #670
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    Here and before the district court, the government has referred to evidence developed in its investigation to inform the courts of the relevant facts. Where possible, the government refers to portions of the affidavit accompanying its search warrant application that have been unsealed or to other information in the public record. See MJ-DE.125. Of necessity, however, the government cannot publicly disclose all the sources of its evidence, particularly while the investigation remains ongoing.


    __________




    The Department of Justice has additional evidence against Donald Trump that it has not publicly revealed, according to a new court filing.

    On Friday, the DOJ officially appealed Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon's controversial appointment of Special Master Raymond Dearie to oversee the documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago. The document was filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

    "In a 53-page brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, the Justice Department broadly challenged the legal legitimacy of orders last month by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who blocked investigators from using the materials and appointed an independent arbiter to sift them for any that are potentially privileged or Mr. Trump’s personal property," The New York Times reported. "The Justice Department already succeeded in persuading a panel of the Atlanta-based court to exempt about 100 documents marked classified from Judge Cannon’s move — a decision the Supreme Court declined to overturn this week."

    In a footnote on page six of the appeal, DOJ explained it has additional evidence that Trump had classified documents at his Florida resort.

    "Here and before the district court, the government has referred to evidence developed in its investigation to inform the courts of the relevant facts," DOJ wrote. "Where possible, the government refers to portions of the affidavit accompanying its search warrant application that have been unsealed or to other information in the public record."

    "Of necessity, however, the government cannot publicly disclose all the sources of its evidence, particularly while the investigation remains ongoing," DOJ noted.


    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...ca11101422.pdf

  21. #671
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Donald Trump finally gets served $250 million NY fraud lawsuit after 3 weeks — and a court order

    Donald Trump has lost the first legal skirmish in his battle against New York's attorney general, Letitia James, and her $250 million fraud case against him: After three weeks and a court order, he's been officially served with the 220-page lawsuit.

    Trump was finally served through his attorney, Alina Habba, "by sending in electronic mail a message containing a secure cloud link to pdf attachments of all the documents," James said in a court filing Thursday.

    The lawsuit accuses the Trump Organization of a decadelong pattern of fraudulently exaggerating the company's worth; it seeks a quarter-billion dollars in penalties and to bar the Trumps from doing business in New York.

    Representatives for Trump and his son Eric, an executive vice president at his father's company, had evaded service of the lawsuit ever since it was filed three weeks ago, on September 21.

    Habba and a lawyer for Eric Trump, Clifford Robert, never replied to emails sent by the attorney general that same day requesting confirmation that they were the appropriate persons to accept service, her office complained in a court filing last week.

    Lawyers for all of the suit's other defendants, including Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., had meanwhile quickly accepted service.

    The silent treatment from Donald and Eric Trump came despite Habba and Robert having submitted notices to the court in late September — called "notices of appearance" — declaring themselves to be attorneys of record for the case.

    The apparent runaround led James' office to accuse Trump's side of "gamesmanship." Last week, she sought a court order that allowed her to simply email the papers to Habba and Robert and be done with it.

    The Manhattan judge handling the case quickly agreed, ruling Thursday that emailing the papers to the two lawyers would suffice as service to both Trumps. James fired off those emails the same day, their Monday filing said.

    Habba and Robert have not responded to Insider's requests for comment on the delay in service of the lawsuit.

    The judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, set October 31 as the date for oral arguments in the lawsuit's next dispute.

    The sides will argue over the attorney general's claim that the Trump Organization is so rife with ongoing fraud that it's in immediate need of an independent financial monitor to be appointed and overseen by the judge.

    Another early dispute is simmering concerning Engoron himself, the same judge who in April found Trump in contempt of court for not fully complying with the attorney general's subpoenas in the two-year run-up to her filing suit.

    Habba has asked that the lawsuit be transferred out of Engoron's courtroom to be handled instead by any judge in Manhattan's commercial division, which is tasked with complex business disputes.

  22. #672
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    “It’s a little perplexing as I go through the logs,” Dearie explained. “Where’s the beef? I need to see some beef.”

    Dearie said

    The special master tapped to oversee privilege disputes between Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Justice said during a telephone conference on Monday that he wants attorneys to provide him with plenty of facts when — and preferably some sort of warning before — he is asked to rule on each disputed document starting on Nov. 12.

    Much more in the links

    Special master Dearie unhappy with Mar-a-Lago document progress

    __________




    Former President Donald Trump answered questions under oath Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who says the Republican raped her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room.

    The deposition gave Carroll’s lawyers a chance to interrogate Trump about the assault allegations as well as statements he made in 2019 when she told her story publicly for the first time.

    Details on how the deposition went weren’t immediately disclosed.

    “We’re pleased that on behalf of our client, E. Jean Carroll, we were able to take Donald Trump’s deposition today. We are not able to comment further,” said a spokesperson for the law firm representing her, Kaplan Hecker & Fink.

    Trump has said Carroll’s rape allegation is “a hoax and a lie.”

    His legal team worked for years to delay his deposition in the lawsuit, which was filed when he was still president. A federal judge last week rejected Trump’s request for another delay, saying he couldn’t “run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong.”

    Carroll was to have been questioned by Trump’s lawyers last Friday. Neither her attorneys and nor Trump’s have responded to questions about how that deposition went.

    Anything Trump said during his deposition could potentially be used as evidence in an upcoming civil trial. He hasn’t faced any criminal charges related to Carroll’s allegations and any prosecution is unlikely. The deadline for criminal charges over sexual assaults that occurred in the 1990s has long expired.

    ____________




    Trump Fails to Move New York AG’s Fraud Lawsuit to a Court Other Than the One That Held Him in Contempt

    Donald Trump and two of his adult children failed on Wednesday in their efforts to transfer New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) lawsuit accusing them of fraudulent practices with the family business to a different court.

    The bid effectively would have moved the case out of the courtroom of a judge who held the former president in contempt during a related investigation.

    On Sept. 21, James sued former Trump; his adult children Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump; and several other people and entities.

    The attorney general alleged that Trump, his family, and his businesses showed such a pervasive pattern of inflating and deflating assets to obtain tax benefits that dramatic action was required — including barring the Trumps from ever serving against as an officer or director of a New York corporation.

    On Wednesday, New York County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Adam Silvera issued a brief order denying the transfer — and keeping the case before Engoron.

    “Consistent with court procedure, the General Clerk’s Office appropriately assigned this action to Judge Engoron, on grounds that plaintiff identified it as ‘related’ to the Special Proceeding,” the ruling states. “In the event Judge Engoron deems this action un-related to the Special Proceeding, pursuant to Section 202.70 (e) of the Rules of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court, Judge Engoron may make a request to transfer this action to the Commercial Division. Contrary to Counsel’s assertion, the Special Proceeding is still pending before Judge Engoron and has not been marked disposed.”

    DocumentCloud


    ____________

    Extra


    • Primary source for Trump-Russia dossier acquitted, handing special counsel Durham another trial loss


    Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, was acquitted Tuesday of four counts of lying to the FBI in an embarrassing defeat for special counsel John Durham.

    Durham has taken two cases to trial, and both have ended in acquittals. After more than three years looking for misconduct in the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, Durham has only secured one conviction: the guilty plea of a low-level FBI lawyer, who got probation.

    The jury returned not guilty verdicts on all charges against Danchenko, a Russian expat and think tank analyst who provided the bulk of the material for the anti-Trump dossier. Durham initially charged Danchenko with five counts of lying to the FBI, but a judge threw out one of the charges on Friday.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/18/p...ial/index.html

  23. #673
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    So if Danchenko isn't lying, obviously baldy orange cunto is.

  24. #674
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    Here's another one that is surely going to fook up trump's day....

    A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of emails from John Eastman, a former attorney, to House investigators, saying the communications were made in furtherance of a crime related to Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

    The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” Judge David O. Carter wrote.
    “The Court finds that these emails are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States,” he added.

    Carter, who sits on the federal district court in central California, already released many of Eastman’s emails from around January 2021 to theHouse select committee[/URL] investigating the US Capitol attack[/URL], but the two sides were still arguing over 562 additional documents from Eastman’s Chapman University email account.

    For eight of the 500-plus Eastman documents the judge was examining, the judge said that the materials could be released because they fit in the so-called crime-fraud exception, which allows disclosure of otherwise privileged materials if the communications were related to or in furtherance of illegal or fraudulent conduct.

    Four of the documents were from email threads discussing prospective election litigation. In them, Carter wrote, “Dr. Eastman and other attorneys suggest that – irrespective of the merits – the primary goal of filing is to delay or otherwise disrupt the January 6 vote.”


    Trump knew voter fraud claims were wrong, federal judge says as he orders John Eastman emails turned over | CNN Politics

  25. #675
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    ^it’s catching up to him

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