Thread: Trump steals nuclear secrets.

the narrative that needs to be pushed now is that it is not worth voting as trump says it is rigged and unfair

Trump Says The FBI Took His Passports In Its Mar-A-Lago Search

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that FBI investigators took his passports when they raided his Florida home last week in search of classified documents that he may have held onto illegally after leaving office.


“In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”

Former President Donald Trump said the FBI took his passports when it raided his Mar-a-Lago property.


It’s not clear why the FBI may have taken his passports or why he apparently has three of them. Trump said one was expired; it’s possible that he has a regular non-expired passport in addition to a second special issuance passport as a former U.S. president.


Trump has loudly condemned the FBI ever since the bureau executed a search warrant to comb his Mar-a-Lago property last Monday. His criticisms incited his extremist base of supporters to threaten and attack FBI officials ― and resulted in top Republicans in Congress instigating violence and mocking the Justice Department.


The FBI can’t reveal many details about its search since it is part of an ongoing investigation, but agents were reportedly searching for highly sensitive documents related to nuclear weapons. A warrant released Friday showed that Trump is under investigation for possibly violating the Espionage Act, among other potential crimes. Their probe is also entirely legal, as a federal judge signed off on a search warrant before the raid took place.


For all his accusations of the FBI investigating him for political reasons, Trump has not mentioned that FBI director Christopher Wray is a Republican, that he appointed Wray to his post and that Senate Republicans unanimously voted to confirm him.


An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether Trump’s passports were taken, and if so, why.


This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Trump Says The FBI Took His Passports In Its Mar-A-Lago Search

The irony would be delicious without seasoning...

A bill that Donald Trump signed into law in 2018 could be used to punish the former president if he's found to have mishandled classified information after leaving office.

FBI agents on Monday raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, apparently as part on an investigation into whether Trump wrongly kept hold of classified material after he left office.

Bradley P. Moss, a national security attorney, told Insider that Trump could face five years in prison if he's found guilty under a national security bill that he signed as president.

Trump signed the bill, which made changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, into law in January 2018.

It upgraded the seriousness of wrongly moving classified material, turning it from a misdemeanor into a felony — and increasing the maximum sentence to five years, up from one.

Give back his passport. Him leaving the country would solve a few problems.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

Give back his passport. Him leaving the country would solve a few problems.

Not if he goes to Germany or New Zealand!!!!!!

Another one gets himself locked up over The Don.

Mercer County man accused of threatening to kill FBI agents after Mar-a-Lago search

MERCER, Pa. (KDKA) - A Mercer County man is facing charges for allegedly threatening to "slaughter" FBI agents after the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.


Forty-six-year-old Adam Bies is charged with influencing, impeding or retaliating against federal law officers.


According to prosecutors, Bies made multiple threats on Gab, writing everyone who works for the FBI "from the director down to the janitor who cleans their [expletive] toilets deserves to die."


The threats came after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. According to the unsealed warrant, the federal government is investigating Trump for potential violation of three criminal statutes, including the Espionage Act.


"HEY FEDS. We the people cannot WAIT to water the trees of liberty with your blood. I'll be waiting for you to kick down my door," Bies wrote.

Prosecutors said Bies had an initial appearance in federal court Monday and will remain in custody following a detention hearing.

Mercer County man accused of threatening to kill FBI agents after Mar-a-Lago search - CBS Pittsburgh

Originally Posted by misskit

. I'll be waiting for you to kick down my door," Bies wrote.

Didn't have to wait long

Meanwhile, this is interesting.
(If badly phrased)

Justice Department asks not to disclose affidavit behind Mar-a-Lago search
Unsealing the document could reveal the scope of the inquiry against Donald Trump, whose team is rattled by recent events

Justice Department asks not to disclose affidavit behind Mar-a-Lago search | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Can't wait to find out, meanwhile I bet Trump is pooping his pants.

F.B.I. Interviewed Top White House Lawyers About Missing Trump Documents

Pat A. Cipollone and Patrick F. Philbin, the White House counsel and his deputy under President Donald J. Trump, were interviewed by the F.B.I. in connection with boxes of sensitive documents that were stored at Mr. Trump’s residence in Florida after he left office, three people familiar with the matter said.


Mr. Cipollone and Mr. Philbin are the most senior people who worked for Mr. Trump who are known to have been interviewed by investigators after the National Archives referred the matter to the Justice Department this year.


Mr. Philbin was interviewed in the spring, according to two of the people familiar with the matter, as investigators reached out to members of Mr. Trump’s circle to find out how 15 boxes of material — some of it marked as classified — made its way to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. It was unclear when Mr. Cipollone was interviewed.


Mr. Cipollone and Mr. Philbin were Mr. Trump’s representatives to deal with the National Archives; they were named to the positions shortly before the president’s term ended, in January 2021. At some point after National Archives officials realized they did not have Trump White House documents, which are required to be preserved under the Presidential Records Act, they contacted Mr. Philbin for help returning them.


A spokesperson for Mr. Philbin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Mr. Philbin tried to help the National Archives retrieve the material, two of the people familiar with the discussions said. But the former president repeatedly resisted entreaties from his advisers.


“It’s not theirs, it’s mine,” several advisers say Mr. Trump told them.


The former president returned 15 boxes of material to the National Archives in January, but the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May for documents that were still at his residence. On June 3, counterintelligence officials with the Justice Department’s national security division went to Mar-a-Lago to collect remaining documents with classified markings.


At that point, at least one Trump lawyer signed a statement saying material with the classified markings had been returned, according to four people familiar with the document. But officials then used a subpoena to obtain surveillance footage of the hallway outside a storage room at Mar-a-Lago and saw something that alarmed them. They also received information from at least one witness who indicated that more material might remain at the residence, people familiar with the investigation said.


Mr. Philbin is among eight people who currently or used to work for Mr. Trump who have been contacted by the F.B.I. since a grand jury was formed this year. Investigators also interviewed Derek Lyons, a former White House staff secretary.


Mr. Lyons’s last day at the White House was Dec. 18, 2020, meaning he did not know how the last boxes were packed as Mr. Trump prepared to leave. But he had information about paper flow in the White House and how the former president handled material.


The F.B.I. has reached out to about a half-dozen people who currently work for Mr. Trump and who might know what documents he may still have in his possession.


The post F.B.I. Interviewed Top White House Lawyers About Missing Trump Documents appeared first on New York Times.

F.B.I. Interviewed Top White House Lawyers About Missing Trump Documents – DNyuz

Trump is rushing to hire seasoned lawyers — but he keeps hearing ‘No’

Former president Donald Trump and close aides have spent the eight days since the FBI searched his Florida home rushing to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers. But the answer they keep hearing is “no.”

The struggle to find expert legal advice puts Trump in a bind as he faces potential criminal exposure from a records dispute with the National Archives that escalated into a federal investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other statutes.

“Everyone is saying no,” said a prominent Republican lawyer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.


Trump is no stranger to legal proceedings, and his scramble to hire lawyers in the face of an ominous federal probe recalls his predicament in the summer of 2017, when he was under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in the Russia probe. Once again, Trump is struggling to find a veteran criminal defense lawyer with a strong track record of dealing with the Justice Department in a sprawling, multipronged investigation.


Longtime confidants and advisers of Trump have grown extremely worried about Trump’s current stable of lawyers, noting that most of them have little to no experience in cases of this type, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions.


A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.


“The Trump team needs a first-rate, highly experienced federal criminal practitioner,” said Jon Sale, a prominent Florida defense attorney who worked on the Watergate prosecution team and said he turned down representing Trump last week because he did not have enough time to devote to the case. “You have to evaluate whether you want to take it. It’s not like a DUI. It’s representing the former president of the United States — and maybe the next one — in what’s one of the highest-visibility cases ever.”

Ordinarily, the prestige and publicity of representing a former president, as well as the new and complex legal issues at stake in this case, would attract high-powered attorneys. But Trump’s search is being hampered by his divisiveness, as well as his reputation for stiffing vendors and ignoring advice.


“In olden days, he would tell firms representing him was a benefit because they could advertise off it. Today it’s not the same,” said Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Trump who was convicted of tax evasion, false statements, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in 2018. “He’s also a very difficult client in that he’s always pushing the envelope, he rarely listens to sound legal advice, and he wants you to do things that are not appropriate, ethically or legally.”


One lawyer told a story from early in Trump’s presidency of his legal team urging him against tweeting about the Mueller probe, only to find he’d tweeted about it before they got to the end of the West Wing driveway. Several people said Trump was nearly impossible to represent and that it would be unclear if they would ever get paid.


People familiar with the search for legal help said the effort includes Susie Wiles, a close adviser to Trump, and attorney Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago during the search and signed for the list of documents taken. Former campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn is taking a prominent role, and former White House aide Kash Patel is advising informally. Patel is raising money for a “legal offense” fund by selling merchandise such as tank tops and beanies emblazoned with the logo “K$H.”

“You get these guys who just live to be around him, and mistakes get made,” a lawyer who isn’t part of the team said. “These guys just want to make him happy.”


Bobb was previously a host on the far-right, pro-Trump television network One America News. At OAN, Bobb covered the Arizona Republican Party’s review of 2020 ballots — which ultimately confirmed Joe Biden’s win in the state — while also raising money for the effort and conferring with Trump advisers, The Washington Post has reported.


Bobb’s prior legal experience at the federal level consists mainly of a handful of trademark infringement cases on behalf of CrossFit during a stint at a San Diego law firm. She did not respond to requests for comment.


Trump’s other lawyer currently based in Florida is Lindsey Halligan, whose practice, according to a professional biography, focuses on insurance claims at residential and commercial properties. She was admitted to the Florida bar in 2014. A search of federal court records found no filings under her name. She did not respond to requests for comment.


Trump is also being represented in the records dispute by Alina Habba, who leads a three-attorney firm with an office near Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Her professional experience includes serving as general counsel to a parking garage company. Last year, Habba started representing Trump in several cases including defending him from a defamation claim by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of a decades-old sexual assault; suing the New York Times and Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump; and suing 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and other perceived enemies, alleging a conspiracy to harm Donald Trump through the Russia scandal. Habba did not respond to requests for comment.


Others on the team have relatively more experience with federal criminal probes. James Trusty formerly served in the Justice Department’s criminal division and headed the organized crime and gang section. He has recently represented clients accused of financial fraud, defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture and trading in counterfeit military uniforms. He referred questions to Trump’s spokesman.


Evan Corcoran is a former federal prosecutor viewed by Trump aides as a serious and experienced attorney. His recent clients include a former Capitol Police officer accused of obstructing the Jan. 6 investigation by telling a riot suspect to remove Facebook posts, and a Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to participating in the riot and was sentenced to 60 days in prison. Corcoran also represented former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon in his contempt trial for defying a House subpoena in the Jan. 6 probe. Bannon was convicted in July.


Some of Trump’s interactions with the Justice Department have also been handled by John Rowley, another former federal prosecutor now at his own firm, Politico has reported. Rowley didn’t respond to requests for comment.


In another potential complication, any lawyer who made assurances to the FBI on Trump’s behalf could have their own legal exposure or become a witness in the case. One letter signed by a lawyer on Trump’s team was sent to the Justice Department in June suggesting that all classified material had been turned over, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The existence of the letter was first reported by the New York Times.


“Either the attorney acted in good faith on what turned out to be false factual representations made by Mr. Trump or someone else communicating on his behalf, in which case Mr. Trump or his proxy would have criminal jeopardy for false statements or obstruction of justice, or the attorney knowingly gave false assurances to the government,” said David Laufman, the former Justice Department chief of the counterintelligence division, which is now investigating the classified records kept at Trump’s home. “And it’s hard to believe that a lawyer knowingly would have lied to the government about the continued presence of classified documents.”


The universe of experienced federal practitioners is not actually that extensive, and the case would likely monopolize their time to the exclusion of all other clients. Possible candidates and their firms may be further deterred by the controversy that would attach to defending Trump.


“Good lawyers should have been working on this case for months,” said Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard Law School professor who has advised Trump in the past and said he hasn’t been asked to get involved now. “He needs a big and good and very experienced defense team with experience trying cases.”


Dershowitz said he recommended Harvard colleague Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., the faculty director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and the Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop. Sullivan said he hasn’t heard from Trump’s team.

“They clearly need someone with federal trial experience, and someone familiar with high-profile cases who can stay on task and not be distracted by the media glare,” Sullivan said. “The case itself presents a range of issues that would be of interest to a lot of good lawyers. Some lawyers may reasonably feel as though the public will conflate Mr. Trump’s policy aims and positions with the lawyer’s. In that way, many lawyers may be disinclined to expose themselves to the public opprobrium that would follow that sort of representation.”


Trump has long been a notoriously high-maintenance client. When he was trying to make his mark in Manhattan real estate as a young man, Trump had an especially demanding cadence with his lawyer, the late Roy Cohn. “Donald calls me 15 to 20 times a day. He is always asking, ‘What is the status of this ... and that?’” Cohn was quoted as saying in a Vanity Fair story about their attorney-client relationship.


Many of the president’s former lawyers, such as Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin and Justin Clark are not expected to be involved in the investigation’s defense, people familiar with the matter said. Cipollone has been interviewed already, one of these people said, a detail first reported by the New York Times.


Two longtime Trump top legal advisers during the Mueller investigation, Jay Sekulow and Jane Raskin, are still close to the former president but not involved in his current legal team. Among other alumni of the defense to the Mueller investigation, Ty Cobb has become publicly critical of Trump, and former White House counsel Donald McGahn is no longer close with the former president. McGahn represented Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is fighting a subpoena in a separate investigation into Trump and his allies in Georgia. Another former Trump lawyer, Emmet Flood, is now representing Marc Short, adviser to former vice president Mark Pence.


“This is not good,” one Trump confidant said of the president’s lack of a high-profile white-collar defense lawyer. “Something big is going to pop. Somebody needs to be in charge.”

MSN

I would love to hear Cipollone's answer to whether the former president declassified any documents while in office.

Holy smokes, worth watching to the end (as to why the DOJ is opposing making the affidavit public)

They are just trying to work out who the informants are and discourage any more

Originally Posted by baldrick

They are just trying to work out who the informants are and discourage any more

Exactly, it's probably driving the former president insane knowing there's someone sharing inside information with the FBI.

Originally Posted by Topper

Exactly, it's probably driving the former president insane knowing there's someone sharing inside information with the FBI.

PROBABLY? I imagine he's apoplectic.

Interesting. Trump wants surveilance footage of the search released.
Even more interesting, it's suggested that suspicious footage of the hallway outside the room where the documents were stored in part prompted the seizure of the documents.

Originally Posted by Cujo

Interesting. Trump wants surveilance footage of the search released.

Just the usual smoke and mirrors

So the feds asked the cctv to be turned off, it seems to have been a request rather than an order.

Originally Posted by Cujo

it's his footage afterall.

The FBI wanted the surveillance cameras turned off.

Trump's lawyer requested the surveillance cameras to be kept on, a judge concurred with her request.

See my previous video post.

Originally Posted by Topper

So the feds asked the cctv to be turned off, it seems to have been a request rather than an order.

They cannot order them to be turned off, they can only request. Main reason being public identification of their agents

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The irony would be delicious without seasoning...

yeah its just great watching the establishment frame up a president you dont like. As if he even read the bill or knew anything about it.

Aides to former President Donald Trump believe that a member of his family may have tipped off the FBI about the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, The Guardian reported.

Multiple sources close to Trump told the publication that after the August 8 search of Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, aides began speculating about who could have been speaking to the agency.

In the search, agents took more than a dozen boxes of items, including highly classified information. Agents appeared to have specific information about what to look for.

Speculation initially focussed on Trump's political aides and resort staff at Mar-a-Lago, the outlet's sources said, before shifting to those closer to Trump.

According to the sources, some aides were convinced that only a family member would have known to point agents to a particular leather-bound box, as well as knowing the location of Trump's safe.

Both Trump's estranged niece, Mary, and his former attorney Michael Cohen have speculated that Jared Kushner, the former president's son-in-law, could be the informant. Neither offered evidence to back the claim.

According to multiple reports, agents conducting the raid were acting on information, including witness testimony, that Trump had not return all the classified information which was requested by the Justice Department and National Archives.

The New York Times reported that agents also obtained surveillance footage via subpoena of a hallway near the storage room where the documents were being kept and saw something that alarmed them.

The Justice Department has asked a judge not to release the affidavit which details the probable cause the search was based on, saying that it could provide information about the scope of the investigation.

Trump has said he wants the document to be made public.

The warrant used in the search, which was unsealed Friday, showed that agents believe Trump may have violated several laws, including the Espionage Act.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing over the handling of the documents.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...uardian-2022-8

Originally Posted by bsnub

Aides to former President Donald Trump believe that a member of his family may have tipped off the FBI about the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, The Guardian reported.

It was Barron I reckon.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It was Barron I reckon.

I doubt it. Barron has rice pudding between his ears.