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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Trump indicted in classified documents case in Florida

    Former President Donald Trump has been indicted in federal court in Miami in connection with his retention of government documents he retained after leaving the White House.


    Trump himself disclosed the indictment in a series of posts on his Truth Social social media site on Thursday evening. He also said he has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday.


    NBC News soon after confirmed the indictment.


    Trump has been the focus of a federal criminal investigation since last year over his stonewalling of requests to return government records, including classified documents, after ending his term as president. By law, such records must be returned when a president leaves office.

    Trump indicted in classified documents case in Florida

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Just so you know:

    Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
    Which strikes me as patently absurd.

  3. #3
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    It’s Seppoland, so in employing the term ‘absurd’ in any context there is probably tautologous.

    But, stupid is as stupid does and there ain’t many stupider than Septic republicans.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    It’s Seppoland, so in employing the term ‘absurd’ in any context there is probably tautologous.
    Didn't the British vote in something called Brexit, then a PM named Boris?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    there ain’t many stupider than Septic republicans.
    ReTrumplicans, sure. There’s a big difference.

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    True, no country has a monopoly on stupidity but in American terms it seems to be systemic where republicans are concerned. In relation to Brexit, it was very much an English thing, not British, given the lion share of the vote for it stemmed from the English electorate comprising a demographic largely drawn from the ranks of the credulous, the ill informed, the ignorant and of course the merely stupid or addled.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The orange turd famously said "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"

    He wasn't wrong either.

  8. #8
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    ^
    Just as long as he doesn’t gain any voters, I think we’ll be ok.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    The orange turd famously said "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"
    I'm guessing the fund raising money is pouring in too....that gives me a chuckle. How fooking stupid is it to donate to a billionaire's defense fund?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    It’s Seppoland, so in employing the term ‘absurd’ in any context there is probably tautologous.

    But, stupid is as stupid does and there ain’t many stupider than Septic republicans.
    Actually Democrats and Republicans are just two subsets of the US. The other 30-35 % of us aren’t assholes.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Arf.

    The summons sent to former President Donald Trump and his legal team late Thursday indicates that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will be assigned to oversee his case, at least initially, according to sources briefed on the matter.
    Cannon's apparent assignment would add yet another unprecedented wrinkle to a case involving the first federal charges against a former president: Trump appointed Cannon to the federal bench in 2020, meaning that, if Trump is ultimately convicted, she would be responsible for determining the sentence – which may include prison time – for the man who elevated her to the role.
    Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, initially assigned to oversee his case: Sources - ABC News

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Donald Trump stored, showed off and refused to return classified documents, indictment says

    MIAMI (AP) — Donald Trump improperly stored in his Florida estate sensitive documents on nuclear capabilities, repeatedly enlisted aides and lawyers to help him hide records demanded by investigators and cavalierly showed off a Pentagon “plan of attack” and classified map, according to a sweeping felony indictment that paints a damning portrait of the former president’s treatment of national security information.


    The conduct alleged in the historic indictment — the first federal case against a former president — cuts to the heart of any president’s responsibility to safeguard the government’s most valuable secrets. Prosecutors say the documents he stowed, refused to return and in some cases showed to visitors risked jeopardizing not only relations with foreign nations but also the safety of troops and confidential sources.


    “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced,” Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, said in his first public statements. “Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”


    Trump, who is currently the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is due to make his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon in Miami. In a rare bit of good news for Trump, the judge initially assigned to the case is someone he appointed and who drew criticism for rulings in his favor during a dispute last year over a special master assigned to review the seized classified documents. Meanwhile, two lawyers who worked the case for months announced Friday that they had resigned from the legal team.


    All told, Trump faces 37 felony counts — 31 pertaining to the willful retention of national defense information, the balance relating to alleged conspiracy, obstruction and false statements — that could result in a substantial prison sentence in the event of a conviction. A Trump aide who prosecutors said moved dozens of boxes at his Florida estate at his direction, and then lied to investigators about it, was charged in the same indictment with conspiracy and other crimes.

    MORE Donald Trump stored, showed off and refused to return classified documents, indictment says | AP News

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Evidence in Trump’s indictment came from inside Mar-a-Lago and those hired for him

    Text messages. Phone records. Photos.


    The 37-count federal indictment of former president Donald Trump unsealed Friday provides a vivid account of Trump’s actions at his homes in South Florida and New Jersey, and is based on information from a coterie of close aides, household staffers and lawyers hired to serve Trump in his post-presidency.


    The account from Trump insiders in the 49-page indictment provides a thorough rebuttal to many claims made by Trump about his handling of classified material, including that he may have kept some material by accident or may have considered the material declassified by him.

    A secretary — identified in the indictment as “Trump Employee 2” — told prosecutors that Trump himself had been packing and looking through boxes, contrary to assertions from his own lawyers. A young political aide, referred to as “the PAC representative” in the indictment, told prosecutors that Trump showed him a classified map about a military operation in a foreign country and told him to stand back because it was a secret document. At a recent CNN town hall, Trump said he did not remember doing such a thing.


    Key parts of the indictment are based on one of his lawyer’s detailed notes about Trump’s wishing to obstruct justice by not responding to a subpoena — contradicting the 45th president’s claims that he was always cooperative with the Justice Department and the National Archives and Records Administration. And Trump’s valet was indicted alongside him, after prosecutors obtained the aide’s text messages and accused him of lying about moving boxes at Trump’s request.


    Over a lengthy investigation, special counsel Jack Smith and his team interviewed dozens of Trump’s staffers, including his secretary, groundskeepers and political aides. The interviews gave Smith a close-up look at how Trump had structured his unorthodox post-presidential life — and made Trump and his advisers deeply angry and uncomfortable, according to people familiar with the matter, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive topics or the ongoing criminal investigation.


    Trump never spoke to prosecutors in the case, but his actions, idiosyncrasies and thoughts were relayed in documents and text messages provided by staffers. Many accounts were provided reluctantly under subpoena, people familiar with those exchanges have said. Other aides’ phones were seized, giving prosecutors access to texts, photos and more.


    Security video footage also was taken from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home and private club, showing the movements of boxes after prosecutors sent a subpoena demanding the return of documents marked classified. Photos in the indictment show Trump’s bathroom, complete with a dangling chandelier, where he stored dozens of boxes of documents. Additional photos show other places where documents were stored, including his ballroom and a storage room.


    Phone records detailed calls between Trump and his valet that coincided with boxes being moved.

    Some of the most compelling testimony comes from people who were hired to help Trump.


    Evan Corcoran, a lawyer brought onto Trump’s staff in 2022, is the person described as “Attorney 1” in the indictment, according to a person familiar with the situation. Corcoran, a Maryland lawyer, was a former U.S. attorney who represented Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon in the past and was introduced to Trump by Trump’s longtime aide and legal adviser Boris Epshteyn.


    Corcoran fought vigorously against testifying in court, citing attorney-client privilege, but was compelled by a judge, who said prosecutors were entitled to Corcoran’s notes and recollections about conversations with Trump because the exchanges may have taken place in furtherance of a criminal act — in this case, withholding documents and deceiving the government.


    His testimony rattled Trump.


    Through his own lawyer, Corcoran declined to comment.


    On the day Trump’s attorneys returned documents to the Justice Department in response to the grand jury subpoena, Trump told Corcoran to search through the material in a folder and indicated that he should remove any problematic documents before handing the folder over, the indictment alleges.


    Corcoran provided a detailed summary of Trump’s comments that indicate he was looking to avoid returning documents. In Corcoran’s telling, Trump was determined to keep the boxes even though he knew he had received a grand jury subpoena.


    “I really don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes,” he said, according to Corcoran.


    He allegedly also said: “Well, what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?” and “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything there?”

    Information prosecutors appear to have obtained from Corcoran also indicates that Trump repeatedly claimed that a lawyer for Hillary Clinton, his 2016 presidential rival, had taken the blame for Clinton’s misuse of emails, and he allegedly said the lawyer’s willingness to do so was a trait he admired.


    Another key aide, described in the indictment as “Trump Employee 2,” matches information confirmed to The Washington Post about former Trump executive assistant Molly Michael. Michael and a lawyer representing her did not respond to requests for comment.


    Michael sat outside Trump’s office, connected his calls, kept his schedule and often translated his moods to visitors and other Trump advisers. She was deeply involved in all aspects of his life, Trump advisers said, until she left his employ last year. Michael was rattled by the extensive attention from federal authorities conducting the investigation, people familiar with the situation have said.

    Michael provided text messages and photos to federal investigators, the indictment shows, and kept close tabs on Trump’s packing of boxes himself — contrary to the claims made by some of his lawyers.


    “Box answer will be wrenched out of him by tomorrow,” Michael said in a text message to Alex Cannon, a Trump lawyer trying to get him to return materials to the Archives. Cannon is referred to in the indictment as a “Trump Representative,” according to a person familiar with the situation. He declined to comment.


    At another time, Michael updates another Trump aide on the former president’s efforts to sort through boxes and is said in the indictment to help Trump valet Walt Nauta move boxes. Her text messages appear frequently throughout the indictment, often in exchanges with Nauta.


    Nauta was charged alongside Trump, but Michael was not, and people familiar with the matter have said she cooperated with the Justice Department. Nauta, on the other hand, is accused of lying during the investigation.


    As Trump tried to avoid complying with a May 11, 2022, subpoena that required him to produce all documents with classification markings that were in his possession, Nauta was the person he relied on to help conceal the boxes he wanted to keep, the indictment alleges.

    In the time between the issuing of the subpoena and Trump’s attorney’s review of boxes in the storage room on June 2, 2022, to find documents being sought, Nauta moved approximately 64 boxes to Trump’s residence at Trump’s request, according to the indictment.


    The indictment shows the valet’s movements — along with phone calls he received from Trump.


    On the afternoon of May 22, 2022, it says, Nauta entered the storage room and emerged 34 minutes later carrying one of Trump’s boxes. On May 24, 2022, “between 5:30 p.m. and 5:38 p.m., Nauta removed three boxes from the Storage Room” at Trump’s direction, the indictment reads.


    A few days passed, and on May 30, 2022, after a 30-second phone call with Trump, Nauta removed 50 boxes from the storage room, according to the indictment. Later that day, a member of Trump’s family texted Nauta that the person had seen that he put boxes in Trump’s room.


    “I think he wanted to pick from them,” Nauta wrote to the “Trump family member” in a text message obtained by prosecutors. The indictment does not identify the family member, but it would be a woman who has access to Trump’s private quarters at Mar-a-Lago.


    “He told me to put them in the room and he was going to talk to you about them,” Nauta writes, after the “family member” says there will not be room for the boxes to go on the plane to Trump’s home in Bedminster, N.J., because the aircraft will be “full with luggage.”

    On June 1, 2022, at 12:52 p.m., Nauta visited the storage room once again and removed 11 boxes, the indictment says.


    Nauta made one more trip before Trump’s attorney arrived on June 2, 2022, to review the boxes in the storage room. After Trump and Nauta spoke on the phone at 9:29 a.m. that day, according to the indictment, Nauta, along with another club employee, moved 30 boxes from Trump’s residence back to the storage room.


    The government alleges that Nauta lied in an interview with the FBI about moving boxes.


    “Are you aware of any boxes being brought to his home — his suite?” the FBI agent asks.


    Nauta responds decisively: “No.”


    A lawyer for Nauta did not respond to a request for comment.


    In two other instances in the indictment, unidentified Trump aides witness the former president’s mishandling of classified information. At Bedminster in 2021, the indictment says, Trump showed a picture of a classified map related to a military operation of another country to an unidentified aide working for his political action committee.


    Trump “told the PAC representative that he should not be showing the map to the PAC representative and to not get too close,” the indictment says.


    A recording mentioned in the indictment describes a different meeting at Bedminster during which the former president talks about knowing a document related to Iran is classified. “See as president I could have declassified it,” he says to an unidentified staffer.


    “Now I can’t you know,” he says.


    “Now we have a problem,” the unknown staffer says.


    “Isn’t that interesting?” Trump responds.


    Evidence in Trump’s indictment came from inside Mar-a-Lago and those hired for him

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    So another perp walk next week then.

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