It was supposed to be a meme but then the meme came true.
https://t.co/2S54fOQ1Dr
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 26, 2022
Posted on 08/26/2022 8:14:11 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As RedState reported, the affidavit for the search warrant that led to an unprecedented FBI raid on Donald Trump’s home has been released in heavily redacted form. As if to play out the meme that had been going around for days suggesting the affidavit would be a giant blob of black ink, that turned out to be mostly true.
The document is full of redacted sections, to the point of absurdity, representing a giant middle finger to transparency by a federal bureaucracy that simply doesn’t care.
It was supposed to be a meme but then the meme came true.
https://t.co/2S54fOQ1Dr— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 26, 2022
So what’s in the affidavit? While the redactions cover most of that up, there is enough revealed that exposes just how blatantly political the FBI’s move was. For example, the pursuit partially originated not from any hard evidence of criminal activity, but from a CBS News article.
Biden's DOJ told a federal court that the FBI had to raid Trump's house because a CBS news article saw trucks at Mar-a-Lago when Trump was president.
pic.twitter.com/mROEJAhBz2— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 26, 2022
Who could have guessed that there would be moving trucks at Mar-a-Lago while Trump was in the middle of moving from the White House to Mar-a-Lago? Just incredible stuff, but it was apparently enough for the National Archives and the FBI to join forces to break all precedent to target a former president.
The other part of this centers on documents already returned to the NARA. Yes, you heard that right, part of the basis for the search warrant was that Trump had already returned boxes that had been requested. The NARA then identified some of the returned documents as still having classified markings and used it as a pretense to go after whatever else might be at Mar-a-Lago.
The boxes, as we've reported before, were a mishmash of items – a raincoat, golf balls, a razor – and also, per the DOJ filing, other random papers jumbled in with 184 individual documents with unchanged classified markings.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 26, 2022
The boxes being referred to by Maggie Haberman were returned in January of 2022 after the typical negotiation that goes on between former presidents and the National Archives. Also of note is that Haberman is very careful to use the phrase “unchanged classified markings” instead of “classified documents.” That’s a nod to the fact that they were declassified before being copied and taken.
That notion is furthered by the fact that the affidavit makes clear the classification of the documents is not what is at issue under the Espionage Act. This was an incredibly broad fishing expedition based on no legitimate probable cause.
Read this and try to not have your mind melt.
https://t.co/oiELgeM65s— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 26, 2022
Despite having an open dialogue that had already produced fruit, the NARA then sent a criminal referral to the FBI upon receiving those documents. The FBI responded by immediately opening a criminal investigation without even a hint of caution given the magnitude of the situation.
Read carefully. On only a NARA referral alone (in Feb) they just plowed ahead and opened a CRIMINAL investigation.
pic.twitter.com/f2KzaqIfAL— Mccabe's Porsche on Blocks (@Larry_Beech) August 26, 2022
Another media narrative also bit the dust within the affidavit. Many claimed that Trump had retroactively made up the story of declassifying the documents as a way to cover himself after the fact. Nope. According to the affidavit, he told the FBI and NARA that same thing prior to the raid. They appear to have simply ignored the fact that Trump declassified the documents in question before taking them under his authority as president. If there is an explanation given for that in the affidavit, it’s redacted.
In the affidavit, the Justice Department acknowledged that Trump’s lawyers and former officials pointed to his “absolute authority to declassify documents” as president.
If the DOJ explains why they ignored that point, their rationale is completely redacted.
pic.twitter.com/5sqyNVMioD— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) August 26, 2022
What’s this come down to? If you believe the affidavit’s justification, it’s not really about the possession of classified materials, and there’s no real indication that there will be criminal charges coming. Instead, it appears the grand disagreement was over what constituted a “secure” location at Mar-a-Lago. Yes, they raided a former president’s home because they felt a double-locked storage room protected by Secret Service wasn’t enough, even as Trump had tried to accommodate their concerns.
Lol they raided his house because the paper pushers at National Archives were bent out of shape about document storage.
https://t.co/EPwqti4GQi— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) August 26, 2022
What was shown today in this affidavit is a gross abuse of power by an out-of-control federal bureaucracy that is targeting Trump based purely on politics. The NARA never treated Barack Obama like this despite him taking millions of documents, many sensitive, and not following through on his commitment to scan and upload them. The fact that Trump was cooperative over what turned out to be a relatively mundane issue only makes things worse.
The NARA is run by a democrat hack and the partisan FBI has been trying to get the bad orange man from the moment he announced his first presidential run. Both institutions used their power to gin up bad headlines for Trump via the raid and coordinated leaks knowing full well there was no reason to treat this as a criminal matter. It’s more evidence on top of the already existing mountain that the bureaucracy must be torn down brick by brick. Any Republican still arguing for the “rank-and-file” doesn’t know what time it is.
That doesn’t answer the question “why did you take them?”
And but also doesn’t answer the question is that in the three legal charges likely pending against former President Trump he’s not absolved of that at all with what you state.
Further they were apparently not properly reclassified , you don’t wave a magic wand, there was nothing done as far as the report so far in terms of proper reporting to other agencies, storage, retagging, control logs, etc.… That’s bullshit they’re just saying after the fact … And on top of that 18 former national security personnel at the senior level (all Republicans appointed) and most of them Trump White House emeriti, have stated as of just week they have never heard of such a “magic wand”
procedure being done, repeat NEVER. Furthermore although the Presidential Records Act states that an incumbent President may “dispose of records that no longer have administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value,” the disposal is only permitted after “views of the Archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal have been obtained in writing.”
Again. I challenge you:
As a private citizen, are those documents his personal property or the property of The Archivist and in turn the property of the People of the United States?
It can’t be both.
I don’t really care what the affidavit reveals or does not reveal.
Only a fool would believe that this raid, the Jan 6th show trials, the stolen 2020 election and subsequent political persecution and fake news gaslighting - were not all parts of a treasonous plot to overthrow a duly elected President.
The burden of proof rests entirely on this corrupt and illegitimate administration to prove otherwise - and they can’t. Any further discussion is mental masturbation.
After the midterms, if people in high places are not strung up for this - we don’t have a country.
No I’m just observing basic facts the fact is he’s now left by most accounts with very very poor representation and you can either bury your head in the sand or you can face the fact that he’s in deep shit… That’s the two options in front of us. I mean their screw ups in the most recent hearings and document filings is reprehensible as an attorney, I’d fire them right away, and the fact they couldn’t even sit in the barrrd attorney area, but in general public seating, and were silent during his hearing and didn’t oppose the DOJ motions just shows complete amateur level lawyering.
I am aware of that perspective
I know if it were me and I were entrusted with the country’s top national security secrets I would never EVER do what former President Trump did and taking those down to MAL outside of the SCIF and having them laying all over the place or susceptible to be accessed by uncleared people (including Trump who is no longer cleared as a private citizen) . So I guess the answer is yes if I did such a national security violation of NDI handling I would want the government to come after me or any other person as well. Just think they could go after any of us
It was all about recovering docs Trump had with the FBI fraudulent FISA info on them, as per today’s report by Paul Sperry.
They weren’t looking for evidence to convict, but evidence to keep Trump from CONVICTING THEM.
National Archives and the FBI to join forces to break all precedent to target a former president.
OH SHIT he does have information on the guilty.
All D.C. law firms are now on active duty.
As usual, you’re an idiot who has nothing but offbase pejoratives to sling at the wall shotgun style.
Your TDS is off the charts too, ExAmerican.
You have no counterarguments, if you’ve followed the points I’ve made and will continue to make . Me, I’m not angry at anyone, don’t need to name call, least of all towards you. If anything, I’m governed by pity to watch this nonsense all start to come undone.
Again, as President, Trump has plenary power to take them and do whatever he wants with them. His simply wanting them is sufficient. His coming to you and getting your approval is not required.
And but also doesn’t answer the question is that in the three legal charges likely pending against former President Trump he’s not absolved of that at all with what you state.
What the hell do fishing expedition by soros DAs in blue states have to do with the gestapo raid on Mar a Lago? You're all over the place. Focus.
Further they were apparently not properly reclassified , you don’t wave a magic wand, there was nothing done as far as the report so far in terms of proper reporting to other agencies, storage, retagging, control logs, etc.… That’s bullshit they’re just saying after the fact …
Yes, as a matter of fact, they, meaning the POTUS, do have the plenary power to declassify them. They don't need to be "reclassified" as anything. That's what "declassify" means.
And on top of that 18 former national security personnel at the senior level (all Republicans appointed) and most of them Trump White House emeriti, have stated as of just week they have never heard of such a “magic wand” procedure being done, repeat NEVER. Furthermore although the Presidential Records Act states that an incumbent President may “dispose of records that no longer have administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value,” the disposal is only permitted after “views of the Archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal have been obtained in writing.”
The Presidential Records Act has already been rendered moot by the Court ruling against Judicial Watch when they tried to get Obama's records which he hauled off and stuck in a sock drawers. The POTUS has plenary powers. All the words your spouting now are irrelevant. "But, but but....."
Again. I challenge you:
As a private citizen, are those documents his personal property or the property of The Archivist and in turn the property of the People of the United States?
They are his personal property. He can provide copies to the archivist (still didn't get those Obama sock drawer tapes tho') and there is no time constraint as to when such transfer takes place. The originals may go into whatever Presidential Library the ex-POTUS decides to build. Or just sit in a sock drawer for that matter. Being declassified and all.
It can’t be both.
Sure it can. That's what copies are for.
Yeah he’s the victim all right… Everyone knows this man can do absolutely no wrong, that he has a sinless birth, and that he is the second coming of Christ I. Our political times. /sarc
Right, no anger, no insults. Technically I guess that's true. Just utterly baseless blather.
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