Trump-a-Lago Raided?

[BoSoxGal]

There has been a lot of reporting on Trump’s efforts to hire high caliber lawyers for this case and Georgia as well. He is meeting with difficulty in finding a really good lawyer who is willing to take the case - some have even been interviewed and cited the amount of time the case would require and how it would take them away from established clientele/practice. But of course Trump has a reputation for not paying his legal bills over the long run and also his star is on such a trajectory that by the day he is becoming a less and less attractive person with whom to be associated.

I would really like to know how he’s spending the quarter billion plus dollars he has grifted from his cult in small dollar (often repeating) donations over the last two years since he started fundraising on the Big Lie.

I would not be surprised if Trump eventually absconds the jurisdictions. I hear he maybe has pals in Moscow?

[Sue U]

I would not be surprised if Trump eventually absconds the jurisdictions. I hear he maybe has pals in Moscow?

"I have been treated so unfairly by the corrupt FBI and its radical leftist Democrat witch hunt Russia Russia Russia hoax that I have no choice but to temporarily relocate my official residence and businesses to Trump Tower On The Volga until I am reinstated as President by the true Americans." --Donald Trump, next month, probably

ETA:

(maybe those tactics (threats and yelling) work for ambulance chasers?).

As a former and sometimes-still ambulance chaser, I can tell you that no actual litigator thinks threats and yelling work for anyone. As I'm sure you know, the most skillful practice is leveraging the facts and the other side's arguments to prove your own case in a calm, methodical manner. The Chewbacca Defense is rarely successful.

[Crackpot]

Sue do you watch Legal Eagle on YouTube?

[Big RR]

Well, there are ambulance chasers, and then there are AMBULANCE CHASERS. FWIW, the worst attorneys I came across were when I worked for DYFS; parents who could afford counsel got their own and they usually were divorce ("family law") attorneys, many of whom yelled and pouted to the point where they were warned by the judge (One was almost thrown out of the courtroom if he didn't stop the "theatrics". I also served as a divorce/family law mediator and ran into similar problems with them. I never went into family court with clients other than to get the agreement merged into the judgment, but if behavior like that worked (or was even acceptable) I'm glad I didn't.

I ran across attorneys like that during negotiations, but only rarely and they usually settled down unless I chose to bait them (which, i'll admit I did sometimes); mostly I think attorneys are pretty much focused on the job and not the theatrics, but there are some who a real jerks (like Rudy and that Philadelphia guy appears to be.

[Sue U]

Sue do you watch Legal Eagle on YouTube?

No, I don't. What is that?

FWIW, the worst attorneys I came across were when I worked for DYFS; parents who could afford counsel got their own and they usually were divorce ("family law") attorneys, many of whom yelled and pouted to the point where they were warned by the judge (One was almost thrown out of the courtroom if he didn't stop the "theatrics".

***

mostly I think attorneys are pretty much focused on the job and not the theatrics, but there are some who a real jerks (like Rudy and that Philadelphia guy appears to be.

Another reason I'm grateful I didn't go into family law! And now that you mention it, it's been my experience that lawyers from NYC (and to a lesser extent, Philly) do tend to be substantially more contentious than our own NJ bar, of which the vast majority emphasize courtesy and are very collegial, even across the v. In the plaintiff's personal injury bar, the highest compliment that can be paid to defense counsel is "s/he's a straight shooter and good as his/her word." There is only one guy I can think of who was just a colossal asshole throughout the one case I had with him; I asked some other folks about him and was told, "Don't take it personally, he's a giant asshole to everybody and everyone knows it, including the judges, but he'll settle for good money in the end." And he did.

If you litigate regularly in a particular practice area, you'll keep seeing the same lawyers on the other side of your cases throughout your career; they are my adversaries but they are not my enemies, and we're all just trying to do our jobs for our respective clients. I actually work pretty diligently at cultivating good relationships with the other side, especially with the attorneys who actually know what they're doing; it's always better to have competent opposing counsel who focuses on the case, and is not just looking for a way to screw you. I have developed friendships with several of my regular adversaries, and I sometimes call them just to get their perspective on issues (in cases I'm not litigating with them); it's very helpful in understanding what I'm not seeing.

[Crackpot]

https://youtu.be/eYasKRpNNwg

https://youtu.be/K1X31K-0bYA

[Bicycle Bill]

Why did Trump have the documents in the first place?
Tom the Dancing Bug answers that one for us.


(the foreign text along the left edge reads, in descending order, "We speak Russian / Arabic / Mandarin / Korean")

Incidentally, as far as the orange one is concerned, President's Day — note the use of the singular possessive — is June 14th (his birthday).   He ain't sharing HIS holiday with none of them other losers!

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

The extended inventory return list released by the court indicates that the FBI found numerous empty top secret jackets. Presumably they also found the contents separately but obviously not normal or best practices and really how will we ever know who looked at, photographed or copied those sensitive intelligence documents?!

The hypocrisy is astounding. Hillary was not electable because of a few emails with classification markings, but Trump is king shit being unfairly persecuted for taking hundreds of classified pages out of the WH?!?!

I’m so fucking fed up with misogyny.

[Joe Guy]

....The hypocrisy is astounding. Hillary was not electable because of a few emails with classification markings, but Trump is king shit being unfairly persecuted for taking hundreds of classified pages out of the WH?!?!

I’m so fucking fed up with misogyny.

Since he's a twat, Trump's legal situation could technically be partly misogynistic.

[BoSoxGal]

Just to clarify, numerous means 90+ empty classified/military intelligence documents folders.

And the FBI seized 10,000 documents. TEN THOUSAND DOCUMENTS. That’s what they took in August when they ‘raided’ Trump-a-Lago.

Nevermind that they’d already taken over a dozen boxes earlier in the year, they took 33 boxes from the raid.

TEN THOUSAND DOCUMENTS.

My mind cannot fathom how anyone could still think this human being is fit for anything like leader of the free world.

[Scooter]

Bill Barr has definitely gotten himself deleted from the Trump family Christmas card list:

Barr Dismisses Trump’s Request for a Special Master

WASHINGTON — Former Attorney General William P. Barr dismissed former President Donald J. Trump’s call for an independent review of materials seized from his Florida home on Friday — and said an inventory of items recovered in the search last month seemed to support the Justice Department’s claim that it was needed to safeguard national security.

“As more information comes out, the actions of the department look more understandable,” Mr. Barr told The New York Times in a phone interview, speaking of the decision by the current attorney general, Merrick B. Garland, to seek a search warrant of the complex at Mar-a-Lago.

“It seems to me they were driven by concern about highly sensitive information being strewn all over a country club, and it was taking them almost two years to get it back,” said Mr. Barr, who resigned in December 2020, as Mr. Trump pushed him to support false claims that the election had been stolen.

“It appears that there’s been a lot of jerking around of the government,” he added. “I’m not sure the department could have gotten it back without taking action.”

Asked what he thought of the argument for the appointment of a special master, an independent arbiter to review the material that could delay the investigation, Mr. Barr laughed.

“I think it’s a crock of shit,” he said, adding, “I don’t think a special master is called for.”

Mr. Barr has not been afraid to criticize Mr. Trump since leaving office, but he has seldom been quite so blunt in his assessment as during the interview on Friday afternoon, or earlier in the day when he expressed similar sentiments on Fox News.

Mr. Barr’s comments, which echo the assessment of many Democrats and a few Republicans, including the former Bush adviser Karl Rove, came as Mr. Trump’s supporters tried to downplay the importance of the inventory unsealed by a federal judge in Florida.

The eight-page document, which was made public with the tacit assent of the former president’s lawyers, revealed that the F.B.I. recovered 11,179 documents or photographs without classification markings belonging to the government, and more than 100 others marked top secret, secret or confidential.

“It’s hard to wrap your head around him taking so much sensitive materials,” Mr. Barr said. “I was, let’s just say, surprised.”

As attorney general, Mr. Barr chose not to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Trump after the 2019 report into Mr. Trump’s actions in the Russia investigation. Last month, the department released a memo commissioned by Mr. Barr, in which two deputies rejected a prosecution, saying that none of Mr. Trump’s actions could be shown beyond a reasonable doubt to be criminal acts.

And while he generally backed the department’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents and unequivocally supported the government’s retrieval of sensitive materials, he seemed far less certain about a potential prosecution on charges of obstruction or the Espionage Act, which prohibits the unauthorized retention of national security secrets.

“They have to think about the impact on the country of the precedent set by trying a former president,” Mr. Barr said.

For his part, Mr. Garland has repeatedly said that he would go where the evidence leads him, and that he would act without “fear or favor” when it comes to making decisions in matters involving Mr. Trump and his allies.

[Scooter]

[Bicycle Bill]

I can't remember where I saw it, but I read a post or comment from someone who said, "If the old rhyme were true and telling a lie actually DID cause one's pants to catch on fire, watching Trump speak would be much more entertaining."

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

[Burning Petard]

Is there ANY legal basis for an ex-president claiming this kind of stuff is his personal property? 'The Presidential Library' is not a private, personal museum; it is part of the National Archives. There is a big stack of regulations involving preservation of documents by the various offices of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. As far as I can tell, Trump has always claimed he is somehow exempt from any of this stuff, even going back to his statement about standing in the middle of a street and shooting somebody, or grabbing a female pussy. 'Work Product' has a long history of being the property of the employer, not the worker.

Seems to me the Trump legal representatives on this are just going down the same path that was traveled by the Trump lawyers on voter fraud--just keep filing claims with no factual support and eventually the other side will get tired or bored and go away. The Trump people trumpet that case was filed and ignore the result--and so do most of the news media.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

Special master to Trump’s legal team: ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it, too!’

Finally a real jurist takes on this mess.

[Big RR]

It does sound like he takes the job seriously and will carry out his duties; at least I hope so.

[ex-khobar Andy]

And now we have the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturning 'Judge' Cannon's ruling which halted the Justice Department’s use of the Mar-a-Lago records for investigative purposes. So the roller coaster ride is back on again. Wheeeeeee!

[BoSoxGal]

It’s heartening to see Trump justices ruling with the law and not just doing the bidding of Orange Jesus. (Shame on Judge Cannon.)

[Burning Petard]

Roller Coaster indeed. Looks to me as if the entire strategy out of the Trump conglomerate is stall, stall, stall. Stay out of actually going to court to prove anything. Eventually the GOP Gerrymanders, and the Election Deniers with gain enough power to shut this all down when they restore the Electoral College to a group of colleagues who will ignore the popular vote and 'do what they know is best.' After all, it is a foundational assumption of the Conservative, that the majority of the populace is actually incapable of taking care of themselves..

It is a matter of a textbook example of 'projection' when Conservatives claim that is the holding of 'elitist liberals.'

snailgate.