FBI raids Mar-A-Lago; Known criminal Donald Trump still at large

[Ziggy Stardust]

They do think that, and rightly so. The problem with the demobot infestation on this site is that they do not trouble to think much, they go directly to knowing. Trump is guilty.. the crime is a matter of indifference, evidence is unnecessary, and the sentence, whatever it may be, is too light. Trump is guilty, they know. They call this "rule of law.".

Naskra, thinking for himself, doing his own research, showing the sheeple what's what ladies and gentlemen.

Bask in the presence of the wise one.

 

[JollyRoger]

They do think that, and rightly so. The problem with the demobot infestation on this site is that they do not trouble to think much, they go directly to knowing. Trump is guilty.. the crime is a matter of indifference, evidence is unnecessary, and the sentence, whatever it may be, is too light. Trump is guilty, they know. They call this "rule of law.".

I've read every filing by the government or Trump and every judge's ruling related to such filings in the documents case. I've gone from merely suspecting that Trump did something unlawful to a very high degree of confidence that he did. Do you agree? If not, on what basis? Is your demobot chip malfunctioning or has the deep state not processed you through the back room of a Sorosbucks-sponsored FEMA pizza parlor yet?

 

[Remorseless1]

There's a bit of a political conundrum. If he's prosecuted, it's evidence of the Deep State. If he's not, it's evidence of the Corrupt State. So, the actualizing of an event doesn't actually provide any clarity to the underlying theories.

The problem is that there is no such thing as the "Deep State" and that we spent four years watching a sitting president trying to corrupt every agency of the federal government. Just because Trump's followers claim something doesn't make it any more real than Jewish space lasers and paedophile/cannibal child molesters in Congress.

 

[Naskra]

I've read every filing by the government

Then you noticed the cagey wording: "marked as classified". This puts the status of the documents in doubt. Declassification is a process, not an event. The docs go through channels, where the redactors do their stuff. These channels can get very sluggish when under new management. The FBI is one of those channels. A "classified document" in Washington is what the civilian world calls "stationery" or "scrap paper". So sure, Trump broke some laws. Purloining office supplies, at a minimum. Those manila folders with all the supersecret stampings are really cool to have around to show your friends, for those who have friends. Stick a potato salad recipe inside one and you got yourself a state secret. Put in an 8x10 glossy of the Executive Hemorrhoids and you've moved up to Top Secret.
None of the above is important. Trump is just a pawn here. This affair is about the election; a Republican House means the wrong sort of people will be asking awkward questions. The FBI does not want that. The Rs will screw it up, but why take a chance.
What happened here is that Trump and the Archive were tidying up loose ends regarding Presidential memorabilia - routine stuff. The FBI saw an opportunity to gin up a national security crisis and seized it. CNN piled on. The secret nature of the "evidence" gave them a free hand to fabricate any story they liked. Nukes! Iranians! Chinese!
No Russians this time round, though, the editors judged a second term as Russian agent would be a hard sell. Trump is therefore now a freelance foreign agent, selling to all and sundry. It's all bollocks. Any docs Trump took, legally or otherwise, are going to feature Donald J Trump. i.e., this case is about birthday cards and the like.
The sad reality is, Trump will sell anything, but with two important provisos: It must have the Trump brand on it and must not be worth the price asked.

How do I know all this? From everyone's most trusted authority - anonymous sources close to the matter. See how easy that is?

 

[JollyRoger]

And if you did the same amount of reading as I did, you would know that the difference between marked as classified and classified is a red herring so far as criminal liability goes and in numerous filing and opportunities, Trump's lawyers have never claimed specific documents were declassified, much less how that was done - through regular standards or something more Trumpy.

So far a pre-FBI involvement, Trump was stalling and withholding. De-classified documents, if any, were still not Trump's and he had basically a year and a half to comply before one of his properties was searched. It is a very factual proposition that he did not comply and based on a fair reading of all the filings, he knew he wasn't complying - aka - obstructing justice. I can see why one should be skeptical of the FBI playing fair - you and I would not had been given the same number of hall passes that Trump got in this situation and we would be fighting this from a prison cell instead of a golf course.

/bot

 

[r16]

stumble once in Ukraine and you will see there are far more Trump supporters than you could have ever imagined . Sharks and blood in the water .

 

[Lexicus]

Then you noticed the cagey wording: "marked as classified". This puts the status of the documents in doubt. Declassification is a process, not an event. The docs go through channels, where the redactors do their stuff. These channels can get very sluggish when under new management. The FBI is one of those channels. A "classified document" in Washington is what the civilian world calls "stationery" or "scrap paper". So sure, Trump broke some laws. Purloining office supplies, at a minimum. Those manila folders with all the supersecret stampings are really cool to have around to show your friends, for those who have friends. Stick a potato salad recipe inside one and you got yourself a state secret. Put in an 8x10 glossy of the Executive Hemorrhoids and you've moved up to Top Secret.
None of the above is important. Trump is just a pawn here. This affair is about the election; a Republican House means the wrong sort of people will be asking awkward questions. The FBI does not want that. The Rs will screw it up, but why take a chance.
What happened here is that Trump and the Archive were tidying up loose ends regarding Presidential memorabilia - routine stuff. The FBI saw an opportunity to gin up a national security crisis and seized it. CNN piled on. The secret nature of the "evidence" gave them a free hand to fabricate any story they liked. Nukes! Iranians! Chinese!
No Russians this time round, though, the editors judged a second term as Russian agent would be a hard sell. Trump is therefore now a freelance foreign agent, selling to all and sundry. It's all bollocks. Any docs Trump took, legally or otherwise, are going to feature Donald J Trump. i.e., this case is about birthday cards and the like.
The sad reality is, Trump will sell anything, but with two important provisos: It must have the Trump brand on it and must not be worth the price asked.

How do I know all this? From everyone's most trusted authority - anonymous sources close to the matter. See how easy that is?

No one spins out subrational innuendo like you can.

 

[Arwon]

Then you noticed the cagey wording: "marked as classified". This puts the status of the documents in doubt. Declassification is a process, not an event. The docs go through channels, where the redactors do their stuff. These channels can get very sluggish when under new management. The FBI is one of those channels. A "classified document" in Washington is what the civilian world calls "stationery" or "scrap paper". So sure, Trump broke some laws. Purloining office supplies, at a minimum. Those manila folders with all the supersecret stampings are really cool to have around to show your friends, for those who have friends. Stick a potato salad recipe inside one and you got yourself a state secret. Put in an 8x10 glossy of the Executive Hemorrhoids and you've moved up to Top Secret.
None of the above is important. Trump is just a pawn here. This affair is about the election; a Republican House means the wrong sort of people will be asking awkward questions. The FBI does not want that. The Rs will screw it up, but why take a chance.
What happened here is that Trump and the Archive were tidying up loose ends regarding Presidential memorabilia - routine stuff. The FBI saw an opportunity to gin up a national security crisis and seized it. CNN piled on. The secret nature of the "evidence" gave them a free hand to fabricate any story they liked. Nukes! Iranians! Chinese!
No Russians this time round, though, the editors judged a second term as Russian agent would be a hard sell. Trump is therefore now a freelance foreign agent, selling to all and sundry. It's all bollocks. Any docs Trump took, legally or otherwise, are going to feature Donald J Trump. i.e., this case is about birthday cards and the like.
The sad reality is, Trump will sell anything, but with two important provisos: It must have the Trump brand on it and must not be worth the price asked.

How do I know all this? From everyone's most trusted authority - anonymous sources close to the matter. See how easy that is?

Was this intended to make sense or is it like an art project

 

[Remorseless1]

Then you noticed the cagey wording: "marked as classified". This puts the status of the documents in doubt. Declassification is a process, not an event. The docs go through channels, where the redactors do their stuff. These channels can get very sluggish when under new management. The FBI is one of those channels. A "classified document" in Washington is what the civilian world calls "stationery" or "scrap paper". So sure, Trump broke some laws. Purloining office supplies, at a minimum. Those manila folders with all the supersecret stampings are really cool to have around to show your friends, for those who have friends. Stick a potato salad recipe inside one and you got yourself a state secret. Put in an 8x10 glossy of the Executive Hemorrhoids and you've moved up to Top Secret.
None of the above is important. Trump is just a pawn here. This affair is about the election; a Republican House means the wrong sort of people will be asking awkward questions. The FBI does not want that. The Rs will screw it up, but why take a chance.
What happened here is that Trump and the Archive were tidying up loose ends regarding Presidential memorabilia - routine stuff. The FBI saw an opportunity to gin up a national security crisis and seized it. CNN piled on. The secret nature of the "evidence" gave them a free hand to fabricate any story they liked. Nukes! Iranians! Chinese!
No Russians this time round, though, the editors judged a second term as Russian agent would be a hard sell. Trump is therefore now a freelance foreign agent, selling to all and sundry. It's all bollocks. Any docs Trump took, legally or otherwise, are going to feature Donald J Trump. i.e., this case is about birthday cards and the like.
The sad reality is, Trump will sell anything, but with two important provisos: It must have the Trump brand on it and must not be worth the price asked.

How do I know all this? From everyone's most trusted authority - anonymous sources close to the matter. See how easy that is?

Excellent fiction. As a journalist, I understand how difficult it is to be wrong in every sentence, every phrase, every word. Well-done!

Btw, you missed a golden opportunity to explain how Jan. 6 was just a tourist walk ruined by nasty black people and degenerate whites.

 

[Naskra]

The DOJ can nail Trump on this issue if they really want to. Better men than Trump have failed to navigate the legal shoals around bumf. Trump could have declassified the docs but perhaps didn't. So what that leaves is a technical violation - felonious failure to complete paperwork. There's no victim here. The USG is unharmed. There's no property issue - Trump only has printouts of things already in government possession. The only question is are the Dems stupid enough to launch another trial Trial of the Century over this trifle. They didn't balk at two doomed impeachments, so I don't know.

 

[El_Machinae]

Evidence that those documents had begun the declassification process would be a positive defense. And then I guess judges would be forced to decide if partially through the process counts as sufficiently through the process to consider them de facto Declassified

Although there are conservatives that are actually quite nervous that judges will rule that way, considering then the documents become open to Freedom of Information requests

 

[Arakhor]

Well, he  was impeached both times, but then many of the same lawmakers who were cowering under tables or running for their lives suddenly decided that he was worth keeping on for some reason.

 

[IglooDame]

The DOJ can nail Trump on this issue if they really want to. Better men than Trump have failed to navigate the legal shoals around bumf. Trump could have declassified the docs but perhaps didn't. So what that leaves is a technical violation - felonious failure to complete paperwork. There's no victim here. The USG is unharmed. There's no property issue - Trump only has printouts of things already in government possession. The only question is are the Dems stupid enough to launch another trial Trial of the Century over this trifle. They didn't balk at two doomed impeachments, so I don't know.

Honestly I snickered out loud at "Better men than Trump" - that's pretty much everybody, isn't it?

I'm curious, were you one of the folks saying Hillary needed to go to jail because of the whole email server thing? I mean, I guess I could search back through OT, but I'm not sure I want to bother.

 

[Naskra]

Hillary needed to go to jail

Hillary is a broken down old lush, it's best to just leave her be. I speak from experience in these matters. Maybe, just perhaps, she married unwisely, but that's not for me to say.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The DOJ can nail Trump on this issue if they really want to. Better men than Trump have failed to navigate the legal shoals around bumf. Trump could have declassified the docs but perhaps didn't. So what that leaves is a technical violation - felonious failure to complete paperwork. There's no victim here. The USG is unharmed. There's no property issue - Trump only has printouts of things already in government possession. The only question is are the Dems stupid enough to launch another trial Trial of the Century over this trifle. They didn't balk at two doomed impeachments, so I don't know.

There is no evidence that Trump ever started the process of declassifying any of the "stolen" documents. Not returning docs when asked multiple times and hiding docs from investigators or attorneys is obstruction; and retaining, unlawfully, classified and highly classified docs is a violation of the espionage act. Trumps acts were all intentional. If you or I had done the same, we would already be in jail.

 

[RobAnybody]

...So sure, Trump broke some laws....

It's like Where's Waldo became a post.

 

[Naskra]

we would already be in jail.

Right. No need for a trial; the FBI holds a press conference and off we go.

 

[Samson]

Right. No need for a trial; the FBI holds a press conference and off we go.

Many (most?) people held in jail have not had a trail. Prison is where we would go after conviction.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Then you noticed the cagey wording: "marked as classified". This puts the status of the documents in doubt. Declassification is a process, not an event. The docs go through channels, where the redactors do their stuff.

Not true.

Mr. Trump again insisted that “I declassified everything.” He added that as president, “you can declassify just by saying ‘it’s declassified’ — even by thinking about it.”
Trump just has to think about it, and it's declassified.

 

[JollyRoger]

Right. No need for a trial; the FBI holds a press conference and off we go.

Actually, no. A person is arrested and then there is a bail hearing where it is possible to be jailed pending trial. Most of those people that you righties lusted over when Sheriff Joe put them in pink prison garb were awaiting trial. The FBI is being very soft with Trump. Almost as soft as he was with Stormy Daniels if you believe the rumors.