Octopus Overlords

Grifman wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 12:43 pm Read this thread re: sentencing of Stewart Rhodes:



There’s not an ounce of remorse in his comments to the court. The judge is going to throw the book at him.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 4:24 pm It sounds like everything went against him in the hearing. I wonder why he only got 18.

Federal prosecutors have evidence Donald Trump showed classified documents to people, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, as the investigation into his handling of national security materials and obstruction of justice approaches its conclusion.

The development could raise the stakes for the former president as it exposes him to serious action under the Espionage Act, of wilfully communicating national security materials rather than simply retaining them, which is rarely charged.
...
Prosecutors have also developed evidence in recent weeks that Trump employees at Mar-a-Lago last year brought boxes of documents back to the storage room the day before justice department officials came to collect classified documents that had been subpoenaed, the Post reported.

Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal case have released to his attorneys a recording of Trump and a witness, whose identity was not disclosed, according to a document the office made public Friday.

The document, called an automatic discovery form, describes the nature of the charges against a defendant and a broad overview of the evidence that prosecutors will present at Trump's preliminary hearing or at trial. Trump's attorneys and media organizations, including CBS News, had repeatedly requested that such a form be made public in the weeks since Trump's arrest on April 4.

Trump is the first former president in American history to face criminal charges. He has entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts of falsification of business records for alleged payments made as part of a "hush money" scheme.

The document lists the dates of 34 instances between Feb. 14, 2017 and Dec. 5, 2017 when he allegedly falsified records.

In a section devoted to electronic evidence that will be turned over, a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office indicated they have disclosed to the defense a "recording of a conversation between defendant and a witness."

The section also indicates prosecutors intend to disclose recordings of calls between witnesses and others.

Trial in the case is scheduled to begin March 25, 2024.

In recent months, the former president has asked close advisers, including at least one of his personal attorneys, if “we know” all the names of senior FBI agents and Justice Department personnel who have worked on the federal probes into him. That’s according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter and another person briefed on it.

Trump has then privately discussed that should he return to the White House, it is imperative his new Department of Justice “quickly” and “immediately” purge the FBI and DOJ’s ranks of these officials and agents who’ve led the Trump-related criminal investigations, the sources recount. The ex-president has of course dubbed all such probes as illegitimate “witch hunts,” and is now campaigning for the White House on a platform of “retribution” and cleaning house.

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 6:41 pm This feels like a big deal.

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

Just so we're clear, if this was anyone other than a former President, they'd be sitting in a jail cell, right?

Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.”

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 6:41 pm This feels like a big deal.

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

Just so we're clear, if this was anyone other than a former President, they'd be sitting in a jail cell, right?

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 7:00 pm I'll give Trump kudos for NOT doing this (get the damn neocons out of power and keep them out!!!!)

Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.”

malchior wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 7:43 pm

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 7:00 pm I'll give Trump kudos for NOT doing this (get the damn neocons out of power and keep them out!!!!)

Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.”

He probably doesn't deserve kudos. Mostly because this almost certainly didn't happen this way. Meadows is a liar. Trump is a liar. Whatever the meeting was about is probably exaggerated at the least.

he last time that General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with President Donald Trump was on January 3, 2021. The subject of the Sunday-afternoon meeting, at the White House, was Iran’s nuclear program. For the past several months, Milley had been engaged in an alarmed effort to insure that Trump did not embark on a military conflict with Iran as part of his quixotic campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power. The chairman secretly feared that Trump would insist on launching a strike on Iranian interests that could set off a full-blown war.

malchior wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 7:33 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 6:41 pm This feels like a big deal.

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.

Just so we're clear, if this was anyone other than a former President, they'd be sitting in a jail cell, right?

Long ago. I'd be surprised if anyone has handled highly classified secrets this way and been given such deference. I heard one expert saying it appears they are bending over backwards to learn his state of mind *even though* Trump signed a law that made what he did illegal even without criminal intent. They are being cautious to end that make this look like another episode where a rich, powerful person is given benefits of the doubt far beyond what other citizens would receive in similar circumstances. That's corrosive and reduces trust in the system.

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 7:00 pm

Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.”

Late Saturday night, NBC News dropped a potential bombshell when it reported that the federal grand jury that has been examining evidence in the United States Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former President Donald Trump's mishandling of classified documents will reconvene this upcoming week.

"Prosecutors face two central legal questions: 1) Did Trump wrongfully retain classified documents after he left the White House? 2) Did he later obstruct the government’s efforts to retrieve them?" NBC noted. "If Smith decides to indict Trump, it would be the first time a former president has been charged with a federal crime. Though Trump has already been charged in New York with state crimes related to hush money payments, the cases differ dramatically."

...

Former White House Ethics Czar Norm Eisen said that "reports that the Trump classified document grand jury is meeting again shortly, what can we expect? Charges! (If not this week, soon).

Ex-federal prosecutor and legal analyst Renato Mariotti, however, cautioned that the update "doesn’t tell us much about the timing of a potential indictment. The grand jury could be considering a proposed indictment, but prosecutors could just be presenting evidence to the grand jury."

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 9:33 pm Nothing…nothing will happen. You’d think after 1235 times, they’d know that.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:39 pm Nothing happens until it does. At this point Trump is more likely than not to be indicted by DOJ, and probably by Georgia as well, by the end of the year.

How well these proceedings will go...harder to predict.

If the ex-president’s Truth Social meltdown is any indication, the appeal did not go well.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:28 pm Donald Trump’s Lawyers Spent Monday Begging the DOJ Not to Indict Him

Attorneys for Donald Trump came to the Justice Department on Monday morning to make their case that the government should not charge the former president in connection with his possession of classified documents after leaving office, a person familiar with the situation said. The lawyers at the meeting were Lindsey Halligan, John Rowley, and James Trusty, according to multiple people familiar with the situation, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.

Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:15 pm For the record:





nvm Trump, that you never ONCE pushed for HRC to be pressed by the DOJ. Makes total sense.

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:55 pm Sure but I think there is real fatigue on this and it has been extremely corrosive to public trust. People have every right to be jaded about their pace as he has assaulted our system over and over in plain sight.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:14 amIf the argument [is] that it's too slow, that's different.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:14 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:55 pm Sure but I think there is real fatigue on this and it has been extremely corrosive to public trust. People have every right to be jaded about their pace as he has assaulted our system over and over in plain sight.

Sure, but the implication was that nothing would happen here, which is (probably) not correct. If the argument that it's too slow, that's different.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:14 am

malchior wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:55 pm Sure but I think there is real fatigue on this and it has been extremely corrosive to public trust. People have every right to be jaded about their pace as he has assaulted our system over and over in plain sight.

Sure, but the implication was that nothing would happen here, which is (probably) not correct. If the argument that it's too slow, that's different.

Former President Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the special counsel's investigations into former President Trump, ABC News sources said.

Sources tell ABC News that Meadows answered questions on both Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

It was not immediately clear exactly when Meadows testified.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 11:12 am It really feels like there's a significant number of people slow-rolling this entire process in the hopes that he dies first and they don't need to be involved in the ultimate stress-test of our legal system and/or the Constitution.

It's enraging.