(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What with all that whining, what did previous guy intend on doing with the things he stole? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-08-14 letters lost from the wheel of fortune: My Foot and Your A** Why did Trump keep state secrets? He certainly did not want to tie up campaign cash in fundraising for a presidential library, or indicate where it would be located, so his presidential memorabilia couldn’t be a reason to hold on to those items. More useful would be the fungible qualities in using them as financial kompromat or in other forms of “pressure” especially in 2024. So many lies and illicit souvenirs, with so many excuses tossed out there in the hope that one might stick. It’s enough to make you throw a shoe. x Let’s stop falling for Trump’s diversionary tactic of focusing on his latest absurd “defense” du jour —and instead keep asking why he still has not said why he took the documents, why he did not return them, and what he did with them and/or or was planning to do with them? — Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) August 14, 2022 @02Asylums “The @GOP is *literally in total and complete disarray* over Trump stealing top secret documents at least in violation of the Espionage Act and possibly rising to actual treason, and the @nytimes still can’t call it that.” “It was an unprecedented action that needs to be supported by unprecedented justification,” Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania and a former F.B.I. agent, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” But he added, “I have urged all my colleagues to make sure they understand the weight of their words.” The calls for a more cautious tone came as threats emerged against law enforcement. A gunman on Thursday attacked an F.B.I. office in Cincinnati, and on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security distributed an intelligence bulletin to law enforcement around the country that warned of “an increase in threats and acts of violence, including armed encounters, against law enforcement, judiciary and government personnel” after the search. “The F.B.I. and D.H.S. have observed an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of F.B.I. headquarters and issuing general calls for ‘civil war’ and ‘armed rebellion,’” said the bulletin, which was obtained by The New York Times. Adding to the sense of alarm, another gunman crashed a car into a barricade outside the Capitol around 4 a.m. on Sunday. After he exited the car and it became engulfed in flames, he shot into the air several times before killing himself, the Capitol Police said. Mr. Fitzpatrick said he had begun checking in with his former colleagues at the F.B.I. “to make sure they were OK.” [...] The former president has worked to cash in on the search. Mr. Trump’s political action committee has been furiously fund-raising off the F.B.I. search, sending out at least 17 text messages to donors since Tuesday. “The Dems broke into the home of Pres. Trump,” one read. “This is POLITICAL TARGETING!” another alleged. “THEY’RE COMING AFTER YOU!” a third said. [...] Representatives Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the Oversight Committee, have called for the director of national intelligence to conduct an “immediate review and damage assessment” and provide a classified briefing to Congress about the potential harm done to national security by Mr. Trump’s handling of documents. “The fact that they were in an unsecure place that is guarded with nothing more than a padlock or whatever security they had at a hotel is deeply alarming,” Mr. Schiff said on “Face the Nation.” www.nytimes.com/... x "Exposing this information put people's lives at risk... We know people who have died serving their country this way. Compromising top secret material, especially the compartmentalized top secret information is a travesty" -- Former CIA Officer @DavidPriess pic.twitter.com/zDzcd9xay0 — Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 15, 2022 x In this, I settle on what I think is the proper way of viewing Trumpian declassification: he applies a Schrödinger's cat approach in which everything is both classified and not until he decides what he needs. https://t.co/3DUfGsdeDH — Philip Bump (@pbump) August 15, 2022 There were also times when Trump publicly indicated that material would be declassified … only to have his lawyers and staff walk the claim back. Journalist Jason Leopold noted how White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in 2020 responded to a request for material “declassified” by Trump in a tweet: Trump didn’t really mean to declassify all of it. Then there was a 2018 lawsuit from the New York Times arguing that Trump had inadvertently declassified the existence of a program by mentioning it; Trump’s lawyers disagreed. “To prevail in any claim of declassification,” the attorneys wrote in a filing, the Times had to show “first, that President Trump’s statements are sufficiently specific; and second, that such statements subsequently triggered actual declassification.” Otherwise, the documents weren’t declassified. After all, they continued: “Declassification, even by the President, must follow established procedures.” Which a blanket “if I take this upstairs, it’s declassified” order likely wouldn’t meet. [...] This is Schrödinger’s declassification. Everything is both classified and declassified until Trump is asked about it, at which it settles into whichever position is most useful for Trump. A government program he shouldn’t have talked about? Still classified. A document sitting in a box at Mar-a-Lago? Declassified. It’s government security through vibes. But then we come to our original second point: In broad strokes, this doesn’t matter. The Times’s Charlie Savage (who pointed out that Times lawsuit) made this point in a useful piece over the weekend. If you look at the three statutes the Justice Department believes Trump might have violated — 18 U.S. Code Sections 793, 1519 and 2071 — you’ll see no mention that the documents being retained in potential violation of the law need to have been classified documents. www.washingtonpost.com/... x One receipt has ALL the docs seized that were described as classified. I hypothesized that one explanation may be that one has the evidence for Espionage, the other has evidence for obstruction.https://t.co/F8kQOVzekr — emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 15, 2022 x Newsweek reports that the documents Trump stole include payroll records for US spies. Exactly the kind of thing for which Putin or Saudi Arabia would pay the Trump family billions. Was there a bidding war the Saudis won with their $2 billion to Jared?https://t.co/EBRwXY7mwJ — Thom Hartmann (@Thom_Hartmann) August 13, 2022 x The former president got his entire party to rally around him for essentially keeping stolen state secrets in his fridge. https://t.co/RJWrMfo352 — Slate (@Slate) August 15, 2022 x The current version is, his aides say both that he declassified documents and allege with no proof that material was planted on him https://t.co/gtBYCqy2Oj — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 15, 2022 x “Mr. Bolton, who served as Mr. Trump’s third national security adviser over 17 months, said he had never heard of the standing order (of declassification) that Mr. Trump’s office claimed to have in place. It is, he said, ‘almost certainly a lie.’” https://t.co/wc8o0qFLIx — Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) August 15, 2022 x Opinion | Espionage Isn’t the Strongest Case Against Trump. It’s Simpler Than That. https://t.co/8fEXFFA4TF via @politico Has nobody learned from the Jan. 6 US Capitol Insurrection? When Trump doe not win, WATCH OUT. Leverage is what Trump is doing by stealing classified docs — Michael Bizik (@michaelbizik15) August 14, 2022 x This is one of the longest monologues I've done for a while but do take out 10 mins of your time to watch: On @MSNBC, I tallied all of the Trump/Trumpworld lies and excuses in the wake of the FBI search...and debunked them all. Please do watch and share:pic.twitter.com/gnN69Sdnox — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 15, 2022 x What he did if found guilty carries a life sentence. The Atomic Energy Act carries it's authority from an act of congress, not the executive branch. POTUS cannot declassify something classified by an act of congress. pic.twitter.com/ULyurXsFX8 — 𝕋𝔸ℝ𝔸 𝕊𝕋ℝ𝔸ℕ𝔾𝔼 (@NVTaraStrange) August 15, 2022 x In March 2017, Sens McCaskill & Carper wrote to Archivist David Ferriero asking whether NARA was aware of any efforts to skirt the PRA. Ferriero responded that his staff provided a briefing to Trump WH staffers on the PRA. 2/https://t.co/MAYDoPDDW1 pic.twitter.com/T1LXWIQsPx — Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) August 14, 2022 x Here's the full CRS note on the PRA Importantly, it states: "The PRA does not provide a deadline for the physical transfer of records materials, although it does provide for a transfer of legal responsibility for materials to the Archivist in 44 U.S.C. §2203." 11/11 pic.twitter.com/QRY8MgqFDK — Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) August 15, 2022 x It doesn't even make logical sense. Wray let Trump retaliate against every single FBI agent who had a part of Crossfire Hurricane, such that they'd by definition be uninvolved in this investigation. — emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 14, 2022 x Author of ‘American Kompormat’ @craigunger explains how Jared Kushner’s $2B investment from Saudi Arabia for “reasons unknown” — combined with Trump’s closed-door meeting with Vladimir Putin — could be the missing key to this FBI raid. This is CRUCIAL: https://t.co/vqxXG6LhMk — Dash Dobrofsky (@DashDobrofsky) August 14, 2022 x When a Republican FBI director announced a criminal investigation of the Democratic nominee 11 days before the 2016 election, not a single Democrat threatened violence or civil war. — Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) August 14, 2022 The big picture: The FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago home on Monday, recovering 11 sets of classified documents. Fox News reported on Saturday that the FBI seized boxes covered by attorney-client privilege and possibly executive privilege, according to unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. What he's saying: "It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged ‘attorney-client’ material, and also ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken," Trump said on Truth Social. "By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken," he said. Of note: House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told CBS' Face the Nation he'd seen no evidence to support Trump's claim that the documents were declassified. "A former president has no declassification authority," Schiff said. "And the idea that 18 months after the fact Donald Trump could simply announce, 'Well, I'm retroactively declassifying, or whatever I took home had the effect of declassifying them' is absurd." Background: Trump and his associates have frequently sought to claim executive privilege to prevent the release of documents or information. www.axios.com/... x Presenting a threat to sic your followers on the government as a peace offering pic.twitter.com/MVkA4FyUxb — LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) August 15, 2022 x To All Trump Supporters: Stop wondering whether it's true. It is. Always has been. You've been played. — Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) August 15, 2022 x When we all die in Trump’s civil war can we admit he incited insurrection? — Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) August 14, 2022 Utah Sen. Mike Lee: tough to get a read on him. He’s kind of shy in person. He doesn’t enjoy chatting with Capitol reporters, but when you get him going about the Constitution in a committee hearing, he can’t stop himself. He’s the guy you didn’t want to be in a political science seminar with, even if he’s friendly. But also, he just started a really weird new Twitter account? “@BasedMikeLee,” which was confirmed this week to be Lee’s personal account, is an odd mix of typical political talking points and slang that sounds awfully weird coming from a conservative white Mormon from Utah. “This account is no cap—bussin, forreal forreal,” Lee tweeted on July 24. Two minutes later: “The haters can’t handle this frickin’ smoke.” He keeps doing this because, we guess, he thinks it’s funny that no one knows what he’s babbling about? That’s the Surge’s schtick, Mike. Stay in your lane. slate.com/... x Rand Paul wants to repeal the Espionage Act so Trump can't get in trouble again!https://t.co/a78VKwJeAM GOP don't agree on how to defend Trump's stealing top secret information. So some just make up stuff.https://t.co/plRFDYESjv#PS1trump — politicalscrapbooknet (@politicalscrap1) August 15, 2022 x Think Rand Paul should PAY for being a traitor? Follow @TrendingLiberal to see their great idea of exactly what we should do about! I'm behind them 100%! — Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) August 15, 2022 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/14/2116640/-What-with-all-that-previous-guy-whining-what-did-he-intend-on-doing-with-the-things-he-stole Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/