Trump 57: Stealing Nuclear Documents And Pleading The Fifth

[GreyhoundFan]

So The Former Guy had a search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago because of top secret documents he took home like souvenirs from a trip to the Caribbean. He also appeared in the NY case about his business, to which he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times. Oh, and he's still under investigation in Georgia for tampering with the 2020 election. That's just this week...

 

Continued from here:

 

[nokidsmom]

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

That's just this week...

Full disclosure:  Mr. No has been smiling all week that the Former Guy has been having a terrible, horrible, very bad week.

That said, he does find the removal of top secret documentation to be very concerning.  But the idea of the FG finally getting what's coming to him is still making him, well, happy.

Edited August 13, 2022 by nokidsmom

[GreyhoundFan]

"Documents show how Trump landed Lincoln Memorial for Fox News event"

Quote

In the spring of 2020, National Park Service personnel were preparing for an event President Donald Trump was holding with Fox News to address the nascent covid-19 pandemic from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, site of historic protests and inaugural concerts.

But, first, they had to brief Trump on the plans.

“As of now we’re looking at an event at base of Lincoln from 6-8 or so Sunday night. No event in chamber. I will see if that holds once POTUS is briefed later today,” Jeff Reinbold, the Park Service’s superintendent for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, wrote in an April 28, 2020, email to other agency officials.

By the next morning, the virtual “town hall” was no longer to be held at the base, the documents show. Trump’s two-hour sit-down with Fox News anchors would take place inside the memorial’s main chamber, on the landing in the shadow of the marble statue of a seated Lincoln. With the exception of an annual birthday tribute to Lincoln, federal regulations bar events from being held in that area.

The email is among hundreds of pages of newly released government documents that help fill in the picture of how officials from multiple government agencies worked to engineer the event at the Lincoln, one of the many norm-defying moments of the Trump presidency. They show that the Park Service provided security personnel at a cost of nearly $150,000 and that a U.S. Secret Service official apologized to colleagues for the planning process, calling it a “$#!t show.”

After the event, officials noted that the memorial itself — then 98 years old — had sustained scratches and gouges in its pink marble floor, according to a final memorandum.

In the end, the Trump-appointed interior secretary, David Bernhardt, relaxed the rules by finding that the venue was appropriate, given the president’s need to communicate with the American people during a “grave time of national crisis.” That finding has been previously reported.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice, a progressive group that acquired the documents through a public-records request, said she believes Bernhardt exceeded his authority and allowed Trump to use “the Lincoln Memorial as his stage set.”

“They’re trying to find a way, it looks like, to give him the chamber when there is no legal way to give him the chamber,” she said.

Verheyden-Hilliard’s group often litigates on behalf of those seeking access to public spaces, pressing the government to properly allow free-speech activities and protests along Pennsylvania Avenue and elsewhere.

Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the Park Service, did not address specific questions from The Washington Post. He said in a statement that the agency monitored the activity associated with the town hall, as it does any event not sponsored by the Park Service.

A spokesman for the Secret Service declined to comment. A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Bernhardt said in an interview that he stood by the decision and that government lawyers had approved it. At the time, federal officials and the nation were in the early stages of learning how deadly and transmissible the novel coronavirus was. Mass business closures enacted weeks before had forced layoffs. The unemployment rate had quadrupled.

“I felt that it was an important moment for the country,” Bernhardt told The Post.

On May 3, 2020, at the opening of the town hall, Trump greeted Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum by saying, “We never had a more beautiful set than this did we?” according to a transcript.

The hosts asked about criticism that had already surfaced about the use of the memorial as the site for the event.

“What can you criticize? It’s — I don’t think it’s ever been done, what we’re doing tonight here,” Trump said. “And I think it’s great for the American people to see.”

All presidents use national parks as backdrops for photo opportunities and promotional events, said Kristen Brengel of the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit organization that works to protect the national park system. For his 2009 inaugural, President Barack Obama hosted a concert on the steps of the memorial and was photographed in the chamber. Four years later, he gave a speech on the steps as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

But, by siting the town hall inside the memorial, with Fox News, Brengel said, the Trump administration held an event in defiance of federal regulations in a space that is hallowed ground to many Americans.

“This wasn’t a national emergency to do an event inside the Lincoln Memorial,” she said. “This was the commercial use of a park site in the middle of a pandemic.”

On April 28, the day before the event was announced, officials began sharing early information about it with one another, according to the documents. Reinbold told colleagues that it was being planned for the front steps of the memorial and directed a Fox News staffer to apply for the necessary permit.

Reinbold mentioned that the plans could change after they were presented to Trump that day.

Security personnel at the U.S. Park Police and the Secret Service began to make staffing considerations on short notice. A Park Police official justified the need to call in extra officers on the weekend by citing an emergency order issued weeks earlier allowing for “mission critical adjustments” to help the nation respond to the pandemic.

A Secret Service official helping to staff the event apologized for the process. “Sorry this is such a $#!t show. Will have answers shortly,” wrote the official, whose name is redacted in the documents.

The next day, with the event moved into the memorial’s chamber, Fox News would not need a permit after all, Reinbold wrote. He told colleagues it was out of his hands. “They are using the site as a venue and this is not a co-sponsored or NPS event in any way,” he wrote on April 29.

Trump and Fox announced that the event would take place four days later, on a Sunday evening.

Fox News began making arrangements. A Fox staffer sent Park Service officials a photo taken from the 1963 March on Washington, shot from behind Lincoln’s statue looking out at the entrance, that she hoped to replicate.

“We are also looking to achieve the camera shot in the attached picture,” she wrote on April 30.

An inscription marks the spot where King spoke, 18 steps from the top landing of the memorial.

On May 3, Bernhardt issued a “record of determination,” citing the growing pandemic and the need for the president to communicate with Americans as reasoning to allow the event. “In this grave time of national crisis, the Memorial is a uniquely appropriate place from which our President can communicate an official message to the American people,” Bernhardt wrote.

Verheyden-Hilliard rejected the idea that the interior secretary had such authority. “All they are really doing is putting window dressing on something that is clearly illegal,” she said.

In response to questions from The Post, Fox News Media said in a statement that the station had been approached by the Trump administration and “agreed to moderate the May 2020 event in an effort to provide critical information to the American public.”

“The location of the Lincoln Memorial was proposed by the administration and Fox News worked directly with the National Park Service to ensure the production followed every protocol to protect the space,” the company said.

A Park Service memo after the event said the production crew had “generally followed previously agreed to requirements.” But it also said: “Inside the Lincoln Chamber there are several scratches and gouges on the flooring. Photo documentation taken and referred to the park’s senior management.”

No photos of damage were among the documents released. Fox News said it was unaware of any damage. “At no point was the network made aware of any damages as a result of the event,” the company said.

Litterst said in the statement that the damage was “addressed in-house by the park’s conservators.”

In correspondence in the days after the event, about how to respond to reporters’ questions, Litterst made clear to colleagues that he did not want to give the impression that the agency would allow such an event to take place again: “I think it’s a good opportunity to slam the door on anyone who thinks they can make a similar ask to do an interview in the chamber.”

 

[SassyPants]

4 minutes ago, nokidsmom said:

Full disclosure:  Mr. No has been smiling all week that the Former Guy has been having a terrible, horrible, very bad week.

That said, he does find the removal of top secret documentation to be very concerning.  But the idea of the FG finally getting what's coming to him is still making him, well, happy.

I remember back in the Fall 2020 reading a comment here about someone’s husband rubbing their shoulders one morning and whispering in their ear that “Trump has the Vid”. Was that your husband? Really one the most memorable comments on FJ, ever!

[formergothardite]

I would love to know what photos he kept and why he took the Roger Stone pardon papers. 
 

At this point anyone who is sticking by him is a lost cause. They are dangerous cult members and there is nothing he can do that will change their devotion to him.

[fraurosena]

11 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I would love to know what photos he kept

Most probably satellite photo's of secret locations or something along those lines. Remember when he published that secret photo of the bombing in Iran? Think of that kind of photo's. 

[nokidsmom]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

I remember back in the Fall 2020 reading a comment here about someone’s husband rubbing their shoulders one morning and whispering in their ear that “Trump has the Vid”. Was that your husband? Really one the most memorable comments on FJ, ever!

No, that wasn't him.   He's made some memorable comments of his own though!   He got a lot of mileage from the "perfect phone call" for one thing. 😂

13 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

At this point anyone who is sticking by him is a lost cause. They are dangerous cult members and there is nothing he can do that will change their devotion to him.

To the bolded: it's to the point we have some serious concerns about certain family members who have always been conservative/right leaning but we are hearing talking points and buzzwords coming out of their mouths that have us wondering about exactly where they are getting it from (social media? friends? other family?). Some of them live in an area that heavily supports the Former Guy and their state representative has openly supported the same.   We wonder just how far they have gone with this.

[47of74]

Meanwhile one of his lawyers actually said this

 

 

[onekidanddone]

4 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Meanwhile one of his lawyers actually said this

 

 

He hires only the BEST people. 🙄

[K'Z'K]

The crimes TFG (allegedly) committed are of course incredibly serious, and the threat of violence from his cult terrifying, but the thread title and all the talk of TFG pleading the Fifth made me laugh and then seek out massive quantities of brain bleach, and I need to share why so you too can suffer from the mental images. I've told this story before, but it was years ago and we have new people and the rest may have forgotten . . .

Back in high school, I played Dungeons and Dragons with six, sometimes seven, boys. One of those boys, who I'll call Chris because that was (and presumably still is) his name, was your standard rich, attractive asshole. Another boy, Pete, was usually the butt of jokes. The others were a range of personalities, all nerds, which the "Dungeons and Dragons" part probably gave away.

One day, during our usual Friday afternoon game session, Chris started asking the other boys if they masturbated. He didn't ask me, the only girl, but it was clear that my presence was not coincidental: he was out to embarrass the others, especially Pete. It worked. Pete's response was to get really flustered, cheeks burning red, and mutter, "I plead the Fifth." Chris responded with, "Yeah you do," and laughed. Yes, he was a bully, but we didn't really recognize it then.

From then on, "Pleading the Fifth" meant (male) masturbation.

For the record, Chris's response to his own question was a totally unashamed rhetorical question: "I'm a sixteen-year-old boy, what do you think?"

 

Disclaimer: I actually live with one of the other guys now. I have not discussed this story with him because there is a distinct non-zero probability that none of this ever happened and that there was no such euphemism invention. I choose to believe that it happened exactly as relayed above (poor Pete), so I will not ask for the corroboration that may not exist (in my memory, my now-housemate wasn't there that day anyway).

[47of74]

12 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

He hires only the BEST people. 🙄

No shit.  She was sued for creating a hostile work environment

Quote

Congratulations to Trumpland lawyer Alina Habba, who just made herself a hero to the “why can’t white people say the N-word” squad.

Habba, whose greatest hits include getting her clock cleaned by New York Attorney General Letitia James in both federal and state court, as well as a hilarious threat to sue the Pulitzer board if it refused to retract prizes for the New York Times and the Washington Post, just got sued by her former legal assistant for creating a hostile work environment at her New Jersey law office.

“Defendants ALINA HABBA and MICHAEL MADAIO, seemed to particularly enjoy listening to, and rapping along with what is generally perceived and classified as gangster and hip-hop music, to energize, motivate and otherwise ‘pump themselves up’ prior to making court appearances,” alleges the complaint filed by Na’Syia Drayton in the Superior Court of Middlesex County New Jersey.

Drayton, who was the only African American employee in Habba’s shop, describes feeling uncomfortable with her boss regularly blasting and singing along with graphic lyrics, replete with the N-word and demeaning references to women and their anatomy. As one does in a law office, obvs.

And even the rest of fuck face's legal team can't stand her.

Quote

Many of Habba’s fellow senior Trumpland attorneys—including but not limited to Alan Garten—have all privately vented that she has botched things or doesn’t know what she’s doing, according to Trumpworld legal sources intimately familiar with the topic. Some of them want her fired or sidelined.

Some of the Trump lawyers think her work is so bad—so self-interested, pointlessly aggressive, and sloppy—that they think Habba’s mere presence on the team increases the likelihood of Trump and his family facing court losses and legal peril.

 

[Audrey2]

54 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

He hires only the BEST people. 🙄

Of course he does. This is because he stiffs them on the pay and so people who are genuinely capable don't want to work for him. He only wants the serious Kool-Aid drinkers who feel it would be an honor to serve their orange god.

[Shrubbery]

I have to wonder whether all the documents found tie together for some sort of uber-nefarious endgame or whether some are just random flotsam that he couldn’t be bothered to return/forgot he had/didn’t know what they were.

(Not that I doubt that there was some evil endgame purpose to most of them, of course there was, but the orange one isn’t the most methodical or organised mobster boss-pawn, so some accidental document stealing wouldn’t surprise me either.)

[47of74]

16 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Of course he does. This is because he stiffs them on the pay and so people who are genuinely capable don't want to work for him. He only wants the serious Kool-Aid drinkers who feel it would be an honor to serve their orange god.

And one of his lawyers is in deep shit

Quote

A lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump signed a statement in June that said all classified material held in boxes at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence had been returned to the government, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The statement was signed after Jay Bratt, a top national security official in the U.S. Department of Justice, visited Trump's South Florida beach club on June 3, the New York Times reported. Bratt met with two Trump lawyers to discuss the handling of classified information during the visit, the newspaper said.

 

[Xan]

Donny is still blathering away on Truth Social.

Quote

I get the sense that he's nervous but more angry than anything.  He's never been trapped before.  He used to always be able to buy his way out.  I'm pretty sure that he'd burn this country down in order to save his own skin so we'll have to see just how hard he tries to incite the base over the next few weeks.  This could get very ugly.  

Him saying that he has the truth on his side makes me wish that someone close by would give him a swift kick in the pants.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Xan

[livinginthelight]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

Meanwhile one of his lawyers actually said this

 

 

Yeah right. Just like Covid was going to disappear the minute the election was over.

[47of74]

53 minutes ago, Xan said:

Donny is still blathering away on Truth Social.

I get the sense that he's nervous but more angry than anything.  He's never been trapped before.  He used to always be able to buy his way out.  I'm pretty sure that he'd burn this country down in order to save his own skin so we'll have to see just how hard he tries to incite the base over the next few weeks.  This could get very ugly.  

Him saying that he has the truth on his side makes me wish that someone close by would give him a swift kick in the pants.

I'm sure Federal and other authorities are saving all of his posts in case they come in handy for their cases against the orange fuck.  And saving them in a way that even if the orange fuck erases it or has one of his IT flunkies "accident" the underlying database and backups prosecutors still have them and can get him on tampering with evidence charges.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Shrubbery said:

I have to wonder whether all the documents found tie together for some sort of uber-nefarious endgame or whether some are just random flotsam that he couldn’t be bothered to return/forgot he had/didn’t know what they were.

The warrant specifies the following:

Property to be seized: All physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, 2071 , or 1519, including the following:

a. Any physical documents with classification markings, along with any containers/boxes (including any other contents) in which such documents are located, as well as any other containers/boxes that are collectively stored or found together with the aforementioned documents and containers/boxes;

b. Information, including communications in any form, regarding the retrieval, storage, or transmission of national defense information or classified material;

c. Any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021; or

d. Any evidence of the knowing alteration, destruction, or concealment of any government and/or Presidential Records, or of any documents with classification markings.

This means that the FBI was only allowed to seize files that fell into the above categories.

In the end the FBI seized 11 sets of classified files in total. The agents recouped four sets of “top-secret” documents, three sets of “confidential" documents and three sets of “secret” documents from Mar-a-Lago, according to the list of items seized in the raid and unsealed by a judge on Friday. Another set of documents was labeled “Various classified TS/SCI documents,” a reference to “top-secret” and “Sensitive Compartmented Information.”

4+3+3+1= 11.

There was no random flotsam. All of the files were government property and belonged either with NARA and/or in a secure facility.

Trump knew what he had-- he didn't (conveniently or otherwise) forget (to return) them. He knew full well he shouldn't have them either. Heck, the freaking FBI informed him he had to return them, and when he refused to do so, they even subpoenaed him to return them. Only after Trump willfully ignored the subpoena did the FBI seek, and obtain, the search warrant from a federal magistrate. 

 

Don't forget, Trump is a private citizen now. He has absolutely no legal reason for having these files and willfully concealing them from the US government.

[formergothardite]

19 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

There was no random flotsam. All of the files were government property and belonged either with NARA and/or in a secure facility.

Trump knew what he had-- he didn't (conveniently or otherwise) forget (to return) them. He knew full well he shouldn't have them either. Heck, the freaking FBI informed him he had to return them, and when he refused to do so, they even subpoenaed him to return them. Only after Trump willfully ignored the subpoena did the FBI seek, and obtain, the search warrant from a federal magistrate. 

He seems to have particularly wanted to hang on to this stuff since he did return some boxes. He had something planned for all this stuff, which is why the Roger Stone paperwork seems so odd to me. What in the world could he have used that for? Trump may be an idiot in many ways, but he is extremely calculating. There is some reason that paperwork regarding Roger Stone was valuable to him. It doesn’t seem like he could sell it for a lot. 
 

Trump has wiggled out of so much stuff that it is still hard for me to believe that even something this bad will take him down. He manages to be almost untouchable. 

[47of74]

 

[onekidanddone]

Like Nixon with the tapes, why oh why did he keep the evidence in his own house?

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

Like Nixon with the tapes, why oh why did he keep the evidence in his own house?

Because he’s Teflon Don and the rules have never applied to him. 

[onekidanddone]

13 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Because he’s Teflon Don and the rules have never applied to him. 

Good point. 

[Shrubbery]

11 hours ago, fraurosena said:

[…]

Don't forget, Trump is a private citizen now. He has absolutely no legal reason for having these files and willfully concealing them from the US government.

I‘m not disputing that at all, and I agree that it was treason for him to have them even if all he wanted to do with them was looking at the pretty pictures (which obviously wasn’t all he wanted to with them), I’m just saying I wouldn’t put it past him that there are some top secret files in amidst the other top secret files that he didn’t remember he packed and doesn’t actually need for further plotting.

That is because I picture him packing those boxes in January 2021 like a kid packing a suitcase, just tossing in whatever strikes his fancy. Of course, if someone else packed the papers for him that assessment changes and, on second thoughts, since the orange one is lazy as fuck, that’s probably more likely. In which case, maybe all the files do tie together and also, who helped Donnie pack because surely they’re guilty of high treason too?

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, Shrubbery said:

who helped Donnie pack because surely they’re guilty of high treason too?

Exactly! This is indeed an important point.

Idle speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were Jarod. Purely based on the fact that he admitted to the Jan 6 Committee that he was 'focused' on the pardons in January 2021 -- and that the Executive Grant for Clemency for Roger Stone was also amongst the files seized by the FBI. Could be a coincidence of course, but the fact that this file was amongst the seized documents is rather strange and this could be an explanation.