Category: classified documents

Hawley on new Trump indictment: ‘We cannot allow this to stand’

Posted on (Updated by Julia Shapero

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) slammed the new charges brought against former President Trump in the case over his handling of classified documents Thursday, arguing that “we cannot allow this to stand.” 

“It’s so brazen right now, what they’re doing,” Hawley said on Fox News. “It is really a subversion of the rule of law. I mean, they’re taking the rule of law, turning it on its head, and we cannot allow this to stand.” 

“The American people are not gonna be safe,” he added. “Our system of government is not gonna be safe if this is gonna be the new standard.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a superseding indictment Thursday evening, accusing the former president of attempting to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago property. It also included an additional Espionage Act charge based on a military document that Trump boasted of having in a 2021 meeting. 

The new indictment added Carlos de Oliveira, the property manager of the Mar-a-Lago resort, as a co-conspirator, accusing him of working with Trump and the former president’s other co-defendant Walt Nauta to try to delete the surveillance footage.

Hawley suggested that the DOJ is now “charging random people” following de Oliveira’s addition to the indictment and claimed that the new charges were brought in order to distract from Hunter Biden’s legal problems.

The plea deal that the president's son had reached with the DOJ over tax and gun charges was put on hold Wednesday, after the federal judge presiding over the case raised concerns about the agreement.

“Is it any coincidence that the DOJ rushes to add these new indictments today, after the Hunter debacle, after their own self-dealing and two-timing is exposed, after they tried to us the true extent of this plea deal,” Hawley said. 

“That gets blown up, and then it’s like, ‘Oh well, we’ve got to go indict Trump on something else,’” he added.

Mark Levin Expertly Eviscerates Florida Judge for Aiding in ‘Election Interference’ Against Trump

Posted on by Kathleen J. Anderson

If you are looking for a Master Class in judicial malfeasance, look no further than conservative firebrand Mark Levin. Mr. Levin has been steadily covering the concerted effort from the Biden administration to take down its biggest competitor, former President Donald Trump.

Recently Mr. Levin scolded Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon for allowing the left to continue interfering with the upcoming presidential election and destroying any chance of a fair race. Judge Cannon split the difference between what the prosecution wanted and what the Trump defense requested, placing the start date for the classified documents trial right before the Republican National Convention.

As usual, Mark is correct in his takedown of the milquetoast Judge and rightly places ownership of laying out a red carpet for the prosecution to destroy a former president and remove any possible hope for a fair presidential election squarely on her shoulders. Say goodbye to the America you knew and hello to the beginning of the end.

Shame on you!

After news broke that Judge Aileen Cannon had ordered the classified document case against President Trump will begin on May 20, 2024, Mr. Levin said on his show:

“Judge Cannon, in Florida, you let the country down. This trial should have been moved to after the election. You just gave your imprimatur and the imprimatur of the federal judiciary to the interference in this election.”

Judge Cannon’s ruling doesn’t just put the court start date before the presidential election; it also places it weeks before the 2024 Republican National Convention. It’s important to note that the former President is the current Republican frontrunner and is also believed to be pulling ahead of the incumbent and the puppet master behind the scenes of his persecution, President Joe Biden.

In this particular act of theater, the former President is charged with illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s ability to retrieve them. It seems laughable when you consider the current President stashing classified documents from when he was a Senator in his garage. 

Alas, they aren’t joking.

Originally the prosecution had requested a trial start date in December of this year, to which Judge Cannon wrote:

“The Government’s proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial.”

But scheduling the trial to begin shortly before the presumptive Republican nominee for President hits the general election campaign trail won’t lead to any unfairness? Judge Cannon is either woefully incompetent or too focused on endearing herself to a media that earlier blasted her for being a Trump stooge – either option doesn’t bode well for democracy.

RELATED: Pelosi Has A Case Of The Sads: Claims Kevin McCarthy Plan To Expunge Trump Impeachments Is ‘Playing Politics’

An impossible task

Some people had different opinions than Mark regarding the Judge’s decision. U.S. Attorney Harry Litman supported her decision by writing:

“The 5/20/24 trial date that Cannon just set is about as extended as it could be without seeming ridiculous.”

I occasionally dabble in ridiculousness, so let’s look at how ridiculous this entire situation has become. The truth of the matter is that not only will the former President have to wrestle with this trial while running for the highest office in all the land, he also has on his busy legal calendar:

  • criminal charges in Manhattan 
  • civil lawsuits
  • Two criminal investigations over alleged efforts to overthrow the 2020 election

RELATED: Trump Smokes GOP Field – Defeats Biden In New Harvard-Harris Poll

Mr. Levin broke it down even better with the following:

“Trump will have to defend himself against bogus criminal charges in Manhattan, bogus civil charges in Albany, bogus criminal charges in the “documents” case, bogus criminal charges in the Jan. 6 matter, and most likely the shoe will soon drop in Atlanta. All the while, he is running for re-election as President. It is extremely difficult to fight all these prosecutors, and fight for your freedom, and run for President at the same time. And these prosecutors know it.”

So let’s call all of this what it is; it’s not ridiculous; it’s terrifying. 

Winners and Losers

The call to have the “documents” trial start May 2024, according to Georgia State law professor Anthony Kreis, is:

“…the worst possible outcome for the Republican Party. Great for Trump though. This basically allows Trump to snag the nomination before the most easily damning case comes to trial.”

Mr. Kreis’ analysis assumes that the former President won’t easily “snag” the nomination regardless; however, the date isn’t just the worst possible outcome for the Republican Party, it’s the worst possible outcome for America. While for most Republicans, the endless legal attacks against Mr. Trump have turned into the “same ole same ole,” and for Democrats, it’s a nonstop ticker tape parade for Biden administration stooges – the people who will care are Independents.

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Presidential campaign consultant Dave Carney backs this assertion, stating that the trial before the election will:

“…impact Independent voters in the fall.”

RELATED: WATCH: Somebody Mentions The Clinton Body Count And Anthony Weiner Loses His Mind

Earlier this month on Sean Hannity’s show Mark Levin laid out how the left-wing establishment is orchestrating a takeover:

“This is a disgusting, disgusting mark on American history for the future to come by these bandits in the White House, by the Democrat Party that don’t play fair anymore. They don’t want to just win elections. They want to take control of this country. They want one-party rule.”

With the help of the leftwing corporate media, the left believes they will be able to manipulate and lie their way into another four years thanks to the malleable minds of the Independents. 

It can happen to you

I spent 20 years in the United States military. Like many who wore the uniform or worked in federal service, I had to take copious amounts of classified document handling training.

The military,  at least back in my day, seemed to take mishandling of classified information very seriously; God help you if some shmuck accidentally sent you an email without the correct classification markings. An act done by someone else could land your entire workstation covered in investigative tape and your security clearance in suspension.

So, believe me when I tell you I take the mishandling of classified documents seriously. What I find abhorrent is the faux outrage by left-wing media and the liberal establishment over what the former President did or didn’t do.

As Mark Levin described earlier about the current President:

“This is a guy that’s got documents from the time he was in the U.S. Senate, for God’s sake, in his garage.”

Will President Trump serve jail time? Hard to say if you ask me, but the fact that “the book” is being thrown at him when perennially failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the current President isn’t even having “the book” cracked in their direction shows how far our country has fallen.

I’ll leave you with this bit of wisdom from Mr. Levin:

“The Biden regime, the Democrat Party and their prosecutors, and the Democrat Party media understand that this next election may well be the make-or-break election of our time, for our country.”

If the government can weaponize the justice system against a former President and its chief executive’s political opponent, they can do it to you, too. And this next election will show if, as Americans, we will say no to the dissolution of our republic or consent to our downfall.

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House Republican says Trump should not have kept classified documents

Posted on (Updated by Julia Mueller

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) on Sunday said former President Trump should not have kept classified documents at his Florida residence after his term in the White House ended, despite the former president's claims that he had a right to keep them.

"We don't have a right to take top-secret information to our home. I've dealt with top secrets since I was 22 years old, in the military for 30 years now, and now in Congress. You don't show our attack plans on Iran to people who are not cleared, or pick documents that talk about our nuclear technology or where our intelligence resources are located throughout the world," Bacon said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"And that's what happened there. And when the government asks for them back, you give them back. And if you deny having them, but then you have them, those are crimes."

The Nebraska lawmaker was responding to a clip of Trump during the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s conference over the weekend when he incorrectly stated that a president “has the absolute right to take" documents, and "has the absolute right to keep them or he can give them back to [National Archives and Records Administration] if he wants and talks to them like we were doing and he can do that if he wants.” 

Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal charges after a federal indictment alleged that he kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after his time in office and that he resisted the government's efforts to recover them.

Asked on Sunday why many in the Republican Party have rallied around Trump over the materials, Bacon suggested that they are looking at the Trump case in the context of the classified documents found in the keeping of Trump's former vice president Mike Pence and President Biden, "but the situations are different," he said. Most notably, both Pence and Biden returned the documents when requested by the government.

The DOJ concluded its investigation into Pence over the materials and will not bring charges. Special counsel Robert Hur is probing the Biden documents, which were found by the president's attorneys.

Bacon on Sunday also suggested some Republicans may "see or perceive ... inconsistencies" in the context of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was investigated over her use of a private email server while in office. The FBI declined to charge her in the matter.

"But two wrongs don't make a right. You can't have hundreds of top secret information and be showing our attack plans on Iran to non-cleared people. I think, again, our party does best when we stand on the rule of law, the truth of the principles that made our party strong. And if we walk away from that, we'll be weakened in the short run, for sure," Bacon said.

Schiff suggests DOJ’s detailed indictment proves Trump’s ‘maligned intent’

Posted on (Updated by Jared Gans

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the Justice Department’s detailed indictment proves former President Trump had a “maligned intent” in keeping the documents that were taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended. 

Schiff told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace in an interview on Friday that the indictment is “stunning” in the amount of detail that was included and the extent to which it demonstrates that Trump was not acting in good faith concerning the documents. 

“First of all, it’s stunning in its detail and in the degree to which it shows so clearly Donald Trump’s malign intent,” the lawmaker said. “The most difficult element, often, to prove is what did the defendant intend.” 

“But here Donald Trump has made so crystal clear in the conversations that are recorded, instructions that he gives to his aide to move the boxes, in his deceitfulness with his own attorneys, it’s just so graphic,” he added. 

Schiff, who served as an impeachment manager during Trump’s first impeachment trial, said the decision about whether Trump should be charged was not a difficult one for special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation. He said the evidence included in the indictment is “so powerful that I don’t think special counsel had any choice but to go forward.” 

The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday, includes several examples of Trump allegedly trying to prevent federal authorities from obtaining the documents that were taken to Mar-a-Lago. On one occasion, he reportedly had an aide — who was also indicted in the case — move boxes of documents out of one room without informing his attorney who was looking for documents that needed to be turned over to comply with a subpoena that was issued. 

The document also includes a transcript of a conversation Trump had in which he asks his attorneys if they could just ignore the subpoena. 

Schiff said he was also “stunned” that the documents include information on military plans, the nuclear capabilities of U.S. enemies and the country’s vulnerabilities. 

“But I think this is the way of special counsel and a speaking indictment, letting all the American people know that this isn’t a paperwork violation,” he said. “These are national secrets that present real national security risks to the country.” 

The California Democrat said after Trump announced on Thursday that he had been indicted that the charges were “another affirmation of the rule of law.” 

“For four years, he acted like he was above the law. But he should be treated like any other lawbreaker. And today, he has been,” Schiff said.

Romney: Trump ‘brought these charges upon himself’

Posted on (Updated by Julia Shapero

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Friday that Donald Trump had “brought these charges upon himself” after the former president was notified of his indictment in an investigation into his handling of classified materials.

“Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so,” Romney said in a statement.

The former Republican presidential candidate acknowledged that Trump is “entitled to the presumption of innocence” and that the government is faced with “the burden of proving its charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”

However, he added, “By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others.”

Romney compared the indictment to the former president’s two impeachments while in office. The senator broke with his party both times to vote in favor of convicting Trump.

“These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection,” Romney said.

Trump is facing charges on seven counts, including for violations of the Espionage Act, as well as obstruction of justice and false statements, his attorney Jim Trusty said Thursday. The former president has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday.

Democratic lawmakers claim indictment news shows Trump ‘not above the law’

Posted on (Updated by Julia Mueller

Democratic lawmakers on Thursday weighed in on former President Trump’s indictment in connection with an investigation into his handling of classified documents, with many arguing that the news shows the former president and current 2024 candidate isn’t above the law.

“Trump’s apparent indictment on multiple charges arising from his retention of classified materials is another affirmation of the rule of law,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who played a central role in Trump's first impeachment. 

Trump, who is running for president in 2024, said on Thursday that his legal team had been told he was indicted and summoned to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. 

“For four years, he acted like he was above the law. But he should be treated like any other lawbreaker. And today, he has been,” Schiff said of Trump.

The California Democrat was also among the lawmakers who sat on the last congressional session’s House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, which criminally referred Trump to the Justice Department.

“The former twice-impeached president is now twice-indicted,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

“Twice impeached. Twice indicted. The only former president in history to face federal charges. This man is a national embarrassment,” wrote Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) 

Trump was also indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan earlier this year on criminal charges.

Democrats on Thursday took to Twitter to echo sentiments that the former president’s federal indictment proves the rule of law.

“No one is above the law,” wrote Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). 

“Never before has a former president been indicted for a federal crime," Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) tweeted. "By indicting Trump & holding him accountable for his actions, America’s justice system is once again showing its strength & reminding us all: No one is above the law in this country, not even former presidents."

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Trump will "have his day in court, in Miami and Manhattan and Atlanta too if it comes to it," celebrating the indictment from the Justice Department's special counsel.

He was referring to the latest federal indictment, the Manhattan indictment and a district attorney's probe in Georgia into 2020 election interference.

"But I am grateful to live in a nation where no man is above the law," he said.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) also called Trump "a con man who damaged our institutions, turned us against each other, and who will be finally held accountable by the country he tried to destroy."

CNN Segment Fantasizes About Trump, Possibility He Has to ‘Pardon Himself’ From a Prison Cell

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

CNN anchor Erin Burnett and a former lawyer for Donald Trump spent time fantasizing about a scenario in which the ex-President is forced to pardon himself from a prison cell.

Ty Cobb, a hilariously-named former member of the Trump Administration legal team, has been very vociferous about his opinion that the Republican candidate is going to jail based on a Justice Department investigation into his possession of classified documents after leaving office.

Burnett pressed him on what the future might hold should that be the case, particularly if Trump wins the election.

“What happens, though, if this trial does not wrap up before the general election, Trump wins?” Burnett asked. “Does he just pardon himself and it all goes away?”

“Well, so those are all oddly–those are possibilities,” Cobb replied. “The sad thing is nobody knows. This is so unprecedented.”

Cobb proceeded to discuss the issue of Trump pardoning himself, something he believes is not permissible but admits there are other legal minds who disagree.

“The timing is, if there’s already been a verdict in the federal case… you would assume that that could be consequential during the election.”

RELATED: Congressman Matt Gaetz: Trump Should Pardon Himself

CNN Discusses Possibility of Trump Pardoning Himself From Prison

Where the conversation veered to next is why it is so difficult to take CNN seriously when they try to portray themselves as less partisan under CEO Chris Licht.

Cobb discussed what might happen if the Trump trial wraps up, he is convicted and sentenced, and this all happens before the election.

“He doesn’t have the power to pardon himself until he’s actually inaugurated,” he said. “So, if there’s a verdict, say, before the election in November, sentencing could easily occur in advance of him taking office.”

At this point in the interview, you can see Burnett get eager about the prospect, mouth hanging slightly open, eyebrows raised, head shaking in disbelief.

“And he would have to report to jail,” Cobb added. “So he would be (pardoning) himself ostensibly under those circumstances from jail.”

Burnett found the scenario “absolutely incredible” but suggested, “It’s a reality we could be looking at.”

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Claims Trump ‘Rigged’ 2020 Election, Predicts ‘End of Democracy’ If He Wins in 2024

Can Trump Pardon Himself?

Congressman Matt Gaetz, following the 2020 presidential election and before the transition to the Biden White House, advised Trump to pardon himself and key members of his administration prior to departing.

In retrospect, he probably should have listened to Gaetz’s advice.

Trump insisted that a pardon would be unnecessary as he has “done nothing wrong.”

Self-pardons have been an issue of much debate in the Trump era.

Law scholar Jonathan Turley has argued that as President, he had the right to do so. Or will have the right should he be re-elected.

“There is no language specifying who may or may not be the subject of a pardon,” he wrote in a USA Today column. “The president is simply given the power to pardon any federal crime.”

“As a textual matter, there is nothing to prevent Trump from adding his own name to the list of pardoned individuals.”

Interestingly, pardons even in such a scenario would only apply to federal law; they do not apply to civil, state, or local offenses.

POLL: If Trump is convicted of a federal crime, should he pardon himself after election?

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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced an indictment of the former President earlier this year.

Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, low-level felonies in New York State but which carry a potential for a 4-year prison sentence each.

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Pence special counsel ‘more likely than not,’ says former WH ethics lawyer

Posted on (Updated by Olafimihan Oshin

Norm Eisen, a former Obama White House ethics lawyer, said Wednesday it's “more likely than not” a special counsel will be assigned to investigate classified documents found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s residence.

During an appearance on “CNN Newsroom,” host Abby Phillip asked Eisen, a legal analyst for the network, if the Justice Department would deploy a special counsel in Pence's case, as it has for former President Trump and President Biden.

“Abby, there’s no question the pressure is on Attorney General Merrick Garland to treat the Pence case as he treated the Biden and the Trump cases," Eisen told Phillip.

“But it's not assured that we're going to have a special counsel because, as the attorney general said yesterday, what DOJ does is try to look at every case on the facts and on the law,” Eisen added. “We need to know more details about Pence. It's more likely than not that we are going to get a third special counsel to look at the Pence situation.” 

Eisen was also a co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during then-President Trump’s first impeachment trial.

His remarks come a day after officials confirmed that classified documents were found at Pence’s Indiana residence, with his attorney, Greg Jacob, writing in a letter that Pence’s team notified the National Archives the week prior about the discovery of a small number of documents at the former vice president's residence. 

Pence’s attorney added in his letter to the Archives that his client was “unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that his former vice president is “an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”

The discovery has complicated GOP attacks against Biden's handling of classified material.

“Politically, this makes it difficult if not impossible for the GOP to criticize Biden, w/out damaging Pence; the situations look very similar,” tweeted Joyce White Vance, a law professor and legal analyst on MSNBC.

Trump responds to Biden classified document discovery, asks when FBI will raid his ‘many homes’

Posted on (Updated by Julia Mueller

Former President Trump responded Monday to the breaking news that the Justice Department is reviewing classified documents from President Biden’s tenure as vice president that were found last fall in a private office Biden had previously used.  

“When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? These documents were definitely not declassified,” Trump said on his Truth Social account, sharing an article on the document discovery from CBS News.  

The Obama-Biden era documents were found by the president’s attorneys while clearing out an office he used when he served as an honorary professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, according to Biden’s special counsel Richard Sauber.

Biden’s legal team notified the National Archives, which took possession of the materials, Sauber said. The documents are now reportedly being looked at by the U.S. attorney general for Chicago, with cooperation from the White House.  

Trump was referring to the FBI’s execution of a search warrant last summer at his Mar-a-Lago residence, where investigators found more than a hundred classified documents kept past his time in the White House.  

Trump is now under investigation for his handling of the classified materials.  

“We were told for months that this was treasonous… grounds for impeachment... & meriting the death penalty, yet I have a feeling nothing will happen!?” wrote Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, retweeting the CBS article.  

Notably, Biden’s team notified the Archives and turned over the documents upon discovery, while Trump apparently kept classified materials even after requests from the Archives to return them.  

The Presidential Records Act requires that presidential and vice presidential records be turned over to the National Archives at the end of a given administration for preservation and to protect classified material.

Cheney: ‘Any interaction’ Trump has with Jan. 6 committee will be under oath, subject to perjury penalties

Posted on (Updated by Julia Shapero

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) emphasized on Saturday that “any interaction” former President Trump has with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol will be “under oath and subject to penalties of perjury.”

Cheney, who serves as the vice chair of the committee, has remained tight-lipped about many aspects of the panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6 riot, as have her fellow committee members.

In a Saturday interview with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith, Cheney declined to specifically say whether the panel would like to hear from the former president, instead noting that if it does he will be required to tell the truth.

Cheney, a prominent Trump critic, did not otherwise hold back in speaking against the former president, however, calling him “fundamentally destructive” for the Republican Party. The congresswoman pointed to responses from her fellow members of the GOP to presidential records being recovered from the former president's Mar-a-Lago home as the latest example.

“You look at how many senior Republicans are going through contortions to try to defend the fact that the former president had stored in a desk drawer apparently, in an unsecure storage room, in a resort … documents that had the highest classification markings,” Cheney told Smith at the Tribune’s annual festival.

Despite her views on the former president, Cheney told Smith she does not regret voting against Trump’s first impeachment based on the evidence. She also noted that those proceedings have informed her current work on the Jan. 6 Committee.

“They would have had more Republican votes if they had enforced their subpoenas, and that is certainly a lesson that we have taken into [the] Jan. 6 Select Committee’s work,” Cheney said.

The Jan. 6 Committee has taken a strong stance on enforcing its subpoenas, referring several Trump allies for criminal contempt of Congress.

Cheney said she would "do everything I can" to ensure Trump is not the Republican nominee for president in 2024.

"And if he is the nominee," she added, "I won’t be a Republican.”