Category: DOJ

Trump responds to Jan. 6 criminal referrals: ‘It strengthens me’ 

Posted on (Updated by Julia Mueller

Former President Trump on Monday responded to the Jan. 6 committee’s decision to urge the Justice Department to prosecute him and some of his associates over their involvement in the Capitol riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, saying the move makes him “stronger.”  

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me.  It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger," Trump said on his Truth Social social media platform.

In its final public meeting hours earlier, the Jan. 6 panel unveiled criminal referrals recommending that the DOJ prosecute Trump on charges of inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and obstruction of an official proceeding. 

“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Trump wrote hours after the panel’s recommendations were formally made.

Trump, who last month announced another run for the White House in 2024, painted the probes as an effort to undercut his campaign. The insurrection charge could bar Trump from running for elected office again.

“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,” Trump said. 

At the meeting, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who is leaving Congress after she lost her primary election to a Trump-backed candidate, said Trump is “unfit for any office.” 

The former president also rebuffed the panel’s determination of his 187 minutes of inaction between the start of the riot and Trump’s video message urging the rioters to "go home." Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) on Monday called it an “extreme dereliction of duty,” with other lawmakers calling Trump's inaction one of the panel's most shameful findings.

The Jan. 6 panel will release a much-anticipated report on its findings on Wednesday before it is dissolved in the next Congress.

Trump responds to Jan. 6 criminal referrals: ‘It strengthens me’ 

Posted on (Updated by Julia Mueller

Former President Trump on Monday responded to the Jan. 6 committee’s decision to urge the Justice Department to prosecute him and some of his associates over their involvement in the Capitol riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, saying the move makes him “stronger.”  

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me.  It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger," Trump said on his Truth Social social media platform.

In its final public meeting hours earlier, the Jan. 6 panel unveiled criminal referrals recommending that the DOJ prosecute Trump on charges of inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and obstruction of an official proceeding. 

“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Trump wrote hours after the panel’s recommendations were formally made.

Trump, who last month announced another run for the White House in 2024, painted the probes as an effort to undercut his campaign. The insurrection charge could bar Trump from running for elected office again.

“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,” Trump said. 

At the meeting, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who is leaving Congress after she lost her primary election to a Trump-backed candidate, said Trump is “unfit for any office.” 

The former president also rebuffed the panel’s determination of his 187 minutes of inaction between the start of the riot and Trump’s video message urging the rioters to "go home." Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) on Monday called it an “extreme dereliction of duty,” with other lawmakers calling Trump's inaction one of the panel's most shameful findings.

The Jan. 6 panel will release a much-anticipated report on its findings on Wednesday before it is dissolved in the next Congress.

House members urge federal intervention into Greg Abbott’s white nationalist declaration

Posted on by Gabe Ortiz

Is Greg Abbott looking to the 2024 presidential race? Quite possibly, and groan, because after trouncing Beto O’Rourke in the 2022 election by nearly one million votes, the right-wing governor is continuing his string of nativist stunts, this week officially declaring supposed powers that he claims allow him to take “unprecedented measures” to defend Texas “against an invasion.”

No one’s being invaded, and Abbott knows that. He’s instead signaling to the white nationalists who like to use this language. But just as importantly, some of the supposed powers that Abbott claims he has, like returning migrants to the border, are strictly the job of the federal government. A number of lawmakers from Texas say it's incumbent on the government to intervene.

RELATED STORY: D.C. attorney general says he's probing whether migrants bused to capital were tricked by GOP

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“As members of Congress representing the great state of Texas, we are deeply disturbed with recent comments made by the Governor of Texas suggesting he has invoked invasion authorities under the U.S. Constitution to justify the use of state resources to further militarize our southern border,” lawmakers led by former Trump impeachment manager Sylvia Garcia tell the Biden administration in a letter obtained by The Hill. They not only object to Abbott’s supposed authority, they object to his reckless, flame-throwing rhetoric.

“Legal authority aside, there is simply not an invasion happening at the border,” they continued. “Many of the immigrants arriving at our border are exercising their right to claim asylum and other forms of humanitarian relief. They are not waging war against the United States or Texas.”

It is sad that even has to be said, but Abbott has a history of signaling to violent white supremacists through his rhetoric. He knows damn well that “invasion” wording was used by the racist mass gunman who murdered Texans at a Walmart in 2019, yet he’s continued to echo that rhetoric as recently as this past summer. Greg Abbott knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s further endangering lives—even as racist mass shooters since El Paso have echoed that wording.

“Declaring an invasion under the U.S. Constitution is an incendiary and divisive idea that will certainly lead to unnecessary litigation and will encourage dangerous anti-immigrant sentiments,” lawmakers continued in their letter. “Put simply, this type of reckless stunt will only continue to put Latino communities at risk of greater violence.”

The Hill also reports that Abbott’s actions are again pissing off Mexican officials, who said in a statement that “implementation of migratory laws, border control and the negotiation of international agreements are exclusive authorities of the federal government.” Abbott already faced ire from the Mexican government during his short-lived, massively expensive flop of a stunt forcing commercial vehicles to undergo redundant checks that actually didn’t do much of any checking. Facing international blowback and massive financial losses, Abbott quickly ended the disastrous policy.

Abbott has continued his busing stunt using migrants as human props, expanding his scheme to Pennsylvania. Among those he sent to Philadelphia was a 10-year-old girl who reportedly arrived so sick with fever and dehydration that she had to be immediately hospitalized. But Greg Abbott doesn’t care.

“The Governor of Texas is taking a white nationalist conspiracy theory that has inspired multiple domestic terrorist attacks and making it official state policy by declaring migrants to be a literal invading force,” said Zachary Mueller, Political Director at America’s Voice. “In 2019, a Texas man murdered 23 people in El Paso, Texas, in an act of domestic terrorism, which he believed would stop the ‘Hispanic invasion.’ After three years and another terrorist attack in Buffalo, New York, inspired by ‘invasion’ paranoia, Gov. Abbott is fully embracing this deadly racist lie and giving it a governmental imprimatur.”

RELATED STORIES:

Greg Abbott signals to violent white supremacist extremists in latest anti-immigrant order

Republicans are refusing to stop using racist mass killers' 'invasion' rhetoric

Sick child bused by Greg Abbott needed hospitalization after arriving in Philadelphia, reports say

Kash Patel given ‘limited immunity’ after repeatedly using 5th Amendment to evade testimony

Posted on (Updated by Mark Sumner

Kashyap Patel, former aide to Devin Nunes turned one of Donald Trump’s closest advisors, has been granted limited immunity to secure his testimony before the grand jury investigating the theft of classified documents and their illegal retention at Mar-a-Lago.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in an earlier appearance before the grand jury, Patel repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, making it impossible to gain meaningful information. Attorneys for the Department of Justice attempted to get the presiding judge to force Patel to provide information relevant to the investigation, and argued that none of the questions they were asking were directed at surfacing any criminal action by Patel, but the judge ruled that Patel could not be made to testify without immunity on the basis of possible future action. Now Patel will get that immunity and will make a second appearance before the grand jury.

When headlines announce that someone will testify on a grant of immunity, it is generally taken to mean that some kind of deal has been reached. That is not the case here. Patel does not want to testify. He remains a hostile witness. He’s just not being given any choice. And the fact that the DOJ is willing to give him immunity to hear what he has to say shows that this investigation has just one real target.

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Patel is the only person who claims to be a witness to Trump declassifying the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. Speaking to Breitbart News, Patel said, “I was there with President Trump when he said, ‘We are declassifying this information.’”

It’s a fair bet that this unique claim was one of the first things that Patel was asked about when he was brought before the grand jury. And one of the first issues was he pulled out the Fifth Amendment. Now he will be facing that question again, and will have nowhere to hide. It’s a good bet that his answer will not match what he told Breitbart.

That is, if Patel chooses to answer at all. The fact that he declared he didn’t have to testify under the protection provided by the Fifth Amendment is interesting just in itself. Because it means that Patel did not try to slip testimony on the basis of executive privilege.

That could mean that the questions Patel was being asked all concerned issues that arose after Trump left office. Or it might mean that Patel was saving that executive privilege claim in his other pocket, for just this occasion.

Patel first gained the favor of Donald Trump by helping former congressman Nunes write a memo that put FBI sources and methods at risk in an effort to undercut the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Patel became a frequent visitor to the White House and joined Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine in attempting to find dirt on Hunter Biden. As his “Ukraine whisperer,” Trump made Patel an aide to the National Security Council. Trump considered Patel his Ukraine expert during the efforts to blackmail the Ukrainian government that led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Patel next helped get Sec. of Defense Mark Esper fired by declaring Esper’s refusal to send the army against Black Lives Matter protesters “disloyal” to Trump. Trump rewarded Patel’s own loyalty by making him chief of staff to the new Secretary of Defense. Patel was reportedly Trump’s pick to head the CIA—a sharp rise from a congressional aide in just three years—when a little matter of getting tossed from the office got in the way. 

During his time in Washington, Patel developed a well-earned reputation as a man who would cut any corner, and stab any back, to get closer to Trump. As a Pentagon official told The Washington Post last year, Patel was simply “a direct threat to lawful government.” 

He also wrote the “worst children’s book of all time,” in which he is the heroic defender of good king Donald.

More recently, Patel has been in the news as one of Trump’s chief spokesmen on the classified documents that the FBI removed from Mar-a-Lago following a warranted search. Unsurprisingly, Patel has been the leader of the “Trump declassified them all, so he did nothing wrong” choir.

However, no matter how many times Trump has made that claim in public, he hasn’t done so in court. He hasn’t done it, because he knows that it’s a lie. As a quick check of just one recent and relevant case shows… “declassification, even by the President, must follow established procedures.” Declassification of highly compartmentalized documents regarding the nuclear capacity of another nation must follow lengthy and detailed steps leading to declassification, none of which involves Trump “just thinking about it.” 

The immunity grant for Patel took effect on Wednesday, signaling that his testimony before the jury has either already happened, or will happen soon. As with all grand jury testimony, it’s unlikely that any of it will be made public. However, should that jury issue indictments, Patel is likely to be given the opportunity for an encore.

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Durham investigation ends after three years of searching, $40 million spent, and nothing found

Posted on (Updated by Mark Sumner

On May 13, 2019, then-Attorney General Bill Barr let it be known that at Donald Trump’s “request,” he was conducting an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation. To conduct this investigation, Barr appointed his very own special prosecutor, U.S. Attorney John Durham. For the next three-and-a-half years, Republicans made confident predictions that “Bull” Durham was going to be the man to finally “lock ‘er up.” Surely Durham, unleashed with no deadline, budgetary limit, or constraint on where he looked, would prove conclusively that every conspiracy theory pushed by Trump was true.

But after more than three years and more than $40 million spent, Durham managed to produce just a single charge: accusing Democratic-linked attorney Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI for not revealing secondhand connections to Hillary Clinton’s campaign when talking to them about Donald Trump’s Russia dealings. In May, a jury found Sussman not guilty of the ridiculous charge.

Now The New York Times reports that the grand jury seated in connection with Durham’s investigation has been allowed to expire. Several members of Durham’s team have already left, and those who remain are now working to complete “a final report.” A report that shows they found absolutely nothing.

Durham had a solid background as a man who would twist any law to assist the Republican cause, such as when he decided there was absolutely nothing wrong with the kidnapping and torture the Bush administration practiced before and during the invasion of Iraq. The U.S. attorney signed on to help to create a false narrative about the Russia investigation, rewriting the order of events and insisting that there was no cause to involve the Department of Justice or the FBI. He even accompanied Barr overseas as they tried to talk U.S. allies into lying about intelligence sources.

In the runup to the 2020 election, Republicans regularly played on the idea that Durham was going to provide them with an “October surprise” by reversing the Russia narrative, absolving Trump of the crimes he committed in his first impeachment, and just generally stomping on Democratic faces. That lust for a coming bombshell grew even greater when Durham let it be known that his investigation had “evolved into a criminal investigation” and that a grand jury had been seated. Surely all those “lock ‘er up” chants were about to be fulfilled.

But before that bombshell could arrive, Durham’s lead investigator left the team, there were indications that Durham’s investigation was coming up dry, and sad news that his report “was unlikely to be ready in time for the election.”

There would be no report. Not in time for the election. Not in the next two years.

In fact, by September 2020 Durham seemed to have already lost the thread of what he was supposed to be investigating and was instead taking a deep look at the Clinton Foundation, apparently checking into Q-anon conspiracy theories about “deep state” connections. He found absolutely nothing. By that point, his investigation had already been underway for 16 months, a time period in which Robert Mueller’s investigation issued 31 indictments, accepted five guilty pleas, filed 190 charges, and successfully prosecuted four cases resulting in prison sentences. 

Even though Durham had nothing to show for nearly two years of searching, Barr, supposedly oh-so-upset over Trump’s lies about the election, gave Trump a parting gift before he left the White House: He changed Durham’s status to that of special counsel, expanding his reach still further, and gave him forever to dig up anything he could. 

For MAGA Americans, the Durham investigation was an answer to prayer. They had a prosecutor who could go anywhere, subpoena anyone, and investigate anything in order to find all those pizza tunnels and lizard men hiding at the bottom of the deep state. It all made for a super tasty bit of revenge fantasy. Just as their Q-notes insisted that Trump was always about to return from Mar-a-Lago and reveal that he had really been in charge all along, John Durham was always about to come smashing through the doors at Democratic Party HQ with a fist full of arrest warrants.

After all, the memes were unstoppable!

Some Durham meme the QAnon and MAGAe loved, for your amusement. pic.twitter.com/uRSE9U52pf

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) September 14, 2022

Now it seems there finally is going to be a Durham report. And like everything else Durham is done, it’s going to be a pointless exercise in finger-pointing unsupported by evidence and good for nothing but boosting his chances of being a “legal commentator” on Fox News.

Durham’s investigation is coming to an end without ever laying a single charge against Hillary Clinton or anyone with more than a passing connection to her campaign. It’s coming to an end without finding anything like a conspiracy to use the FBI against Trump. It’s coming to an end … and that’s about the only good thing that can be said about it.

This is exactly the conclusion that everyone should have expected on day one. John Durham was hired as a professional witch hunter, and there simply are no witches to find. Everything about the FBI’s investigation into Trump was already well known. There were no secrets. No conspiracy.

That didn’t stop Durham from making that claim in court when prosecuting Sussman. The verdict shows exactly what the jury thought of his unsupported statements.

A month before Barr revealed that Durham’s report wasn’t yet baked, the Senate Intelligence Committee, then led by Republican Sen. Richard Burr, issued its own final report on the Trump campaign’s connection with Russia. That report found more than 100 contacts between Trump’s team and Russian agents. It found that Trump’s campaign directly collaborated with Russia on multiple occasions and in various ways to alter the outcome of a U.S. election. It found that multiple members of Trump’s campaign lied to investigators about these connections. It found that the coordination of Trump’s campaign and the Russian government “represented a grave counterintelligence threat.”

Those are the facts of what happened. Durham was never going to find anything that made this any less true. What Durham needs to report is all the conspiracy theories he investigated and found to be false.

But don’t worry. Just because Durham’s investigation is ending without a single conviction to stand on, that doesn’t mean right-wing media is going to stop claiming he found something huge. They’re certainly not stopping today. In fact, the Durham investigation is likely to go on endlessly in the MAGA mind. If Donald Trump can be secret president, running the country from Mar-a-Lago while Biden wonders why his red button does nothing, then surely John Durham can keep on investigating forever. No grand jury? Who needs one. Durham will be always about to come through Democratic doors, laser grenade and electro-whip of justice in hand.

He’ll always be just one rabbit hole away,

Fox News has endlessly touted the Durham investigation. It is ending with a whimper. https://t.co/OtIqNtXhqo pic.twitter.com/5vJFWeI2B5

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 14, 2022

The last sad cry for help ...

Trump blasts Bill Barr and begs for Durham to do something pic.twitter.com/HsETNRM91T

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2022

Media Running New ‘Leaked Info’ From Anonymous Sources That Trump Had Files On Foreign Nation’s Nuclear Capabilities

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Documents seized during the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home contained information regarding a foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities, the Washington Post reports.

The details were provided only by sources described by the Post as “people familiar with the matter” and come just days after a federal judge approved Trump’s request to appoint a special master to independently review records obtained during the raid, due in part to concerns over media leaks.

The outlet notes that some documents were so top-secret that only a handful of people were granted access to view them. So top-secret that this information was immediately passed on to one of the largest newspapers in the world.

Among the files seized during the raid, according to the anonymous sources, were those which held “information about a foreign government’s nuclear-defense readiness.”

But, the Washington Post adds: “These people did not identify the foreign government in question, say where at Mar-a-Lago the document was found, or offer additional details about one of the Justice Department’s most sensitive national security investigations.”

RELATED: Federal Judge Grants Trump’s Request to Have Special Master Independently Review Documents Seized by FBI

Trump Raid Allegedly Yields Document on Foreign Nuclear Capabilities

Does anyone else pine for the days when sources were named and multiple people were contacted by the media to corroborate a source’s story prior to print?

The bombshell report comes just days after Judge Aileen Cannon delivered a significant victory to Trump and his legal team by granting a special master, allowing an independent party to review the documents and assess any attorney/client or executive privilege that may exist.

Part of her reasoning was prescient in light of the Washington Post report.

One of the reasons for Cannon’s ruling involved “the interest in ensuring the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks.”

Last month, leaks to the same newspaper led to reports from “people familiar with the investigation” who alleged that the raid on Trump’s home was an attempt to retrieve documents pertaining to “nuclear weapons.” 

The implication, of course, is that Trump was putting America in danger.

Trump at that time railed against the reporting.

“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” he wrote on his Truth Social media platform. “Same sleazy people involved.”

RELATED: Trump Demands Immediate Release Of Search Warrant, Denies Reports That FBI Raid Was Over Nuclear Weapons Documents

Media Running Wild With Irresponsible Speculation

The Political Insider reported just last week that the DOJ’s so-called guideline holding off on any possible charges against Trump until after the midterm elections would only allow the media to run wild with speculation.

“Trump and his supporters can instead brace themselves for 2+ months of selective leaking to the media, loads of reports citing ‘people who asked to remain anonymous,’ and lots of speculative reporting from the left-wing media,” we wrote.

And here we have yet another example.

And the usual suspects jumped on this latest information to help spread the unverified reports.

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Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), once blasted by former congressman Trey Gowdy for selectively leaking information about the Trump/Russia collusion hoax “like a sieve,” was up to his old tricks.

“New reporting that Trump had highly classified information, including on foreign nuclear programs,” Schiff tweeted. “If true, it raises yet more questions.”

If true.

Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, despite testimony from officials time and again admitting they had no evidence of Russian collusion with the campaign of President Trump in 2016, repeatedly told friendly media outlets that there was “direct evidence.”

He never provided any. Nor could Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Or any other Democrat for that matter.

Others are also pushing the Trump nuclear capabilities story without any actual evidence at this stage of the game.

Legendary director Rob Reiner called for Trump to be arrested following the report.

“Donald Trump stole Top Secret Highly Classified Nuclear Documents. He has put our Nation in danger. No more deference. No more political considerations. No man is above the law,” Reiner tweeted. “Time to make an arrest.”

And it wasn’t just the far-left, either.

Fox News host Eric Shawn, following previous reporting on the nuclear documents, made the laughable suggestion that Trump was looking to sell the foreign nation’s nuclear secrets to Russia or Saudi Arabia.

“And more questions are being raised this morning. Did former President Trump try to sell or share the highly classified material to the Russians or to the Saudis or others?” he asked.

“Or were the documents innocently mishandled and stored because he thought he had a legal right to have them?”

Yes, because a man who made billions over his lifetime would choose ‘selling nuclear secrets’ from a foreign country to a hostile regime as his next lucrative side project.

Trump attorney Christopher Kise slammed the leaks coming out about the FBI raid, lamenting they “continue with no respect for the process nor any regard for the real truth.”

Kise said a “responsible course of action here would be for someone — anyone — in the government to exercise leadership and control.”

Good luck waiting for that. You can expect the corrupt media to run with any and all leaks – factual or otherwise – from now right up until November.

In reality, the reports may very well be true. But the media has not earned the benefit of the doubt after years of bombshell stories that ultimately fizzled out into nothingness.

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House Republicans Demand DOJ, FBI Preserve Documents In Relation To FBI Raid On Trump

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

House Republicans on Monday sent letters to top officials in the Biden administration demanding they preserve and hand over documents related to the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Eighteen Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent the letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

“The FBI’s unprecedented raid of President Trump’s residence is a shocking escalation of the Biden Administration’s weaponization of law-enforcement resources against its political opponents,” each letter begins.

“The American people deserve transparency and accountability from our most senior law-enforcement officials in the executive branch,” it continues. “We will settle for nothing but your complete cooperation with our inquiry.”

The correspondence demands that each department preserve “all documents and communications” related to the raid and produce them to the committee “no later than 5:00 p.m. on August 29, 2022.”

RELATED: Republicans Demand Garland Brief Homeland Security On Trump FBI Raid, Slam ‘Politically Motivated Witch Hunt’

Republicans Demand FBI, DOJ Preserve and Release Documents

The letters from House Republicans to Biden administration officials demanding they preserve and release documents related to the unprecedented raid on the President’s main political opponent are more symbolic for the time being.

The GOP does not have subpoena power as the minority in the House of Representatives.

Still, the move signals an intensification of possible probes into the matter should the GOP win back the House following the midterms.

The letters come just days after Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) vowed that the Senate would investigate the raid should Republicans wrestle back control in November.

“If I’m in the majority, and I’m Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, again, I intend to pursue all of these things until we get to the bottom of it,” Grassley told Breitbart News over the weekend.

RELATED: ‘Preserve Your Documents’: McCarthy Threatens AG Merrick Garland With Investigation After FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home

Demand a Briefing From DHS

Republican lawmakers late last week demanded a Homeland Security briefing by the FBI, Department of Justice, and National Archives following news that Garland gave a personal greenlight to the raid on Trump’s home.

But, as Fox News host Jesse Waters pointed out to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – Republicans like to talk a lot about what they’re going to do regarding the unprecedented harassment directed at Trump, but will they actually take action?

Democrats certainly would. They threatened impeachment for months upon months then acted when they found the first opening. Then they did it again.

And quite obviously, the harassment has never ended.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was one of the first to call for a probe into Garland’s actions, saying on the very day of the raid that he had “seen enough.”

“Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” he wrote.

Democrats have countered the GOP’s efforts with Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sending their own letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

That letter seeks a national security damage assessment on the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

Trump has claimed all documents in his Mar-a-Lago home were “declassified” and insisted officials “didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything. They could have had it at any time.”

The FBI under the direction of Garland fetched the documents – including ancillary material such as Trump’s passports that they have since returned – and now the Democrats are going to use them to investigate the former President yet again.

Do Republicans understand they need to be equally as relentless in order to stop this level of corruption?

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Republican Lawmakers Say Trump Is ‘Fired Up,’ And Made Up His Mind About 2024 Following FBI Raid

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

All signs are pointing to former President Trump being even more “fired up” about running in 2024 following the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier this week.

Representatives Jim Banks (R-IN) and Claudia Tenney (R-NY) were two of nearly a dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee who huddled with Trump at a New Jersey retreat earlier in the week. Both left with impressions on the 2024 presidential election.

Banks indicated that the FBI raid hadn’t dampened Trump’s spirits. 

“He didn’t seem defeated in the least bit—he was very fired up, very upbeat,” he told Fox News.

Banks added that the incident seems to have accelerated the former President’s desire to announce a decision on a 2024 campaign and that “we are going to like his decision.”

RELATED: Trump Speaks: Angrily Condemns ‘Political Persecution’ As FBI Raids Mar-a-Lago

FBI Raid May Have Motivated Trump to Run in 2024 Even More

Rep. Claudia Tenney also seemed to indicate Trump’s spirits were alive and well following the FBI raid.

Tenney thanked the likely Republican nominee for his continued support and endorsement in her congressional district following her visit to Trump National Golf Club at Bedminster.

And if you thought he was down following the raid, she says best think again.

“Thrilled to report he’s feeling better than ever despite the Democrats’ endless smears against him,” she wrote. “Trump 2024!”

Tenney, in an interview on Real America’s Voice, said the actions taken by the FBI and DOJ amounted to the “fourth impeachment” of President Trump.

“They’re going to try to attempt to stop him from running for president,” Tenney said. “And that’s really what it’s about. Because they’re afraid he will get out there and he will run and he will win.”

RELATED: After FBI Raid, Trump Fires Back With Epic New Video Promising ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’

When Will He Announce?

In a statement following the FBI raid, Trump himself concurred that the weaponization of the Justice Department was an attempt to stop him in 2024.

“It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024 …” he said.

Trump, as The Political Insider reported, had made up his “own mind” about running last month, though the timing of an official announcement was still up in the air.

Some had suggested committing to a run prior to the midterms might negatively affect races by stirring up Democrat turnout.

Banks, however, suggested Trump “enjoyed encouragement” from the House Republican Study Committee to “get the decision out sooner rather than later.”

“He only helps us win back more seats in November,” Banks insisted. “The Republican Party is bigger and stronger than ever before because of Donald Trump’s leadership.” 

The former President does seem further motivated by the FBI raid, as do his supporters.

As is characteristic of his personality, Trump came out swinging immediately following this week’s events with an ad posted to his Truth Social media account.

“We are a nation that in many ways has become a joke,” Trump said in the ad. “But soon we will have greatness again.”

In it, he predicts that “the best is yet to come.”

Becky Noble of The Political Insider notes that the FBI raid may have backfired on Democrats for 2024.

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“If his enemies thought he was defeated,” she wrote, “they were wrong.”

Added Banks, “What happened at Mar-a-Lago unifies Republicans in our outrage … and we stand with President Trump.”

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Judge Who Signed Mar-A-Lago Warrant Defended Jeffrey Epstein Employees, Donated To Obama

Posted on by Becky Noble

The details of Monday’s FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of former President Donald Trump, keep getting more interesting.

Bruce Reinhart, the federal magistrate judge who signed off on the search warrant for Trump’s residence donated to former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and at one point, went from prosecutor to defense attorney to defend individuals connected to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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The Judge In Question

According to a report from Politico, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart is ‘highly regarded’ in the Palm Beach legal community, and is known for being “meticulous” in his work. 

Reinhart’s background was in prosecution until Jan. 2 2008, he became the defense counsel representing several employees of Epstein, including pilots, his scheduler, and a woman later described by some of Epstein’s victims as a “sex slave.”

Politico reports that in 2011, Reinhart was named in a lawsuit and was accused of violating Justice Department policy by representing the Epstein employees. Reinhart has denied any wrongdoing. He said that he was not a part of the criminal case and did not learn any confidential information while serving as prosecutor.

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More Details Of The Raid Emerging

Fox News reports that the search warrant issued for Mar-a-Lago was to focus entirely on “presidential records and evidence of classified information being stored there.” 

The Fox News report also says that agents combed through former First Lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe and the private office of the former president. Drawers were also gone through and a safe broken into.

Reportedly, the FBI or DOJ did not allow attorneys for Trump into the residence to observe what was going on during the roughly nine-hour raid. About 15 boxes were taken from a locked private storage basement area.

Federal agents also reportedly attempted to get Trump representatives to turn off any security cameras which they refused to do.

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Who’s Next?

Republicans didn’t have to wait long for the answer to the question “who’s next.” The day after the Mar-a-Lago raid, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a close Trump ally, said his cellphone was seized by FBI agents while on vacation with his family.

In a statement, Perry said,

“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish. I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress.”

Perry has refused to cooperate with the Jan. 6 Committee on several occasions, calling it “illegitimate,” and also filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Merrick Garland in October of 2021 in relation to targeting parents at school board meetings.

With judges like Bruce Reinhart at the ready, perhaps Republicans should keep asking who’s next.

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GOP Congressman Who Was Target of January 6 Committee Says FBI Seized His Cellphone After Mar-a-Lago Raid

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Representative Scott Perry, an ally of former Donald Trump and the current chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, says the FBI seized his cellphone a day after the unprecedented raid by agents on the Mar-a-Lago home of the former President.

The raid had reportedly involved an investigation into the handling of classified documents that may have been brought to Trump’s Palm Beach residence.

But the confiscation of Perry’s phone creates new questions as to the FBI’s intent, as the Pennsylvania Republican has been an ally of the former President in his quest to promote unproven election fraud claims, making him a target of the January 6 House select committee.

“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said in a statement. “They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish.”

“I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress,” he added.

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Scott Perry’s Cellphone Seized by the FBI

It’s difficult to ascertain why Scott Perry would be targeted by the FBI and have his cellphone seized one day after a raid on Mar-a-Lago.

Perry has a history of supporting Trump’s claims of election fraud, however, and has been a target of the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot.

He also, as Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) points out, has targeted Garland himself, filing articles of impeachment against the Attorney General in October of 2021.

Perry’s articles of impeachment accuse Garland of having “presided over a reckless and corrosive politicization of the Department of Justice at the expense of our Nation’s children.”

The articles at the time referenced the DOJ’s targeting of parents at school board meetings.

With that information as context, it’s easy to wonder if the seizure of Perry’s cellphone was politically motivated.

RELATED: ‘Some Third World Bulls***’ – Dan Bongino Goes Ballistic On Fox News Over FBI Raid of Trump’s Home

Why Did They Target a Sitting Congressman?

Unfortunately, without comment from the FBI at the present time, seizing Representative Scott Perry’s cell phone leads to major speculation.

Perry has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the select committee’s investigation into the January 6 riot, suggesting the anti-Trump panel is “illegitimate.”

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The manner and mode of the raid have led conservatives to openly wonder if the FBI isn’t using the search for classified documents as a means to find evidence surrounding the Capitol riot.

Sirius XM podcast host Megyn Kelly expressed skepticism that the Mar-a-Lago raid was about classified documents at all.

“Bullshit – there is no way that’s what they were searching for,” she told listeners. “This is about January 6, and the never-ending desire to get Donald Trump on something.”

Perry suggested Garland’s Justice Department had plunged the United States into “banana republic” territory and noted if they were willing to seize his cellphone and information, and willing to raid a former President’s home, what will they do with their newfound power at the IRS?

The Political Insider reported earlier this week that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act passed by Senate Democrats over the weekend adds $80 billion to the IRS budget for enforcement purposes, allowing them to unleash roughly 87,000 new auditors on low-to-middle income Americans.

“As with President Trump last night, DOJ chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys,” Perry said.

“These kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every Citizen — especially considering the decision before Congress this week to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to further persecute law-abiding Citizens.”

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