The "Great Unraveling" continues.

New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified

WashingtonCNN —
The National Archives has informed former President Donald Trump that it is set to hand over to special counsel Jack Smith 16 records that show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president, according to multiple sources.

In a May 16 letter obtained by CNN, acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall writes to Trump, “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records.”

The 16 presidential records, which were subpoenaed earlier this year, may provide critical evidence establishing the former president’s awareness of the declassification process, a key part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/17/poli...s-special-counsel-declassification/index.html

Jack Smith's case against Don just got easier to make.

 

Fresh Out Of Jail, Weisselberg Could Face Perjury Charges If He Doesn’t Cooperate With Bragg

Out of the frying pan, into the fire: Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was just released from Rikers Island after testifying against the Trump Organization and pleading guilty to tax fraud. If he doesn’t cooperate with federal prosecutors on another Trump case, he could face new charges.

The New York Times reported on Friday morning that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is considering a new round of criminal charges against Weisselberg, who just served a 100-day sentence at Rikers. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is reportedly eyeing a potential perjury charge, based on statements Weisselberg made under oath during a 2020 interview with the New York attorney general as part of her civil investigation into Trump and his family business.

Bragg’s office is also considering charging the former CFO with inflating numbers on Trump’s annual financial statements.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ury-charges-if-he-doesnt-cooperate-with-bragg

Trump bribed Stone, Manafort, and Flynn by offering them pardons in return for not cooperating with Mueller. What is he bribing Weisselberg with? My guess is money.

 

Castor joins the idiots for Trump brigade.

'Bruce Castor dumps Rudy Giuliani as a client: 'He's not cooperating, and he's not paying me'
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

'First, Castor says one of Trump’s other defense lawyers from the 2021 impeachment — who is not identified in the motion — suggested Trump would consider it “a favor” if he represented Giuliani in the case. Second, Castor wrote that a lawyer he knows — also unidentified in the motion — claimed to be “coordinating funding” to pay for Giuliani’s representation.

The money never came, and Giuliani did not cooperate in producing documents and scheduling depositions, even after Castor set a deadline and “unequivocally threatened” to quit the case, according to the motion.'


Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/politics/clout/bruce-castor-rudy-giuliani-lawyer-donald-trump-20230519.html

 

It's been well documented that no one is more difficult to work for as a defense attorney than Individual 1. But Rudy's working on becoming a close second.

 

Is Patty boy in Jack Smith's crossfire?

George Conway Retweeted
@HelenKennedy
·
2h
Apart from what he is saying, it’s pretty remarkable that a lawyer for a former president of the United States resigns and goes straight to a TV camera.
Quote Tweet




Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
·
3h
Breaking and wow. Recently resigned Trump attorney-Timothy Parlatore- dishes hard on Trump attorney-Boris Epshteyn-as THE reason Parlatore left. Says Epshteyn, among other things, tried to interfere with searches for classified documents including of Bedminister. @PaulaReidCNN
Show this thread

 

Stay tuned cause I doubt what he claims comes anywhere near why he actually left.

'Donald Trump Loses Yet Another Lawyer'
Parlatore Peaces Out.

snip:

“The White House staff simply swept all documents from the president’s desk and other areas into boxes, where they have resided ever since,” Parlatore told House Intel Chair Mike Turner, bizarrely blaming the General Services Administration for Trump’s retention of government property for eighteen months, despite multiple polite requests for its return, followed by a subpoena.

Parlatore’s departure will leave a hole (of sorts) in the the January 6 case as well. Along with Jim Trusty and John Rowley, Parlatore has attempted to convince courts to allow Trump’s invocation of executive privilege to block testimony by upwards of a dozen former officials. This effort has been uniformly unsuccessful, and even Mike Pence has now testified, suggesting that there are no higher up officials left to call. If there are further witnesses to fight about, Trusty and Rowley will soldier on somehow.'

cont:
https://webcache.googleusercontent....023/05/donald-trump-loses-yet-another-lawyer/
https://abovethelaw.com/2023/05/donald-trump-loses-yet-another-lawyer/

 

Trump faces ‘substantial damages’ claim from E. Jean Carroll over CNN town hall remarks

The writer E. Jean Carroll on Monday filed court papers seeking “very substantial” monetary damages from former President Donald Trump for his scathing remarks about her at a CNN town hall on the heels of losing a $5 million lawsuit by her earlier this month.

Carroll’s move came as her lawyers asked a Manhattan federal court judge for permission to amend the original defamation lawsuit she filed against Trump to reflect his new statements on CNN about her, which they say likewise are defamatory.

The writer has said Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.

He denies raping her, but has made a series of comments over the years accusing her of making up the claim out of political and financial motivation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/22/e-j...es-from-trump-over-cnn-town-hall-remarks.html

He just can't shut up.

 

Tim Parlatone claims Trump's documents were taken the same way as Pences and Bidens "with no malicious intent".
Conveniently he leaves out how the NARA/FBI tried to get Trump to return them and what led to the search/seize
Of course Fox's talking head just let it go.

video
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6325207717112

 

A Curious Wrinkle In The MAL Case

The NYT and WaPo separately reported last night on what appears to be the same subpoena from Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, with each outlet having different but related tidbits about what it was seeking and when.

The top line shared by both reports: The subpoena of the Trump Org sought records of business deals from seven foreign countries since 2017, when Trump took office.

• The subpoena was issued in April, according to the WaPo.
• The countries were China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
• The only known foreign deal consummated in that time was in Oman and came after he left office. Trump had publicly claimed he would stop doing foreign deals while in office.
• This was the same subpoena that the NYT previously reported was seeking information on Trump’s dealing with the Saudi-backed LIV pro golf tour.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/jack-smith-subpoena-targeted-trump-org-foreign-biz-deals

 

Ummm, France?
What did Trump write/threaten about France's Macron and his sex(?) life?
Something pertaining to Macron's personal life was dug up after it became known that Trump also stole classified docs on Macron.

'Expert: Jack Smith subpoena for foreign deals suggests DOJ concerned Trump tried to "monetize" docs.'

snips:

(Salon) Special counsel Jack Smith's team issued a subpoena for information about former President Donald Trump's foreign deals since he took office, according to The New York Times.

Smith's team overseeing the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago has "cast a wider net than previously understood as they scrutinize whether he broke the law" by taking documents home from the White House and failing to comply with a subpoena for their return, according to the report.

'The subpoena suggests Smith's team is looking at potential connections between Trump's foreign deals and the classified documents. It's unclear whether the Trump Organization has turned over the materials sought by the subpoena or whether Smith has any other evidence to back the theory, according to the Times, which noted that prosecutors have sought to understand "not only what sorts of materials Mr. Trump removed from the White House, but also why he might have taken them with him."

cont:
https://www.salon.com/2023/05/23/ex...uggests-doj-concerned-tried-to-monetize-docs/

 

Here we go.


Trump Bragged He Had 'Intelligence' on Macron's Sex Life

Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-news

Aug 29, 2022 — Trump's relationship with Macron has often been volatile, with the U.S. president once labeling his French counterpart “my guy” before the two ...


Trump boasted he had 'intelligence' on Macron's sex life

The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › us-news › aug › trump...

Aug 31, 2022 — Donald Trump boasted to close associates that he knew secrets about Emmanuel Macron's sex life from US intelligence sources, it has been ...

 

Yeah, Parlatone was offering the only possible legitimate defense, but that was contradicted not only by Trump's own actions but his repeated public statements. It's no accident that he left the team after the CNN townhall, where Trump (once again) publicly torpedoed that defense.

 

The list just keeps getting longer by the day of those that must curse the day they met Trump.
They all do deserve him though.

 

We already know it's the corrupt, inhumane leaders whose corrupt govts and human rights abuses that Trump is smitten with.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

·4h

There is going to be great energy at the LIV Golf Tournament at @TrumpWashingtonDC this weekend, May 26th-28th! Join me in watching incredible players including Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith, Sergio Garcia, and so many more. Purchase tickets: tixr.com/groups/livgolf/events

 

The Guardian reported Smith is in possession of notes showing Trump was told he had to turn over all docs in order to comply with the subpoena, but didn't.

 

Trump criminal trial over porn star payoff set for March, months before 2024 election

Donald Trump will go on trial beginning March 25 for the New York criminal case in which he is accused of falsifying business records related to a hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels, a judge said Tuesday.

That trial is set to begin in the middle of the presidential primary season and less than eight months before the 2024 election for the White House. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, is currently seeking the Republican nomination for that race.

He is the first American president, former or otherwise, to face criminal charges.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan announced the trial schedule as Trump appeared in court via a video hookup for a hearing in the case Tuesday.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/23/tru...et-for-march-months-before-2024-election.html

 

The WSJ is reporting Smith is very close to completing his investigation.

 

It appears that may very well be the case and their defense is quite entertaining, to say the least.
Pathetic yet entertaining.


'Fearing indictment in classified docs probe, Trump team requests meeting with DOJ'
Source: ABC News via MSN

'Trump regarding his alleged efforts to retain materials after leaving office and to obstruct the government's attempts to retrieve them.

The letter, though thin on details, presents arguments that Trump should not be charged in the investigation related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

The letter asks Garland for a meeting at his earliest convenience to discuss what the attorneys describe as the "ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated" by special counsel Jack Smith and says that no president has been "baselessly investigated" in such an "unlawful fashion."

The one-page letter was signed by Trump lawyers John Rowley and James Trusty, and does not outline any specific allegations of wrongdoing by Smith and his team.'

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...3&cvid=261211f57783479eb57668755a2b4166&ei=13

 

Will check if Trumps ranting, raving and threatening over on Truth Social.


Bradley P. Moss
@BradMossEsq

You don’t do this unless you think indictments are imminent.




9:01 PM · May 23, 2023 from Chantilly, VA
·

 

Trump's lawyers really sent that letter to Garland?
How embarrassing, unprofessional and immature.

 

It's not like everyone doesn't already what he'll say at his campaign rallies.
Wash/rise/repeat year after year.

So tell your lawyers to get you a speedy trial or shut the **** up.
Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

·7h
Just had New York County Supreme Court hearing where I believe my First Amendment Rights,“Freedom of Speech,” have been violated, and they forced upon us a trial date of March 25th, right in the middle of Primary season. Very unfair, but this is exactly what the Radical Left Democrats wanted. It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE, and nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before!!!

 

It's safe to say Trump dictated the letter and told his attorneys to send it under their names. That's what you sign on for when you work for someone who is unhinged.

 

Trump Was Warned

President Trump was warned by his lawyer Evan Corcoran that he could not retain classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after they were subpoenaed last year by a DC federal grand jury, the Guardian reports.

The report is based on roughly 50 pages of contemporaneous notes kept by Corcoran and described to the Guardian. Special Counsel Jack Smith has the notes as well as grand jury testimony from Corcoran after the prosecution team succeeded in piercing attorney-client privilege. A federal court ruled there was sufficient evidence to believe that Corcoran’s legal counsel was used in furtherance of a crime.

Corcoran himself searched a storage room at Mar-a-Lago and returned some but – as an FBI search would later reveal – not all of the classified documents retained by Trump:

The federal investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith has recently focused on why the subpoena was not compiled with, notably whether Trump arranged for boxes of classified documents to be moved out of the storage room so he could illegally retain them.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/jack-smith-evan-corcoran-notes-mar-a-lago

Though Don is an ignorant man he can't claim ignorance when it comes to the subpoena for the docs.

 

Notice also how they didn't mention which investigation?
Stolen documents or the attempts to stop Biden from presidency.

"in the investigation currently being conducted" blah blah

 

Camp Trump lecturing on the "right thing to do".


'Trump’s legal team hopes to appeal directly to Attorney General Garland to close criminal probes into former president/

snip:

“Our hope is that he will understand that the right thing to do is close his file on this matter and allow the Presidential campaign to move forward without interference,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/politics/trump-garland-criminal-investigations/index.html