Trump Charged With 37 counts of Espionage, Obstruction and related crimes

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I moved several posts to the "The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases" thread where they are more relevant.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Interesting note in a discovery update filed by the SCO in this case today:

"On March 7, 2024, the Government provided a fourteenth production of unclassified discovery to counsel for Defendants (“Production 14”). Production 14 consists of nine pages and includes the memorialization of an interview conducted on March 6, 2024."

I am very interested to know who they might have interviewed yesterday who revealed information relevant enough to have to provide it to the defendants. I've asked a few of the legal people that I follow on twitter if they have any idea, but most likely known will answer (or know anything, for that matter).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Exclusive: ‘Trump Employee 5,’ who unknowingly helped move classified documents, speaks out

The witness, now identified as former Mar-a-Lago driver Brian Butler, who worked there for over 20 years before leaving in 2022. He was, apparently, a close ("best") friend of Carlos de Oliveira, though now the two do not speak. And while I generally don't think that witnesses should speak on the record while a case is still active, it's a fascinating article, and the truth is without Butler speaking up now, his story might never get told (or at least not before the election) as it still seems very likely that Cannon will block this trial from happening before then, one way or another.

Meanwhile, Trump and the other defendants have filed a motion to delay filing their briefs on most of the motions to dismiss the indictment by 10 days, based on part on the existing Trump trial in NY, and other excuses that they have known about for a long time. The SCO has strongly opposed the motion, but ... Cannon. We'll see what she does. In the grand scheme of things it is not that big a deal, but there is no real basis for this motion other than further delay.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And, of course, Cannon granted the motion.

As Marcy Wheeler, puts it:

[N.E. Brigand]

I've seen it described as that they are afraid that Hur will "pull a Comey."

The report is out. As expected, no charges, but Hur says that Biden is an elderly man with a poor memory.

(Edited to add a direct link to the report.)

Robert Hur will be testifying to the House tomorrow about his report on Biden, and it sounds like he plans to go way past Comey:

Robert Hur, the ex-Trump appointee who investigated President Biden, has left the Department of Justice and will testify to the House Judiciary Committee as a private citizen who has had help preparing from multiple GOP operatives.

[N.E. Brigand]

Exclusive: ‘Trump Employee 5,’ who unknowingly helped move classified documents, speaks out

The witness, now identified as former Mar-a-Lago driver Brian Butler, who worked there for over 20 years before leaving in 2022. He was, apparently, a close ("best") friend of Carlos de Oliveira, though now the two do not speak. And while I generally don't think that witnesses should speak on the record while a case is still active, it's a fascinating article, and the truth is without Butler speaking up now, his story might never get told (or at least not before the election) as it still seems very likely that Cannon will block this trial from happening before then, one way or another.

I see that Butler told investigators that Trump apparently shared classified information with billionaire Australian Mar-a-Lago guest Anthony Pratt.

[N.E. Brigand]

Heh.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

?

[N.E. Brigand]

?

Not only did Robert Hur testify today (apparently to no great effect), but House Democrats released the transcripts of Hur's October interview with President Biden.

At one point, Biden describes a trip he took to Mongolia as Vice President, including this bit:

And so they walked over, and they had a target with bales of hay a hundred yards away, and these guerillas were, you know, taking shots. And I think -- I don't know if it was to embarrass me or to make a point, but I get handed the bow and arrow. I'm not a bad archer. But [indiscernible] where I can pull it back, so I -- and pure luck, I hit the goddamn target.

No one has yet found video to confirm whether he really did hit the target, but that picture I shared is from a National Geographic article about Biden's visit.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Ah!

[Dave_LF]

This one, to be precise:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trav ... l-memories

[N.E. Brigand]

This one, to be precise: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trav ... l-memories

Thanks! I only did a search for the image and didn't read the text. I see that Biden has told this story before.

- = - = - = - = - = -
Meanwhile, this is funny:



The point is: of course, Hur doesn't have dementia. We all forget things.

[N.E. Brigand]

Grrr.

[N.E. Brigand]

Donald Trump tonight said, well:



"But by the way, they released Hillary Clinton. She hammered her phones. She used, uh, all sorts of acid testing and everything else. They call it, uh, BleachBit, but it's essentially acid that will destroy everything, heh, you know, within ten miles. I mean, what she did was unbelievable--nothing happens to her, nothing happens to Bill Clinton. He took it out in his socks. You know, it was the famous socks case, which he actually ended up winning."

Needless to say, BleachBit is not acid.

Trump previously mentioned a "Clinton socks case" last July. Per Wikipedia, here's what he's referring to:

Bill Clinton/Taylor Branch tapes

In 2012, Judicial Watch [a right-wing activist organization] sued the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in an attempt to force NARA to declare audio tapes held at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum of Bill Clinton to be presidential records, seize them, and release them to Judicial Watch. During Clinton's tenure in office, he had allowed historian Taylor Branch to interview him privately for a book Branch was planning to write. It was published in 2009 under the title "The Clinton Tapes". NARA had declined to deem the tapes to be "presidential records", and the federal judge dismissed the lawsuit stating that "the relief that plaintiff seeks – that the Archivist assume 'custody and control' of the audiotapes – is not available under the PRA." This case was called the "Clinton socks case" by former president Trump because the tapes were said to have been stored in Clinton's socks drawer.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's more than just Trump that relies on "the Clinton socks case." His lawyers rely on it in their motion to dismiss the case based on the Presidential Records Act. And because of Judge Cannon (and for that reason only) there is a non-zero chance that the motion will be granted (but then reversed on appeal).

[N.E. Brigand]

Ah, I had forgotten that. Judge Cannon probably would agree with Donald Trump about BleachBit, for that matter.

- - - - - - - - -
During Robert Hur's Congressional testimony yesterday, Democrats on the committee three times showed collections of clips of Trump forgetting names, slurring words, and so forth. Because much of the hearing was aired on Fox News, there were some Republican viewers seeing this material for the first time. And Donald Trump knows it, which is why he's tried to claim that the videos were created using artificial intelligence. Writing at Gizmodo, Jody Serrano provides the original sources for anyone included to fall for Trump's lies.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The reports I am seeing suggest that Judge Cannon is expressing skepticism about both of the motions to dismiss that are being argued today - one asserting that the charges that Trump willfully withheld national defense information are unconstitutionally vague and the other pursuant to the Presidential Records Act. It is still unclear why she singled out those two motions to dismiss out of the seven that Trump filed for oral argument and whether she will schedule one or more hearings on the other motions. And there is still no word from her about when the trial might be rescheduled.

[N.E. Brigand]

While Robert Hur's report called President Biden's memory into question, Hur himself said to Biden during their interview that Biden "appear(s) to have a photographic understanding and recall of the house" where the documents were found. But that comment didn't get one-tenth of the media coverage that Hur's earlier description recieved.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Judge Cannon has already ruled against Trump on his motion to dismiss for constitutional vagueness, but she did so without prejudice, and her ruling suggests that she is likely to use jury instructions that would make it more easy for a jury to find that there is reasonable doubt.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

While Trump's motion to dismiss on the grounds of selective/vindictive prosecution, she made some comments that suggested that she may be open to either granting that motion or granting Trump additional discovery about that (which might spark an appeal).