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| Merrick Garland, Chris Wray |
Raid On
Trump’s Home Spells Out What We’re Dealing With
First, punch Every conservative –- and fair-minded liberal –- must galvanize and gear up to change Congress in November, in a landslide.
Knockout punch: After we do that and Trump announces, we need to rally around him and simply say, “He is the candidate.” He WILL be re-elected. That’s because he’s the only candidate who’ll have the guts to take on this incredibly corrupt machine. We MUST put him back in and let him do this. I’m convinced at this point that this is the only hope for our nation, to get it back to the point where people can believe in it. As it stands now, half of us, if not more than half, do not.
That’s what I told Sean Hannity last night. Even before this raid, I had said in this newsletter, “Stick a fork in the FBI. It’s done.” As of yesterday, it’s beyond done; it has made an ash of itself.
Before continuing, I’d like to join LEGAL INSURRECTION in strongly cautioning Trump supporters not to overreact. Yesterday’s abuse of power by the FBI was so egregious that it seems likely to be a calculated provocation, to goad us into reacting in a way that gives them an excuse to crack down even more on conservatives as “domestic terrorists.” They would LOVE for you to do that. So, whatever you do, DON’T TAKE THE BAIT.
It was good to see a video from last night of Trump supporters peacefully driving by Mar-A-Lago to pay respects, waving flags, etc.
LEGAL INSURRECTION also has posted numerous responses seen on Twitter, including, if you scroll down, one from Marc Elias that gives away the game, which is, of course, to disqualify Trump from holding office ever again. But we knew that.
According to FOX News sources, the raid was not related to January 6. But one said the FBI was “not being judicious about what they took during the search.” They even brought a safecracker to get into Trump’s safe. It reportedly was empty.
Lee Smith, author of THE PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT, thinks it does have something to do with January 6, however, and that they’re probably trying to make an obstruction case. He agreed that we’re in a banana republic, Third World territory now. (Tell me again, WHO is a threat to democracy?) “It’s a historic day,” he said, “insofar as Americans now understand what we are up against. Our children, our children’s children, will be looking to how we respond” as the left tries to break our spirit.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement: “I’ve seen enough. The Department of ‘Justice’ has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan furiously called on Merrick and Wray to come to the House Judiciary Committee this Friday and answer questions about this action, “which has never happened in American history.”
Gregg Jarrett said the Presidential Records Act of 1978 gives the President the discretion and authority to decide what constitutes “presidential papers” and what he will do with them –- even dispose of them. Also, he said, the President is “the ultimate authority in declassifying documents.” He may do this with a mere wave of his hand, without even notifying the National Archives. So, this is “an abuse of power” that had to come down from Garland and Wray.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6310618814112#sp=show-clips
Alan Dershowitz, who is not a Trump supporter, said if the DOJ wanted boxes of materials under the Presidential Records Act, they could’ve handled it with a phone call, maybe a meeting. And since he was in New York, not at Mar-A-Lago, they could have simply issued a “next-day” subpoena knowing he wouldn’t be there to destroy anything. Only if evidence might be destroyed is a raid justified. Also, they would’ve needed a “special warrant” to enter Trump’s safe, but they did it, anyway. They wanted to create the illusion that there’s something criminal about Trump. The criminality is with the Department of ‘Justice.’
Yes, criminality. But Dan Bongino was even harsher: “This is a freaking disgrace. A disgrace. We don’t live in Cuba. We don’t live under Kim Jong-Un. We live in a constitutional republic, a representative democracy. Do you have a bunch of FBI agents raiding the home of a former President because they don’t like his politics? Are you kidding me?”
Bongino shares my disgust after the FBI’s Washington DC field office –- with the full knowledge of Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray –- went to Florida and raided Mar-A-Lago. (By the way, as we reported yesterday, the DC field office is now being run by the same FBI official who ran the Detroit office involved with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's attempted kidnapping case.) My blood ran cold when I heard this had been done. As Bongino said last night, “The management of the FBI has now shredded any...sliver of integrity this agency had left. Nobody will take them seriously from this point on. It is OVER.”
“You cannot tell me we still live in a constitutional republic,” he said, “and not the freaking Third World, when you have Hillary Clinton paying foreign agents to interfere with an election, people lying under oath repeatedly, Hunter Biden doing crack on tape, and what happens? Where are the federal agents? They’re not in Malibu, they’re not in Chappaqua, they’re in Mar-A-Lago. This is some Third World garbage that happened tonight...”
He also concurs that we’ve GOT to win this November. “We have no choice now, folks.” This is not the time to sit back and say all politicians are alike. There are, of course, some swampy Republicans, he said, but conservatives in the GOP are the only hope. And they MUST have a majority. Both houses. They must have the power to impeach those responsible for the implosion of our ‘justice’ system.
“Please, God,” he said, “I am begging you to vote in 2022,” Bongino said, “or you might not recognize this place afterward.”
Indeed, it’s barely recognizable now, and I feel sick to my stomach as never before. After all the years of investigation President Trump has endured, they finally resorted to a political hit on him just as he might be announcing for President. Our country cannot survive without a total housecleaning at the Department of ‘Justice.’ Trump should have fired them all on his first day in office, when he had the chance, and been more careful about appointments. In fact, the FBI must be scrapped, and the law enforcement bureau that replaces it shouldn’t be entrusted with classified investigations at all.
The chilling event that occurred yesterday –- the most flagrant abuse of power I’ve seen in America in my lifetime –- comes after months and months –- years, actually –- of revelations about how dirty the FBI has been, playing with political enemies while letting political buddies off the hook for almost unbelievable corruption: Hillary’s blatant obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence. Her role in starting the whole “Trump-Russia” hoax. Obvious influence peddling by the Biden family. Their own participation in election interference in 2016, 2020, and now the upcoming elections. You don’t have to be a part of Trump’s so-called “base” to know: The abuse of power taking place now absolutely cannot stand. If this doesn’t show us how seriously twisted the justice system is in 2022 America, nothing ever will.
And yet those on the left are laughing and clapping their hands with glee. Maybe it hasn’t occurred to them to ask the question Newt Gingrich posed last night: “If 30 FBI agents can take over the house of a former President of the United States and probable candidate for President, what can they do to YOU?” We’re closer to being a police state, he said, and “eliminating the Constitution as a real document.”
They’re a socialist machine, Gingrich said. They know they’re going to die if Trump wins again. So they’re trying to stay in control through fear.
If they can stop Trump, who else will ever dare to challenge them?
THE NEW YORK TIMES (where a lot of the laughing and clapping is coming from) reported that, according to two sources, the FBI took 15 boxes of materials from Mar-A-Lago. The investigation reportedly focuses on some material, including documents alleged to be classified, that Trump took there after he left the White House. The NY TIMES says Trump “delayed” returning boxes after the National Archives had called for them, “only doing so when there became a threat of action...of them being taken.”
But Eric Trump said on HANNITY last night that his father “has worked so collaboratively with them [the National Archives] for months. In fact, the lawyer who’s been working on this was totally shocked, because [my dad] had such an amazing relationship with these people, and, all of a sudden with no notice, they sent, you know, 20 cars and 30 agents?” He said his father had an “open door policy” and that this could only have come from one place: “the White House in Washington DC.”
https://video.foxnews.com/v/6310620821112#sp=show-clips
(Note: the White House is denying it had notice of the raid –- sure –- and referred questions to the ‘Justice’ Department.)
Trump issued a statement, saying in part, “These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents...Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before...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 also said this kind of assault could only take place “in broken Third World countries.” Here’s his full statement.
https://thelibertydaily.com/benedict-bidens-fbi-just-raided-trumps-home-in-mar-a-lago/
According to Jason Chaffetz, a former member of the Oversight Committee who dealt with such subpoenas in the Hillary case, President Trump continues to possess a security clearance and even has a “skiff,” a secure viewing facility inside Mar-A-Lago. “They have NO business doing that,” he said, “none whatsoever.”
He also praised Trump for being open with investigators when they wanted his attorney to go talk to them. He said Trump was “as open and transparent as anybody that we ever interacted with.”
In contrast, he said, Hillary Clinton, who at the time of her subpoenas had no security clearance, had thousands of documents locked away in her safe at her attorney’s office. They had no security clearance, either. Nothing happened to them. And she DESTROYED 33,000 documents. (Ah, but as then-FBI Director James Comey said during her presidential campaign, they couldn’t say she “intended” to do anything wrong, and “no reasonable prosecutor” would take her case.) Even Hillary’s senior team was given immunity by the DOJ, for nothing in return.
“I am so ashamed of my country,” Chaffetz said. ‘...This Department of ‘Justice’ and somebody at the FBI has got to stand up and expose what’s going on there.” He called on the whistleblowers (who were probably watching, he noted) to take a stand. “Quit your job --- you’ll get hired by somebody else --- and tell the American people the truth.”
Investigative reporter John Solomon said, “This is an extraordinary departure from the way the FBI handled identical allegations in the summer of 2015. I broke this story...[on Hillary Clinton}. They allowed David Kendall, Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, to take the thumb drive with the classified emails and put it in a safe in his office.” Solomon also pointed out that this comes less than a week after Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to free up those National Archives documents; we await more detail from JW on the significance of that. Finally, recall that a week ago, Sen. Chuck Grassley said whistleblowers had accused the DC field office --- the ones who carried out this raid --- of political tampering in investigations.
“All of the optics are bad on this,” Solomon said, “all of the procedural things about it.” Unless they have evidence that Trump was about to destroy documents (remember, he wasn’t even there), this could backfire big-time.
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley expressed shock and called this action “breathtaking” –- a raid on a former President who could be “the future opponent of the current President.” He was “baffled” as to why Merrick Garland if he thought the evidence warranted it, didn’t appoint a special counsel. Why would he not, under these circumstances –- and with Hunter Biden as well –- see an “absolute necessity” for one? “Who should be ordering these types of raids?” he asked.
Turley said he thought AG Garland would have been more sensitive to this time of political rage we’re currently in. (Editorial aside: With all respect, where did he get that idea?) He called it “reckless.” Oh, it’s much more than reckless.
Turley also pointed out that a federal judge decided there was sufficient evidence to issue a warrant. To that, I sadly have to say, so what? With the ‘justice’ system in the shape, it’s in right now, “having a warrant” gives me ZERO reasons to think this raid was justified. Who knows if the judge was even given accurate information?
Of course, we don’t know what they’re investigating, but Turley said, “If the evidence is no more than what we saw from the January 6 committee, I would be, frankly, shocked that this type of raid occurred at this time.”
He said the ‘Justice’ Department should give some statement as to why this was done. There have been “legitimate questions” of bias on the part of the Justice Department.
Former senior White House adviser Stephen Miller was blunter: “This is an abomination. You have the sitting President of the United States, Joe Biden, through his Justice Department, through his FBI, conducting a raid on the person who is presumed to be his opponent in the next election.” He pointed out the astonishing discrepancy in the way Hillary’s known misdeeds have been handled and said, “We are truly living in a situation where the FBI has become a Praetorian Guard from Rome, where they take it unto themselves to decide who wields power in this country.”
The great Mark Levin said plenty: “Everybody’s guessing; I’ll tell you what happened. This is in the jurisdiction of the U.S. attorney in DC, who’s also overseeing the January 5 prosecutions. Why? ‘Cause, that’s where the National Archives is, in [DC]...He wouldn’t do anything without the sign-off of the Attorney General of the United States...This was well-orchestrated, so this has been going on for weeks...”
He guessed the attorney general would later say they’d heard some documents were going to be destroyed. That will be the pretext. But “there is NO JUSTIFICATION FOR SENDING 30 FRIGGIN’ FBI AGENTS” on an early-morning raid at the President’s home –- “or any other case in which they’ve done exactly the same thing.”
“This is the worst attack on this republic in modern history, period. It’s not just an attack on Donald Trump. It’s an attack on everybody who supports him. It’s an attack on anybody who dares to raise serious questions about Washington DC and the establishment, in both parties.”
“...Just look at this Department of ‘Justice’; it’s the most damned corrupt thing I’ve ever seen.”
We’ll end with a link to a great piece at THE FEDERALIST that, coincidentally, we’d already been planning to feature for today before news of the raid broke. Ironically, here’s the title: “The FBI and DOJ Criminalizing Opposition To The Regime Is How The Republic Ends.”
*****
Mar-A-Lago raid on Trump is a shameful political hit job
We interrupt our regularly scheduled commentary about the FBI’s raid on Mar-A-Lago to bring you this breaking story about related FBI activities.
On Tuesday, the FBI confiscated the cell phone belonging to five-term Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, a Trump supporter who stood by him during his attempts to challenge the 2020 election. While traveling with his family, Rep. Perry was approached by three FBI agents who showed him a warrant and asked for his phone. They hadn’t contacted his lawyer.
His statement said in part, “I’m outraged --- but not surprised --- that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ would seize the phone of a sitting member of Congress. My phone contains info about my legislative and political activities, and personal/private discussions with my wife, family, constituents, and friends. None of this is the government’s business.”
Rep. Perry reportedly was in communication numerous times with the Trump White House in advance of the January 6 rally, which suggests the raid on Mar-A-Lago might actually have been seeking more information about that protest, rather than materials sought by the National Archives as has been reported.
More as it develops. We now return you to our regularly scheduled commentary on the dirty FBI.
……………..
You know, there was a time I might have thought twice before using the term “dirty FBI.” Those days are gone. Many commentators on the left, such as MSNBC’s smirking Rachel Maddow, think these severe violations of the protocol are just fine if directed at Trump and his supporters. The only ones worried are those who fear it will backfire and make Trump President again. (And please let that happen!)
Example: Andrew Cuomo, who tweeted this: “DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid & it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation & legitimacy of January 6 investigations.”
Oh, it’s much too late to maintain that committee’s legitimacy. And notice he’s concerned that this will be VIEWED as a political tactic, not that it actually is one. But Cuomo is right in saying they must explain the need for this. Amazingly, President Biden and his aides have been completely silent on the subject, when it defies common sense to think they didn’t know it was going to happen. They’ve lamely deferred all questions to the DOJ. Well, all right, DOJ; it’s on you: What in blazes do you think you are doing?
This had to be about more than the archival material. Miranda Devine reports that the FBI was there for nine hours and "went into every single room," even searching Melania's closet. Jesse Watters put it well last night: “Sending 30 men with guns in to get pieces of paper because the National Archives was complaining that getting stuff back from Mar-A-Lago was ‘taking too long is like a librarian launching an FBI raid. We’re raiding a President over bookkeeping? Trump’s team was already working with the feds, and already handed over boxes of documents, this year.”
Apparently, the feds had been at Mar-A-Lago in June, enjoying Trump’s “open door policy” (Eric Trump’s description). So bringing in a safecracker (to open an empty safe, ha) and keeping Trump attorneys away during this process lends itself to the most sinister interpretation. We can’t trust anything they do in this situation, any “evidence” they put forward. We know they’ve faked evidence before.
Incidentally, it’s been reported that among the personal correspondence confiscated by the feds was the letter outgoing President Obama wrote to Trump on the day of his inauguration.
Count legal analyst Andrew C. McCarthy among those who believe this raid wasn’t really about the archival material. He says it’s about January 6. Though some, including DNC election attorney Marc Elias, have said being found guilty of violating the Presidential Records Act would disqualify Trump from running for office again, McCarthy says that would be unconstitutional. The Constitution sets out the qualifications for President, he explains: being at least 35 and a natural-born citizen. Period. It also sets out the way someone can be disqualified: impeachment and conviction. Period. The legislature lacks the authority to alter the Constitution “by mere statute,” he says. Makes sense to me.
That’s why McCarthy thinks the ‘Justice’ Department used this only as a pretext (a nicer word for a fake reason) to get a warrant to search for what it’s REALLY looking for: anything to tie Trump to a Capitol riot offense. McCarthy says it would be “foolhardy” for Garland to do it, but, of course, that doesn’t mean he won’t. If he does charge Trump, he has to prove that Trump “clearly knew that the election was not stolen.” We know Trump clearly believed –- and still believes –- that it was. They want to find something on a piece of paper that suggests otherwise.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/trump-raid-not-about-classified-documents-its-about-jan-6/
That reminds me of something Jonathan Turley wrote last week, about Liz Cheney said the January 6 committee was going to have “much more” evidence that they would release in the fall. (You know, closer to the election.)
It makes me wonder if Cheney, when she said that, knew all about the raid that would be happening in a few days. (I also wonder if Christopher Wray knew about it last Thursday when he was dodging questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee.) One person who would think so is Trump attorney Alina Habba, who spoke with FOX NEWS’ Jesse Watters on Tuesday. She was with Trump when he got news of the raid and said he took it more calmly than one might expect, speculating that this might be because “there’s never a dull moment in his life.” She confirmed that Trump had been cooperating with the National Archives –- working “in tandem”; there was “nothing to hide” –- and that what happened was “completely unconstitutional.” They raided when Trump wasn’t even there (which tells us any concern that he might destroy evidence was bogus) and made his attorneys LEAVE THE PREMISES while they gathered materials.
“They’re the people who are supposed to be defending the democracy,” Habba said, “and instead they are destroying it.”
She said there are other cases going on that we haven’t heard about (yet), and they support the view that various agencies are indeed working together to bring Trump down. In the context of this alleged coordination –- should I say…“collusion”? –- she specifically mentioned Letitia James, the attorney general of New York; recall that she ran for office on a promise to do that very thing. It’s “one hundred percent” politically motivated,” Habba said. “If he weren’t ahead in the polls, this wouldn’t be happening.”
Watters also spoke with Eric Trump, who said, “Mark my words; keep this tape. This will all lead back to the Biden administration. They’re doing this for political purposes. They did it before with Russia...and you’re gonna find the same thing here.”
Here’s more response from Eric and also Lara Trump.
We learned more today about Judge Bruce Reinhardt, who signed this mysterious warrant. He’s an Obama donor and a magistrate judge, not an “Article III” judge, meaning he’s not a presidential appointment or Senate confirmation. Bonchie at REDSTATE wonders, “Why did a low-level, unconfirmed, unappointed magistrate judge sign off on the most consequential FBI warrant in decades? If any warrant application demanded the eyes of a real judge, it would be one targeting the former President of the United States. Yet, this judge was happy to give the FBI what it wanted while the FBI was happy to accept.”
Another intriguing detail: Reinhardt was a prosecutor on the Jeffrey Epstein case who quit on January 1, 2008, to go to work for Epstein’s associates on January 2, 2008, helping obtain immunity for various enablers. If he’s capable of that, he’s likely capable of signing a warrant for just about anything.
Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker said Monday that we’ve entered “dangerous territory” and he worries for the republic if Trump has to stand trial in a DC court. He said, “they have a burden to demonstrate that this investigation is not completely politically motivated after Hillary Clinton walked scot-free for the last seven years” and that the relentless attack on Trump has been an “outrageous expansion” of the FBI’s powers. “We’ve crossed the Rubicon to some extent,” he said. “This is something from banana republics, not the United States of America.”
“Tell us the predicate for the warrant,” Lindsay Graham said Tuesday, echoing numerous legal analysts. “Reveal the affidavit. This is too important to democracy. We’re in uncharted, dangerous waters. So I’m calling on Merrick Garland tonight to address the nation as to why this happened. Lay your cards out on the table, ‘cause you’re doing a lot of damage to the country,” especially 90 days before an election.
“...If you’ve got something that is really so compelling, you had to go into the man’s home with guns drawn to get the information, tell the American people.”
Don’t hold your breath, Sen. Graham. You can go on TV and insist all you want, but it won’t get you anywhere. Fortunately, in breaking news, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch has filed a motion to unseal the warrant as soon as possible. “The DOJ’s silence on it is deafening,” he said Tuesday evening.
He went on to talk about congressional Democrats using their “oversight” ability to target Trump personally again, pushing to get his confidential tax information, which the DC Court of Appeals has just ruled they can see. These are tax returns from before, during, and after his presidency. “Trump’s civil rights, practically speaking, get thrown out the window,” Fitton said. With the Presidency under attack, the courts need to “step up and protect the structure of our government.” He said the courts “have been bystanders in large measure,” just rubber-stamping warrants.
Few have persevered as Tom Fitton has to get answers from the government. Some in the GOP, like Sen. Graham, seem to think that if enough Republicans pound the table and demand answers, we’ll magically get them. No, we won’t. Look at all that the intel community has tried to keep under wraps since about 2015. The dirty DOJ is not in the habit of coming clean.
Speaking of dirty and not coming clean, did you know Hillary is fundraising off the raid of Trump’s home while laughing at how she skated in 2016? She thinks it’s cute to market hats that say “BUT HER EMAILS.” Leftists might love it, and she says her hats sold out, but sorry, I don’t think most Americans share her sense of humor about the demise of the justice system.
Will Cain, subbing for Sean Hannity Tuesday night, interviewed Victor Davis Hanson, and Hanson described what’s going on in our country as well as what can be done. When you start going after officials, taking their phones or putting them in shackles, on an ideological basis, “you don’t have a democracy anymore, and I don’t think we do,” he said.
He likened the J6 committee to “sort of a French Robespierre Committee on Public Safety.” Interesting comparison:
https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/committee-of-public-safety/
To be on the J6 committee, Hanson said, there’s one qualification: you have to have voted to impeach Donald Trump. And Liz Cheney’s one job on that committee is to stop Trump. That’s not what it’s supposed to be, he said. Her job is supposed to be disinterested, to find out what really happened on that day Instead, she “makes the testimony and the witnesses fit” what they want to say happened.
“I never thought I would say this,” Hanson continued. “The FBI is beyond redemption. All of its bureaus and its institutions have to be farmed out and broken up. If you have...an FBI warrant, there’s no guarantee that that has not been altered. If you subpoena and you want FBI records on phones...they will be wiped clean. If you want disinterested legal counsel, look at Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. If you’re the FBI and you want to find out why Hillary has hired a foreign national to find dirt on a political opponent, then you will hire that same foreign national.”
He went down the list of the last four FBI directors and what took place under each of their tenures, and it was not pretty. “All of this is destroying this country,” he said.
If scrapping the FBI and starting over sounds daunting, remember that winning in November is the first step. I’ll leave you with this encouraging tweet from Stephen Kruiser: “Anyone who reads me knows I haven’t been sold on the GOP’s chances of taking back the Senate. I think this Mar-A-Lago raid was an in-kind contribution to every Republican on the ballot.”
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