Look, even the question is stupid. But I keep hearing it. “Could being indicted and arrested actually HELP Trump?”
No.
It’s really that simple. Sure, assuming it happens (and yes, I am assuming it will–and it’s to be hoped it’ll be today because I’ve got my money on today, 22 March, as Indictment Day), it’ll piss off people who already support Trump. Will it suddenly make other voters slap their foreheads and exclaim, “I can NOT believe the government indicted a former president for paying hush money to a moderately successful porn actress to prevent her from talking about their sexual liaison, so now I will absolutely vote for Trump!”
No, it won’t.
Comrade Former-President Donald J. Trump behaving as expected.
There will undoubtedly be some protests by MAGA-hat wearing dolts. There will be an absurd number of news media filming these protests as if the protests are the important story, and they’ll interview the same dozen or so TrumpFlag-wrapped tuna-heads, who’ll repeat the same rancid bullshit. They may even find some guy so desperate for attention that he’ll proclaim he’d give his life for a man who cheated on his third wife shortly after she’d given birth to his fifth child by three different women. But will that translate into more votes in the 2024 election?
Nope.
Trump, of course, has encouraged his followers to protest his arrest (when it happens). He wants his people out on the streets being loud and aggressive. Not necessarily loud and aggressive toward anybody or anything in particular–just loud and aggressive in a generally intimidating way. My guess is he’s hoping there will be some sort of assault on some US institution, just as there was against the US Capitol on January 6th. Because that was an indication of his power. Trump is probably feeling weak right now, and I suspect he’d happily have his people set fire to a courthouse just for that boost in his own self-importance. But his people have seen what happened to the 1/6 insurrectionists. Are there many people willing to act out and risk going to prison just to protest Trump’s right to privacy about an extramarital relationship with porn star?
Naw.
To me, this seems pretty obvious. And yet the New York Times is still reporting idiotic shit like this: “[H]ow he responds to this moment could determine whether he continues to stabilize his standing as the Republican presidential front-runner.” We KNOW how he’ll respond to this. Everybody knows how he’ll respond. He’ll respond to this the same way he responds to everything. He’ll lie. He’ll throw a tantrum. He’ll blame everybody but himself. He’ll threaten. He’ll try to get his supporters to terrorize his detractors. He’ll insult everybody who doesn’t support him. He’ll be the same Comrade Donald Fucking Trump he’s always been. Will it make a difference in his standing in the GOP?
No. No, it won’t.
The Republican Party has fucked itself. They’ve demonstrated they no longer stand for anything, they no longer believe in anything, they no longer respect anything but power. They’ve doused themselves in gasoline and given Trump a cheap-ass BIC lighter. Now they can only hope he won’t burn them all down. Will he?
MAGA Fuckwit: If you indict and arrest Trump, we will burn this motherfucker down! America: Well, we’re still going to indict and arrest him. MAGA Fuckwit: He did nothing wrong! America: Sorry, disagree. MAGA Fuckwit: The call to Georgia was perfect! America: No, but that’s not what we’re arresting him for. MAGA Fuckwit: The election was stolen! America: No, but that’s not what we’re arresting him for. MAGA Fuckwit: January 6th was a peaceful protest! America: No, but that’s not what we’re arresting him for. MAGA Fuckwit: As president he had the power to declassify top secret documents just by thinking about it! America: No, but that’s not what we’re arresting him for.
Defending the Constitutional Right to Pay Hush Money to Porn Stars!
MAGA Fuckwit: He…he…whatever you say he did, he didn’t do it! Or he was right to do it! America: We’re arresting him for illegally paying hush money to a porn star. MAGA Fuckwit: We…that’s…you can’t…we will burn this…c’mon! America: Yeah, that’s it. Hush money, porn star. MAGA Fuckwit: That’s not illegal! America: Yeah, it is if you try to pass it off as a campaign contribution. MAGA Fuckwit: He did it to protect his wife and kids! America: Yeah, no. MAGA Fuckwit: Real men cheat on their wives! America: Seriously? That’s your argument? MAGA Fuckwit: Goddamnit! America: [shrugs] MAGA Fuckwit: Can’t you indict and arrest him for the other crimes?! America: Sure. Just wait. MAGA Fuckwit: Okay, good, then we will burn this motherfucker down! America: We’ll let you know when we’re ready.
Conspiracy theorists aren’t afraid of hard work.They’ll cheerfully concoct massively complicated theories with multiple interacting elements that require flow charts to understand how and why Hillary Clinton was responsible for the murder-by-plane crash of some obscure businessperson in Arkansas. But one of the many many problems with conspiracy theorists is they prefer fantasy theories that fit their worldview over actual theories that may contradict it.
Let’s take a very quick look at the arrest last weekend of former FBI big hat, Charles McGonigal (which is a lovely patronymic name, by the way; from the Gaelic Mac Conghaile, meaning the son of Conghaile which basically means ‘brave as a hound’). Your man McGonigal had what appeared to be a stellar FBI career, dealing with counter-espionage primarily. He joined the FBI in 1996 and was initially assigned to the New York Field Office, where he worked on Russian foreign counterintelligence and organized crime matters. When he retired in 2018, he was the Special Agent in Charge of the Counter-intelligence Division for the New York Field Office.
Why was McGonigal arrested? For money laundering and for helping Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska–a close friend and ally of Vlad Putin–dodge US sanctions imposed against him.
Right now, the MAGA crowd likes to depict the FBI as Trump-haters, largely because they searched Mar-a-Lago and found a hoard of classified documents that Trump had illegally taken and refused to release to the National Archives. But back in 2015-2016, when Trump was running for president, Trump supporters celebrated how much the FBI loved him. The New York Field Office in particular (and remember, McGonigal was in charge of a major FBI section of that office) was openly referred to as Trumplandia. It was the NY Field Office that got FBI Director James Comey to inform Congress (and therefore the news media) of the possible existence of new information that might lead to re-opening the closed investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server. Comey’s letter to Congress, which was written even before the FBI obtained a warrant to explore the possible new information, was made public ten days before the 2016 election. It almost certainly influenced the election result in Trump’s favor. And, of course, it turned out there was no new information.
It was McGonigal’s Counter-intelligence unit that handled the investigation of Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. Remember, Trump and most of his presidential campaign’s inner circle–his sons and daughter, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Rick Gates, and others–had major business interests in Russia. Many of them had business dealings with Oleg Deripaska. In fact, in 2016 Deripaska was suing Trump’s campaign manager, Manafort, for US$25 million over a failed business deal in…wait for it…Ukraine. Manafort was instrumental in changing the 2016 Republican Presidential Platform to remove support for supplying defensive weapons to Ukraine. Why was the US giving weapons to Ukraine in 2016? Because in 2014, Russia (on orders from Putin) invaded and “annexed” the Crimean peninsula and a big chunk of eastern Ukraine.
2016 is also apparently the year in which McGonigal began secretly working with/for Deripaska. That same year, his unit investigated allegations that Russia was interfering with the US election process in support of Donald Trump. Although that investigation was later conducted under the aegis of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel, it was McGonigal’s agents who continued to investigate the matter. Mueller’s report concluded the Trump campaign DID welcome Russian interference in the election and they expected to benefit from it, The report also noted that pervasive obstruction of justice by witnesses made it impossible for McGonigal’s agents to obtain sufficient evidence to claim Trump committed a criminal conspiracy. In addition, there was/is a policy against charging a sitting president with a crime. Mueller did, however, note that Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice (or other crimes) after he left office.
“Rabbits are ruining your garden!” shout the crows.
So just to recap. 1) Putin/Russia seizes parts of Ukraine, 2) Russia leans on the Trump campaign to resist helping Ukraine, 3) the campaign complies, 4) Russia interferes with the election to help Trump, 5) the FBI investigation into that interference is conducted by McGonigal, who 6) is secretly being paid by an ally to Trump, and 7) the investigation fails to find any criminality. Also? 8) in 2019, President Trump lifts most of the sanctions against Deripaska.
This is all well documented in several public news sources. This is an actual conspiracy, a broad and wide-ranging criminal conspiracy.
Can we expect Congress to investigate? Nope. They’ll be too busy trying to figure out how Hunter Biden’s laptop was used by Bill Gates to create a secret Satanic community of cannibalistic pedophiles by secretly releasing a phony ‘plague’ manufactured in China by the Deep State Uniparty to weaken the rights of parents to decide which books their children should avoid to keep them from being groomed by drag queens and harvested for the lymph nodes celebrities need to stay young.
Let’s give the next-to-last word to William Gibson:
People find conspiracy theories fantastically comforting not because they’re more frightening than reality, but because they’re less frightening than reality.
We have nothing (aside from dick pics) to fear from Hunter Biden’s laptop. We have a great deal to fear from people willing to undermine democracy in return for wealth and power.
The buzzard told the monkey you are choking me. Release your hold and i will set you free. The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye, And said your story’s so touching, but it sounds just like a lie.
Irving Mills / Nat king cole
Two scenarios:
Scenario One: President Uncle Joe Biden’s lawyers, while going through files in an office in a private policy institute Uncle Joe used in the period between being Vice President and President, come across two files that appear to be classified. They notify the Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and return the documents without being asked. The Attorney General immediately appoints a prosecutor to investigate. (Edit: apparently there were ten documents, not two.)
Scenario Two: President Comrade Trump has multiple highly classified documents transferred to his home, which is shared with a public venue. Four months later, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) asks for the return of those documents. Trump returns two dozen boxes of material, including some of the classified documents. NARA informs Trump that they’re still missing some documents, and ask him to return the rest of the material he took from the White House. Seven months later, Trump returns another dozen boxes of material. A year after Trump left office, NARA informs Trump he STILL hasn’t returned all the documents. The Department of Justice is notified. Sixteen months after Trump left office, the DOJ issues a subpoena for the return of those documents. Trump claims he’s returned everything. Eighteen months after leaving office, a federal judge issues a warrant for the FBI to search and seize the still-missing documents. They find nearly 200 classified documents, including some labeled TS/SCI (which are so secret they’re only to be read in a secure room in which no cameras or recording devices are allowed). In total, around 13,000 documents Trump wasn’t allowed to take are recovered from Mar-a-Lago. The Attorney General appoints a prosecutor to investigate the matter 23 months after Trump removed the documents.
The News Media: Both Trump and Biden in possession of classified documents! Prosecutor to investigate!
Attorney General Merrick Garland hears Trump’s attorneys.
This is absolute bullshit, of course. Biden and his lawyers acted properly. They discovered the two documents, notified the appropriate agencies, and acknowledged the mistake. Trump did the exact opposite. He deliberately removed thousands of documents, he and his lawyers resisted returning them, lied about them, and the FBI was forced to go to Mar-a-Lago in order to retrieve them.
Attorney General Merrick Garland delayed ordering a prosecutor to investigate Trump’s handling of classified documents for nearly two years, but immediately ordered one to investigate Biden’s handling of them. Why? To appear non-partisan. To avoid giving MAGA Republicans a reason to claim the DOJ is unfair. As if MAGA Republicans have any interest in Fact or Truth. MAGA Republicans will, of course, claim the two scenarios are exactly the same.
The only question is whether the news media will have the integrity to report this matter accurately. And sadly, I think we know the answer to that. Is there anything we can do about it?
Nope, not really. And let’s face it, there are more equally stupid but far more critical issues we’ll be dealing with in the very near future. In this on particular case, maybe we should consider the advice of Nat King Cole: “Cool down papa don’t you blow your top.”
Yesterday Comrade Trump announced he would make a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT today (he’s exactly the kind of massive asshole who’d announce he was going to make an announcement). And he did.
This…and I have to announce that I am NOT MAKING THIS UP…is Trump’s announcement:
That’s right, trading cards. Digital trading cards. Not even actual physical cards. Digital ones. For ‘only’ US$99 each. For Christmas. Trading cards of Trump depicted in various ‘heroic’ outfits. Trump as an astronaut, Trump as a Texas Ranger, Trump as a NASCAR driver, Trump as…well, I don’t know…an NFL owner? In all these images Trump looks fit and thin and naturally tan.
Like any rational person, I thought this was a joke. THIS WAS NOT A JOKE. I should say this was not an intentional joke, because it most definitely IS a joke. This bonehead is actually attempting to market himself using trading cards. Who is the target audience for this bullshit? What kind of moron would think this would make a good Christmas gift? Who is stupid and gullible enough to buy th…oh. right, FreeRepublic.
So, of course, I held my nose and jumped into the Freeperverse. And yes, sure enough, there were some True Believers who saw the obvious genius of this venture.
Love it, Never-Trumpers and Democrats will go crazy.. Ultimate Troll. 10:20:22 AM by DEPcom
I think he is just messing around with the criminal deep state. They know some big bad news is coming, but have no idea about how and when it will drop. Announcing a major announcement was just Trump’s way of increasing the anxiety. 10:22:01 AM by TBall
Q: How do you communicate when everything you do and say is surveilled? A: Obscurely. If that’s what Trump is doing… Works for me. 10:42:54 AM by mewzilla
But there were many more…and I mean many more…Freepers who weren’t quite sold by this scheme.
This is just so f…..g dumb. Really? This is his big announcement? You know what. I’m done. Walking away. 10:12:28 AM by Sirius Lee
Is this supposed to be a joke? The country is falling apart, desperate for some good news, and the major announcement is trading cards? I love Trump, but this is really causing me to wonder what he’s thinking. 10:15:14 AM by JudyinCanada
Cringe worthy. 10:18:45 AM by Rurudyne
Embarrassing 10:22:53 AM by clintonh8r
Pathetic. His ego is bigger than Obama’s. what a loser. 10:27:41 AM by wny
I am at a loss of whether I should laugh or cry 10:34:34 AM by dsrtsage
This is a former president of the United States who wants another term to help save our nation, which is fast going down the drain. WHY is he doing this?! I’m sorry, but the ‘optics’ here are terrible. Who’s advising him?? That being said, I’d continue to vote for him if he’s on the ballot. I’m just mystified… 10:38:10 AM by Deo volente
It’s as if he is announcing to the world that he thinks we are suckers. It’s as if he was sitting around saying, “I could get them to buy anything.” This is beyond sad. 10:45:53 AM by Vermont Lt
Trump has gone full retard. This kind of chit is not helpful. Honestly I just don’t get it. Tone deaf is not Trump’s normal behavior. 10:53:41 AM by Georgia Girl 2
I’m legitimately having a problem digesting this as reality. 11:04:45 AM by EEGator
In the interest of fairness, I only read about half of the 300+ responses to Trump’s announcement. It’s possible that the remaining 150 or so responses were overwhelmingly favorable to the TrumpCard scamploy venture. It’s possible.
I tend to think of FreeRepublic as a bellwether for ultra right-wing conservative thought. They celebrated Trump early in the 2016 primary season. They were fully behind his blustery faux patriotism and blatantly ridiculous claim that he, personally, had saved Christmas. They completely believed him every time he shouted about rigged elections.
And he’s losing them. Losing them to DeSantis. True, they’re just trading one huckster for another, but just a few months ago this was unthinkable. Comrade Trump shouldn’t expect a Christmas miracle. In fact, it seems clear to me that Trump is bleeding and there are sharks in the water. (Holiday sharks, you know.)
We all know former president Comrade Trump has no respect for the US Constitution. I mean, he’s never been shy about that, has he. The guy has been committing crimes without any serious repercussions for decades. But he’s rarely so openly dismissive of the Constitution as he was yesterday. You’ve probably already seen the comment he made on his social media site, but it’s awful enough that it deserves repeating.
We can safely ignore that ‘revelation’ he’s talking about because it’s seriously stupid. It’s grounded in the belief that Twitter’s decision in 2020 NOT to allow posts with dick pics stolen from a private laptop allegedly owned by Hunter Biden is somehow a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. You can’t make this shit up.
Let’s also ignore the fact that Trump put “Founders” in quotation marks, as if the title is an exaggeration. And let’s further ignore his bullshit about “massive & widespread fraud & deception” because that’s either delusional thinking or deliberate lying (or possibly both). And while we’re ignoring stuff, let’s ignore Trump’s ridiculous assertion that his baseless claims of fraud magically ‘allows’ us to put aside “all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” because Jesus suffering fuck, that’s idiotic.
Instead, let’s look at how Comrade Trump’s base has reacted to his statement. And for that, we have to hold our nose and go wading through the fetid waters of FreeRepublic.
Not surprisingly, a lot of Freepers initially refused to believe Trump actually made that statement. They felt the post must be a lie or, more likely, another demonic Democratic-commie false flag propaganda effort.
Are these confirmed posts by Trump? posted on 12/3/2022, 7:01:51 PM by EEGator
There is no suggestion of terminating the Constitution; however, it appears to suggest that this is exactly what Biden is doing right now. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:26:06 PM by Olog-hai
But, of course, he did actually post that. Once it was confirmed, the majority of Freepers found it necessary to ‘interpret’ what Trump really meant, because clearly he wouldn’t suggest violating the Constitution. So what did Trump really mean when he said fraud “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution”?
I don’t think he’s actually suggesting that we take extra-Constitutional measures, just that we will wish that we had before we had to. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:35:40 PM by Jonty30
When Trump says “even those found in the Constitution,” he’s speaking of the 12th amendment counting of Electoral College votes. He suggesting that if the election was based on fraud, then the 12th amendment legally counted fraudulent Electoral College votes and should be set aside. I’m not endorsing his argument, but he’s clearly not suggesting that the Constitution be terminated. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:59:09 PM by Political Junkie Too
He is merely calling for the restoration of the constitution, by rectifying the deep state monkey wrench that was jabbed into it in 2020 (and 2016, 2018, 2022, etc). posted on 12/3/2022, 8:12:06 PM by C210N
Some Freepers, of course, were perfectly happy with the idea of Trump ditching the Constitution and seizing control of the country. That pesky Constitution just got in the way, keeping him from doing what needed to be done to protect…well, the Constitution. And also make America great.
He has a point doesn’t he? posted on 12/3/2022, 7:08:30 PM by isthisnickcool
Anyone who doesn’t think the Democrats aren’t trying to terminate the constitution and replace it with progressive socialism is a fool. I’ll take Trump’s alternative any day. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:16:27 PM by bigbob
Fine by me. posted on 12/3/2022, 8:12:34 PM by going hot
Maybe that’s why our great founders had no thought of popular voting as a means of appointing a President. posted on 12/3/2022, 8:21:12 PM by Jim Noble
That’s the stuff I was expecting to find on FreeRepublic. A lot of ‘damn the Constitution, full speed ahead’ alpha-male bravado. But surprisingly (to me, anyway) at least a third of Freepers called Trump out. Many were decidedly and decisively against terminating the Constitution; others thought it was merely a bad idea.
So as someone who’s sworn multiple times to support and defend the Constitution with my life, that’s slightly problematic. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:02:09 PM by quikstrike98
No, Donald. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:03:40 PM by Mr.Unique
Greatest president ever. Now shut up and go away. You will not get the nomination. And only a fool would vote for you as a third party candidate. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:10:05 PM by rrrod
Termination of the Constitution’s rules? That actually does sound fascist. I am adamantly opposed to this suggestion. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:23:16 PM by Golden Eagle
In my opinion this would disqualify Trump from ever being considered for POTUS. posted on 12/3/2022, 7:32:23 PM by xkaydet65
Face it, your lord and savior Trump would burn the Constitution itself if it meant he could regain power. You’ve been conned. posted on 12/3/2022, 8:05:25 PM by thefactor
Trump seems to be saying that we must go past the Constitution to set things right. Well, that’s exactly how banana republics work. posted on 12/3/2022, 8:12:37 PM by Leaning Right
That sort of angry opposition from Freepers is unexpected and downright shocking. It’s a good shock, to be sure, but lawdy it’s a massive tectonic shift in the hard-core conservative firmament (and yes, I know there’s no plate tectonics in the heavens, but you know what I mean).
Comrade Trump molesting an innocent flag.
However, there was also a minority of Freepers who wished Trump would rescind the Constitution and were openly angry with him because he hadn’t done it already and wouldn’t do it in the future.
Trump doesn’t have the balls to do anything of the sort, just look at how he allowed BLM and Antifa to burn the nation’s cities in 2020 with barely a whimper. A President with balls would have declared a national emergency, suspended habeous corpus, and sent the Marine Corps out to arrest the enemies of the USA. But he did nothing. So when the rubber meets the road, I doubt President Trump will have the courage to act. posted on 12/3/2022, 8:36:36 PM by rod5591
This is just a small sample of the more than 450 posts in a single discussion thread, but I think it accurately illustrates the scope of the Freeper discussion. Here’s the thing: this is Comrade Trump’s base. These are the people who followed him with almost religious fervor. These are the people he counted on to stop the peaceful transfer of power on January 6th, and who came close to succeeding. These are the people he’s counting on to support him in the 2024 election.
And a sizable proportion of them apparently aren’t going to do it. If Comrade Trump has lost a significant number of Freepers, he’s effectively done as a viable presidential candidate in 2024. He’s still a threat to democracy, of course, and his true believers remain a danger to civil society, but IF (and yeah, that’s a big IF) these posts are representative, then Trump has managed to kneecap himself.
As another Republican said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” I’m not sure Lincoln actually said that, but it’s a good line. I hope it’s true.
This question/comment was made by a senior economist employed by a major economic policy center:
Seems if we had an attorney general who respected the law, he would send the FBI to ALL of Trump’s residences and tear them apart to look for every damn missing document, just like would happen with a drug lord. What happened to no one being above the law?
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. And it shouldn’t–not to Trump, not to a drug lord. It’s not gonna happen because we DO have an Attorney General who respects the law. It’s not gonna happen because it’s fucking illegal.
I’ve heard similar questions/comments by other folks. Some of those folks are boneheads, some are smart folks, educated folks, folks who follow the news. I blame television. On television, all a detective has to do is say to some flunky, “I know in my gut that this guy did the crime. I just need to find the evidence. Get me a warrant to search his house!” and hey bingo, the detective gets a warrant.
That just ain’t how it works. Law enforcement–and I’m talking about everybody from the FBI down to officers from your local Mayberry police department–can’t just act on a hunch or a gut feeling. This is pretty basic stuff, and it’s right out of the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
No warrants shall issue. What the hell is a warrant, anyway? The term comes from the Old French ‘garant‘ out of the Frankish ‘warand‘ meaning ‘pledge.’ It’s also the root term for ‘guarantee’ and ‘guard’ and ‘warden’. It means a pledge or guarantee that the information written down has been attested or given under oath.
If the State wants to search a place, they first have to swear an oath that they’ve got a legit reason to do that. There’s a process to this search warrant business, and that process always, without fail, begins with the question, Hey, did somebody break the law here? Is it illegal for Comrade Ex-President Donald J. Trump to stuff classified documents down his pants and take them to Trump Tower or one of his many golf resorts? The answer, of course, is yep. Totally illegal. But you have to be specific; you have to be able to point to an actual criminal statute and be able to say to a judge, “That law right here, that’s the law we believe Trump broke IF he walked away with those documents.“
Step two is another question: Did Trump do that? Did he stuff documents down his pants and walk away? This is where shit gets complicated. Obviously, you can’t prove Trump did that without evidence and you can’t get the evidence to show he did that without searching for it. But you can’t search for it until you can convince a judge that (okay, here’s some legal-sounding language) you have sufficient credible information to establish that Trump probably did that.
The judge will expect you to lay out what that information is, how you got that information, why you believe the information is credible, and your qualifications to justify your belief in the credibility of that information. So you tell the judge, “The Archives reports that Trump was supposed to give them all his shit after he left office, but there’s shit they KNOW exists and they don’t have it, so probably Trump does. The Archives haven’t ever lied to us before and we’re seriously experienced and skeptical FBI agents, and we trust them, so there.”
So yeah, you’ve shown that a crime was probably committed and Trump probably committed it. Now comes Step three: finding the damned evidence. Now you have to convince a judge that you’ve got good reason to believe the evidence of that specific crime exists and can be found in these specific locations. In the Mar-a-Lago search, the FBI told the judge, “We got us some witnesses who saw Comrade Donald J. Trump stuff like TWO truckloads of boxes labeled Classified Shit down his pants at the White House, and witnesses who saw those same boxes unloaded from his pants at Mar-a-Lago, and we’ve even got witnesses who saw those boxes in Trump’s basement and in his goddamned office, if you can believe it, where all sorts of loopy people go wandering through.”
The FBI had all that for Mar-a-Lago. So they were able to convince a judge to issue a search warrant and do the search. They apparently don’t have everything they need to get a warrant for Trump Tower or any of Trump’s other golf resorts. Not yet. But we know they’re talking to folks with information about those locations. So they’re working on it.
Why is this search and seizure business so complicated? To protect innocent people. To keep the agents of the State from wandering through anybody’s home or place of business on the off chance that maybe they’ll find something illegal. It’s to stop them from just walking into YOUR home or your office, opening YOUR drawers, snooping through YOUR closets, rummaging around in YOUR kitchen, or trolling through YOUR private stuff on YOUR computer.
The irony, of course, is that if Comrade Trump were ever to have power again, that sleazy motherfucker absolutely WOULD want to be able to do that.
gregfallis.com 