Trump asked Rob Porter 'several times' if he'd take over for White House counsel Don McGahn: report
August 29, 2018, 5:19 PM ET
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Trump keeping 'war plans' makes it 'inconceivable' that he will escape indictment: former DOJ official
June 01, 2023
A former top U.S. Dept. of Justice official says it is "inconceivable" that Donald Trump will not be charged, based on reports Special Counsel Jack Smith has an audio recording of the ex-president admitting he was in possession of a classified Pentagon document detailing a possible attack on Iran.
"I think if this audio tape exists, this is not a question of if there are going to be charges. It's just a question of when," announced NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, the well-known former FBI General Counsel who worked at DOJ for two decades.
Importantly, Weissmann, who made his remarks on MSNBC Thursday, notes that the document in question, if it is as described, contains "war plans."
"And the proof that we have learned just publicly is so strong. And Jack Smith is such a competent and aggressive prosecutor. It is inconceivable to me that this would not be charged, and having a tape recording of the prospective defendant admitting his possession of a classified document that he had no right to have," Weissmann says.
"And not just any classified document. I think it's really important to remember that what he talks about reportedly, is a classified document involving something that is unbelievably sensitive, which is war plans of the United States against another country."
Where news broke Wednesday NYU Law professor of law Ryan Goodman, a former U.S. Dept. of Defense Special Counsel, wrote: “War plans are among the most highly classified documents. Puts pressure on DOJ to indict, and a jury to convict.”
Some say, based on the audio, Trump might have been holding the document as he was being recorded at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort, allegedly discussing it.
“Make no mistake. This is squarely an Espionage Act case,” Goodman also said, calling the news a “bombshell.”
Explaining the gravity of the document, Weissmann notes, "this is not just taking love letters of Kim Jong Un or salacious material about the president in France. This is exactly what the Department of Justice and the intelligence community is worried about."
Continuing to explain just how serious this is, Weissmann served up the ground rules.
"Let's remember government documents, whether classified or not, belong to the government. They are not to be retained by a private citizen. And the former president is a private citizen. So for instance, when I was in the Department of Justice, the number of documents I could take when I left the Department of Justice would be zero. So you're not supposed to have that possession of government documents. If they are classified, there can be an additional type of charge, but it's not required that that material be classified or classified at a particular level."
"What you're looking at here is whether the person either knowingly took the documents or knowingly retained the documents. Important this tape recording, if it exists, as recorded, is that you've got Donald Trump admitting that he has in his possession a classified document – doesn't matter if it's Secret, Top Secret, it's classified, that itself is a crime."
And then finally, with respect to dissemination, the recording is that there does appear to be at least some dissemination of the information because Donald Trump, although he doesn't turn the document over or quote from it, he does talk about what is in there. In other words, the reason we're all talking about the fact that involves war plans involving Iran is because reportedly that is what Donald Trump said was in the document. If that proves out, that is a form of dissemination."
On social media later Thursday, Weissman tweeted, "Days, not months..." suggesting he believes an indictment of Trump would be coming sooner rather than later.
Watch Weissmann below or at this link.
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Judge denies bid to derail E. Jean Carroll case because Trump is a persecuted 'white Christian'
June 01, 2023
Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed a motion from a Donald Trump ally to dismiss E. Jean Carroll's 2019 defamation case because he's being persecuted for being a white Christian.
Court documents uploaded on Thursday revealed Kaplan's decision to dismiss the demands of far-right Trump pal, James H. Brady. He has been described by the New York Post as "a gadfly who clogs courts with 'vexatious' claims." It goes on to claim that the man "has filed so many repetitive lawsuits he’s been ordered to stop and sanctioned in both state and federal courts..."
Writing to Judge Kaplan, Brady said: "I am making this motion to intervene in the case of Carroll v. Trump, 20-cv-7311, because I am unwilling to sit silent and watch another white Christian be treated as poorly and unfairly as I personally have been treated in the New York State and Federal Courts."
Judge Kaplan replied in less than 24 hours, telling Brady, "There are only two legal bases on which one may intervene in a civil action. The first is intervention as of right, which is available only to one who 'is given an unconditional right to intervene by a federal statute' or 'claims an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action, and is so situated that disposing of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the movant's ability to protect its interest, unless the existing parties adequately represent that interest.'"
He goes on to say the second is "by permission of the court, which is an appropriate case may be granted if the putative intervenor 'is given a conditional right by a federal statute' or 'has a claim or defense that shares with the main action a common question of law or fact.' Mr. Brady does not satisfy any of these criteria. Accordingly, this motion is denied."
The 2019 case is Carroll's first effort to sue Trump for defaming her, but it happened while Trump was still in office. Therefore, Trump claimed he couldn't be tried because he was the president. The case was taken to several appeals courts until, finally, it was decided that Trump was not defaming Carroll in his capacity as president of the United States, but as an individual.
The most recent decision by the jury that delivered a combination of nearly $5 million in damages to Carroll was from her second claim of defamation. That came after Trump was out of office. The first claim from Carroll is expected to deliver a higher judgment because it reportedly involved information about how it impacted Carroll's job and finances.
IN OTHER NEWS: Ron DeSantis heaped praise on Fauci in 2020: report
A third complaint has been filed following comments on his social media site and at the CNN town hall in which Trump allegedly defamed her again. Carroll's lawyer, Robbie Kaplan (no relation to Lewis Kaplan), said that it is rare that someone continues to defame someone after more than one judgment is issued, so there isn't a lot of case law to turn to. Still, they've filed a third case.
In response to that court filing, Trump attacked Carroll again.
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CNN has unearthed a 2020 statement from Ron DeSantis about Dr. Anthony Fauci, and to say it sounds nothing like the rhetoric the Florida governor is now using to describe America’s top infectious disease expert would be an understatement.
DeSantis, among the most recent entries in the 2024 Republican race, last week assailed Donald Trump over the role Fauci played in the former president’s COVID-19 response.
"When he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020 that destroyed millions of people's lives," DeSantis said last week.
But DeSantis was singing a different tune in the early days of the pandemic. The Florida governor heaped praise on Fauci during a March 25, 2020 briefing on Florida’s pandemic response, CNN reports.
“You have a lot of people there who are working very, very hard, and they’re not getting a lot of sleep,” DeSantis said in 2020.
“And they’re really focusing on a big country that we have. And from Dr. Birx to Dr. Fauci to the vice president who’s worked very hard, the surgeon general, they’re really doing a good job. It’s a tough, tough situation, but they’re working hard.”
DeSantis’ 2020 remarks appear to undercut his criticism of the former president’s pandemic response.
“I think [Trump] did great for three years, but when he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020 that destroyed millions of people’s lives,” DeSantis said on May 25.
IN OTHER NEWS: Oath Keeper rips 'deranged' leader Stewart Rhodes at seditious conspiracy sentencing
“And in Florida, we were one of the few that stood up, cut against the grain, took incoming fire from media, bureaucracy, the left, even a lot of Republicans, had schools open, preserved businesses.”
During one of his first Iowa campaign events the Florida governor said he would have fired Fauci.
“If you are faced with a destructive bureaucrat in your midst like a Fauci, you do not empower somebody like Fauci. You bring him into the office and you tell him to pack his bags: You are fired,” DeSantis said.
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