Above are some of Andrew Yang’s tweets regarding the raid on Donald Trump’s resort residence in Palm Beach,Florida yesterday, executed by the FBI reportedly to find and retrieve classified documents that the former President improperly kept after leaving the White House. Yang is a tech executive and an amateur politician at best, but he’s smart and perceptive, and as the recent founder of a (doomed) centrist third party with national aspirations, is arguably more objective than most observers.
Except Ethics Alarms, of course…
Here is what we know: The Times reports…
Trump said on Monday that the F.B.I. had searched his Palm Beach, Fla., home and had broken open a safe — an account signaling a major escalation in the various investigations into the final stages of his presidency.
The search, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, when he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents.
Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action to retrieve them. The case was referred to the Justice Department by the archives early this year….
The F.B.I. would have needed to convince a judge that it had probable cause that a crime had been committed, and that agents might find evidence at Mar-a-Lago, to get a search warrant. Proceeding with a search on a former president’s home would almost surely have required sign-off from top officials at the bureau and the Justice Department.
Trump’s statement regarding the raid was classic Trump:
First Ethics Alarms observation: Trump is correct. I think he would be wiser to leave these conclusions to others, but…you know, Trump. This rash move—and I’m being kind—marks the continuation of the 2016 Post Election Ethics Train Wreck that has been exhaustively—some claimed too exhaustively, and they were wrong—documented here for nearing six years. No President has been subjected to treatment like the raid, and no President was ever subjected to the abuse, disrespect and obstruction that Trump was from the minute he was elected. Many of his comparisons above lack legal and factual traction, but in general he is right, and particularly right regarding how the raid will appear to the average members of the public who are not completely Trump Deranged.
Trump was impeached the first time based on the theory that he was abusing his position and power attempting to find dirt on a likely opponent for reelection. Hillary Clinton also mishandled classified data. The Democrats haven’t even tried to hide their frenzied efforts to find something, anything, sufficiently damning on Trump to remove him from the political scene.
GOP Senator Mike Lee, a former federal prosecutor and current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, nicely amassed many of the most troubling questions about the raid:
Did Attorney General Garland personally sign off on this action?Why break into the safe rather than seize it, take it into custody, and then seek a warrant to open it?
Why obtain and execute a search warrant rather than first seeking the items in question either through an informal process or with a subpoena? perhaps there’s something here we don’t know—something that, once known, will clarify the reasons for the raid. If there is, FBI needs to bring forward the justification for this unprecedented action—as soon as possible. But if there isn’t, we’ve got problems at the FBI.
Classification authority belongs to the president of the United States — and NOT to bureaucrats at the National Archives.
If this turns out to be the product of the growing political weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies, shouldn’t this incident cause all Americans to be even more outraged by the Democrats’ plan to hire an additional 87,000 agents?
How is this aggressive action defensible in light of the FBI/DOJ treatment of Hillary Clinton, who was never subjected to a raid like this, even though she (1) mishandled classified material, and (2) destroyed evidence?
What should we make of the fact that this is occurring while FBI and DOJ have taken no discernible action regarding (for example) flagrant violations of the law by (a) Hunter Biden, or (b) pro-abortion extremists threatening Supreme Court justices at their homes?
Why should we assume that the FBI is above targeting Republicans when it creates documents like this one, which encourages agents to be suspicious of people who display the Betsy Ross Flag or the “don’t tread on me” Gadsden Flag?
Shouldn’t all Americans be suspicious of the FBI based on its use of warrantless “backdoor searches” under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (about which Christopher Wray expressed very little concern when I questioned him at last week’s hearing)?
Good questions all, and fertile campaign issues too, as the Republicans seek to seize control of Congress.
Further Observations:
- President Biden claims that he knew nothing about the raid before it had occurred. This is unbelievable on its face. The tempestuous political implications of such a move by the Justice Department made advance notice to the White House mandatory: I would fire an attorney General who did this without consultation.
- The most damning hypocrisy in my view arises from the comparison to Trump’s over-heard call with the President of Ukraine urging him to see that Biden’s involvement with his son’s machinations in that country were properly investigated. That was an example of Trump being subjected to a standard never applied to other Presidents, who have often used forms of aid as ammunition for bargaining and negotiation to prompt foreign governments to take actions politically beneficial to a POTUS’s standing. Raiding the home of a likely opponent for the President is s far more sinister and unequivocal means of using the Executive Branch to clear away political opposition.
- How much longer can the Democrats run on the upside-down fiction that they are the champions of an imperiled democracy when all of the tactics smelling of totalitarian regimes and “banana republics” are coming from their side, and are focused on Republicans, the alleged threats to the Republic? Can Americans possibly be so gullible and dim as to watch all this without figuring out where the real threat lies?
- The comments on Althouse’s blog are instructive: there is virtually nothing but contempt for the raid, and Althouse is not a Trump booster. This is another in a series of tests to determine whether your friends and relatives are so biased that they can’t function. I have a large number of Facebook friends cheering the raid. Morons. Republicans, even NeverTrumpers, shouldn’t cheer the raid because it strongly suggests the criminalization of politics by Democrats. Progressives shouldn’t cheer, because the raid is likely to energize conservatives and prove to be a massive blunder. Americans shouldn’t cheer, because they are watching (have been watching, as Ethics Alarms has attempted to show) the most serious assault by a political party and an administration on our democracy in over 200 years.
I don’t know what the raid turned up; I don’t know if the six-year fishing expedition to “Get Trump” finally hit pay dirt (investigating anyone for the purpose of discovering a justification to prosecute is unethical); I don’t know for certain that there wasn’t a legitimate need for the raid. I maintain that Presidents and ex-Presidents (and ex-Vice-Presidents, sons of Vice_Presidents and former Secretaries of State married to ex-Presidents) must not be above the law. However, prosecutoral discretion is often a crucial ethical consideration, and absent considerations that we haven’t seen yet, Garland’s raid is stunningly incompetent: divisive, destructive, embarrassing to the nation, an abuse of power and irresponsible.
Ethics Alarms 
I have seen news reports (OK, from The Blaze) that, after the safecracker opened Trump’s safe, there was nothing worth taking inside.
Too bad it wasn’t a pre-recorded track of Kamala cackling as the scene cuts to boxes of documents being loaded onto Trump’s yacht as he stands on the bridge twirling his moustache in preparation to sail to international waters.
They should have had Geraldo there to open the safe…
Speaking of the media’s handling of this administration’s norm-defilement, I scrolled past a “Republicans respond to…” headline this morning. Trying to find it again, I found one even better: https://www.axios.com/2022/08/08/trump-toilet-photos-maggie-haberman
What are the odds we’ll see originals of Biden’s sometimes embarrassingly photographed crib sheets in his National Archives?
Jack wrote:
President Biden claims that he knew nothing about the raid before it had occurred. This is unbelievable on its face.
Two words: Plausible deniability (with apologies to Independence Day).
How much longer can the Democrats run on the upside-down fiction that they are the champions of an imperiled democracy when all of the tactics smelling of totalitarian regimes and “banana republics” are coming from their side, and are focused on Republicans, the alleged threats to the Republic?
As long as the American people are willing to act like metaphorical mushrooms, which is to say essentially forever. This is how freedom dies — with an ambivalent, disinterested whimper.
Republicans, even NeverTrumpers, shouldn’t cheer the raid because it strongly suggests the criminalization of politics by Democrats
I’ll stop at this point to link Andrew McCarthy, a never-Trump former prosecutor who compellingly suggests that the never-prosecuted “classified document” probable cause was a ruse to allow a search for January 6th evidence. As I said, I find this argument compelling, logically sound, and despite it’s obvious deficiency of facts, likely to be true. It is also profoundly unethical as you state, but ethics seem a nodding concern only to this DOJ and to the Biden administration generally.
Progressives shouldn’t cheer, because the raid is likely to energize conservatives and prove to be a massive blunder.
More to the point, it is likely to motivate Republicans to respond in kind, quite possibly with massive escalation, next time they are in power. This is a manifest danger to the Republic, and yet another cycle of escalation likely to end very, very badly.
However, prosecutoral discretion is often a crucial ethical consideration, and absent considerations that we haven’t seen yet, Garland’s raid is stunningly incompetent: divisive, destructive, embarrassing to the nation, an abuse of power and irresponsible.
Yes, it is. It is also almost certain to blow back on him personally in ways I hesitate to think about. Once again, I find myself giving thanks to God for Mitch McConnell’s obstruction of Garland. The result may be moral luck, but I can’t help but imagine the damage he could’ve done on the Supreme Court given the lawlessness and ethical bankruptcy of his tenure as Attorney General.
“More to the point, it is likely to motivate Republicans to respond in kind, quite possibly with massive escalation, next time they are in power. This is a manifest danger to the Republic, and yet another cycle of escalation likely to end very, very badly.”
When have Republicans ever done, in revenge, the rotten things Democrats have proven willing to do?
Nah – the destruction of our republic is a one sided affair – by the same people who tried to destroy it before.
I agree. I just don’t see the “wait until the Republicans get in power” thing eventuating.
Don’t be too sure of that. If we get a new crop of leaders who are taking their cues from Trump and DeSantis, not from McConnell and Romney you might well see just that. The days where the GOP surrenders first and pretends to fight afterward are ending soon, if they haven’t already.
More to the point, 90% of the staff at DOJ are deep-state lifers. It doesn’t matter if a Republican Attorney General wants to do this kind of thing to Biden or someone else for political purposes if his staff won’t follow through (because of partisanship, not ethics, of course).
What do you think will happen if the republicans continue to sit idly by and allow the democrats to render one half of the population to second class citizen status? Do you think the half of the country being subjected to a two-tier justice system will sit meekly by and allow themselves to be made slaves by the democrats? Or will they fight back? If their political “representatives” sit back and allow the democrats to continue openly persecuting their voters, how are the representatives relevant to the voters? This isn’t about revenge. The democrats just declared war on one half of the country. If the republicans cannot meet that call, then how are they relevant to the people the people they theoretically represent?
Several states have already been calling for secession to be added to the ballot for their states. What happens when the voters check the “yes, please” box on the ballot?
I’d much rather the Republicans become more combative and make the Democrats consider secession. If the Democrats really want a repeat dust-up – I’d rather the dust settle mostly free of America haters before my kids become adults.
“President Biden claims that he knew nothing about the raid before it had occurred. This is unbelievable on its face.
Two words: Plausible deniability (with apologies to Independence Day).”
Two more words: senile dementia. I’m not sure there’s much “beforehand” in Joe Biden’s world anymore. They could have told him five minutes before the raid, and it would still be plausible that he didn’t know anything about it. I’m not sure there’s much “beforehand” in Joe Biden’s world anymore.
Heh. Those are two excellent words also, Jeff!
GL & others,
Can you please help a non-attorney understand Andy McCarthy’s assertions, taken from GL’s comments? I presume, based on media reports, that there was a search warrant to enter the premises. If so, wouldn’t that warrant have had to state, with specificity, what the search was looking for and where it would be found? The notion that the raid was a ruse (while not doubting McCarthy’s speculation) to look for evidence of some sort of J6-related crime or conspiracy would, I think, taint any seized material beyond the point of utility in court, if it ever went that far.
Thanks,
MB
Hi MB:
Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, just someone who has interest in the law.
McCarthy explained it in his article, but in a nutshell, law enforcement often uses valid probable cause for a minor crime to obtain a search warrant that allows them to search a premises in hopes of “viewing” evidence of the crime that really interests them, which current 4th Amendment doctrine may allow them to seize.
To your point, the specificity rule does encumber the search — particularly when it comes to electronic records, because those generally must be subjected to a limited keyword scope. But what they are hoping for is hard-copy records that represent, in this case, J6 evidence in “plain view” revealed during their search for other documents responsive to the warrant.
The Supreme Court has ruled this to be permissible in many circumstances. No doubt, if the FBI were to discover such evidence during a search warranted for “classified documents,” it would be challenged in court and may be suppressed. But even if so, it would leak, and I don’t think any of us is so naive to believe that the DOJ would not do anything in their power to damage Trump, even if they cannot effectively charge him.
Also, if they do discover such evidence, it may point them in a direction where they can “discover” the same evidence from another source.
Another point I didn’t make but that’s worthy of consideration (and that I’m unsure of the answer) — The DOJ would, I think, have to bring the case in Florida since that’s where Trump lives and the search was originated. Indicting him there might be possible, but winning a conviction is far, far less likely than in, say, DC. That will have to be a factor in their thinking. None of us, I hope, is naive enough to think this thing is on the up-and-up.
Glenn, I’d assume insofar as the documents were removed from D.C., the case could be tried in the D.C. District Court.
Probably right.
But Garland would have made a great Supreme Court justice.
Remember all the things the media and Democrats said about Garland when he was nominated. This is a what a moderate Democrat judge is like. This is as good as it gets. Imagine what a leftist one is like.
I’ve come to think the man is either dumber than a box of rocks or insane.
They got the search warrant signed off by a MAGISTRATE!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11095583/Judge-signed-FBI-raid-Mar-Lago-represented-Jeffrey-Epsteins-workers.html
Isn’t it amazing how small the world is. I mean, there are how many Federal judges and the one ‘randomly’ picked to sign the warrant is one who spent over a decade working for Jeffrey Epstein’s employees? It is just like the Mueller investigation, despite having 35,000 employees, the FBI agents involved also were part of the Russian dossier creation, verification, had previously spied on the Trump campaign, or who had spouses who were Russian lobbyists. Weird, huh?
And aren’t most magistrate positions just political plum jobs handed out to hacks?
Actually they are voted in by a majority of the district judges, and serve eight years at a time if full time, when they come up for reappointment. Their job is to handle everything except dispositive motions and trials. So yes, it’s political, but not the same way a district judge position is. As often as not it is seen as a way to eventually get that coveted lifetime appointment as a district judge, but it doesn’t always play that way. However, I am aware of several district judges here who were appointed via that route (the others are mostly former US attorneys, former state judges [although the state doesn’t like it when the Feds “poach” the best judges], and a very few from private practice, who usually were major political donors).
“Imagine what a leftist one is like.”
Rhymes with “begonia photo my door”…
You know, the sad thing for me is that I supported Garland for AG, taking the reports that he was a “moderate” at face value.
To my abject shame…
But that is my point…he is a moderate. You just didn’t understand what a moderate Democrat is.
All part of the big drama production the Democrats are putting on to wreck our republic. All to the cheers of their voting base.
When it turns out this is a huge nothing burger – all we’ll ever hear is how being raided is proof of nefariousness – the FBI *never* moves on bad information guys! Come on!
And – the FBI will then have also documented *permanently* all manner of other information that should be private and personal that will be slowly leaked out over the coming years because you know full well that the information gathered will never be destroyed even if it’s found to be non-criminal.
It will be spun in the worst possible way.
This is a very, very important point and I think it’s likely to turn this raid on its head and come back to bite the ones that got the warrant and ordered the search directly in the ass.
If the “classification authority belongs to the president of the United States”, meaning that the President has the authority to classify and unclassify any document he chooses which I think is correct, then President Trump had every right and the legal authority to unclassify all the documents he took making the grounds for obtaining a search warrant based on President Trump being in possession of classified documents to be a lie and therefore illegally obtained resulting in an illegal search and seizure of property belonging to the former President of the United States.
I don’t know all the legalities about the documents or all the details about the warrant but I do know that this single action by an official agency of the United States of America against a previous President of the United States that publicly opposes the current administration and who is a likely candidate for President of the United States in 2024 will obviously be looked at as political persecution and tyranny. This single action is pure political and cultural poison and will drive a massive wedge between the extreme political factions in our country that may never be healed or even healable. If one could pick a single action to define all that is to follow, this action would be it.
After the unethical, immoral and unconstitutional actions the Democrats took during the Trump presidency, this action and the proposed goal of the Administration to hire 87,000 IRS agents (that calculates to 7,250 per state) should put a genuine fear of a possible tyrannical totalitarian government in the forefront of everyone’s mind. The Democrats didn’t just put another figurative nail their coffin with this action, they’re screwing the damn thing permanently shut with lag bolts and Gorilla Glue. Do these dumbfucks really want a bloody civil war?
P.S. That 7,250 IRS agents per state works out to be 5 IRS agents for every city and town in the State of Wisconsin no matter how small the town is. Don’t tell me that they aren’t trying to weaponize the IRS.
The proprietor here: This guy is banned. The comment below is ample justification, but he crwled out of his hole today and was insulting everyone. This is a classic troll.
My response to this comment is below.
“Garland’s raid is stunningly incompetent: divisive, destructive, embarrassing to the nation, an abuse of power and irresponsible.”
This doesn’t make any sense if you “don’t know for certain that there wasn’t a legitimate need for the raid.”
It’s a amazingly laughable comment, but typical of people who voted for Trump.
Dob Bylan wrrote, “It’s a amazingly laughable comment, but typical of people who voted for Trump.”
So let me get this right, you’re actually making an assumption about who someone voted for and then smearing them because you think your assumption is fact?
You’re an imbecile.
To be more accurate, “Dob Bylan is a bigoted imbecile.”
Yup. Typical of the libs who breeze in here from Huffpoo and similar sites, thinking they’re going to set us straight on a few things.
No.
Also telling you think criticism of a post on this blog is an attack on “us”…
Echo chamber much?
No, just defense of the level of discourse here against shit-stirrers like you.
Oh look! The abnormal peanut gallery is here to protect the blog from any and all attacks.
What a shock.
Also, Jack voted for Trump. He had a post about it.
Dob Dylan wrote, “Oh look! The abnormal peanut gallery is here to protect the blog from any and all attacks. What a shock.”
That’s the kind of crap that bigoted trolling assholes write. You won’t last around here if this is all you can muster for “argumentation”.
Dob Dylan wrote, “Also, Jack voted for Trump. He had a post about it.”
On that point you appear to be correct but that doesn’t justify your blanketed biased bigotry.
Everything you’ve written so far is evidence of your open biased bigotry against those who do, or those you suspect support, or supported President Trump. You really don’t appear to have anything other than your bigoted bias to support your “arguments”; therefore, your bigoted bias has made you stupid.
Again; read the Ethics Alarms comment policies before you get yourself banned.
Dob Bylan should read the Ethics Alarms comment policies.
Because only idiots voted for Trump, right? Federal law enforcement has never raided a former president before. Federal law enforcement has generally taken a hands-off approach with former high-ranking officials, notably Hillary. Certainly no sitting president has sent Federal law enforcement against a high-ranking official of the opposing party until now. This is pretty darn close to those John Doe raids they were doing in Wisconsin that were thinly veiled attacks by Democratic officials on Scott Walker’s allies, in one case because the official who began the process was married to a high-ranking teachers’ union person who pushed him into it. It doesn’t just look like banana-republic level politicization and weaponization of law enforcement, it is just that. This country is supposed to be settling an example to lead places like Veneuela and Russia AWAY from that kind of governmental thuggery, not embracing it. The fact of the matter is the Democratic Party got just a little too used to unlimited power under COVID, and now they are using it to try to make this a one-party state.
I just think only a person who voted for Trump would make an argument like “the raid was wrong! Even though I have no idea if it was justified”
That sentence doesn’t make sense and it requires mental gymnastics to actually believe.
Don’t be a jerk. On it’s face, before we even get to the question of justification, the raid is precedent-defying and out of the ordinary. Normally, if documents are sought from a former president, etc., it’s done by subpoena, and any challenges are worked out in court to determine what is turned over and what isn’t. A raid is usually against known criminals who have been surveilled for a while. And don’t try to say this was to prevent destruction of evidence. Trump wasn’t even at MAL when the raid happened.
ME be a jerk?!
That’s ironic. Are you for real?
Wait, of course you are. It’s this blog’s MO. Be mean to every outsider, and then play the victim when called out on it.
“A raid is usually against known criminals…”
Aren’t you a lawyer? That sentence is totally false.
NOTICE: This troll, “Dob Bylan” is banned. Don’t feed him–any replies will be lost when the comment is spammed.
Dob Bylan wrote, “I just think only a person who voted for Trump would make an argument like “the raid was wrong! Even though I have no idea if it was justified” “
That’s the kind of “thinking” that a box of rocks goes through to come to their conclusions; pure bias, pure bigotry.
I only need one person that didn’t vote for Trump to prove your biased bigotry thinking false and thanks to our regular commenter Other Bill below here is a link to just such a person. Alan Dershowitz is open that he voted for Joe Biden.
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3594412-justice-department-should-have-subpoenaed-documents-not-raided-trumps-home/amp/
It make sense if you realize the following: If it WAS justified, the warrant and justifications should have been provided as publicly as possible and they should have gone through a higher level judge. Without that proof of justification, it is incompetent, divisive, and irresponsible. Abuse of power is iffy and depends on the definition, but I’m open to persuasion. Anyone seen the actual warrant? If it was just about documents, I don’t see how they can justify a raid, but I can’t even be sure that was the actual justification.
If the FBI had a history of being nonpartisan, apolitical, and trustworthy and was known for letting the chips fall where they may, they could maybe get away with doing something like this without the presumption of abuse of power. That does NOT describe the FBI we actually have. When people are aghast at the suggestion that the FBI might have been involved in sparking the Jan 6 riot, I feel the need to remind that that COINTELPRO was a real thing and that the governor kidnapping was pushed by FBI informants.
NOTICE: This troll, “Dob Bylan” is banned. Don’t feed him–any replies will be lost when the comment is spammed.
And incidentally, I went out of my way NOT to ban this guy, though all the signs of a bad faith commenter were there: “gotcha!” arguing techniques,Trump Derangement, gratuitous insults, holding on to single talking points like the proverbial dog with a bone. But I thought he might calm down and participate civilly.
I’m an idiot.
“The walls are closing in!” “They’ve got Trump now!” “He’ll be doing a perp walk any day now!” “Michael Cohen is rejoicing! He says they’re finally going to get Trump!” “Michael Avenetti will be releasing a statement from prison later today!”
Haven’t we been down this rathole a bunch of times before?
You’re banned. I thought I already banned you, but checking, I see you came right up to the edge, and disappeared. You’ve just posted at least three gratuitously insulting comments, but this one would have done it all by itself.
Just to get the issue clarified: we know that the raid was based on the allegedly classified documents in Trump’s possession. There is no possible set of circumstances that would have made a raid necessary, and Garland hasn’t stated one. It was incompetent, because it was politically inflammatory and exacerbated already unacceptable political tensions. It was divisive, because it involved using criminal law enforcement measures in a partisan context.It was destructive, as you will soon see. It was embarrassing, because the United States has never seen one party’s President treat a predecessor and adversary like this, only nations like the USSR, shaky South American nations and the like. It is an abuse of power in that the power exists to do this, but it harms the nation in the process, and for all of these reasons, it was irresponsible.
It’s 4 pm. Anything you send in after this time will be spammed.
And Steve is absolutely right: you are indeed a jerk. My fault for being merciful and generous before.
I overheard some talking heads on CNN regarding this.
Truly, watching old episodes of Beavis and Butt-head is more informational and educational than watching those talking heads.
Will any of them admit they were wrong about finding dirt on a political opponent?
Nice piece by Alan Dershowitz:
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3594412-justice-department-should-have-subpoenaed-documents-not-raided-trumps-home/amp/
I’ve got an idea! Defund the FBI!
This is another example of the Biden administration only caring about the core audience of progressive Democrats. There is no way this raid is going to make Trump less popular with his base. Even if they claim they found all kinds of evidence, who will believe them? It isn’t like they didn’t lie about doing surveillance on his campaign, lie to courts to get warrants to tap his communications, change documents so they could charge his appointees with crimes, participate in a hoax to tar him as a Russian puppet, and lie about all of that under oath and before Congress and in court. When you read OIG reports on the FBI, you find that they seem to routinely fabricate evidence, lie in court, etc. So who is going to believe them about this?
Only the rabid Democratic base is going to believe them. We should be very afraid. The people running this country don’t seem to care if we see what is going on or know how wrong it is. They feel we are irrelevant going into midterm elections, no matter how much of a majority we appear to be. I feel like this portends massive Democratic victory in the midterms.
The FBI has as much credibility with rank-and-file Republican voters as the Chicago PD had with Christopher Charles Morton!
It would not surprise me at all if Trump had committed some crime, and that the FBI had probable cause to search Mar A Lago for evidence thereof. He is nowhere close to being a conscientious rule-follower. Indeed, from cheating on his wife to trying to use the legal process to stiff contractors on his properties, he really isn’t an ethical man.
But that doesn’t mean the present raid is not politically motivated. Because, you see, he was always like this. This is who he was in the 80s and 90s, when he was a full member in good standing of the NYC-dwelling, Democrat-voting upper crust.
I always thought that about Trump as well, but they have investigated him as no person has been investigated in the history of the US and they have come up with nothing. Name me another politician who could have survived such scrutiny? I am not saying he is a nice person and everything he does is morally or ethically correct (sorry…I have to stop laughing), but he seems to have lawyers who keep him from violating laws.
Maybe he did something hilarious, though, like making a ‘Classified’ stamp and stamping it on every document in his house. Can you imagine the mess of trying to figure out what is REALLY classified and what just has a stamp on it?
“We should be very afraid. The people running this country don’t seem to care if we see what is going on or know how wrong it is. They feel we are irrelevant going into midterm elections, no matter how much of a majority we appear to be. I feel like this portends massive Democratic victory in the midterms.”
Not sure about a *massive* dem midterm victory but the reckless FBI raid suggests they have something sinister up their sleeve they will strategically unleash for maximum efficacy.
Good post. Very thorough summary.
I would like to believe that White House operatives knew about the raid but that Biden might not. He is so lame, so ineffectual, that in my opinion it is possible that the WH basically runs without him. Regardless of this issue, this is gross prosecutorial misconduct, which, considering new legislation creating thousands of new IRS agents, and empowering and arming (!) them (really), bodes very ill for conservatives in this country.
An aside: my parents, liberal during the Nixon Administrations, were audited by the IRS three years in a row (yes, three), and got through with flying colors each time. On the second audit, having passed the first with nothing wrong and no money owed, it began to occur to us that the IRS was being used to harass these liberal, middle class, basically powerless people. The audits ended when Nixon resigned.
So I don’t see the Biden Administration breaking new ground with legislation that prepares the IRS to be more forceful and egregious and intrusive than usual. (One note from the news: the vast majority of IRS-audited citizens are black and middle class! I will research this.)
Sorry, this devolved into a different issue.
And I’m pretty sure President Trump knew the raid was coming as well. If anyone has connections at State, Justice, and particularly the FBI, it’s a former President. Furthermore, he has proven to play this game on a different plane (not necessarily higher or lower, just different) than his detractors, so there may be counter-moves coming.
Heading for the popcorn drawer.
Is anyone else hoping that Trump knew this was coming and spent weeks creating random (but coded-looking) documents and encrypting all this campaign letters with ominous sounding filenames? Maybe he could encrypt this book with multiple levels of encryption under the filename bidenchinaevidence.
You could see how this would be leaked to the press with the headline “FBI Discovers Trove of Possibly Classified Documents in Trump Mar-a-Lago Raid”.