I despise this lawfare whether or not the FBI has followed SOP in on the Former President’s home. For two years the Office of the President has been denigrated by its treatment of President Trump as Standard Issue, Common Criminal, in the courts, and his home and right to protection. SOP would be a reasonable excuse except that there is nothing standard around raiding the property of a former President, or dragging him to court or gagging him. It is unseemly for our nation nationally and globally. I find it absurd that the AG is unable to modify an FBI SOP so it fits its target recognizing he’s the former Head of State. We have never seen this happen to our republic, not even during Watergate.
No because "discovery" in criminal cases is not always made public -- it is just sent to the defense. Sometimes it is covered by a protective order. Here the Trump defense included a passage from the Ops Plan in their motion, and attached the entire plan as an Exhibit. The motion was filed under seal on Feb. 21, but made public this past week. Nothing was redacted other than names. It was not -- and they never are to my knowledge "secret." They just aren't normally of much interest.
Thank you for explaining the details of the operational use of force issue that has overtaken Twitter. While the details certainly support a position that the FBI and DOJ did not intend to assasinate Trump. It seems clear that despite the fact that this was the first ever raid on a former president, the DOJ and FBI did not dot their I’s or cross their Ty’s with regard to paperwork or optics. They seemed quite confident that optics were on their side. Now because of their sloppiness, they’ve started a dumpster fire. IMHO their recent filing is another mis-step.
Theyve lost the narrative on this case and all the other cases. Their last hope is the Merchan case. While a conviction is likely, the ramifications to NY’s reputation will live on after the election and it’s predominantly these insane attempts to criminalize Trump that are likely to push him to a win. I seriously doubt the title convicted felon will hurt Trump as much as NY’s reputation of injustice and targeting.
Ship. I usually like Cernovich, but he is clearly being deliberately obtuse here. Anyone knows that the reason people comply with search or arrest warrants is the implicit threat they will be shot if the do not. A boilerplate statement to that effect in an oporder to execute a warrant can hardly come as a surprise. And if the FBI intended to assasinate Trump, then surely they would have had their strike team hit South Florida when the President was actually in South Florida. But to your point, these people have been pushing hoax after hoax for 9 years now--they deserve every bit of turnabout they get!
That's why once it turned into a political story - and factual accuracy wasn't the point -- I quit going after it. As a political narrative it is very effective -- look what it has forced Smith to do.
And Smith is the surrogate for the Biden campaign. But he's not polling his options so he's not in a position to know how his efforts might end up being reflected in the Court of public opinion when BOTH sides are heard from. But all the Biden Campaign can do is watch from the sidelines. I'm sure there is communication, but sometimes the SCO is going to be forced by court directive to put up information for the public to see. Oh well.
That really is the core beauty of this -- these wounds are self-inflicted to the extent this legal process is a path the Dems and Biden Admin opted to go down.
"That really is the core beauty of this -- these wounds are self-inflicted to the extent this legal process is a path the Dems and Biden Admin opted to go down."
___
I've often observed that coming at a target from multiple sides and at multiple levels and cultivating chaos, as a tactic, can seem like genius when it's working (I think, in large part, because your enemy is incapable of handling complex attacks and turning them against the attackers) but the downside is that they can quickly spiral out of the attacker's control too.
Trump is sometimes his own worst enemy but the Dems are only marginally better than he is at handling this technique and, when you consider the frequency and volume of the Dems' attacks, eventually chaos will come back and bite the Dems in the butt... and do it more than once.
Amen and inshallah. The problem facing the American legal profession is that the generation that replaces Smith is going to have no computation about just hiding documents from the court. Guarantee you the young lawyers in Smith's office have already pushed him in staff meetings to shred any Brady material they are aware of.
There are no 'Young Lawyers" in Smith's Office. He's staffed it with veterans of the Public Corruption Section of the Criminal Division of DOJ. They all know what they are doing.
"I did an almost 2 hours Spaces in the days after the search with Margot Cleveland of The Federalists when we discussed problems with the search and its unprecedented nature."
____
I'm impressed, but not surprised, by Margot Cleveland you discussing this; you're two of my favorite writers in the legal commenting space and I'd expect more of this in the future.
Was Smith appointed to prosecute Trump to allow Smith to exact revenge against Trump for sanctioning the ICC and Trump's efforts to broker an agreement between Serbia & Kosovo which Smith sabotaged. Smith was ICC prosecutor at the time. This seems much like appointing Garland to head the DOJ to exact revenge on Trump for the three SCOTUS appointments. The dems are really sick people.
Falsely named since as President it was his responsibility and Oath to “take care that the laws are followed.” Calling it election obstruction reminds me of what was called Russia Collusion.
In addition to the "deadly force" instruction in the Ops Plan, the instruction that the FBI agents be clad in polo or collarless shirts is concerning, as it appears they wished to hide who they were. In the Roger Stone raid (and everything I've seen on TV regarding FBI raids), the agents wear clothing conspicuously marked "FBI". To my mind, this stealthy attire could have alarmed (at the least) MAL guests and Secret Service agents who saw heavily armed people dressed in civilian (unmarked) clothing trolling the property. It might even have caused a gunfight to break out. Surely, this instruction was not part of Ops Plan boilerplate.
The Biden administration has been proclaiming from the rooftops that they are going to treat Trump exactly like any other defendant. We should not be surprised that they authorized the use of deadly force in a raid on his home.
The fact that use of deadly force is generally authorized in a raid of this type doesn't really change anything, because it was still directly traceable to decisions made by the AG when he authorized this type of raid.
Once the AG took responsibility for ordering the raid, he effectively also took responsibility for the authorization to use deadly force. Therefore, he deserves all the political blow-back he's getting.
People have the right to be outraged about an unnecessary raid on a former president's home that even carried the possibility of deadly force.
So yes, this is self-inflicted: both by the decision to launch the raid in the first place, and by the determination to treat a former president like a criminal suspect.
Ship, off-topic, but I haven't been able to get hold of you via X... I've got 30K+ of frequent flyer miles I'd like to transfer to you. If you see this, please respond here, or send me a DM at @PeteWaters15 to set this up.
I despise this lawfare whether or not the FBI has followed SOP in on the Former President’s home. For two years the Office of the President has been denigrated by its treatment of President Trump as Standard Issue, Common Criminal, in the courts, and his home and right to protection. SOP would be a reasonable excuse except that there is nothing standard around raiding the property of a former President, or dragging him to court or gagging him. It is unseemly for our nation nationally and globally. I find it absurd that the AG is unable to modify an FBI SOP so it fits its target recognizing he’s the former Head of State. We have never seen this happen to our republic, not even during Watergate.
"SOP would be a reasonable excuse except that there is nothing standard around raiding the property of a former President..."
Michelle, 100% spot on. I would wager they were counting on the plan not being released to the public, hence the sloppiness.
The Ops Plan was produced in discovery to the defense -- as it always is.
Ok, thank you, and good to know. Are the plans always unsealed and released to the public? That is (maybe) the better question?
If there was no modification of the plan template, that would be a rather stunning oversight...or intentional.
No lawyer here (obviously) but quite a bit of experience with plans. It is not just about legality but also about perception...and FOIA.
No because "discovery" in criminal cases is not always made public -- it is just sent to the defense. Sometimes it is covered by a protective order. Here the Trump defense included a passage from the Ops Plan in their motion, and attached the entire plan as an Exhibit. The motion was filed under seal on Feb. 21, but made public this past week. Nothing was redacted other than names. It was not -- and they never are to my knowledge "secret." They just aren't normally of much interest.
But we now know it was the plan, shamefully to tamper with the evidence and present photos of marked placeholders to the public.
Where is the declassified Crossfire Hurricane binder? This was not a clean operation.
Thank you for explaining the details of the operational use of force issue that has overtaken Twitter. While the details certainly support a position that the FBI and DOJ did not intend to assasinate Trump. It seems clear that despite the fact that this was the first ever raid on a former president, the DOJ and FBI did not dot their I’s or cross their Ty’s with regard to paperwork or optics. They seemed quite confident that optics were on their side. Now because of their sloppiness, they’ve started a dumpster fire. IMHO their recent filing is another mis-step.
Theyve lost the narrative on this case and all the other cases. Their last hope is the Merchan case. While a conviction is likely, the ramifications to NY’s reputation will live on after the election and it’s predominantly these insane attempts to criminalize Trump that are likely to push him to a win. I seriously doubt the title convicted felon will hurt Trump as much as NY’s reputation of injustice and targeting.
Can’t imagine a conviction-on what? (12 Stupid Jurors)
Ship. I usually like Cernovich, but he is clearly being deliberately obtuse here. Anyone knows that the reason people comply with search or arrest warrants is the implicit threat they will be shot if the do not. A boilerplate statement to that effect in an oporder to execute a warrant can hardly come as a surprise. And if the FBI intended to assasinate Trump, then surely they would have had their strike team hit South Florida when the President was actually in South Florida. But to your point, these people have been pushing hoax after hoax for 9 years now--they deserve every bit of turnabout they get!
That's why once it turned into a political story - and factual accuracy wasn't the point -- I quit going after it. As a political narrative it is very effective -- look what it has forced Smith to do.
And Smith is the surrogate for the Biden campaign. But he's not polling his options so he's not in a position to know how his efforts might end up being reflected in the Court of public opinion when BOTH sides are heard from. But all the Biden Campaign can do is watch from the sidelines. I'm sure there is communication, but sometimes the SCO is going to be forced by court directive to put up information for the public to see. Oh well.
That really is the core beauty of this -- these wounds are self-inflicted to the extent this legal process is a path the Dems and Biden Admin opted to go down.
Face meet garden rake.
"That really is the core beauty of this -- these wounds are self-inflicted to the extent this legal process is a path the Dems and Biden Admin opted to go down."
___
I've often observed that coming at a target from multiple sides and at multiple levels and cultivating chaos, as a tactic, can seem like genius when it's working (I think, in large part, because your enemy is incapable of handling complex attacks and turning them against the attackers) but the downside is that they can quickly spiral out of the attacker's control too.
Trump is sometimes his own worst enemy but the Dems are only marginally better than he is at handling this technique and, when you consider the frequency and volume of the Dems' attacks, eventually chaos will come back and bite the Dems in the butt... and do it more than once.
"Face meet garden rake."
Love the analogy, but these criminals deserve way more than that.
Amen and inshallah. The problem facing the American legal profession is that the generation that replaces Smith is going to have no computation about just hiding documents from the court. Guarantee you the young lawyers in Smith's office have already pushed him in staff meetings to shred any Brady material they are aware of.
There are no 'Young Lawyers" in Smith's Office. He's staffed it with veterans of the Public Corruption Section of the Criminal Division of DOJ. They all know what they are doing.
"I did an almost 2 hours Spaces in the days after the search with Margot Cleveland of The Federalists when we discussed problems with the search and its unprecedented nature."
____
I'm impressed, but not surprised, by Margot Cleveland you discussing this; you're two of my favorite writers in the legal commenting space and I'd expect more of this in the future.
I have a lot if respect for Margot; many tiers above me.
Was Smith appointed to prosecute Trump to allow Smith to exact revenge against Trump for sanctioning the ICC and Trump's efforts to broker an agreement between Serbia & Kosovo which Smith sabotaged. Smith was ICC prosecutor at the time. This seems much like appointing Garland to head the DOJ to exact revenge on Trump for the three SCOTUS appointments. The dems are really sick people.
I don’t think the special counsel wanted to be managing this case through the conventions. It will just remind everyone of 2016 (her emails) imo.
Btw I saw your comment to Weismann about “obstruct an election”
Wikipedia has “Election obstruction case”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_prosecution_of_Donald_Trump_(election_obstruction_case)
Falsely named since as President it was his responsibility and Oath to “take care that the laws are followed.” Calling it election obstruction reminds me of what was called Russia Collusion.
As usual, Ship hints toward what is coming-a motion for Pretrial Detention. Likely
Not likely successful in front of Cannon, though. Maybe D.C.
What is Jack Smiths real name @Ship❓
In addition to the "deadly force" instruction in the Ops Plan, the instruction that the FBI agents be clad in polo or collarless shirts is concerning, as it appears they wished to hide who they were. In the Roger Stone raid (and everything I've seen on TV regarding FBI raids), the agents wear clothing conspicuously marked "FBI". To my mind, this stealthy attire could have alarmed (at the least) MAL guests and Secret Service agents who saw heavily armed people dressed in civilian (unmarked) clothing trolling the property. It might even have caused a gunfight to break out. Surely, this instruction was not part of Ops Plan boilerplate.
They called the USSS hours in advance. There was no surprise as to who they were when they arrived -- which was at 9:00 am, not 6:00 am.
Thanks, Ship. I did not know that the Secret Service was given advance notice.
The Biden administration has been proclaiming from the rooftops that they are going to treat Trump exactly like any other defendant. We should not be surprised that they authorized the use of deadly force in a raid on his home.
The fact that use of deadly force is generally authorized in a raid of this type doesn't really change anything, because it was still directly traceable to decisions made by the AG when he authorized this type of raid.
Once the AG took responsibility for ordering the raid, he effectively also took responsibility for the authorization to use deadly force. Therefore, he deserves all the political blow-back he's getting.
People have the right to be outraged about an unnecessary raid on a former president's home that even carried the possibility of deadly force.
So yes, this is self-inflicted: both by the decision to launch the raid in the first place, and by the determination to treat a former president like a criminal suspect.
So now they're tying to change the narrative.
Ship, off-topic, but I haven't been able to get hold of you via X... I've got 30K+ of frequent flyer miles I'd like to transfer to you. If you see this, please respond here, or send me a DM at @PeteWaters15 to set this up.
What is your X account name? I'll follow you there and then we can DM.
Account: @petewaters15
Screenname: BowTiedEagle