Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

The National Guard is not Batman.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Sunday Morning Open Thread: A Magisterial Summary of the Past Week at Mar-A-Lago

Sunday Morning Open Thread: A Magisterial Summary of the Past Week at Mar-A-Lago

by | 145 Comments

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MICE: Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego — remember Adam’s description of how informants are recruited? Let’s see if the Washington Post‘s ‘gift article’ function will work here:

… What began as a low-level dispute over the Trump White House’s chaotic and haphazard record-keeping had morphed into a deeply serious probe of whether the ex-president had endangered national security by hoarding highly classified documents, some potentially related to nuclear weapons.

The past week’s events — which began with the raid and continued with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s rare move Thursday to publicly defend the FBI against partisan criticism and misinformation, take personal responsibility for the search and announce he wanted the warrant unsealed by a court — marked a turning point in the Justice Department’s posture toward Trump.

Garland had vowed to erect a sturdy wall between politics and law enforcement, and he had faced grinding criticism from Trump’s critics that he had been too cautious in holding the former president to account. Now he was the face of a law enforcement action that threatened to further cleave the nation, as some of Trump’s allies likened the FBI’s search to a political persecution more common in a “banana republic” or even under Nazi rule.

For Trump, the episode opened a new chapter in his tormented relationship with legal authorities, confirming that his vulnerabilities expanded beyond the better publicized and ongoing probes into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his personal business.

According to the search warrant, agents at Mar-a-Lago were seeking evidence of three potential violations of federal statutes: a section of the Espionage Act that makes it a crime to possess or share national defense secrets without authorization, a law against destroying or concealing documents to thwart an investigation, and a law against stealing, destroying or mutilating government records…

The fight over documents taken from the White House when Trump left office had been brewing for well over a year. “This has been like a pot of water that very slowly simmers, and now it’s making that noise where it hits the hot burner,” said a person involved with the dispute.

In the spring of 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration, the government agency charged by law with maintaining the papers of former presidents, alerted Trump’s team to a problem. In going through materials transferred from the White House in the chaotic final days of Trump’s presidency, officials had noticed that certain high-profile documents were missing. Trump’s correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he had termed “love letters.” A National Weather Service map of Hurricane Dorian, which Trump had famously marked up with a black Sharpie pen to extend to Alabama…

In early June, a small knot of federal investigators arrived at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the document issue with Trump’s lawyers. It was clear they believed their mission was serious — the team was headed by Jay Bratt, chief of counterintelligence and export control, the division of the Justice Department that leads investigations into leaks of government secrets.

Trump greeted the officials and offered a show of cooperation, said Bobb, who attended the meeting along with another lawyer for the former president, Evan Corcoran. “He pointed to the attorneys there and said, ‘anything they need, make sure they do it,’ ” she told Fox News.

Bobb told The Post that the group toured the storage facility, opening boxes and flipping through the records inside. She said Justice Department officials indicated they did not believe the storage unit was properly secured, so Trump officials added a lock to the facility.

Federal officials also obtained security camera footage of Mar-a-Lago around that time, according to people familiar with the situation…

With Trump’s lawyers already talking about the search warrant, and many Republicans attacking the FBI’s motives, Garland found a way to stick to Justice Department rules and still defend the FBI and prosecutors. Justice Department lawyers filed court papers seeking to unseal the Trump search warrant. And Garland issued a rare public statement saying he personally had approved the court-authorized search and denounced threats of violence to law enforcement.

In doing so, the often cautious former judge took a major step — staking his reputation on what will likely be the issue that defines his tenure as attorney general.

“Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor,” he said. “Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing.”…

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    Ken

    For those who may not know, everyone who has or ever had a security clearance has been fingerprinted by the govt, and those are accessible to the FBI

    Does that include people who flunked the regular security vetting, but then got put on the list anyway at the insistence of their father-in-law?

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: To be honest, I doubt it. He already justified to himself the bending/breaking of the rules because he was special. Pretty sure he still thinks he’s special.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Police fired a stun gun at two Arizona parents as they tried to force their way into a school that police had locked down after an armed man was seen trying to get on campus.

    The parents were arrested, along with one other, as they tried to get to their children to protect them, authorities said. Officers in the Phoenix suburb of El Mirage used a Taser stun gun to stop two of them as they tried to help a man whose own handgun fell to the ground while he was being taken into custody.
    …………………….
    No shots were fired in the incident at Thompson Ranch elementary school, the school was not breached and no one was hurt, other than a woman taken to a hospital with stun gun injuries from officers who say they were trying to stop her from attacking them.

    By the time the confrontations with the parents began, police had already confirmed that there was no longer a threat, had removed a suspicious package and were planning to begin reuniting parents with children, El Mirage police’s Lt Jimmy Chavez said.

    But the school was still on lockdown, meaning no one would be allowed on campus, according to the protocols police and the school district have set up. That was when upset parents demanded to be allowed in so they could find their children, and began confronting police, authorities said.

    “Several parents continued with their agitation, made several statements that they were going to come on campus to help protect their kids,” Chavez said. “As a parent I understand that philosophy. However, there are procedures that law enforcement and the school were following.”

    America, land of the armed to the teeth and home of the terrified

  9. 9.

    Ken

    @satby: I was being a bit snarky, but thanks for confirming.

    Along those lines, I finally looked at the documents that were released Friday. Is anyone at all surprised that Christine Bobb, the Trump lawyer who went on Fox to say the agents didn’t tell her what they took, signed the property receipt with the list of what they took?

  10. 10.

    PST

    In thinking about the credibility of various actors in this drama, one thing I consider is that Merrick Garland is almost 70 years old and has no possible ambitions. We don’t appoint justices that age any more. Any other judicial appointment would be a step backwards. He has never shown an interest in elective office, and clearly doesn’t have the personality for it. I can’t imagine why any other cabinet position would interest him given a lifetime as a lawyer and judge. This is it for him. I simply don’t think he has any motives or competing interests beyond doing the right thing, or any reason to be intimidated.

  12. 12.

    Fester Addams

    What a horror show if any of these crimes ever go to trial.  Who would you wish jury duty on?  A reasonable person who would weigh the evidence and arrive at the likely obvious guilty conclusion. And then be marked for death by Trumpist cultists.  As we’ve recently had a grim reminder, fatwa is forever.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    The Supreme Court didn’t worry about dividing the country when it overruled Roe.  DOJ shouldn’t worry about it when it comes to criminal justice.

  15. 15.

    Geminid

    A CNN report on Friday noted that it was a grand jury subpoena that called for trump to hand over documents. I don’t know when the grand jury started meeting, but the article said that “earlier this spring” federal investigators were interviewing former White house staffers who had knowledge about the packing of the materials in question:

        Among the aides questioned were Molly McMichael, then an executive assistant to Trump; Beau Harrison, an operations coordinator who previously worked in the White House; former White House staff director Derick Lyons; and Walt Nauta, a former White House valet.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Pretty sure he still thinks he’s special. 

    But I keep being assured that he isn’t special! Because if they can raid his beach mansion for secrets about nuclear weapons, they can raid my beach mansion for secrets about nuclear weapons!

  22. 22.

    hells littlest angel

    The perfect epitaph:

     

    ————————————- HERE LIES ——————————————

    ——————————- DONALD J TRUMP ————————————-

    —————— DISGRUNTLED FORMER EMPLOYEE ————————-

  23. 23.

    Barbara

    @Ken: ​A little known fact is that all would be Trump employees are given a lie detector test to see how well they can lie. Ms. Bobb apparently aced the test.​

    OTOH, they didn’t tell her, they just shoved a piece of paper at her and showed her the signature block. So technically, she wasn’t lying.​​​

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    @Subsole:

    The gun-humpers are creating the very society they claim their gun lust is the antidote for.  They don’t have the emotional or mental capacity to understand:

    irony: an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

    paradox: Antinomy – A contradiction, real or apparent, between two principles or conclusions, both of which seem equally justified.

     

    In Dying of Whiteness the author points out the main immediate victims of gun humpers are gun humpers: easy access, open carry, stand your ground lead to increasing suicide and murder of gun humpers by gun humpers.  Freedumb-lovers killing each other over fender-benders.
    Normally I can see some benefit in addition by subtraction, but I don’t want to live in a world where a car backfire or firecracker going off has us diving for cover.

  28. 28.

    Wanderer

    I am glad there is an investigation. I wish a couple other mal-administrations had been investigated (Bush admin lead up to Iraq for one).  My only complaint is that there are now photos of tfg everywhere and they startle me EVERY time.

  29. 29.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

     FBI agents will begin FINGER PRINTING each document to find out who actually touched them.

    the files must be filled with ketchup stains

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    MommaT
    @tweetmommybop
    My teen daughter was asked by her doctor when was her last menstrual period. She said “it’s regular, no need for dates”. When I asked her why the reply, she told me that doctors can no longer be trusted and they should become accustomed to not knowing. Welcome to the new America.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: I am surprised, but only at the fact that there appear to be no consequences for lawyers who make a mockery of the legal process and who appear to have no ethics.

    Is there no ethics requirement for attorneys?  Do they not swear an oath of some kind that this stuff would violate?

  37. 37.

    bbleh

    @p.a.: As did homicides.  Australia is almost the perfect real-world experiment regarding the effect of the presence of guns on gun deaths.  The gun-humpers really got no legs to stand on.

  39. 39.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: I asked about this on LGM.  Seriously, how does the justice system get around a bunch of people pointing fingers in a circle?  Trump blames the advice of his lawyer, and the lawyer blames the information she got from Trump.  No intent to deceive, right? Everything was in good faith, right?

    IIRC there are bits of language in various laws about “knew or reasonably should have known,” and probably about proper diligence or some such, but I’m genuinely curious about when and how this kind of lying and fraud can actually be prosecuted.

  42. 42.

    Barbara

    @bbleh: ​It’s hard to prosecute attorneys, but being caught so publicly in having certified under penalty of perjury information that was manifestly incorrect, she could definitely be questioned to see whether it was her or her client who was lying. Most lawyers would resign from the representation if they knew that they were being lied to and had personally signed this kind of document.

  43. 43.

    Barbara

    @Soprano2: ​SATSQ: No. I think it’s fair to say that nowhere does conventional wisdom have a longer shelf life than in the minds of important columnists.

  44. 44.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    It might be a while, I don’t know if the average person working at the FBI lab has a clearance to work on new-clear secrets

  45. 45.

    prostratedragon

    @Wanderer:  During the reign in error I had to resort to a filter, the Make America Kittens Again browser add-on, since I’m a cardiac patient and repeated startles like that were seeming to get dangerous.

  47. 47.

    Soprano2

    @Fester Addams: They would have to keep the identity of the jurors secret as best they could, but i agree it would be hard to seat them. Hard to find 12 impartial people anyway, then they’d have to be really brave too. If TFG’S lawyers were smart they would get him to plead, because if the DOJ ever does bring charges against him the case will have to be airtight.

  48. 48.

    Soprano2

    @Barbara: You’re probably right, the same people who wrote endlessly about the non-existent “Ferguson Effect” will be mystified if this keeps happening.

  49. 49.

    Skepticat

    @Wanderer: My only complaint is that there are now photos of tfg everywhere and they startle me EVERY time.

    They disgust me every time, but I agree with you. I really wish that the media would stop giving him the attention he craves so deeply. However, I must admit I do kind of enjoy the extremely unflattering photos, of which there are many.

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    A piece of good news:

    Union membership in Minnesota is at its highest level in 14 years, with a surge in organizing efforts over the past two years led by retail.

    Trader Joe’s downtown Minneapolis became the latest union shop on Friday.

  53. 53.

    sdhays

    @Baud: For years of some pundits even argued that striking down Roe would actually “turn down the heat” in the country. Ford’s (absurdly broad) pardon of Nixon was also supposed to “heal the country” and it didn’t really do that (although I guess DC cocktail parties became more pleasant afterwards).

    It’s interesting how often “opposing Republicans” is translated as being divisive while “letting Republicans win” is so often translated into “healing” or “calming”.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: house arrest @ MAL (Bedminster in the summer) w/ no access to electronics or phone (just endless TV) + a full (ie, nearly endless) debriefing of all his efforts on behalf of Russia, etc for the past 40 years.

    I’m telling y’all, I keep seeing him in that classic TV police station interrogation room (which it won’t be, but my mind keeps conjuring up that image): ‘“Mr. trump…let’s go over this one more time…you first became aware that you were being paid by agents of the Soviet Union back when, exactly?”

  58. 58.

    PST

    @Barbara:

    Most lawyers would resign from the representation if they knew that they were being lied to and had personally signed this kind of document.

    I wonder whether that may already have happened. There would be no need to make a big megillah out of it, as there would be when withdrawing during litigation. No one needs to grant leave. but boy, wouldn’t that send a message when it got out, which of course it would.

  62. 62.

    Tony Jay

      Trump’s allies likened the FBI’s search to a political persecution more common in a “banana republic” or even under Nazi rule.

    Why does the phrase “in a profoundly cynical misinterpretation of reality that can only be attributed to desperate projection by people well aware of Trump’s guilt and their own cowardly culpability” not appear anywhere in this sentence?

  63. 63.

    artem1s

    @Soprano2:

    Hard to find 12 impartial people anyway

    and even if you could manage to seat an impartial jury, I think the chances TFG’s legal team would engage in tampering are pretty high. I could see a bunch of seated jurors having to be replaced just for breaking seclusion and spewing whatever nonsense at the other jurors they read on their phones each night. Complete nightmare.

  64. 64.

    Layer8Problem

    @Jeffro:  I keep seeing him here:

    The majority of the facility is above ground, with the exception of a subterranean corridor which links cellblocks to the lobby. Each cell has a desk, stool, and bed, which are almost entirely made out of poured concrete, as well as a toilet that shuts off if blocked, a shower that runs on a timer to prevent flooding, and a sink lacking a potentially dangerous tap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light that can be shut off only remotely, a radio, and a television that shows recreational, educational, and religious programming.

    The 4-inch-by-4-foot (10 cm × 1.2 m) windows are designed to prevent inmates from knowing their specific location within the complex. They can see only the sky and roof through them, so it is virtually impossible to plan an escape. Inmates exercise in a concrete pit resembling an empty swimming pool, also designed to prevent them from knowing their location in the facility. The pit is large enough only for a prisoner to walk 10 steps in a straight line or 31 steps in a circle. Correctional officers generally deliver food to the cells.

    I’m a cruel person, but fair!

  65. 65.

    Wanderer

    @Skepticat: True, some of them are awful. I just am so weary of tfg and all the chaos swirling around him. For a split second it feels as though I am back in time.

  67. 67.

    Mo MacArbie

    I’ve written a song, and I beg your indulgence to present it here. It’s a crooner, so tune up your inner big band and lush strings.

    Republicans lie
    Like cats meow
    Like doggies bow-wow-wow

    Republicans lie
    Like billy goats bleat
    Like birdies twitter-tweet

    Why oh why
    Do Republicans lie
    It’s in their very nature
    My oh my
    How Republicans lie
    In every state
    On every date
    In every legislature

    Republicans lie
    Like cattle moo
    Like cocks cock-a-doodle-doo

    Republicans lie
    It’s true
    And when you hear them calling
    Republicans are lying
    To you

  68. 68.

    RSA

    @bbleh: Australia is almost the perfect real-world experiment regarding the effect of the presence of guns on gun deaths.  The gun-humpers really got no legs to stand on.

    All we need is political will and a lot of money. Australia paid about $1,000 in 2020 US dollars (i.e., with inflation and currency conversion) per gun, to destroy 650,000 guns, about 20% of privately owned guns in the country.

    To scale that to the U.S., we’d spend $80 billion to eliminate 80 million guns, about 20% of what we have.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro: ​
     

    you first became aware that you were being paid by agents of the Soviet Union back when, exactly?

    “я не помню“

  71. 71.

    Fester Addams

    @Soprano2: I wondered if that was feasible and if it had been done for, say, trials of drug lords or mob bosses.  Looks like John Gotti 1992 would be the model.

  73. 73.

    kalakal

    @Tony Jay:

    Why does the phrase “in a profoundly cynical misinterpretation of reality that can only be attributed to desperate projection by people well aware of Trump’s guilt and their own cowardly culpability” not appear anywhere in this sentence?

    That’s really well put. Tips hat

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Starfish:

    I can’t believe a blurry cat video has hundreds of millions of views.

    It’s the music that makes it. It’s not nearly as funny with the sound muted.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    @Layer8Problem: ​
     
    Although Florence would be ideal (within the current bounds of “propriety,” etc.), I’d rather see him in a traditional cell with bars.

    At the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

    With the rest of the elected Rethugs in Congress as cellmates.

  80. 80.

    NorthLeft

    @Jeffro: I think your view of TFG’s punishment is pretty much spot on. No way they will put him in a prison. House arrest with restricted access will be about it.

  81. 81.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Now he was the face of a law enforcement action that threatened to further cleave the nation,

    That’s some mighty fine bullshit, just slipped in there. IF the nation is being further cleaved, it’s because of the further revelations of Trump’s illegal actions. It’s now clear that he additionally endangered and continues to endanger the nation. Maybe there’s some further cleaving of the nation by elected Republicans who continue defend Trump and Trumpism, even in the face of loss of security nuclear secrets and possibly loss of human intelligence people.

  85. 85.

    Splitting Image

    @Wanderer:

    My only complaint is that there are now photos of tfg everywhere and they startle me EVERY time.

    There is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox called DeTrumpify, which will block most pictures of the overstuffed tangerine, as well as replacing his name whenever it appears in the text.

    I installed it years ago and I think that without it I’d have stroked out.

  87. 87.

    Layer8Problem

    @kalakal:  You might have something there.  I’m finding the notion of The Prisoner for TFG intriguing, but I’m at a loss for what an appropriate Village would look like for him.  I mean the Village was set up for smart people, and he’s just plain stupid.  On-site McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken, but when he sits down and opens the bag or bucket a Rover pops out; even so, every day he tries again because stupid?  I’m having a failure of imagination.

  91. 91.

    Another Scott

    @Fester Addams: The courts have had to deal with notorious cases for hundreds of years; they’d find a way (look at all the successful January 6 prosecutions).

    What sticks in the back of my mind is Laxalt telling Marcos to “cut and cut cleanly” – IOW, get out of the country.

    While Garland runs a tight ship and is doing everything exquisitely well by the book, too many people just want TFG to go away. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if TFG and hangers-on try to take a “vacation” to the UAE or somewhere similar without an extradition treaty just before an indictment drops.

    We’ll see!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    oldgold

    The Short-Fingered Vulgarian should take the excellent legal advice given by Fletcher Reade  (Jim Carrey ) in the underappreciated comedy Liar Liar.

    Greta: He knocked over another ATM. This time at knifepoint. He needs your legal advice.

    Fletcher Reede: [picking up phone and shouting] Stop breaking the law, asshole!

  95. 95.

    Booger

    @artem1s: If you have a clearance it is illegal to read above what you are cleared for, or basically anything which you don’t have a need to know. E.g., reading what Snowden released, even once public knowledge, is a violation.

    But a regular old person reading it, I don’t think there’s a crime exactly, because there is no agreement to abide by.

    Somebody please correct me.

  97. 97.

    Wanderer

    @Splitting Image: Thanks for the info. Lots of choice to rid me of the photos.  I am grateful to have options.
    In an aside: thanks to the community here for being so well informed and prompt with sharing information on this topic (and all other topics). It has been so helpful.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    @satby: Very good indeed.  The short summary of the hierarchy is excellent as well.  Democrats need to do a better job of pointing out those differences.

    “My opponent literally wants to make sure that the lives of the 99% do not get better.  I have a different view.  We’re all equal under the law and everyone deserves an opportunity and a system that is not stacked against them…”

    Thanks for the pointer.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    delphinium

    To the surprise of no one, Rand Paul is making noises about repealing the Espionage Act. His Dem challenger Charles Booker has been good about going after him but am assuming that it is very unlikely he can win this seat.

  103. 103.

    Scout211

    @RedDirtGirl: She left OAN in March and now works for Trump, according to many reports.

    ETA: Link

    When the FBI stormed former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday, agents were confronted by his attorney Christina Bobb, an ex-U.S. Marine and a former anchor on the far-right news network One America News (OAN).

  104. 104.

    frosty

    @p.a.: Just noting: when it doubt, it’s a gunshot not a backfire. Cars haven’t backfired in decades. Is it even possible without a carburetor? When was the last time any of you juicers had your own car backfire?

  105. 105.

    kalakal

    @delphinium: It would be a great interview

    “So Senator Paul, how long have you been opposing TFGs legislation/wanting to destroy his legacy ?”.

    Or they could ask “Why did you vote for it?”

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @frosty: A guy down the street has some sort of recent Mercedes sports car.  Very snarly.  When he lets up on the gas it makes popping exhaust noises kinda like a backfire.

    But other than that, yeah, “backfires” is kinda like “rabbit-ears” for most people these days – some archaic term that they’ve only read about in history books.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    stinger

    Without nominating the guy for “sainthood”, I think it’s entirely accurate to say that Garland has spent the past many months quietly doing his job. Which was easy to predict once Joe appointed him, based on his previous record leading the successful investigation and prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers and the Unabomber, among many others. He was known for dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, to ensure that evidence would hold up in court. If ever that approach was called for, investigating a former President would be the time.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @kalakal: ​
     
    OK, but I would rather someone ask “Senator Paul, why do you oppose measures used to prevent hostile actors from trying to destroy America? Do you have some vested interest? Some might ask if you’re trying to do the bidding of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-Un; are you? Hey, I’m just asking questions.”
    Because fuck him.

  113. 113.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    But other than that, yeah, “backfires” is kinda like “rabbit-ears” for most people these days – some archaic term that they’ve only read about in history books. ;-)

    If you give me a minute, I can dial one of my friends who can explain those terms to me.

  114. 114.

    Kent

    Trump’s first impeachment was about extorting a foreign nation to dig up fake dirt on his opponent in order to win re-election.

    My current theory is that these documents were part of a new Trump plot to do something similar for 2024.    Extort foreign governments to support his 2024 run.  It worked the first time in 2016.  The Russians got him elected with an assist by the Benghazi committee and Comey.  Why not a second try?

    Trump only has three base motivations for everything he does:  (1) profit, (2) extortion, and (3) revenge.  Every single transaction and action he has ever made in his life finds its roots in one of those three motivations.   And they are, of course, related.  Because the point of the extortion is profit.  And the point of the revenge is to make it public so others won’t ever cross him in the same way.

    He is the biggest mob boss in history and these purloined documents have to be related to that.

  116. 116.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kent: He tried to do the same with the DOJ in Jan 2021. “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” The problem was he couldn’t blackmail the entire DOJ, and they resisted.

  118. 118.

    frosty

    @NotMax: That makes sense, they use carburetors. Wikipedia says poor ignition timing is a cause, but it’s not an issue with electronic ignition. I haven’t set timing at four degrees before top dead center* since the 1970s.

    * h/t Mona Lisa Vito

  119. 119.

    stinger

    @zhena gogolia: Yes, it’s a PATTERN with him. When TFG was pressuring Ukraine to just “say” they were going to investigate, without necessarily actually investigating, nobody in the US had ever heard of Zelenskyy. Now he’s a hero (and his mangy little dog, too), and although Senate Republicans would still vote along partisan lines, it’s too bad that impeachment trial couldn’t be held today. Public opinion would surely be quite different.

  121. 121.

    Chris Johnson

    @Kent: HE is not the boss here, and the stolen documents (perhaps even the handwritten note!) will be related to that.

    First impeachment was about refusing aid to Ukraine, which Russia planned to invade. This is all really very simple…

  123. 123.

    kalakal

    @SFAW: Those are the questions for a sane world. I want to see him sweat as his knee jerk posturing gets him branded as being opposed to TFGs legislative ‘achievments’. To see him incur the wrath of the MAGAts as a RINO would be priceless. As you say fuck him. Won’t happen thanks to MAGA & msm selective amnesia but I can dream

  124. 124.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Whether it’s Kamala Harris telling blind people she’s wearing a blue suit, or Donald Trump telling the Russians our nuclear codes, there have been norm-shattering disclosures on both sides.— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) August 14, 2022

  133. 133.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Layer8Problem: My fantasy is the session with the tailor who measures him for the orange jumpsuit.

    At the beginning when he takes the ankle diameter, Trump’s face lights up with hope, and he asks “Oh, am I just getting one of those ankle bracelets for house arrest?” The tailor pauses, looks up at him, dead-eyed, and after a few seconds crushes his hope with a terse “No”, as he takes the inseam measurement, slamming the tape into Trump’s groin.

  139. 139.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Scout211: When they “stormed” the “estate” is an interesting way of stating that they presented the search warrant to the Secret Service at the former presidents event venue/country club where he lives like Howard Hughes.

  140. 140.

    FelonyGovt

    I don’t know why but this thing about the stolen documents makes me so angry. Those documents don’t belong to him, they belong to us.

  141. 141.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @FelonyGovt:  I agree with your sentiment.

    We’ve had a lot of discussion here probing the reason for this fiasco. I’m sure there’s truth to many of the suggested explanations (money, blackmail, vanity, …) but what I think it comes down to is Trump didn’t want to give the documents back.

  142. 142.

    Scout211

    @MagdaInBlack: Yeah.  I should have added:  Warning:  link goes to The HILL! 

    It was the first news story that actually stated that she left OAN to work for Trump.  The others were stories from March and only hinted that she would be working directly for Trump.

  144. 144.

    SWMBO

    @Burnspbesq: ​
      I say any for profit prison in Texas. Didn’t Dick Cheney own stock in some for profits prisons in Texas at one time? I suspect daughter Liz would find that poetic.

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