So this has happened:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faced new charges Thursday in a case accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents, with prosecutors alleging that he asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct a federal investigation into the records.
The indictment includes new counts of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information, adding fresh detail to an indictment issued last month against Trump and a close aide. The additional charges came as a surprise at a time of escalating anticipation of a possible additional indictment in Washington over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
I continue to regret my failure to purchase popcorn futures at the appropriate time.
Over to the jackaltariat! (Open, if schadenfreude doused thread.)
Image: Dirk Hals, Merry Party in a a TavernMerry Party in a a Tavern, 1628
Evap
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer ex-president
dmsilev
So, if I have the scorecard correct, we currently have indictments from Manhattan, and from the Feds filing in Florida re: the stolen classified documents case, and Any Day Now we are expecting indictments in Georgia for election tampering and the feds in DC (probably?) for Jan 6. Coming up next month will be indictment in The Hague for crimes against hair styling and steak cooking.
RobertDSC-iPhone 8
Can he finally be put in jail pending trial?
Keith P.
I just read the indictment. It looks like pretty open-and-shut obstruction, but I’m still looking forward whatever defense Trump can come up with, helpfully presented via Truth Social instead of via his lawyers. But we’ll still get some “That’s it?” articles tomorrow from someone like Rich Lowry or Hugh Hewitt.
Greg
There is going to be serious pressure applied to Nauta to flip. He will be going to jail without a plea deal. Wonder how sure he is that Trump will be able to pardon him?
Tehanu
Can’t celebrate until I see Fake Hair Fuhrer being perp-walked through the prison gates, but this is good news nonetheless.
Ken
@dmsilev: I’m expecting whining — not necessarily from Trump — about the unfairness of charging him with so many crimes in so many jurisdictions.
Jerzy Russian
At this rate he will have broken all of the commandments by the end of the month. The Evangelicals will then say “who among us hasn’t broken all ten of them at some point? In fact, recent research indicates that a better translation is ‘suggestion’ instead of ‘commandment’…”.
MazeDancer
Having the top secret document that Trump was heard waving around is good. Being able to play the recording to the jury, also good.
And Mr. Smith hasn’t even charged the Jan 6 case.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Why isn’t Steve Bannon in jail yet? [rhetorical question, I’m just impatient]
Albatrossity
It is interesting that they have now identified the document that Mango Mussolini was waving around in Bedminster, telling folks that it was classified and that he couldn’t declassify it since he was not POTUS then. It’s #32 in the superseding indictment – classified information about military operations in a foreign country. They have it back, and he is toast.
mrmoshpotato
oOoOO new charges to punch Dump in his fat, orange, Kremlin-ass-sucking, fascist face!
Ken
@MazeDancer: I’m hoping for more revelations about these new obstruction charges over the next couple days, much like after the previous charges the news somehow got hold of the recording of Trump bragging about the secret papers. Maybe an e-mail from him telling the flunkies to hide the boxes of classified documents by Tuesday because the archives people are coming Wednesday.
HumboldtBlue
I just sent you a meme on Twitter that fits this very post, Tom.
twbrandt
So much for the “Merrick Garland is a wuss” argument. Though that ship sailed a while ago.
hitchhiker
Pete Strzok is over on twitter having a good time. Here he is toying with Mary Oliver’s poem, The Summer Day:
I’ll never get over seeing trump doing dramatic readings of Strzok’s private texts, or of the fact that our very own DOJ leaded those texts to the press for no reason except to embarrass him and Lisa Page.
Another Scott
Teri’s been going through the new indictment…
Short sub-thread:
tl;dr – These guys working for the DoJ know what they are doing. TIFG’s minions don’t have a chance.
Cheers,
Scott.
matt
expecting Turley to come out with ‘obstruction of justice isn’t a real crime’ any second now.
Jackie
So are the new indictments alluding to Bedminster? I’m getting confused.
mrmoshpotato
@matt:
Is that before, during, or after he sucks a rotting horse’s ass?
Chetan Murthy
@Another Scott: there’s only one way to make sure your data is deleted. Take the drive to a crusher and crush it into bits.
MobiusKlein
@Chetan Murthy:
Date or data? Inquiring minds…
Chetan Murthy
@MobiusKlein: whups! I’m using speech to text and then correcting mistakes I find.
different-church-lady
@Greg:
TRUMP: “I’ll pardon you.”
NAUTA: “Boss, you’re in the next cell over.”
different-church-lady
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Well, for one thing he actually did get pardoned.
p.a.
According to sources, didn’t Team tRump trot out the “there’ll be unrest if he’s indicted” chestnut at this week’s DoJ face-to-face?
In my made-for-tv version the Feds respond “there’ll be a run on champagne too, we’ll deal with each as required.”
Cue Orwell:
under the spreading Chestnut tree,
I sold you
and you sold me
Jim, Foolish Literalist
paywalled story at The Daily Beast .
different-church-lady
@Another Scott:
“The 409 leaves quite a residue.”
Jay
So this is interesting,……….
Dom deLuca, ( a noted conman, serial liar, and vatnick), who The Nazi Failson paid to stay on Xcrap,
https://vatniksoup.com/en/soups/206
posted Xcretable child porn on his Xcrement account today.
Not the Child porn from the Dark sides of the web, but the really horrible stuff you have to have another pedo send you personally.
So the Xcrement workers shut down the account, scrubbed the links from the servers, then reinstated the account.
Felony much?
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Fifteen votes later, McCarthy tried to punch him.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
super magnets, crusher, shredder then fire.
smith
@different-church-lady: He was, but he’s since been charged but not yet tried in NY on other charges.
different-church-lady
@Jay: Elon’s really leaning in to this “every accusation a confession” thing.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: [ snort! ]
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@smith:
Ah, well I’m happy to be behind the news in this case.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Raw Story got to the heart of the matter
Just having seen them on TV, I think Swalwell has the size advantage, and is almost twenty years younger. I’d watch that fight
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
OMFG, this happened just outside the bathroom?!?
frosty
@mrmoshpotato: It’s not that I don’t like to read your stuff, it’s that the same tagline on all of it gets tedious. Off to the pie-safe for awhile.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I assume the Democrats will keep copies of this handy, for the next time McCarthy says anything about the dignity or decorum of the House.
dmsilev
@different-church-lady: Apparently high school never truly ends.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@different-church-lady:
Not for contempt of Congress. He was sentenced to four months in prison on October 21, 2022. Ah, but the wheels of justice grind slow.
Jackie
@different-church-lady: I hope when it comes to a head it’s captured on video and leaked to the media! My money is on Swalwell!
different-church-lady
@Jackie:
McCarthy let him go to the bathroom, so it’s already gone to a head.
Jackie
@different-church-lady: 😂🤣😂
Redshift
TFG really is dumb. It is completely believable that, hearing that the Feds are demanding the security footage, he thinks he can just have people delete it and completely foil their investigation and no one will be the wiser.
There’s a line from the villain in one if the Shrek movies, gloating just before his downfall, “nobody’s smart but meeee!” It’s been going through my head a lot lately…
BR
@Another Scott:
One of the replies to her:
https://law-and-politics.online/@[email protected]/110789525265171109
Jackie
If anyone can decipher this, please do!
“”Whatever happened to the Crooked Joe Biden Document’s case? He had 20 times more Boxes than I did, and he wasn’t covered by the Presidential Records Act. I was!” Trump wrote Thursday. “When it first came out that Biden had all of these Docs, many Classified, almost everyone, including those on the Left, said, ‘there goes the case against Trump.’ But they waited and waited, got failed prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith, and STRUCK – but did almost nothing on the REALLY BAD Biden Documents case, many stored in Chinatown!””
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lashes-out-biden-and-jack-smith/
Redshift
@Keith P.:
Byron York was already on Twitter musings about how suspicious it is that DOJ “bent over backwards” to go easy on Hunter, but they’re going after TFG with everything they’ve got.
sdhays
@Jay: Not sorry I never check Xitter directly anymore. Just posts here or on other safe blogs.
I’m sad for the people who have built their own communities there, but I’m ready for the flush, whether it’s a catastrophic technical failure or forced bankruptcy.
And can we somehow manage to criminalize things super rich people do that are awful? From the lies and reckless manslaughter at Tesla to the litany of laws and contracts and agreements violated, and horrible stuff promoted at Xitter, it’s so tiresome for this guy to just shit along with no real consequences, basically because he’s super wealthy.
Ken
@BR: Scrolling through the Kanefield posts, I only just realized — Trump lied earlier today when he said his lawyers were told he wasn’t going to be indicted. I am the exact opposite of shocked.
Oh, and this this part of the superseding indictment (Kanfield’s summary) sounds exactly like the Zoolander scene where they’re trying to get the files out of the computer.
Jackie
@Redshift: “he thinks he can just have people delete it and completely foil their investigation and no one will be the wiser.”
Didn’t he learn from Clinton it just takes bleach and a hammer?
Ishiyama
Maybe we will get around to a genuine espionage charge for selling copies of those documents in a further superceding indictment.
Chetan Murthy
@Ishiyama: you just know he did it. It’s just a question of whether they can find the evidence.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in other Weird Congress Critter News: I get what Mace is trying to do here, play the Conservative Cool Chick, but… at a prayer breakfast for the 60 Year Old Virgin Tim Scott? Read the room, Nance.
dmsilev
@Jackie:
I think it translates as WAAAAAAHHHH!! Not sure there’s much meaning beyond that.
RaflW
At least the FTFNYY did get around to butter emails (in, I think, the 15th graf) and the irony of Fpotus demanding deletion of security servers:
Emphasis added, though smehow the Times fails to disclose their own endless hyping of said emails/server of the former S.O.S.
different-church-lady
@Jackie: I ran that through Google Translate and it came back “Senility.”
jimmiraybob
@different-church-lady:
Technically, turning Mar a Lago into a prison (Build the Wall!) might work to everybody’s advantage.
different-church-lady
@Redshift:
“One hundred indictments is not a level serious enough to prosecute a former president.”
dmsilev
@different-church-lady: It’s not a good idea to torture computers by asking them to translate things like that. You want Skynet? This is how we get Skynet.
RaflW
@Jerzy Russian: “How will I actually know sin is bad until I try them all?”
different-church-lady
@Redshift:
Maybe Trump should try pleading guilty.
Wag
@Ishiyama: A blog of jackals can dream, can’t we?
jimmiraybob
@RaflW:
The 10 Commandments as a sampler platter?
Redshift
@Jackie: It’s pretty much a cut-and-paste of whining from weeks ago; he really doesn’t have any new material. But basically it’s:
– Biden had a lot more docs, and more classified docs. (No, he didn’t.)
– The Presidential Records Act says I get to keep anything I want when I leave, and overrides laws and classification rules. (No, that’s the complete opposite of what it says.)
– Biden’s foundation had an office in Chinatown at one time, which proves he’s an agent of Communist China. (Oh, please can we have another Cold War? The last one was really good for conservatives…)
– And overall, he continues to believe that accusing someone else of arson totally gets you off the hook for being an arsonist.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: We need video.
Redshift
@jimmiraybob:
Hmm, that would solve the problem of secret service protection in prison, which some legal experts have cited to mean it’s likely he’d get home confinement because actually putting him in prison is impractical. Just turn his home into a prison, perfect!
mrmoshpotato
Just saw a YouTube ad for new coffee M&M’s.
Does Fucker Carlson still want to bang a chocolate candy?
RaflW
@sdhays: I hadn’t put it together till just now that Musk’s new name, played with so easily, can be pronounced “Zitter”.
That site’s really become like the worst of middle school cafeteria life. Acne is just the side-effect.
Redshift
@RaflW: I will say, it is pretty delicious that the original indictment includes his public statements about how his administration would treat classified documents very seriously (obviously targeted at Hillary) as evidence that he was fully aware what he was doing was wrong.
dmsilev
@Redshift: Sadly, Spandau Prison was torn down years ago, otherwise I’m sure we could convince the Germans to lease it to us.
zeecube
My mind is playing tricks on me. Looks like a merry coke party at the tavern.
Jackie
@Redshift: I’ll take your word for it; no one else has tried 😁
Yarrow
@RaflW: Or if it’s more of a “zhhh” sound it sounds a bit like Shitter.
Jackie
@Redshift: Stipulations: Must stay at MAL all year long. No golfing.
Subsole
@mrmoshpotato: Depends.
First he has to run it through his spreadsheet that quantifies how many fifths of a candy they are based on shell-shape, facial structure and chocolate hue…
Sister Golden Bear
If you’d like your schadenfreude with additional side of schadenfreude:
Nitter link.
Subsole
@dmsilev: You wish it was high school.
Shit’s junior high at best.
HumboldtBlue
J-L Cauvin has Trump’s phone call to Henchman #2.
@Sister Golden Bear:
That’s lovely.
Carlo Graziani
I wonder whether Smith intimidates Cannon too.
I mean, watching this meticulous, single-minded legal artillerist rain down terrifying sheets of legal peril on Trump must give her pause about what may happen if she gets caught with her thumb on the scales, no? After all, she already drew one humiliating “ha ha no” reversal from the appeals court, which no judge wants to live down. In Smith, she can have no doubt of dealing with a character who will have no hesitation in going to the mat on appeals if necessary, and of having the chops to make it hurt. I would assume that gives her something to think about.
HumboldtBlue
Chetan Murthy
@HumboldtBlue: We will learn that this shitbird was on the phone to the J6 plotters. Soon enough.
RaflW
@HumboldtBlue: It’s a damn shame that seat flipped in ’22. No doubt a tough purple region, but well worth contesting again.
“Eau Claire business owner Rebecca Cooke to run for 3rd District Congressional District that flipped Republican in 2022” for anyone interested. Dunno of there will be a Dem primary first.
ETA: several of the more rural counties in WI-03 voted for Janet Protasiewicz, in addition to of course LaCrosse. It really ought to be a competitive race.
BeautifulPlumage
@Sister Golden Bear: thank you! I was looking for a little schadenfreude for dessert!
Kent
@Carlo Graziani:
If she is really in the tank for Trump, none of that will matter if her only purpose is to simply delay the trial past the election with various hearings and such. Like she did the last time around.
Of course that depends on him winning. If he loses then fuckit. Drag it out all you want, he’s going down
Plus, Smith has a whole staff of very badass prosecutors. She is just all there by her lonesome with potentially other trials happening too.
Jackie
@HumboldtBlue: Added to that:
“Meanwhile, a source gives a photo to Punchbowl News of alcohol in Van Orden’s office, where the congressman and his staff “were heard partying loudly before he cursed out a group of teenage Senate pages.”
A close up to the photo shows a lot of booze bottles…
Political Wire
Alison Rose
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Swalwell would beat his ass, and I’d enjoy watching.
Alison Rose
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So Nancy’s living in sin, is what we’ve learned.
Also, babe, I’m sure you could’ve spared the three minutes it would’ve lasted.
HumboldtBlue
@Jackie:
Yes, the story is starting to flesh out. Punchbowl broke the news I think.
Burnspbesq
@RobertDSC-iPhone 8:
God loves us, but not that much.
Burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Swalwell’s ok, for a Terp.
mrmoshpotato
@frosty:
You can skip it ya know? But I’ll try to come up with new material to rotate in.
Burnspbesq
Waltine’s gonna get crushed flatter than a saltine. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
If DeOliveira is ever advised by competent counsel that takes seriously their obligation to put their client’s interests first, he’ll plead and cooperate in exchange for a sentencing recommendation.
mrmoshpotato
@Burnspbesq:
Now I want some Saltines.
Hob
@twbrandt: You underestimate how flexible people can be in order to stick with an inflexible point of view. I’m still seeing plenty of “Merrick Garland is a wuss”, it’s just been put into a context of “Everything good happening now, Jack Smith is 100% personally responsible for and Garland didn’t want it to happen.” Their evidence for this is that they just know what kind of guy Garland is, so there.
They sometimes add that Garland didn’t even want to appoint Smith, he only did that when he was forced to, and he was forced because the evidence had gotten so obvious that it would’ve “looked bad” if he hadn’t done it— which would be an odd thing to say, given that they think he looks bad now, except that they also think Garland is a total idiot and so he just doesn’t understand that everyone sees through his act. It is a weirdly personal hatred, starting from the basic fact that Garland didn’t move quicker on these cases by some arbitrary amount, but then elaborating that into a whole vision of exactly who they think this guy is and what he’s all about… it’s like people are so desperate for a satisfying story, if they just don’t have access to any real information, they’ll write political fanfiction to fill in the blanks and then defend it to the death.
Chetan Murthy
@Hob: As I just wrote over at LG&M, I for one will be pleased as punch to write “I was completely wrong about Merrick Garland, thankfully.” That will happen when they send TGF to *prison*. Nothing else is punishment for his crimes. Nothing else. B/c he’s a hardened criminal, a mobster, and he doesn’t care about slaps on the wrist, probation, etc. What he cares about is remaining free.
But if that happens, sure, I’ll eat that humble pie, and *happily*.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
He was first elected to Congress in 2022, so if there was contact it was not in an official capacity.
Also wrote a book titled Book of Man: A Navy Seal’s Guide to the Lost Art of Manhood, which is more than enough for me to lump him in with all the other insecure faux macho cultist whiners.
JWR
@matt:
It’s merely a “process” crime, dontcha know?
NotMax
@JWR
“Youthful indiscretions” papered over Henry Hyde’s adultery – which took place when he was in his forties.
//
patrick II
@Redshift:
Trump would the Secret Service big money for rooms, so I don’t like that idea at all.
NotMax
@patrick II
If true and total home incarceration*, cheap price to pay. Think Rudolf Hess, only at Mar-a-Lago rather than Spandau.
*no golf, no internet, limited phone privileges, supervised access to outdoors, no jaunts to Jersey in the summer
yellowdog
@dmsilev: You forgot the Federal false elector investigation (also Jack Smith).
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: what other criminal of that monstrousness in America has gotten such a sweet deal? No, he has to go to *prison*. If it’s gonna be M-a-L, it needs to be confinement to his *bedroom* (gynormous as it is, I’ll allow it) with no visitors except under the same regime as he’d have in prison. Ditto phone.
Criminals convicted of far less heinous crimes get far worse conditions. Justice demands that he be treated no differently. Part of the reason is that the next traitor, the next seditionist, needs to know that he won’t get a country-club prison with hot and cold running hookers.
NotMax
@https://balloon-juice.com/2023/07/27/welp-4/#comment-8911444
Let’s not softsoap it. Criminal elector investigation.
NotMax
Reply fail. Fix.
@yellowdog
Let’s not softsoap it. Criminal elector investigation.
MattF
Steve Benen notes that Trump keeps begging Congress to put a halt to what mean ‘ol DOJ is doing. I just don’t see that happening.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
While I agree in principle, in practice I’d be more than willing to accept conditions that with certitude plainly, incontestably and undeniably remove him from contact with the public sphere.
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: I will count that as two things:
patrick II
@MattF:
I don’t think Trump understands much about the mechanisms of government. Does he expect McCarthy to threaten to punch Jack Smith in the nose?
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
More than willing to concede we’re reading the same book but not on the same page.
Strictly for humorous respite, Christopher Lee.
;)
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I bypass the paywall with SuperStop. Block all scripts except those from Daily Beast, load the page and hit shift-escape almost immediately afterward (reload the page and try again if you miss).
Bingo, story access! Thanks for the link!
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@mrmoshpotato: only white chocolate candy
Central Planning
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have visions of Swalwell walking past McCarthy in the future and muttering “Pussy!” or “Pussy says what?” under his breath just to fuck with him.
Sadly, “Where can I bet on the Swalwell/McCarthy fight?” doesn’t return any results.
AM in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Except NONE of these men are as strong, flexible, or resilient as a pussy is. What they are is a small set of shriveled balls. Weak, ugly, and a soft target.
I’m really tired of a body part that brings both pleasure and life, and IS strong, flexible, and resilient, get used as the metaphor for weakness. Particularly MALE weakness.
*None of this is directed at you, Jim!
bbleh
@Carlo Graziani: @Kent: same thought occurred. If I were she, I’d be on the phone almost nightly to some senior mentor — maybe another Fed Soc plant but an older one, on an appellate court — to double-check pending decisions, bounce ideas off, etc.
And another thought: there’s a lot of commentary about how she’s a Trump Girl through and through, she’s gonna keep her thumb on the scale as heavily as she can get away with, and she’s counting on him to reward her when he is duly-re-elected. BUT she can’t not realize that he might NOT be re-elected — indeed the odds are significantly against him, absent some deus ex machina — and that she’s got a career to pursue and a reputation to repair, which means being as scrupulously and publicly fair as possible. In short, it’s Trump vs. Smith in her head, and who’s gonna win?
bbleh
And may I say again how much I appreciate Jack “Sure That’s His Real Name” Smith’s sense of dramatic — or comedic — timing. Everybody’s on edge waiting for the big January 6 shoe to drop, and outta left field comes … a superseding indictment in the Espionage Act case! As in “hey, everybody, remember this? remember how bad you thought it was? well, it’s worse!” Or perhaps “attention news editors: please rehash that case in detail just before I open a new one, thank you.”
UncleEbeneezer
@Chetan Murthy: This is dumb. The AG has no control over what judges and jurors will do. All Garland/Smith can do is bring the best case possible. If you didn’t think Garland would let his DOJ pursue and indict Trump you were wrong about him. Period. We know that NOW, regardless of what happens at trial(s).
Albatrossity
@jimmiraybob:
Especially if sea-level rise accelerates and the place goes underwater soon.
Chris T.
@Chetan Murthy: For spinning media, you can also drill a hole or two into it and pour in some acid and then dump in a bunch of epoxy. The industrial shredder is faster and easier but requires access to an industrial shredder.
For something where security isn’t such a big implication, I might try a degausser, but I’m not sure how effective that would be on a modern drive.
I’m not sure what the best way to destroy flash memory is, though fire is probably an option.