I’m just hearing this. Details to come.
Update: So far, there is little in the way of official information coming from the Justice Department. There is widespread consensus that the search is mostly likely about documents, possibly including classified documents, illegally removed and taken to Mar-a-Lago. Here is the New York Times coverage, outside the paywall.
There is also widespread consensus that this is a big bleeping deal.
Bess Levin writes at Vanity Fair,
As reporter and historian Garrett Graff opined shortly after the news broke: “This is one of the most significant, sensitive, and politically explosive actions the US Justice Department and FBI has ever taken—one of a tiny handful of times it’s ever investigated a president. Bottom line: The FBI & DOJ must’ve known they had the goods.” In other words, there’s a fuck-ton of ketchup dripping down the walls tonight, and this seems 100% plausible:
Donald Trump is going to run for president on an explicit pledge to imprison Biden, his son, Garland, and anyone else he feels like, and the entire Republican Party is going to get on board with that.
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) August 9, 2022
Bring it on, I say.
Updates:
Trump supporters are calling for Civil War. Yeah, that’ll be over as soon as the meatballs face a line of tanks.
Aaron Blake has a good roundup of the knee-jerk reactions from the Right. Linked without the paywall.
The CPACs stage theme was all stars and bars, all 1861.
Looks like everyone is too jaw-dropped to remark on the "unnecessary raid" and other antics reported today.
I think everyone is wondering what the raid means. Myself included. Since the FBI did the search, it means part of the DOJ investigation. It's assumed this is part of a Grand Jury investigation into documents that were "discovered" at Mir-A-Lago. Were I to speculate, there wasn't a lot of time to cover up the attempted coup from Jan. 7 to Jan. 20. Nor was there an abundance of loyalists eager to commit federal crimes by destroying records. So Trump grabbed everything that might be incriminating and took it down to FL.
He thought that was it but the gov't noticed stuff was missing. After ten months (or so) if inquiries and denials, National Archives said this was getting referred to DOJ and only then did Trump find 15 (or so) boxes of stuff. Trump has always been in litigation, suing and being sued. So it's my guess Trump followed an old play book and only sent to National Archives what they had identified they knew was missing AND Trump checked to ensure the incriminating stuff was filtered out. A guess on my part, but not a stretch.
DOJ may be hoping that Trump kept what he didn't return. After all, Trump might have to "find" something else. If he did, DOJ now has strong evidence that Trump withheld classified materials AFTER he was made aware the government property was missing.
If Trump hung onto anything connected to the coup attempt, that might be a serious error. I can think of several reasons Trump might have kept some records, for example, if they seem to suggest Trump was being given bad advice by a person Trump wants to take the fall.
Remember, Alex Jones got tripped up this week when everything on his phone wound up going to the J6 committee, who will be sending on to DOJ. In a similar way, Trump may get hung by documents he filched and gets caught with.
Goodie gum drops! Whatever the reason for the raid it's a nice feeling to see the walls closing in on Trump. We know the FBI doesn't conduct raids based on a hunch, so they are looking for something specific. And whatever that specific something is it doesn't look good for Donald J. Trump.
Death by a thousand cuts?
If it was incriminating stuff, why wouldn't he just shred it. Maybe out of ego or blackmail, but if they found something incriminating I suspect he kept them for a real reason.
I'm guessing he took off with some sensitive national security docs he felt entitled to, tried to leak them for personal gain, and intel traced it back to him.
Why wouldn't tRump have shredded everything? The same reason that his four years in the White House were not even worse – incompetence.
Apparently he was flushing stuff down toilets. Maybe he's afraid of the shredder?
I don't think shredding documents would help him avoid legal liability, because of document metadata, e.g. data about the document that exists. This is how the National Archives, for example, tracks documents and is able to know what they should have. Even if a document is destroyed, metadata informs that the document existed, when it was created, what it was about, who it was distributed to, who had authority to handle it, and possibly more, similar data. I would imagine the FBI used metadata about classified docs for the warrant they got to search Trump's palace. Besides, shredding or burning docs would only add to his liability, because that would be destroying government property.
I don't think shredding documents would help him avoid legal liability, because of document metadata, e.g. data about the document that exists. This is how the National Archives, for example, tracks documents and is able to know what they should have. Even if a document is destroyed, metadata informs that the document existed, when it was created, what it was about, who it was distributed to, who had authority to handle it, and possibly more, similar data. I would imagine the FBI used metadata about classified docs for the warrant they got to search Trump's palace. Besides, shredding or burning docs would only add to his liability, because that would be destroying government property.
It's possible he was keeping stuff as leverage, or even to sell to the highest bidder.
There's alway the possibility it could have something to do with pardon requests. If you look back to the early days of Trump and his connection to the guy who controlled the National Inquirer with his secret stash of damaging information use to control people he had the goods on. I'm sure Trump envied that ability to have information that could destroy careers or political viability.
It could be a way to keep certain politicians in line. Or it could be a simple message to say, If I go down, you're going with me. Who's to say what Trump's motivations are for keeping certain records. He might find a perverse sexual exhilaration in having seemingly powerful men beg for a touch of his power by way of a pardon. That might sound a little over the top, but you have to remember that extreme narcissism like Trump has can manifest itself in some really bizzare ways. Like they say…different strokes for different folks, whatever turns you on.
I read the intro sentence of AAron Blake's piece as "One day, relatively soon, the heads of the Justice Department and the FBI are likely to be brought to Capitol Hill" & then the "to testify about the historic decision to raid a former president’s home".
Oh, heads still attached.
Given the almost sacrosanct status of a former US president, the DOJ must be really sure of their facts.