CNBC is reporting that Judge Canon has set the documents trial for August 14. Yes, of this year. “In the order Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon told Department of Justice prosecutors and lawyers for Trump to file all pretrial motions by July 24. Cannon also ordered that all hearings in the case, including the trial, will be held in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida..”
Other people quoted in the article are doubtful it will really begin that soon, as there are a lot of legal kinks to work out and expectations that motions will be filed.. But I’m hoping that this indicates Canon was chastised enough the last time she was involved in Trump’s documents that she’s not going to pull any tricks on his behalf this time. We’ll see.
Trump’s newest excuse for why he didn’t return the documents was that the boxes contained a lot of other stuff, like his clothes. This is from an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News last night.
“Why not just hand them over then?” he asked.
Trump responded: “I wanted to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out of them. I don’t want to hand that over to [the National Archives and Records Administration] yet. And I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen.”
The former president said there were “many things” beyond classified documents including “golf shorts, clothing, pants, shoes.” When Baier asked if the boxes contained defense documents, Trump said, “Not that I know of.”
Oh, yeah, the government absolutely will give you unlimited amounts of time to sort through your stuff and to find the national security documents they’ve been after you about for more than a year and a half. Not a problem.
Rolling Stone reported it this way:
“Like every other president I take things out,” Trump said. “In my case, I took it out pretty much in a hurry. People packed it up and left. I had clothing in there, I had all sorts of personal items in there. Much, much stuff.” After a brief digression to call his former attorney general Bill Barr a “coward,” Trump reiterated, “I have got a lot of things in there. I will go through those boxes. I have to go through those boxes. I take out personal things.” Finally, he clarified what those items were: “These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things: golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes, there were many things,” he said.
He knows the word “interspersed.” I’m surprised. See also Matt Naham at Law & Crime, ‘I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet’: Trump went on Fox News and essentially confessed to violating the Espionage Act.
He also denied that the secret government document about Iran he was caught talking about on tape was actually a document. Or secret.
According to the transcript, Mr. Trump describes the document, which he claims shows General Milley’s desire to attack Iran, as “secret” and “like, highly confidential.” He also declares that “as president, I could have declassified it,” adding, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
But in the interview on Monday, with the Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Mr. Trump denied that he had been referring to an actual document and claimed to have simply been referring to news clippings and magazine pieces.
“There was no document,” Mr. Trump insisted. “That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”
He actually was waving around a pair of his old golf shoes when he was caught on tape. There are lots of things in those boxes. And as they say, were you lying then, or are you lying now? Or both?
If this guy isn’t convicted, the U.S. should just admit it’s a failed state.
Let's not go into detail again about Drumpf's propensity to take things out.
“And I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen.”
Yeah he was busy alright, busy trying to steal an election and planning a Coup d’etat !
O.T. GQP'ers are bellyaching about Hunter's pleas deal. The already used talking point is: "two tiered justice system". Right every democrat should get on tee-vee and say yeah it's two-tiered alright, one tier for people who confess to their crime and willingly agree to face the consequences and another justice system for people who can't admit guilt and continue to commit the same crimes over and over. Those two people are treated differently, next.
Okay, so – apparently he's been golfing naked since leaving the White House because he hadn't unpacked his shit.
The next time I'm a billionaire ex-President, who somehow has boxes full of top-secret documents and golf shirts, then I'll send the boxes straight to the librarians and let them sort it out. I could afford to buy more golf shirts.
If tRUMP's nonsense about the top-secret documents being "interspersed" with his golf duds is true, let us all pity the poor fools who had to sort through his (moldy from) sweat shirts, shorts, socks, and jock-straps.
YUCK!!!!!
The more TV interviews ex-POTUS TangFace does, the easier he makes the jobs of ALL of the prosecutors involved in all of his crimes against America!
So, keep yappin' arsehole!
An attorney pointed out that the "too busy" excuse fails because 1) Trump certified that after a thorough search, everything had been returned. 2) there was no request for an extension of time prior to the certification. 3) It looks like DOJ can prove Trump hid stuff from his own lawyers who did the certification.
When this goes to trial, Trump will have no defense. He's taking a wrecking ball to every remotely plausible excuse.
Trump appears to be trying "defenses" out in the public, throwing them up against the wall to see what sticks. This of course won't help him in court, but given that republican support is starting to peel off as the charges become understood, this is an appeal to his ultimate "law firm", the GOP, to have something to soldier on in defending him, and to give them a reason to stick with him.
The problem for Trump is, each time he does it, they're like confessions, and actually hurts his chances in court, which already appear slim, unless of course, Cannon pulls a rabbit out of her hat to sabotage the case somehow.
He's like a stupid kid making excuses for why his room is dirty, from someone who has no concept of telling the truth.
Belongs with the earlier post, Ruth Ben-Ghiat on why the FBI’s delay is so dangerous
Cannon is trying to frame the future argument. First point – she wants the case. Or she would have recused. Second point – she wants the case in Ft. Pierce, which a lawyer from S. Florida said is a security nightmare. That's why Miami was picked. (It's a perfect 'excuse' for Cannon to recuse – it's impractical for Cannon to commute to Miami for the estimated six-week trial in Miami.) Third point – Trump wants Cannon for obvious reasons.
If Cannon is as devious as I am, she won't give Jack Smith a reason to request she be removed. As in, granting a motion to suppress evidence. That would not only be reversed on appeal, it would get her replaced before the trial.
My opinion is that she'll be a pussycat all the way through the trial and let Trump go with a suspended sentence.
"My opinion is that she'll be a pussycat all the way through the trial and let Trump go with a suspended sentence"
Spot on, that is exactly what will happen, Stump won't serve a day in jail but hopefully the conviction will keep him the fuck out of politics for the rest of his miserable life! Don't forget though he's still going to face charges for trying to steal the election, that one might get him some home confinement ankle bracelet time!
@doug – It will be interesting indeed to see if she decided to straighten up and fly right or if she is playing devious as you suggest. I would caution: she is an extremely inexperienced judge (and has no business being on that bench), and will be contending with the complexities of CIPA – the Classified Information Procedures Act. Given her wackadoodle earlier rulings, I can easily see her steering into the weeds, and Smith objecting. It’s like giving a kid who just learned to drive, the controls of an 18-wheeler. Joyce Vance points out that Smith’s ability to appeal will be very limited once a jury is empaneled because of double jeopardy.
OT, a very poignant rendition of “Space Oddity”, performed in situ, by a real astronaut.
If this guy isn’t convicted, the U.S. should just admit it’s a failed state.
Trump's already done enough, IMO, and gotten away with it, thus far, for the US to qualify as a failed state. I still marvel at the current state, that we have a twice impeached former president, who fomented an insurrection against the US to overturn the election, whose daughter and son in law enriched themselves to the tune of over $2 billion dollars while working for him, who mismanaged a pandemic that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, and publicly sided with foreign adversaries against our own intelligence agencies and is currently under two separate criminal indictments with at this count, two more waiting in the wings. That one man was able to do all of that, and not only still walking around, but is the front runner for the republican nomination for president, can be nothing but indications of damn near catastrophic institutional, moral and political failures.
If by chance, Trump gets reelected, in spite of all this, (and know that if he does he will run for a third term and his arguments for it will be validated in the media as either "just sayin'" or "in his view") with the opportunity to pardon himself and rule as a potentate, because that's what he'll be, we'll be more than a failed state. The very concept of "America" is over.