Mar-A-Lago Raid

thebobmaster

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Decided to make a new topic for this because it's looking like a pretty big deal. Essentially, the FBI raided Mar-A-Lago, Donald Trump's resort/home, with a search warrant for classified documents. According to the Wall Street Journal, they recovered 11 sets of classified documents, one of which was classified as "top secret/SCI", the highest level of classification. There were also 4 sets marked as "top secret", three sets of "secret", and finally, 3 sets of "confidential" documents, in descending order of level of classification. Amongst the confirmed seized documents (for obvious reasons, the classified documents were not revealed) were a document relating to the pardoning of Roger Stone and some document the FBI would only reveal related to the President of France.

There is currently a call for the search warrant to be unsealed, revealing the exact details to the public, one that is backed by Donald Trump himself. If approved, the search warrant itself, two attachments with at least partial explanations onto what is being seized and why, and a receipt of what was actually seized would be made public.

That said, if it turns out that Trump did indeed have those classified documents with him, and didn't declassify them as he had unilateral right to do before they were seized, I don't see how he isn't fucked.
 

Agema

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Jesus fucking wept, Trump. I can put this down to general incompetence. But incompetence is kind of a problem, isn't it?

The rumour is that Edward VIII was forced to abdicate not because he married an American divorcee or even that he was a little too sympathetic to the Germans (then under Hitler), but because he was a sodding nightmare for government by not signing parliamentary bills in a timely manner and losing important government paperwork. It was therefore mightily convenient to use the whole marriage thing to get rid of a nuisance and pressure him out, when instead they could have smoothed it away.
 

Silvanus

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Although it's fleetingly cathartic to see law enforcement actually move a muscle for once regarding this man's criminality, I can't see how anything would come of it.

Any judgement could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court is rigged. There's no real recourse to pursue justice, regardless of whether he's guilty, as the US judicial system stands.
 

Bedinsis

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Although it's fleetingly cathartic to see law enforcement actually move a muscle for once regarding this man's criminality, I can't see how anything would come of it.

Any judgement could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court is rigged.
I dunno, if it is rigged to ensure conservative positions that indicates loyalty to the GOP, not an individual politician that happened to be a GOP representative.

What I mean is: from a cynical perspective, this could be a way to get rid of Trump, the outsider of the GOP that happened to take their leadership.
 
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Silvanus

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I dunno, if it is rigged to ensure conservative positions that indicates loyalty to the GOP, not an individual politician that happened to be a GOP representative.

What I mean is: from a cynical perspective, this could be a way to get rid of Trump, the outsider of the GOP that happened to take their leadership.
Trump still commands wide support within the Republican Party-- both among its grassroots and its Congressional representatives.

The Republican Supreme Court Justices know where their bread gets buttered. They'd overturn anything if a judgement went against Trump.
 

Hawki

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A Mar-A-Lago raid?
It really has been made?
Know not what to say,
Just 'nother day,
And Trump is still depraved.
 

SilentPony

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Corner of No and Where
Trump still commands wide support within the Republican Party-- both among its grassroots and its Congressional representatives.

The Republican Supreme Court Justices know where their bread gets buttered. They'd overturn anything if a judgement went against Trump.
And that's assuming there was even a trial, and not just a hit-list of judges and juries for the Proud Boys to assassinate.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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There is currently a call for the search warrant to be unsealed, revealing the exact details to the public, one that is backed by Donald Trump himself.
Why does Trump need the FBI to unseal the warrant? If he wanted it to be public HE can release it to the public. He has a copy of it.
 

Casual Shinji

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I don't see how he isn't fucked.
Fucked in what way? Not being allowed to run for president again? Maybe. 'Fucked' as in jail time? Yeah, probably not.

Granted he's not president anymore, so he won't have the same protection Nixon and Reagan had when they fucked up (or that he had when the secret service deleted his text messages on Jan. 6th), but still..
 

Agema

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Any judgement could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court is rigged. There's no real recourse to pursue justice, regardless of whether he's guilty, as the US judicial system stands.
Yes and no.

They're there to achieve certain GOP political objectives, but whether they would protect Trump is another matter entirely. I don't think even the ones Trump appointed respect or like him: he's too much of a crass buffoon. So were Trump convicted, I don't see them going out of their way for him. In particular, I think the GOP establishment overall wants to dump Trump: they just can't whilst he still holds sufficient sway in their party. Him being convicted serves their purposes quite nicely: it both makes him unviable for election, and provides some juicy fundraising and PR opportuinities.
 

Seanchaidh

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I wonder how likely it is that the Biden administration will go full liberal brain and decide that fully pursuing the matter would be too "divisive" and so "we have to beat him at the ballot box".

In any case, selling official secrets is hardly even close to the worst thing that Trump has done (or may have done, I guess). But it offends the existing power structure, so if anything will stick it'll be that.