Andrew Weissman -- a former prosecutor with the American Department of Justice writes in this morning's New York Times:
We always knew that whatever the information about the Mar-a-Lago search that would be released by a federal court, it would not help Donald Trump.
We know that not just because Judge Bruce Reinhart already concluded, based on seeing the unredacted affidavit used to obtain the search warrant, that there was probable cause to believe three federal crimes had been committed and that evidence of those crimes was at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida club-residence.
Mr. Trump knows the answers to the most important unanswered questions: What material did he take from the White House, why did he take it, what had he done with it, and what was he planning to do with it? There is nothing that prevented him for over a year from publicly answering those questions; he surely has not remained silent because the answers are exculpatory.
Above all, the redacted affidavit (and an accompanying brief explaining the redactions), which was released on Friday, reveals more evidence of a righteous criminal case related to protecting information vital to our nation’s security.
There are still lots of unanswered questions:
The key questions that remain include what precisely is the full scope of what Mr. Trump took from the White House, why he took the documents and did not return them all and what he was doing with them all this time.
The redacted affidavit does not answer those questions, and the usually loquacious Mr. Trump has not addressed them. But we do now know that the Justice Department is one step closer to being able to hold Mr. Trump to account for his actions, if it so chooses.
Under Mr. Garland’s leadership, only the facts, law and precedent will matter. Mr. Trump’s penchant for hyperbole and spin to his base will be ineffective in a forum where the rule of law governs.
Mr. Trump -- who weaponized the U.S. Justice Department against his enemies -- now faces a legal firing squad. And they know how to shoot straight.
Image: researchgate.net
4 comments:
Yawn
It does get tiresome, PoV.
When I think about trump taking these classified papers to Mara lago, at first it was a laugh. Like how stupid could the guy be. You're not supposed to do that. He was being stupid, but he has a great opinion of himself and he most likely thought he could get away with it. Well not so much.
the former pres. most likely took the documents to either sell them to some foreign country or to use them in a trade with the Biden administration to not jail him. What ever his intent was, its just another e.g. of what a crook he is. It boggles the mind.
He's a thief, e.a.f -- pure and simple.
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