Kismet wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:27 am
HooDat wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:22 am
I am confused by people who can't look past Trump to see the far larger potential implications of what just happened in FL. People like
Putin send the federal police to raid their former political adversaries after they knocked them out of power, not US Presidents. Believe me, I firmly believe that no one, not even and perhaps especially not POTUS, is above the law. Heck, you could convince me that part of the price of having the honor of being POTUS is you should have a nice federally funded retirement - but put away where you can't have any more influence over policy.
With that said, if you are going to deploy federal law enforcement to raid the home of a former US president - particularly one that can (and is expected to) run for office again - you better be REALLY certain that what you are after is unprecedented. Short of treason, you should be aiming for something a lot less dramatic, if for no other reason than you need to be extremely prudent with the use of government power over your political opponents.
Appearances here matter. But, I suspect that they got the exact appearance they wanted - and now have their sound bite of the feds raiding Trump as "proof" of his guilt of
something.
I don't care what your party of choice might be - this use of Presidential power should concern you. And yes it is
Presidential power that was deployed - "notified" or not, the FBI is part of the Executive Branch and therefore reports to the POTUS. They are HIS cops.
I have to think that they agree 100%= sure and that this was signed off by the top of DoJ - Garland and his deputy Monaco plus FBI head and that they will release this at the appropriate time and place. A federal magistrate signed off on the search warrant.
This isn't the DOPUS crowd at DoJ. Garland is a former and long standing appellate court federal judge who knows his way around. He is in this job because he knows the deal here.
He is on the record that NOBODY is above the law
Garland should really be in the Supreme Court so maybe the McConnell crowd were savvy keeping him off getting trump as a complete moron to take their choices on scotus then get him run out by the FBI who’s now run by Garland? Would be long game for sure.
What we know — and don't know — about Trump and the FBI
Mike Allen
Mike Allen
, author of Axios AM
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A view of Mar-a-Lago from the water
Mar-a-Lago. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Hours after the FBI searched former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, his supporters gathered outside in an impromptu rally: Trump flags flew, pickups roared and "We're Not Gonna Take It" blared.
Why it matters: Trump and the American right mobilized to use the raid as a symbol of government overreach and "political persecution," with a speed, fury and ferocity not seen since he left office.
The FBI and Justice Department have said nothing official about what happened. Republicans instantly moved to portray the raid as President Biden trying to hurt a potential 2024 opponent.
The conservative National Review said: "[T]he idea that a law enforcement organization under a sitting president would raid the home of his predecessor, opponent in the previous election, and potential opponent in the next election, has no close parallel in American history."
Catch up quick: With Trump in Manhattan, the FBI raided Trump's Palm Beach estate on Monday, apparently as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
"They even broke into my safe!" Trump said in a statement.
A senior U.S. official tells NBC's Kelly O'Donnell that the FBI was present "for the majority of the day," but said Trump’s use of the word "raid" wasn't appropriate: They were "not breaking down doors here."
The official described it as an orderly execution of a search warrant.
The FBI notified the Secret Service that a warrant would be executed. The Secret Service "facilitated access to the Florida Trump property as fellow federal agents but did not take part in investigation or search," O'Donnell tweeted.
Outside Mar-a-Lago last night, a Trump supporter shouts as Kamrel Eppinger reports live on WPTV 5, the NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach. Photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted that the Justice Department, which would have had to approve the raid, "has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization."
"When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department," McCarthy added. "Attorney General [Merrick] Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar."
Republicans argue that the quest for purloined documents wasn't a sufficient imperative for such an extraordinary search.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Trump opponent in the 2024 presidential primary, called the raid "another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime's political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves."
Keep in mind: We know little definitively here. Unknown:
Why this raid and why now?
What does the FBI know to justify it?
Who approved it, and why?
What did agents seek, and what did they actually find?
Will it lead to charges against the former president?
The bottom line: These investigations are top secret. So more likely than not, we won't get the full picture any time soon.