Feds likely obtained 'pulverizing' amount of evidence ahead of searching Trump's Mar-a-Lago home

[ItsjustMe]

Feds likely obtained 'pulverizing' amount of evidence ahead of searching Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, legal experts say

https://www.yahoo.com/news/feds-likely-obtained-pulverizing-amount-031253827.html


For months, as new details emerged about the end of the Trump administration, the Justice Department confronted criticism over its slow, cautious approach to investigating the former president.

Again and again, Attorney General Merrick Garland met that criticism with what has almost become his personal mantra: The Justice Department, he says, will follow the "facts and the law."

On Monday, the facts and the law led FBI agents to former President Donald Trump's home.

Trump confirmed Monday that federal agents had executed a search warrant at his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, in a search multiple news outlets later reported was related to whether he mishandled classified government documents.

Regardless of its focus, legal experts quickly reached a consensus about the raid: A pile of evidence must have backed up the warrant authorizing the search.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Hope they found many briefcases stuffed with cash just like you see on tv! .nt

[Richard D]

2. Especially if they are . . .

. . . Rubles

[Botany]

3. According to "the experts" on MSNBC the FBI had to get by a number of people and legal reasons to...

... conduct that raid. 2 or 3 levels in the FBI and then by the Trump appointed FBI director, then the US AG
Merrick Garland, and then by a Fed Judge who had to see proof that a crime or crimes had been committed,
proof that the suspect would not respond to a subpoena, and that the FBI had proof that there was most likely
evidence @ Merde Log Oh of criminal activity.

Link to tweet

[Jarqui]

4. One of the reports I read said FBI agents were ar Mar-a-lago in June

They found classified documents (which he was supposed to have returned some time ago)
They ordered that he padlock the room the classified documents were in.

So he is already in violation of the law two times over - the same law he screamed Hillary should be locked up for. Forest Gump's got this covered "Stupid is as stupid does"

EDIT:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/politics/mar-a-lago-search-warrant-fbi-donald-trump/index.html

...
In early June, a handful of investigators made a rare visit to the property seeking more information about potentially classified material from Trump's time in the White House that had been taken to Florida. The four investigators, including Jay Bratt, the chief of the counterintelligence and export control section at the Justice Department, sat down with two of Trump's attorneys, Bobb and Evan Corcoran, according to a source present for the meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Trump stopped by and greeted the investigators near a dining room. After he left, without answering any questions, the investigators asked the attorneys if they could see where Trump was storing the documents. The attorneys took the investigators to the basement room where the boxes of materials were being stored, and the investigators looked around the room before eventually leaving, according to the source.

A second source said that Trump came in to say hi and made small talk but left while the attorneys spoke with investigators. The source said some of the documents shown to investigators had top secret markings.
Five days later, on June 8, Trump's attorneys received a letter from investigators asking them to further secure the room where the documents were stored. Aides subsequently added a padlock to the room.
In April and May, aides to Trump at Mar-a-Lago were interviewed by the FBI as part of the probe into the handling of presidential records, according to a source familiar with the matter.
....

From that alone, if true, Trump blatantly broke the law for having classified documents in his possession - long after it had been disclosed that he took classified documents from the White House and was supposed to have returned them. And he did not secure the classified documents in his possession nearly 18 months after departing the White House.

Trump deserved to get raided for that. All the FBI is doing is their job when Trump wasn't doing his.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Yeah CNN's link really expanded the info (wish they had updated it earlier)

But I had been hearing buzz about some interactions/interviews regarding the NARA investigations and the fact that investigators were actually onsite and shown where stuff was, answers a whole pile of questions.

I wouldn't be surprised if that initial team not only documented, "in writing", the locations and suspected contents of what they found but may have actually taken photos of the locations, and that would be used as evidence to justify a search and seizure, including specifying what items at what locations were to be removed.

[onetexan]

5. Remember Merrick Garland's "without fear or favor" talk? He's now walking the walk.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/26/garland-charge-trump-capitol-attack-jan-6-doj

[gab13by13]

6. I wonder if they can tell if a document had been copied?

[Lonestarblue]

7. I wonder who he sold the classified information to.

[Marthe48]

8. How worried should we be?

I imagine that traitor couldn't make a copy of his ass, let alone a document. And I have doubts he surrounds himself with people who bothered to learn something practical.

[NJCher]

12. Just guessing here

If there were copiers at mar a lago that had controls put on them. Most of us who have worked for large institutions or corporations know we have to enter a code to identify ourselves as someone who has access to a printer. This information (who made copies, when, and how many) is categorized by access code.

Some of it could undoubtedly be isolated to certain individuals who could then be questioned.

Making copies, even on high speed, sophisticated copiers is still dicey, and trump would never be up for the task. He might be able to make a few here and there but duplication of large amounts of data would be beyond him. The first jam and he would be over his head. When these machines jam, they give you codes that you have to look at to locate the jam. Then there are specific ways of pulling out the paper.

It can also be a messy job, depending on the ink system.

If you try to do too many copies in a short period of time, the machine can over heat and that can cause problems. This varies depending on the quality of the machine and whether it has had regular maintenance.

So yes, I think they would be looking at info like this, then questioning the operator from that copy session.

[LiberalFighter]

14. There are copy machines that image what is copied to the internal drive.

[sop]

10. Trump will likely try to blackmail the DOJ, threatening to spill top secret information if indicted.

If he hasn't already done so.

[dalton99a]

11. Kick

"If I were a senior department official who reviewed this prior to pulling the trigger on presenting an affidavit to a magistrate judge, I would've wanted a sufficient quality and quantity of evidence that was so pulverizing in its effect to simply neutralize any arguments to the contrary," said Laufman, now a partner at the law firm Wiggin and Dana LLP.

Indeed, for a deliberate Justice Department keen to turn the page from the politicization of the Trump era, the raid of Mar-a-Lago most likely required reviews at the highest levels and convincing evidence supporting a finding of probable cause, legal experts said.

"I cannot imagine the amount of probable cause set forth in a search warrant's supporting FBI affidavit of Trump's Florida home," said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor from Northern Virginia. He added in an email to Insider that the number of "review levels" for the search warrant "must have been enormous, including by Trump's FBI appointee Christopher Wray."

[lark]

13. Just hope SS didn't destroy everything first.

Don't know WTF they were notified, but it makes me sick at my stomach that they could destroy all info and make this admin look so bae. drumpfs' SS were totally down with the conspiracy and not to be trusted one tiny bit. I sure as fuck hope I'm wrong, but this just is starting to make me sick. Especially no f/u from FBI, Justice regrding this, not good.

Yes, I know I'm a worry wort, wish I wasn't so anxious.

[LiberalFighter]

15. If SS at Mara Lago are involved in any coverup they need to be prosecuted.

[Rebl2]

16. Absolutely

they do!