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resource NW's avatar

He seems to be taking legal advice from Tom Fitton, who, as everyone here points out, is not a lawyer.

2Cats2Furious's avatar

I think the larger issue - in light of the new SCOTUS decision that Ellie cites below - is that the DOJ would have spent valuable time litigating the issue of proper venue, and most likely ended up in SDFL anyway. Jack Smith didn’t want to play that game.

And as I noted in response to conti ben above, it appears that most of the alleged crimes occurred in SDFL, with possibly some of Counts 1-31 occurring in Bedminster NJ.

Add to that the fact that both defendants reside in SDFL, along with a number of likely witnesses, and it’s pretty clearly the most appropriate venue.

2Cats2Furious's avatar

True, but Jack Smith rather obviously doesn’t want to waste valuable time litigating over proper venue, which would most likely end up in SDFL anyway.

conti ben's avatar

"No, it really doesn’t support your suspicions."

LOL...Probably not! I'm just wondering what the "random generator" is...names in a hat? dice? Like. how is the process protected from tampering

And lemme be clear...I REALLY don't know nor do I pretend to know...Just genuinely curious

cmd RadicalLIBRaphaelWarnock's avatar

Seems like I read somewhere that there are some of the recovered docs that were too sensitive to be used in this case, even with whatever limits there are. Like couldn't be included in the indictment because to secret to even describe them.

cmd RadicalLIBRaphaelWarnock's avatar

Ha, as we were driving past the courthouse in Fort Pierce the other day, we commented that at least they wouldn't be having the trial there. Oops.

resource NW's avatar

Don't be afraid of the paint! You have lots, use lots.

harryeagar's avatar

Wait, what? trump is being defended by a lobbyist for the communists? Has anybody told Joe McCarthy about this? Or Donald trump?

harryeagar's avatar

A local columnist at the newspaper here in deep red Carroll County -- for whom trump can do no wrong-- called on Sunday for him to drop out, lest all other Republicans go down to defeat with him.

OTOH, the columnist, a retired banker and frothing at the mouth Christian, also thinks that without trump, Republicans are offering America exactly what it wants and will control all gummint for decades.

harryeagar's avatar

There is no need for the documents to be classified tosupport the charges, but they are classified, so the gummint will have to deal with that.

I have seen speculation (probably on Liz Dye's funny podcast) that the prosecution has chosen documents whose secrecy has either been compromised anyway, or deal with operations so far in the past as not to be so worthwhile now.

harryeagar's avatar

Not only Parlatore is lying. Some former AUSA on Newsmax opined that DOJ policy requires charging the highest provable crime, which no doubt sounded profound to the goobers watching Newsmax but begs the question: how do you then bargain for a plea?

2Cats2Furious's avatar

SDFL apparently uses a “wheel” system, which is somewhat akin to pulling out names from a lottery system.

As I mentioned before, there are exceptions that would cause a judge’s name to be removed from the system. Federal judges at the district and appellate court level are required to file disclosure forms. For example, if a federal judge owns $100k in AT&T stock (directly, and not through a mutual fund), then that judge’s name would be removed from possible selection if a case was filed where AT&T was a party. Or let’s say a judge’s spouse was employed by Goldman Sachs, their name would be removed from the assignment of a case involving GS.

The system does not, however, remove a judge from the selection process just because they happened to be appointed by a specific President.

Other decisions for possible recusal would be based on the standard of the “appearance of impropriety,” but that would occur after the random system assigns a case to a specific judge.

Hope this helps!

IMPOed's avatar

Cannon is the surprise you get with your Cracker Jacks.

2Cats2Furious's avatar

You understand blackmail, right? Usually “pay me money or I’ll expose this secret information that is damaging to you.”

Graymail, while not specifically illegal, is “drop these charges against me or I’ll expose this top secret government information at trial.”

Does that help?