LIVE READ: The Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Is Here. Let's Discuss!

Spoiler Alert: Yeah, it was dumb for Trump to ask to unseal this thing.

It's here! It's here! The unsealed affidavit to search Mar-a-Lago and take back all the shit Trump stole from the government on his way out the door has hit the docket and it is NOT GOOD for the FPOTUS, which is what they're calling him in this document.

Because shit is crazy all the time now, it took a longass time for this thing to hit PACER. So, what was originally a Twitter thread is now going to be us reading this document together.

The first document that came online was the memorandum of law explaining the redactions in the affidavit. In short, they have to protect the witnesses and FBI agents, who are facing an avalanche of threats from Trump's rabid supporters. And if they put out the details of their investigation, it will point a big red arrow for anyone seeking to obstruct the investigation or intimidate witnesses.

“The first substantive document is the memorandum of law explaining redactions in affidavit. LSS: The FBI agents in this case are already facing threats and harassment (as is the judge), and they and witnesses need to be protected. https://t.co/MFlRfz9kMQ”

— Liz Dye (@Liz Dye) 1661529528 

On Januaary 18, 2022, Trump "voluntarily" handed over 15 boxes after he stonewalled for a year and the National Archives threatened to get Congress involved. In those boxes were 184 classified records, many of which were "unfoldered, intermixed with other records, and otherwise unproperly [sic] identified."

“In the 15 boxes Trump handed over, NARA found 184 classified docs, some highly sensitive.”

— Liz Dye (@Liz Dye) 1661529528 

The government says that, in the midst of negotiating to get the documents back, Trump's lawyer sent a letter setting out his understanding of Trump's magical telepathic declassification powers and demanding the government "provide this letter to any judicial officer who is asked to rule on any motion pertaining to this investigation, or on any application made in connection with any investigative request concerning this investigation."

Which is LOL.

“Kash Patel, DRINK”

— Liz Dye (@Liz Dye) 1661529528 

The government also notes that Devin Nunes's former lackey Kash Patel was flapping his yap over at Breitbart about Trump having declassified everything before he left office. Not cool, bro.

For the past two weeks, Trump has been screaming bloody murder about how cooperative he was with the search, even going so far as to put a better lock on the door of that storage locker next to the pool where he was stashing all those stolen classified documents. Turns out, what the government really said was something along the lines of, "seal off that room and don't let anyone in or out because it's now a crime scene."

“So when Trump said, "they called and asked me to put a better lock on the door" what he meant was "they told me to preserve the crime scene."”

— Liz Dye (@Liz Dye) 1661529528 

Here's the government pointing out in a footnote that it doesn't actually matter if the documents are classified anyway, since THEY ARE STILL GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.

Black bars, black bars, black bars, everywhere you look. Also, probable cause to believe that FPOTUS was hanging onto Classified National Defense Information, as well as regular old presidential records which didn't belong to him.

After a lot of redacted stuff which is presumably witness statements, the FBI agent making the affidavit says that "the STORAGE ROOM, FPOTUS's residential suite, Pine Hall, the '45 Office,' and other spaces within the PREMISES are not currently authorized locations for the storage of classified information or NDI." So, basically, that's where he was keeping it, and none of those places is a SCIF.

The agent sought, and presumably got, "authorization to search the '45 Office' and all storage rooms and any other rooms or locations where boxes or records may be stored within the PREMISES." BTW, the "45 Office" is the converted bridal suite at Mar-a-Lago. (And if you call it MAL, I will block you immediately. It's not a goddamn airport, people!)

The agent concludes that "Based on the foregoing facts and circumstances, I submit that probable cause exists to believe that evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(e), 2071, or 1519 will be found at the PREMISES." And, yeah, §793 is the Espionage Act.

Hey, remember those news reports about the FBI subpoenaing surveillance footage of the room and freaking out when they saw people moving boxes in and out of the storage closet? Safe bet that this request to seal the affidavit has something to do with that:

I believe that sealing this document is necessary because the items and information to be seized are relevant to an ongoing investigation and the FBI has not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation. Premature disclosure of the contents of this affidavit and related documents may have a significant and negative impact on the continuing investigation and may severely jeopardize its effectiveness by allowing criminal parties an opportunity to flee, destroy evidence (stored electronically and otherwise), change patterns of behavior, and notify criminal confederates.

Would Trump tip off criminal confederates? Russia, if you're listening ...

The FBI appears to have made a good faith effort to filter out attorney-client privileged material by employing a team of agents not involved in the investigation to search the "45 Office" and weed out any privileged documents.

These procedures will be executed by: (a) law enforcement personnel conducting this investigation (the "Case Team"); and (b) law enforcement personnel not participating in the investigation of the matter, who will search the "45 Office" and be available to assist in the event that a procedure involving potentially attorney-client privileged information is required (the "Privilege Review Team").

The Case Team will be responsible for searching the TARGET PREMISES. However, the Privilege Review Team will search the "45 Office" and conduct a review of the seized materials from the "45 Office" to identify and segregate documents or data containing potentially attorney-client privileged information.

If they found privileged materials, they agreed to either hang onto them without looking at them, ask the holder of the privilege to assert or waive it, or present the matter to a court for review.

And that's more or less it, except they've attached the letter from Trump's lawyer Evan Corcoran to DOJ Counter Intel Chief Jay Bratt, and it is LOL.

Public trust in the government is low. At such times, adherence to the rules and long-standing policies is essential. President Donald J. Trump is a leader of the Republican Party. The Department of Justice (DOJ), as part of the Executive Branch, is under the control of a President from the opposite party. It is critical, given that dynamic, that every effort is made to ensure that actions by DOJ that may touch upon the former President, or his close associates, do not involve politics.

BREAKING: The people who spent seven years screaming about the Deep State warn that public trust in the government is low.

Corcoran goes on to use the word "voluntary" about fifty times, insisting that Trump has been totally cooperative with the Archives — during the 14 months in which he stonewalled the agency and refused to give back presidential records, many of them classified. He then goes on to get pissy with the DOJ about leaks, which is fucking rich coming from someone in the Trump camp.

Then he tells the DOJ that you can't prosecute the president or former president for crimes involving classified materials based on some shit he just made up that has no basis in law.

Any attempt to impose criminal liability on a President or former President that involves his actions with respect to documents marked classified would implicate grave constitutional separation-of-powers issues. Beyond that, the primary criminal statute that governs the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material does not apply to the President.

Corcoran ends by instructing prosecutors to present his legal theories to a grand jury and/or a judge, so they will have the benefit of his "exculpatory evidence."

The official policy of DOJ further requires that prosecutors present exculpatory evidence to a grand jury. Pursuant to that policy, we request that DOJ provide this letter to any grand jury considering evidence in connection with this matter, or any grand jury asked to issue a subpoena for testimony or documents in connection with this matter.

You bet, little buddy.

Meanwhile, over at Fox, they would like to know why Attorney General Merrick Garland didn't just keep sending more subpoenas. 

“Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier: "But why also wasn’t there another subpoena, another effort at interaction? Were they seeing a total stiff-arm from the Trump people? That’s not in this document yet, at least we can’t see it."”

— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1661533677 

Okay, we are done LOL-ing for the moment. TL, DR, this is not good for Trump. Any rational human being would have fought this disclosure. But any rational human being would have just given the documents back a year ago, or better yet not taken them in the first place. But Donald Trump is no one's idea of a rational human being so ... here we are.

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