Trump Lawyers Swallow Hard As Judge Orders FBI To Redact Affidavit For Publication

The dog is about to catch that car. Bigly.

Be careful what you wish for, kids, 'cuz ya just might get it! That's the lesson from yesterday's hearing before US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Florida, regarding the affidavit underlying the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago.

Every media outlet in America plus Trump's pals at Judicial Watch sued to gain access to the document, which lays out the probable cause to search the property and seize evidence of criminal activity and is usually sealed until after an indictment is issued. Conservatives point to the very mistrust in government they themselves spent the past six years stoking as justification for the violation of every protocol that protects both ongoing investigations and the rights of innocent people who haven't been charged.

“I am urging, actually insisting, the DOJ and the FBI lay their cards on the table as to why this course of action was necessary. Until that is done the suspicion will continue to mount.”

— Lindsey Graham (@Lindsey Graham) 1660247284 

You can bet your bottom dollar that if the government published that affidavit on its own, Fox News would scream bloody murder about the government trampling poor Donald Trump's due process rights.

In the event, Judge Reinhart disagreed with the Justice Department's position that there was no version of the document which could be produced to the public and still protect the witnesses and sanctity of the investigation.

"As I ruled from the bench at the conclusion of the hearing, I find that on the present record the Government has not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed," he wrote in an order memorializing his verbal ruling. "It is ORDERED that by noon EST on Thursday, August 25, 2022, the Government shall file under seal its proposed redactions along with a legal memorandum setting forth the justification for the proposed redactions."

So in a week, the DOJ will come back with a memo explaining what it wants to redact and why, all filed under seal. At which point, we're going to have a repeat of exactly what happened last week when these idiots fucked around and found out with the warrant itself. Because thanks to their hooting and hollering, we all know that a federal judge found probable cause to believe that Trump violated the Espionage act. And in about a week, we're all going to find out why .

Well played, fellas!

 Politico reports that Jay Bratt, head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, described the investigation in court as being “in its early stages.” The outlet also reported that Trump's attorney Christina Bobb was in the courtroom but declined to speak to reporters. She did, however, have time to speak to Fox News's Laura Ingraham.

“Laura Ingraham coaches Trump attorney Christina Bobb live on the air. She doesn't seem to think she's doing a great job.”

— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1660874975 

Ingraham seemed fairly unimpressed with the decision of Trump's legal team not to take a position in court on the unsealing of the affidavit.

"Are you not concerned that, because you didn't join any of these motions for, again, the full release of this affidavit that you're then waiving possible objections to the way redactions are being done by the Justice Department later on?" Ingraham wondered incredulously.

Bobb, whose previous role was as an associate at the distinguished law firm of One America News Network, assured Ingraham that all would be well.

"We would maintain that we haven't waived our right, and that that still is maintained. We need to wait and see," she said blandly.

Did we mention that Trump is having a real hard time finding competent counsel? Oh, we did . HUH.

Well, one of two things is true here. Either, the former president, a purported billionaire, has hired a lawyer who actually believes that sleeping on your rights has something to do with the Tooth Fairy. Or they were hoping that, if they kept their heads down, Judge Reinhart would do 'em a solid and keep that stuff sealed.

And honestly, we have no idea which one it is! But speaking of people who do not belong in this picture ... Patrick Byrne has entered the chat. Because clearly we exist in a malfunctioning algorithm that just feeds the output back into itself, generating ever weirder iterations of the same data until the sun burns out and we all die.

Why are we talking about the Overstock weirdo who used to bump bits with Russian agent Maria Butina ( the CIA made him do it! ) before teaming up with Sidney Powell to demand martial law to overturn the election? Well, because that nutter just filed a motion to intervene in this case, on the grounds that he has personal knowledge of Donald Trump's magical declassification incantations.

The facts stated herein are based upon my personal knowledge. The dialogue quoted here was documented approximately 30-40 days after it was spoken in my book THE DEEP RIG: How ELECTION FRAUD COST DONALDJ. TRUMP THE WIIlTE HOUSE, BY A MAN WHO DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM (OR WHAT TO SEND FRIENDS WHO ASK, "WHY DO YOU DOUBT THE INTEGRITY OF THE 2020 ELECTION?") 111 (2021), a book written in the last week of January, 2020 and first week of February, 2020."

Let's get this party started, kids! The man with the good shit has arrived.

Byrne goes on to describe the infamous meeting in the Oval Office on December 18, 2020, after Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn, and Byrne got snuck into the West Wing and had that screaming showdown where the White House lawyers told them it was illegal to seize all the voting machines and no one was going to work with Special Counsel Sidney Powell. Byrne's account leaves out witness reports that he was “nonstop housing meatballs" — no, really, that's real — as Rudy Giuliani called Pat Cipollone and Eric Herschmann "a bunch of pussies."

It's like if the Coen Brothers directed a coup.

Anyway! If we have understood Mr. Byrne's rantings — pro se, but also with the assistance of counsel! — his point is that Donald Trump declassified whatever was found at Mar-a-Lago like Jesus speaking the universe into existence, so it's fine, actually that the former president was keeping government property in a closet by the pool at his private club.

As in Marbury, the final act was complete in this case when President Trump verbally declassified the documents that were confiscated in the raid on President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. There was no violation of the Presidential Records Act. The final act was speaking the decree into existence even though the declassification of said documents had not yet been evidenced. The search warrant was unlawful and improper and should have never been issued. The government cannot classify documents that have already been declassified. As such, this Court should unseal all documents relating to this search warrant so that the public can see the events that transpired prior to this unprecedented raid on President Trump's Mar-a -Lago residence.

Neat!

Look for this motion to be denied by lunchtime tomorrow, on grounds of OMG, GO AWAY YOU NUTBAG! But it was fun while it lasted. Kinda like this post, right?

[ Politico / US v. Sealed Search Warrant , Docket via Court Listener]

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