King Joe and the dueling investigations
[Hat tip: commenter “AesopFan”.]
Today’s we-now-live-in-a-3rd-world-dictatorship news from the Biden administration is Merrick Garland’s breathtaking announcement that he has named a special counsel to conduct a criminal investigation into Donald Trump. Given the complete absence of evidence of any wrongdoing, it’s very clear that the Democrats are terrified of Trump and that they will do anything they can to destroy his candidacy. My suspicion is that this will backfire and, instead, solidify Trump’s support.
Then again, perhaps they would actually prefer Trump as a candidate because they think he’s tainted goods already and they can defeat him fairly easily, with or without fraud. So maybe they want that backlash and solidification of his support on the right, in order to encourage his nomination. Either way, though, they probably figure the appointment of a special counsel is a win/win, because they either imprison Trump as so many have been salivating to do for so long – placating their base – or they nudge the GOP voters into nominating Trump and they think he’s now a loser.
That’s one counter-theory, anyway. Or maybe the Democrats are indeed terrified of Trump. Personally, though, I don’t think so.
More:
When Biden was asked about Trump’s plan to run again for president, there were lots of standard things he could have said, such as saying that he looks forward to a hard-fought campaign or that he doesn’t think Trump can win or that the American people won’t stand for yet another Trump term in office. Biden, however, said none of those things. Instead, Biden said something bizarre and fundamentally un-American: “Well, we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by—if we—if he does run. I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.”
Ignore the obligatory cover language about “our Constitution.” The key words are “I’m making sure he…does not become the next President again.”
It truly is an extraordinary statement by Biden or any president – or it would have been just a few short years ago. Things have moved along towards tyranny so rapidly, though, that it is no longer surprising.
As for my own opinion, I’m with John Hinderaker on this: it’s dueling investigations, and with the help of their MSM buddies the left believes it can overshadow the GOP’s hearings on Biden:
The Democrats have been planning on indicting Trump for a long time, and appointing a special counsel is part of their plan. It allows them to wash their hands of the investigation, pretending that impartial justice is simply taking its course…
I assume that Smith will be able to bring criminal charges against Trump in Washington, D.C., and it is almost a foregone conclusion that Trump will be convicted (of whatever the charges may be) by a hyperpartisan D.C. jury…
While the ability of a special counsel to wreak havoc is well established, Congressional investigations tend to fizzle out…
So I expect the dueling investigations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden to be a mismatch. The Trump investigation will likely result in an indictment and criminal conviction. The Biden investigation will tell us what we already know, and its findings will be a deep secret unless you read Power Line, InstaPundit, Breitbart, and other conservative news sources. Most news outlets will parrot the Democrat line that Biden’s corruption is a “long-debunked conspiracy theory.”
I hope I’m wrong. But that’s the way I imagine it will go. However, one other possibility is the Netanyahu route. Netanyahu was indicted on trumped-up (pun intended) charges, the trial is still ongoing but the prosecution hasn’t been doing well, and Netanyahu was re-elected after some time in the political wilderness.
[NOTE: See also this at Ace’s.]
It is important not to forget that the very worst elements of GOPe are not only blaming (stupidly, and without evidence) Trump personally for the dismal performance of the Republicans in the Midterms, but attempting to divide and to weaken the MAGA movement. Notwithstanding all his failings (and despite his age, many preferring a younger candidate), Trump inspires far more fear and more irrational hatred from the unhinged radical left than does even DeSantis (the charismatic Kari perhaps just as much), who, should he run, will no doubt be met with equally vicious hostility.
i don’t believe much will come of the hunter hearings, judicial watch did as much to ascertain event in benghazi as trey gowdy’s kangaroo court, and yet it didn’t get very far, assange pinned the tail on red queen, well that will teach him
meanwhile, people will imagine dragons, like the louise penny spec script for mara lago, pretend january 6th was anything more than a roudy water buffalo convention, while cities burned for the better part of a year,
Jordan Peterson on Trump. “He’s not a psychopath.”
Dr. Steve Turley looks at interview with Piers Morgan and offers his own assessment of the presidential landscape.
Turley thinks it’s no Trump that has raised the political temperature to boiling in America, but the left activists. “Activists always raise the temperature.”
He assesses that Trump will get the nomination
While DeSantis made tremendous gains in the Cuban/Hispanic community, it remains to be seen whether he can penetrate rural America
Turley suggests a Trump/DeSantis ticket that would combine the strengths of both men
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_xDzx6JfVA
Trump/DeSantis– That way while Trump is in prison, his campaign can continue with DeSantis out front.
Trump, larger than life, the first person elected President while incarcerated. Pardons himself, out on bail while the SC decides if that’s legal.
I don’t see the ongoing prosecutions of Trump as evidence that Democrats fear Trump.
Rather I see the persecutions “pour encourager les autres” — for the encouragement of others — including us.
I read Hinderaker also and can’t imagine the dueling investigation any different. But do think they are afraid of someone being able to take on the Deep State and the Democrats/ Marxists in a no holds barred fight, right now DJT is the only only one with enough backing of the population and motivation for what they did to him.
I certainly think the actions of late of the Eff Bee Eye is to scare off conservatives from DJT.
It’s definitely going to be exciting!
Trump fights, and does not back down like the usual GOP politician.
The Left would not be spending so many resources, if they not fear him.
I would hate to see DeSantis take second fiddle to anyone as VP. He needs to be at the top of a ticket or not there at all. Playing second to Trump would likely hurt him in the long run. Maybe a DeSantis and Tim Scott ticket. I would like to see a Republican nominee for the Party ticket announce BEFORE the primary, who the VP nominee is
Run as a team at the party primary level.
“…He’s not a psychopath…”
Actually, the psychopath is “Biden”.
…Though in “his” “favor”, one can say “he”‘s crazy like a fox—make that, “like a bat out of hell”….
A “bombshell” report…that should surprise NOBODY(!):
“…Body Cam Footage Shows Paul Pelosi Opened Door For Police Before Alleged Attack”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nbc-body-cam-footage-shows-paul-pelosi-opened-door-police-alleged-attack
And like the “best and the brightest”(TM) of psychos, there’s no shortage of creativity (or “intelligence”)…
Revenues from “Operation Hunter’s Fine Art” drying up?
No problem! Let’s invent FTX (AKA the WEAPONIZED SEC’s “slush fund”???)
(Moral/ethical “intelligence” is, of course, another issue entirely…. Let’s just call it the Democratic Party’s “Black Hole”….)
OK, then…
“Arizona AG opens inquiry into Maricopa County election irregularities, possible legal violations;
“Election integrity unit demands evidence, full report before midterm results certified.”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/arizona-ag-opens-inquiry-maricopa-county-election-irregularities-possible
So remind us: How long are they supposed to hold on to ballots after an election…?
Andrea Widburg: Given the complete absence of evidence of any wrongdoing
Huh? The National Archives requested Trump surrender the documents. Then a court ordered Trump to surrender the documents. Then Trump’s attorney attested all the documents had been returned. Then a court ordered search found the documents still in Trump’s possession. That’s patent evidence of wrongdoing.
Andrea Widburg: With regard to the raid, the U.S. President’s plenary power over classifying documents means that Trump, simply by removing the documents from the White House, declassified them.
Just removing the documents does not declassify them. The courts have held that classification is an administrative function. Classification is simply how the government marks sensitive documents, including those relating to the national defense. Classification and declassification each require an administrative act.
Regardless, 18 U.S. Code § 793 does not depend on classification, but on whether the information is relating to the national security. Sensitive human intelligence information and information garnered by the United States government about the nuclear and missile capabilities of foreign governments are clearly relating to the national security.
as long as it takes to certify the steal, barry
they looked at this rolling dumpsterfire, and they said it’s totes fine
don’t ever change zach,
Any investigation of Trump will move along at lightning speed and produce indictments in record time.
Why?
Because they hate Trump and his political ideology. You know, the MAGA bit.
If there is anything the power elites in DC really hate, is an economically powerful USA. After all,that would most benefit the citizenry – the average person – and if there is any entity the DC elites hate more than Trump, it’s the average American citizen.
Also the media will cover on a second by second basis the progress and news bits tossed their way by the special prosecutors propaganda experts; it will be 24/7 reporting of all of Trump’s crime, imagined or imagined.
The media talking heads will once again be saying, non-stop, “the walls are closing in on Trump.”
(Geez, I am trying to remember where I have heard that before in re: to Trump).
If anyone thinks the Russia Russia scam was effective in neutering Trump’s presidency , that was just an encore compared to what’s coming.
The only thing that’s up in the air is whether or not the FBI will drag Trump off from his home, in PJs, handcuffed, in the middle of the night – with all the media cameras covering this LIVE – or if they will allow him to turn himself in.
Presently , I am leaning to the middle of the night scenario.
Contrast this for -sure -to- indict- Trump-yesterday investigation to the results of the Durham investigation.
Oh, I forgot, there have been NO results.
Yep, when those targeted are demokratic party DC insiders and bureaucrats, you can sleep soundly knowing it will be a waste of time
Speaking of a waste to time; that will also be the result of any Congressional hearings the dumbpublicans hold on………well, really anything and everything
“Sensitive human intelligence information and information garnered by the United States government about the nuclear and missile capabilities of foreign governments are clearly relating to the national security.”
Hey, idiot! You might want to keep up with the lies you’re still allowed to repeat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/14/trump-motive-mar-a-lago-documents/
And just to make it clear to your damaged brain, the key thing about that story is that even after the seized documents have now been thoroughly reviewed by the federal government, THERE IS NO NEW INFORMATION OR EVIDENCE OFFERED TO SUPPORT THE ANONYMOUS CLAIMS THAT THE DOCUMENTS CONTAINED ANY CLASSIFIED NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION.
“The Washington Post has previously reported that among the most sensitive classified documents recovered by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago were documents about Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter.”
That claim is repeated but NOTHING is offered up as new or additional evidence to support it. Not even more anonymous sources.
So again, to make it clear to even someone as dumb as you:
1. There is apparently no longer even an allegation that Trump had any illegal or sinister motive for retaining the documents.
2. Even after the documents being in the possession of the federal government for months of review, there has been NO ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OR STATEMENTS OFFERED TO SUPPORT ANONYMOUS CLAIMS THE DOCUMENTS INCLUDED CLASSIFIED MILITARY OR NUCLEAR SECRETS.
Mike
one recalls they had classified the actual statements that general flynn had made to the bureau agents, whereas they printed the lie, for three years, ala the legend of liberty valance
If it weren’t for their mental illness, lefties like Zachriel would be fun to laugh at. Citing their old lies to justify their new lies.
Once in a while I get a Twitter notification that looks interesting and I go there. Today it was a tweet by Brit Hume. Hume is no bomb thrower. The comments by lefties on his tweet, like comments by lefties all over twitter, are irrational and bizarre.
It would seem that intense hatred causes mental illness and eventually insanity. And intense hatred that is inspired by a need for moral superiority is so twisted it exposes the evil within.
MBunge: 1. There is apparently no longer even an allegation that Trump had any illegal or sinister motive for retaining the documents.
There’s no evidence the jewel thief intended to fence the stolen gems. Apparently, he just liked shiny things.
MBunge: 2. Even after the documents being in the possession of the federal government for months of review, there has been NO ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OR STATEMENTS OFFERED TO SUPPORT ANONYMOUS CLAIMS THE DOCUMENTS INCLUDED CLASSIFIED MILITARY OR NUCLEAR SECRETS.
Court filings show that the search yielded a multitude of top secret documents marked classified, including some marked SCI, as well many other documents belonging to the government. Regardless, Trump was ordered by the court to return government documents marked classified, and he failed to do so.
ETA: To prosecute Trump, the government would have to show that the documents do, indeed, relate to the national security. That doesn’t seem much of a stretch, however.
Was it strange that Garland said that the fact that Trump and Biden planned to run for president made the appointment of a special counsel necessary?
After going on about how the DOJ was above partisanship for several minutes, didn’t he confirm that it wasn’t?
I just watched “The Death of Stalin.” One of the gags in the film is Molotov (yes, THAT Molotov) vigorously attesting to the guilt and awfulness of his wife who he thought was executed as a traitor to the USSR, only for her to turn up alive and vindicated as being wrongfully accused. The gag is that Molotov only pretends to believe the truth, that his wife was innocent, because that is what he’s now being told while he secretly still believes in the initial lie, that his wife was guilty.
Zachriel is Molotov. He still wants to believe the initial lie, even when the people who lied to him and now changing their story.
Mike
“Court filings show that the search yielded a multitude of top secret documents marked classified, including some marked SCI, as well many other documents belonging to the government.”
The government’s overuse of classification and top-secret designations has been well-known and remarked upon for many years now.
Mike
No matter how bizarre, after everything the DOJ has done, and not done, after all the, um, FIBS it’s told, stories its fabricated people it’s framed, entrapped, set up and rolled…I think it’s remarkable, even touching, that some people still have faith in it.
MBunge: He still wants to believe the initial lie
Our position hasn’t changed. As for whether the documents include missile and nuclear secrets, the reporting could be wrong, and it’s important to be skeptical, but you have judged the reports without evidence. We do know that there were documents marked top secret SCI, so that is stronger evidence than “IS NOT!”
We also know Trump was ordered by the court to surrender any documents marked classified, that his attorney attested that all such documents had been returned, but he still had such documents in his possession.
MBunge: The government’s overuse of classification and top-secret designations has been well-known and remarked upon for many years now.
Sure. To successfully prosecute, the government would have to show the information was relating to the national security. That doesn’t seem like such a stretch.
Barry Meislin: I think it’s remarkable, even touching, that some commentators still have faith in the DOJ.
It has nothing to do with faith in the DOJ, but a consilience of the available evidence, and also that, if there is a prosecution, the evidence will have to be presented in court. How did you think it worked?
Consilience? CONSILIENCE??
Them’s fightin’ words, son!!
Looks like I’ll just have to rephrase:
No matter how bizarre, after everything the DOJ has done, and not done, after all the, um, FIBS it’s told, stories its fabricated, consilience it’s concocted, people it’s framed, entrapped, set up and rolled…I STILL think it’s remarkable, even touching, that some people still have faith in it.
“Our position hasn’t changed.”
So…why isn’t Hillary Clinton in jail?
Mike
And in very much related news, alas, it looks like Mexico has surpassed the US in the Liberty rankings…
Greenwald:
“Here’s the leftist president of Mexico,
@lopezobrador_ , praising the un-banning of Trump [by Elon Musk’s Twitter].
“It’s vital to remember: Trump’s banning by Twitter and FB was condemned by leaders all over the world.
“Only US liberals and corporate journalists – the epicenter of censorship – cheered it.” [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]—
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1594346866849841154?cxt=HHwWhIC89eaBoaAsAAAA
Ole!
they worship the cobalt bomb, stand away from the red crystal,
AMLO is an odd figure, certainly on the left, probably like debs would be in this era, he was on the outs of both the pri and the pan (they turned out to be the proverbial two legs bad) one of the major fixers, juan collado, has been nabbed and others are being wrapped up, a believer in the vasconcelos notion of hispanic identity,
whatever man
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/11/20/what-elephant-associated-press-falsely-denies-that-there-is-any-evidence-that-joe-biden-discussed-hunters-business-dealings/
“How did you think it worked?”
One would have to be blind NOT to see, NOT to sense, not to FULLY COMPREHEND how the Democratic Party’s (and its allies’ and supporters’) carefully construed stratagem of unceasing, untiring, unrepentant, thuggish—and illegal—intimidation against perceived political opponents truly works.
OTOH, it’s not a crime to be blind…
Yes, it’s a free country, in spite of the best efforts of its current government; and people can STILL choose to be blind…if they so desire.
If it comports with their idea of the Pursuit of Happiness….(though this has too, too, often been redefined as—transformed into—the Pursuit of Hatred…
“appointing Jack Smith, the former chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section,”
Excuse me, but I don’t think the DOJ has any integrity.
As for Merrick Garland, the U.S. dodged a bullet when the Republicans kept him off the Supreme Court.
May I suggest not feeding the troll?
i know argument clinic is too tempting some times, jack smith was party to the remarkable reversal 9-0, by the US Supreme Court (a matter the Times was oblique in pointing out), but like the case against Tom Delay or Conrad Black or Ted Stevens, they never recovered the position they had been cheated out of,
Warning in case anyone isn’t aware of him. Zachriel does this shtick over at Maggies. He’s troll and a serial liar.
Be warned.
Thanks Robert.
He’s quite transparent, though.
(Refreshing to discover that there are some on the murky end of the Left who still are….)
For example, “Jack Smith” and “Public Integrity” in one breath….
Ah, but it’s the Obama (and “Biden”) DOJ’s “Public Integrity” Section…
Oh well, then….
Jack Smith, continued…
(Some/All of this is likely already known to many readers….)
“New Trump special prosecutor overturned by Supreme Court, tied to IRS scandal;
“Jack Smith set up infamous meeting in IRS targeting of conservative groups, Congress found.”—
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/new-trump-special-prosecutor-overturned-supreme-court-tied-irs
Key grafs:
“The special counsel named by the Biden administration to investigate Donald Trump oversaw a Justice Department unit rebuked by the Supreme Court for its prosecution of a prominent Republican and was linked by Congress to the IRS scandal that targeted conservative groups….
“…In 2014, the House Oversight Committee concluded that during Smith’s earlier stint at DOJ he set up a critical meeting between his department and IRS official Lois Lerner that set in motion the targeting of conservative nonprofits that became one of the signature scandals of the Obama administration….
“Smith’s tenure at DOJ also faced other controversy. He took over the Public Integrity Section in the aftermath of revelations of prosecutorial misconduct in a corruption case against Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, and he decided to drop several other pending corruption proseutions.
“But his section proceeded with the prosecution of then-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, securing a jury conviction on 11 felony counts alleging the GOP governor’s family accepted gifts in return for official public acts.
“But the Supreme Court reversed the conviction in a stunning loss for DOJ, concluding that the definition of public acts used by Smith’s team was unconstitutional and exceeded the definition in the bribery statutes….”
And so, we present…”Public Integrity”, “Biden”-style…!
Re: Trump and the documents he had
Any moron, any idiot can see that if Obama or Clinton or Biden – or any demokrat – had taken the equivalent in “classified” documents with them upon leaving office, not one F’n thing would happen to them, not one question would be raised about the nature of the documents taken .
Recall what happened to Sandy Berger, the former Bill Clinton aide when he was caught red-handed stealing documents that were ALREADY in the National Archives.
That’s right , nothing at all happened to him.
And recall that when this occurred, the usual gang of Clintonistas , media types and general all-around lefty talking heads provided every conceivable rationale for why Berger was innocent or why it was an oversight on his part.
“Well, Berger had to go to the men’s room while at the Archives and he brought some of those documents with him to read while he was sitting on the can, and he accidentally soiled some of them , so he decided to stick the documents in his pants, take them home, clean them up , and return them to the archives at a later date.”
Who thinks that if a close aide to Bush II had been caught doing this, he would have received the same non-punishment, the same treatment from the media or talking heads?
It is so obvious to any carbon based life form having a brain larger than that of a pebble that Joke Bidet’s DOJ/FBI is utilizing the tactics of Stalin’s head of the KGB, Lavrentiy Beria; “show me the man and I will show you the crime.”
Don’t be surprised that when Trump stands trial the DOJ prosecutors will be clones of Andrey Vyshinsky and Roland Freisler.
Of course, the trial will be a show trial, in the best traditions of Stalin’s show trials. After all, they already have determined that he is guilty.
The DOJ / Joke Bidet just have to go through the motions of a trial to show the “useful idiots” that everything was done by the book.
And there sure are plenty of useful idiots. I would not be surprised if the majority of demokrats still believe Trump was a Russian spy and Putin’s lover.
I think your counter-theory is far more likely to be correct than the contrary. It’s why the Democrats gave financial support to so many Trump-endorsed, election-denying candidates in the Republican primaries. And why the strategy, disgraceful as it was, was mostly successful. The Democrats are about winning.
POTUS has broad powers to class and declass information, not controlled by Congress:
“The President, after all, is the “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” U.S.Const., Art. II, § 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant. See Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U. S. 886, 367 U. S. 890 (1961). “
Troll:
Just removing the documents does not declassify them. The courts have held that classification is an administrative function. Classification is simply how the government marks sensitive documents, including those relating to the national defense. Classification and declassification each require an administrative act.
POTUS can declass any which way he wishes.
Troll:
Regardless, 18 U.S. Code § 793 does not depend on classification, but on whether the information is relating to the national security.
And it is also just law passed by Congress, and can’t interfere with POTUS authority under the Constitution.