Comments on: Dershowitz on the Trump indictment

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:17:15 +0000

Dershowitz (again)…
…says it’s a case of “Get Trump”—though the one potentially damning piece of evidence is the recording:
“Alan Dershowitz slams Trump indictment, shares one ‘damning piece of evidence’ in DOJ’s case”—
https://www.foxnews.com/media/alan-dershowitz-slams-trump-indictment-shares-one-damning-piece-evidence-doj-case
Opening graf:
‘Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz offered his legal insight into the indictment of former President Donald Trump, saying Special Counsel Jack Smith had only one job when he was assigned to the case: “Get Trump.”…’

By: Chases Eagles

Chases Eagles — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 04:11:34 +0000

When I was on the space program, we produced a lot of classified computer output dealing with classified space missions. Mostly it was on 132 column green bar fan fold paper. Each page was stamped SECRET top and bottom and the page number top and bottom. We had a special page numbering stamp that stamped twice before incrementing the page number. It was self-inking. The SECRET stamp wasn’t. To declassify, each SECRET label was blacked out with a magic marker. Some of these listings might be six or seven inches thick. There could be a considerable delay in releasing these to their owners due to all that stamping. I eventually hacked the OS and the format unit on the high-speed band printer to trick it into printing in the blank lines between pages. The operations staff was quite grateful to not have to hand stamp them anymore.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 01:53:36 +0000

Once upon a time, was custodian of classified documents at my last duty station. One of my part time jobs.
Here’s what happens when the classified warning about be wary of Greeks bearing gifts which look like horses becomes irrelevant. Might be declassified except we don’t want anybody know how we knew.
So it hangs on.
If somebody looking for ways to kill time and working in the relevant office decides to declassify it–no particular reason to bother but maybe–manages to declassify it, what happens next?
Nobody tells me, or if they do, I didn’t notice.
But if they do, here are two things which don’t happen: The face page saying “SECRET” does not destaple itself from the document and skitter off to the shredder.
And the red warnings stamped on the first page, or on each page, do not bleach themselves. And the documents do not automatically auto-shred.
And I, as custodian, have better things to do than shuffle between the documents looking for what not to worry about any longer, this time about Greeks and horses or something.

So….footage of boxes in Trump’s residence mean…nothing.
And the lack of footage of boxes in Biden’s various locations must mean something.

By: cb

cb — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 22:37:22 +0000

Tom Finton and the sock drawer: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/old-case-over-audio-tapes-bill-clintons-sock-drawer-could-impact

By: Skip

Skip — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 21:27:56 +0000

Read a few articles from people who have way more knowledge of law than me that this is a big stretch of law and just forgetting there are other laws that give President Trump the right to have said documents. They want to make like he was about to sell them to Russia or something but they were all safe and secure where they were.
No one yet has brought up Barky and the unsecured warehouse he has stored millions of pages. No one ever will look into what he has or has destroyed to cover his own butt.

By: cb

cb — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 18:21:23 +0000

Dan Bongino and the sock drawer: https://rumble.com/v2t4r48-trumps-ace-in-the-hole-against-bogus-indictment.html

By: neo

neo — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 18:05:33 +0000

Abraxas:

Agreed. But will a judge or jury see it that way? And also perhaps there may be a witness willing to testify against Trump either because he’s a Trump enemy or because he’s been threatened with prosecution himself unless he testifies to what the prosecutors want.

By: Abraxas

Abraxas — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 17:58:27 +0000

There is some concern about whether the boxes in the bathroom and ballroom are really secret documents or just memorabilia. And concern about the transcription and editing of the conversation. Something can be “a secret” that I don’t want to talk about and not be marked “Secret” by the government. For that matter, documents are still marked “Secret” or “Confidential” even after they have been declassified. They may have been declassified by the agencies in question, rather than the president (who also has the right to declassify them). As noted above, there are probably scores or hundreds of documents in existence that talk about war with Iraq but aren’t the actual operational plans for an invasion.

Tone of voice and body language are also relevant. When Trump expresses admiration for the fixer who got Hillary Clinton out of the email scandal (I think by destroying the email and servers), is that really to be taken at face value? In everyday experience, haven’t people often expressed “admiration” for someone who gets away with something, without expressing actual approval of their conduct? This is yet another indication that if one wants to speak freely, one shouldn’t record the conversation.

By: neo

neo — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 17:40:43 +0000

yara; stan:

I don’t think that Dershowitz indicates he thinks the legal norms of yesteryear apply to the Trump prosecutions. Is there some place where he says that?

McCarthy does often write that way, but I haven’t noticed it with Dershowitz lately.

Also, the current Trump case will be tried in Florida, which at least has a different jury pool than DC. I don’t know whether it will matter, though.

By: stan

stan — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 17:18:30 +0000

Yara,
“who continue to talk as though the legal norms that they have practiced all their lives are still applicable”

This. There is no good faith here. And anyone saying there is, or whose analysis takes it as a given, is lying. Andy McCarthy is a liar. As is Hinderaker. Because this is the lynchpin moment for the nation. If a legal pundit cannot get this right, they can’t get anything worthwhile right.