Judge Aileen Cannon Thinks 64 Tax and Medical Records No Investigator Has Read are More Important than 11,282 Stolen Government Documents

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emptywheel
Judge Aileen Cannon thinks the privacy interest Trump has in some MAGA hats and tax records the investigative team hasn't seen outweigh the government's interest in criminally investigating the 11,282 stolen documents seized on August 8.
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Evan Corcoran Keeps Arguing that Evan Corcoran Didn't Do a Diligent Search

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emptywheel
Trump's lawyers, including Evan Corcoran, keep claiming they have no idea what was in the boxes seized on August 8 or where they were stored. But in June, Corcoran told the FBI he knew what was stored where.
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"Desperate at Best:" Igor Danchenko Starts Dismantling John Durham's Case against Him

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emptywheel
In a motion to dismiss the indictment against him, Igor Danchenko reveals that investigators never even asked him about several things that are central to John Durham's indictment against him.

On Serena

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bmaz
Not really a Trash Talk. The stage is changing in women's tennis. Serena beat Kontaviet, which was kind of unexpected. But lost to Ajla Tomljanovic. Not sure that was unexpected. Time comes for all of us. Even Serena. Long ago, Serena came for…
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The FBI Seized No Boxes with Press Clippings that Postdate November 2020

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emptywheel
There are press clippings in every box seized from Mar-a-Lago, right along with the government documents. But according to the FBI inventory, not a single one of those press clippings comes from after November 2020.
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Beryl Howell Says the Surveillance Video Subpoena Was June 24, Not June 22

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emptywheel
In Judge Beryl Howell's order unsealing the grand jury materials surrounding two subpoenas served on representatives of Trump, she indicated that Trump may be lying about the date of the second one.
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Return to Sender: DOJ Seized Evidence that Up to 90 Highly Sensitive Documents May Have Disappeared

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emptywheel
In addition to all the classified documents DOJ seized on August 8, they seized 46 empty CLASSIFIED document folders and 42 empty "Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide" folders. Each of those is a highly sensitive -- and now missing -- document.
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Kellye SoRelle: Oath Keeper Capper or Potential Pivot?

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emptywheel
Kellye SoRelle was charged, by herself, in a conspiracy to obstruct the vote count on January 6. Undoubtedly, DOJ believes it can prove she conspired with the Oath Keepers. But do they intend to prove she conspired with others, including lawyers involved in the fake elector plots?
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No One Puts Roger Stone in a Box

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emptywheel
The DOJ response to Trump's bid for a Special Master suggests that the clemency for Roger Stone that Trump apparently stashed in his desk drawer is something he doesn't want to be made public.
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That Bratt-I-Am, That Bratt-I-Am, I Do Not Like That Bratt-I-Am

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Peterr
In the far-away land of Mar-A-Lago sits a once-vaunted leader, now brought very low. And then come his lawyers, with news of a guest, A visit un-looked for, unwelcome, unblessed. . . .
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How DOJ Continues to Build Its Case that Trump Improperly Retained National Defense Information

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emptywheel
By giving DOJ an opportunity to lay out all the ways they continue to closely hold the documents Trump stole, Trump's lawyers are only making any hypothetical criminal case against him stronger.
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Christina Bobb Claimed No Copies of the Stolen Classified Documents Had Been Made

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emptywheel
According to the narrative offered by DOJ of the June 3 meeting at which Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb handed over just a fraction of the classified documents that remained at Mar-a-Lago, Bobb offered up a claim that none of those classified documents had been copied.
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Trump Stored Some of the Nation's Most Sensitive Secrets with His Framed Time Magazine Cover

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emptywheel
Trump was keeping some of the nation's most sensitive secrets next to a framed Time Magazine cover.
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"The President Was ... Working in a Filing Room"

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emptywheel
Back in February, Trump tried to lead the public to believe 15 boxes returned to the Archives were full of junk like newspapers and magazines. They were! But amidst all that, there were classified documents stripped of their classified cover sheets.
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One Big Potentially Pending Question: What Happens to Trump's Impeachment 1.0 Papers?

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emptywheel
There are several categories of documents seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago that might be privileged but that a judge might decide is evidence of the crimes covered by the warrant. The most difficult would be papers involving White House counsel lawyers who were part of Trump's first Impeachment defense.
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Key Details about Evan Corcoran that Evan Corcoran Did Not Disclose to Judge Aileen Cannon

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emptywheel
Evan Corcoran, in a filing that failed to disclose his own role in the events under investigation, falsely suggested to Judge Aileen Cannon that this was a search about the Presidential Records Act and not an investigation into violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction. He didn't even tell her that he is named in the affidavit showing probable cause of obstruction.
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Six Days: Trump's Second Whack Filing Is Too Late

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emptywheel
By the time Trump's lawyers serve DOJ in their lawsuit asking for a Special Master, DOJ will have had three times as long as it took to do a preliminary review of 15 boxes of documents in May.
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Did Kash Patel Already Confess to Illegally Disseminating Carter Page FISA Information?

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emptywheel
If there was an unredacted copy of the fourth FISA application targeting Carter Page in the stash of documents Donald Trump stole from the White House, it would amount to a separate violation of FISA, on top of any exposure under the Espionage Act.
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The Elements of the Offense for an 18 USC 793e Prosecution

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emptywheel
These are the questions a jury would consider if Trump were ever tried under 18 USC 793e.
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