The Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee held a news conference to challenge the Department of Justice for its decision to use “the most extreme measures” to recover evidence of what a federal judge was convinced is probably related to a federal crime. The committee members, speaking in measured tones, are outraged that the DOJ has not given them an urgent National Security reason for the search and is not immediately releasing the search warrant and inventory, (two items already in Trumpie’s hands and that he could have released at any time, but petty to mention [1]) as well as everything else related to the FBI search. They are united in their measured outrage over this outrageous attack on a man who, they say, has willingly and fully cooperated with every illegal partisan witch hunt against him. They are also troubled by the presence of a possible informant, one they say they are entitled to know the identity of.

Fox News has largely swung their influential allegiance in the 2024 presidential election toward Florida strongman Ron DeathSantis (as he’s called by half of the population of Florida) and away from besieged, compromised, damaged Teflon Don Trump. However, Rupert Murdoch is deeply committed to his far-right worldview, fascism is far preferable to majoritarian tyranny disguised as democracy to a billionaire with Murdoch’s extreme beliefs.

So here’s Fox’s live coverage of the Republican membership of the House Intelligence Committee demanding answers from Merrick Garland and the politicized, highly partisan DOJ. Other Congressional Republicans have already made it clear that when they take control of the House Garland’s going to be on the hot seat along with Biden, Harris, Schiff, Nadler, Schumer, Pelosi, Hillary and all the rest of the scoundrels they oppose for not letting them make America great again. Those Benghazi hearings, and the calls to lock her up related to Hillary Clinton’s emails, they’re promising, are going to look like yer proverbial child’s play compared to what they’re threatening against so-called elected Democrats if they take control of Congress in 2023.

In this news conference they demand answers- – why not a subpoena, why this extreme step? What is the specific urgent National Security reason that could legally justify this extreme step? DOJ, part of the (Unitary) Executive branch is riding roughshod over Congressional oversight by a co-equal branch, WTF? They want the identity of the informant, the spy, (the Rat, in Trump- speak) and they are very serious in demanding all of these answers. Serious as a heart attack.

I made it through the first six minutes, noting the obvious reason for no subpoena, that a subpoena for these exact items has already been defied by the former president, months ago, after many months of negotiation with his lawyers. He is the former president who instructed his loyalists to defy all subpoenas and fight them in court. His third AG, Barr, insisted to Congress that it was reasonable to believe Obama had “spies” in place during the transition, which helps explain why Mike Flynn’s lies to Pence and the FBI about illegal contacts with Russia, and his undisclosed paid work for the Turkish strongman, were “immaterial”. Barr also whipped up baseless fears of massive voting fraud in the 2020 election, before things at the White House finally went off the rails and he had to get the hell out of there to avoid facing criminal charges himself.

The long list of GOP grievances and demands presented today in relation to the FBI search is a tissue of the same stuff, nonetheless interesting to hear them set it out with a straight face, and the great moral indignation which is their hallmark. Their presentation will no doubt be very convincing to millions of “low information voters” who are already upset about what appears to be the brutal, baseless crucifixion of their charismatic, persecuted leader, a man of the people millions of Fox viewers faithfully love.

[1] Garland held a rare press conference yesterday during which he called bullshit on Trump. He announced that DOJ has gone to court seeking judicial permission to release copies of the search warrant and property inventory that Trump already has and is already legally free to release to the public. The federal judge in that case has given Mr Trump until 3:00 p.m. today to either oppose the DOJ or agree to it and allow those two documents to be released to the public, by DOJ.

There are at least two sides to every story, as we know. And, in fairness, the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago yesterday has no known connection to any attempt by anyone to overturn any election anywhere. If you think all of this completely coincidental “destruction of crucial evidence,” by Secret Service, by the never confirmed acting heads of the Department of Homeland Security, by the winking slightly partisan Inspector General of DHS, by the Department of Defense, by White House log keepers, in any way justifies government agents searching an ex-president’s home, and even his safe, you need to hear a complete defense for why that FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was, to some, much worse than the so-called riot on January 6th and all the alleged plans appurtenant thereto. Here we go, my best attempt to distill the story as told in defense of the man whose home was searched:

In an unprecedented attack, not seen since Nazi Germany, the private home of an innocent man was overrun by agents of a hostile political party! It was a private home. There was no justification for a partisan storming of the man’s house. The man had already been completely acquitted and exonerated of all charges at two previous trials, which were brought only to hurt him because his enemies knew he was actually right. He was totally exonerated both times. There was never any evidence against him, certainly not at either purely political “trial” and there is no evidence now, and no evidence was ever destroyed and nobody ever lied on his behalf in a court of law or anywhere else (and Stone and Manafort were both pardoned and whatever they were accused of or convicted for never happened, smart ass). He himself also never lied, in the true harmful sense of the word, but those who hate him, and by extension all good legacy Americans, constantly lie, in the most evil and destructive way!

There will be revenge for this deplorable gazpacho attack, we’re taking names and kicking asses because we are not idiots and we’re justifiably angry as hell. Long live our holy party and our righteous cause! Fuck communism!

Here’s a much more intellectual version, for your consideration.

An op ed in today’s Washington Bezos, entitled  “Trump should make the search warrant public”  (https://wapo.st/3SDW9bx) begins:

There is little doubt that the residence and offices of a former president can be subjected to lawful searches and seizures. Anyone doubting this should read the opinion of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in 2020’s Trump v. Vance as well as the concurrence by Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

In that case, a New York state grand jury subpoena had been served on the president’s longtime accounting firm for the president’s papers. The Vance opinions review all the relevant precedents involving Thomas Jefferson, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton. The justices, including the dissenters, agreed that not all criminal subpoenas of a sitting president were barred. “On that point the Court is unanimous,” the chief justice concluded.

If a sitting president is in some circumstances subject to criminal subpoenas from state officials, a former president can most certainly be subjected to criminal process by federal agents. This has never happened before, but as with all things Trump, the past is no guide to the present.

shortly afterwards, the legal analysis takes a sudden turn, with an announcement of what one side

rightly believes:

Most Republicans rightly believe that Trump has been unfairly targeted by civil servants motivated by partisanship going back years, long before his stunning election in 2016 and certainly thereafter. The “Steele dossier,” now thoroughly discredited, the charges of collusion with Russia debunked by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and the allegations of obstruction of justice dismissed as insubstantial by Attorney General William P. Barr all helped create an automatic suspicion on the right of this latest search.

punchline:

Opinion by Hugh Hewit

Hugh Hewitt is a nationally syndicated radio host on the Salem Radio Network. He is also a professor at Chapman University School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law since 1996. 

Aha! Colleague (former) of onetime dean of Chapman, John Eastman, Esq. (dismissed by Chapman after his central role in January 6 plan became public.)

Now go back and read the news reports, you’ll have a better perspective, having heard another side of the story.

From a recent Washington Bezos exclusive:

Prospective jurors in [Roger] Stone’s trial had completed confidential questionnaires that asked for their views on Trump, Stone and others caught up in Mueller’s investigation. Stone’s lawyers agreed to keep the responses confidential, and no details had been disclosed publicly. Questionnaires completed by those selected as jurors were later leaked to right-wing operatives, prompting an FBI investigation. No findings were ever publicly disclosed.

https://wapo.st/3bDVo1p

It’s almost impossible for me to understand how a 6-year and counting seamless pattern of lying, obstructing investigations, quid pro quo pardons for people who lied to obstruct, real time witness tampering, ongoing obstruction of investigations, orders to defy subpoenas, false privilege claims, ongoing destruction of evidence, has not given an apolitical Department of Justice enough evidence to bring obstruction of justice charges against the most corrupt administration in American history. I mean, seriously, what the fuck?

The official phase began when new president Trumpie fired FBI director James Comey for insufficient personal loyalty to the boss when he refused to “drop the Flynn thing.” Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his illegal contacts with the Russians, eventually a Special Counsel was appointed and negotiations were undertaken with Trumpie to testify under oath. Despite his Bannon-like bluster about not being afraid of Mueller (who he tried several times to fire, enlisting various lackeys including White House Council Don McGahn, to do his dirty work), the ex-president agreed only to have his lawyers respond to written questions, his answers claiming no recall of anything, except for the final answer about Flynn, Kislyac, Jared, Don Jr., Bannon, Erik Prince and others. That was, arguably, one of Trumpie’s most “inadequate responses”. The response was, and I quote, “no response given.” Inadequate, indeed. But apparently no indication of intent of any kind, and absolutely no legal repercussions.

The piously corrupt William Pelham Barr, took the extraordinary step of trying to rescind the charges against Flynn, charges Flynn had already pleaded guilty to. Barr argued in a motion to dismiss that Flynn’s admitted lies to the FBI were “immaterial” and therefore noncriminal. In coordination with Flynn’s new lawyer, Sidney Powell, the DOJ moved to dismiss Flynn’s guilty plea. Trumpie later pardoned Flynn. Nothing to see here! Flynn, who went on to advocate invocation of the Insurrection Act and the imposition of martial law so his buddy could remain in power, recently pleaded the fifth over and over again in response to virtually every question the January 6 committee asked him. As you do, you know, when you have nothing to hide.

No presidential phone records during the riot that Trumpie unleashed on the Capitol, all gone, along with the burner phones Trumpie used to speak to his allies in Congress, and in the Willard hotel war room. Call logs all gone missing, whoops. No outtakes from Trumpie’s January 6, go home, beloved patriots video. Secret Service texts from the lead up and the hours of the riot, all permanently deleted after preservation orders were sent by numerous government entities. Though DHS has known about this by all appearnces illegal mass deletion of evidence since at least February, just last week they announced a criminal investigation into what appears to be a criminal cover-up that the Trump appointed director of DHS may well have been personally involved in. Nothing to see here, but the attorneys for people stonewalling the January 6th Committee, paid for by Trumpie, get copies of all transcripts, which the vindictive boss carefully reads, don’t forget!

Apparently, in a post-truth USA, proving obstruction of justice is virtually impossible. If the person angrily denies he obstructed Justice, intimidates all witnesses to his obstruction and rewards everybody who lies about, and obstructs investigation into his obstruction, in a pinch pardoning them, well isn’t that kind of a draw?

“The … suggestion that President Trump did not act swiftly enough to quell the violence is absolutely not true. Upon hearing of the reports of violence, he tweeted, pleading with the crowd to be ‘peaceful,’ followed by a tweeted video urging people to ‘go home’ and to do so in ‘peace.’ He and the White House further took immediate steps to coordinate with authorities to provide whatever was necessary to counteract the rioters. … He, like the rest of the Country, was horrified at the violence.“

— Trump lawyers’ trial memorandum, second Trump impeachment, Feb. 8, 2021.

https://wapo.st/3b0P3wF