Andrew Weissmann thread: Gov summation in Trump prosecution (also DOJ BIG PICTURE... indict)

[demmiblue]

DOJ BIG PICTURE: you don’t make a filing this strong, bold, and factually accusatory if you don’t have every intention to indict.

Gov summation in Trump prosecution:
Of course Trump knew he had govt docs, that were classified at highest level, and lied about that to govt to hide it. Consider:
- the 18 month length of time he held these docs
-the volume - 26 boxes in total
-the location of the docs, ...

including in his own office
-the docs were found among his own personal items, like his passports
-the types of docs; we are not talking about scraps of unimportant papers; these are docs about the govt's top secrets
- the evidence that shows consciousness of guilt, including...

-delaying for months and months to return 15 boxes to the Archives
-fighting the Archives telling the FBI about the docs
-only returning a redweld of even docs after being served with a GJ subpoena
-giving DOs a required certification that was false...

-in saying a diligent search was done, which can't have happened as there were many more docs easily found;
-false statement saying docs were only in one storage location when they weren't
-blocking DOJ from looking in storage location
--DOJ search turned up even more docs...

including in desk of his office.
-Do you think this all happened for 18 months WITHOUT Trump knowing, and his lawyers did this without consulting with the client?
-And all this evidence is BEFORE we consider witnesses who we called at the trial about Trump's knowing....

-that he should not take docs from WH, and should send them to Archives
-that he was in charge of packing material from WH
-that the process was secretive
-that the lawyers Corcoran and Bobb could not ethically file the certification without discussing with Trump [insert proof...

of what Corcoran & Bobb say, as required by court to reveal who authorized statements to DOJ that they made]
-[insert proof of surveillance tapes & witnesses of moving boxes to obstruct discovery of docs by DOJ]
-There is only one verdict....

consistent with this proof; we ask you to return a verdict of:
guilty on espionage related charges (793/2071);
guilty on contempt of GJ subpoena (402);
guilty on obstruction related charges (1001/1519)
guilty on unlawful retention of govt docs (641).

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Layzeebeaver]

1. Oh yes.... Make it so!

[Mr. Ected]

2. For Weissman, this must be especially delicious

Toiling under Robert Mueller, who, in tandem with Rosenstein and Barr, never intended to indict Trump for any of his egregious acts, and even went so far as to cover it all up. As a federal prosecutor, that must have tore him up, seeing justice denied.

He sees the writing on the wall, and this time it doesn't look like there will be a happy ending for the Mango Mussolini.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. One Became Suspicious When Dimdonnie Fired FBI Russia Counterintelligence Team

Trump FIRED entire FBI counterespionage team a few years back:

Trump’s Top Targets in the Russia Probe Are Experts in Organized Crime

Some of President Trump’s favorite targets in the Russia probe have spent their careers in the Justice Department and the FBI investigating organized crime and money laundering, particularly as they pertain to Russia.

NATASHA BERTRAND
The Atlantic, AUG 30, 2018

Bruce Ohr. Lisa Page. Andrew Weissmann. Andrew McCabe. President Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked these FBI and Justice Department officials as dishonest “Democrats” engaged in a partisan “witch hunt” led by the special counsel determined to tie his campaign to Russia. But Trump’s attacks have also served to highlight another thread among these officials and others who have investigated his campaign: their extensive experience in probing money laundering and organized crime, particularly as they pertain to Russia.

snip...

Trump’s latest obsession is with Bruce Ohr, a career Justice Department official who spent years investigating Russian organized crime and corruption—an expertise he shared with another Trump target named Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence operative who provided valuable intelligence on Russia to the State Department and the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force prior to authoring the Trump-Russia dossier in 2016. Ohr and Steele met in 2007, according to The New York Times, and stayed in touch as a result of their shared interests and mutual respect. Trump has tweeted about Ohr nearly a dozen times this month alone, complaining about his relationship with Steele and Ohr’s wife’s past work for Fusion GPS—the opposition-research firm that hired Steele in 2016 to research Trump’s Russia ties.

snip...

Trump’s fixation with seeing Ohr ousted from the Justice Department could be perceived as yet another attempt to undermine the credibility of the people who have investigated him. It could also be interpreted as an attack on someone with deep knowledge of the shady characters Trump and his cohort have been linked to, including Semion Mogilevich, the Russian mob boss, and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate close to Putin who did business with Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. (Incidentally, another Manafort associate, the Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash, admitted that he only managed to be in business because Mogilevich allowed him to be, according to a leaked 2008 State Department cable.) Ohr was involved in banning Deripaska from the U.S. in 2006, due to his alleged ties to organized crime and fear that he would try to launder money into American real estate. Nearly a decade later, Ohr and the FBI sought Deripaska’s help in taking down overseas criminal syndicates.

Snip...

The president has denied having any business ties to Russia, and his dream of building a Trump Tower Moscow never materialized. But his links to Russian oligarchs and mobsters from the former Soviet Union have been documented: Millions of dollars from the former Soviet Union flowed into Trump’s developments and casinos throughout the 1990s, as the journalist Craig Unger has chronicled, as oligarchs looked for a place to hide their money in the West. The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was once known as a hot spot for Brooklyn mobsters associated with the Russian Mafia, and quickly became the “favorite East Coast destination” of the top Russian mob boss Vyacheslav Ivankov, according to the 2000 book Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America. It was also repeatedly cited by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for having inadequate money-laundering controls.

Continues...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/trumps-top-targets-in-the-russia-probe-are-experts-in-organized-crime/569056/

Never forget: as PRESIDENT Trump targeted the FBI Witch Hunters who were tracking Putin and his Mafiya.

[msfiddlestix]

4. ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ n/t

[MerryBlooms]

7. r&k

[crickets]

8. 👆 Wow. Thanks for this reminder.

He's done so many irresponsible and damaging things, it's almost impossible to keep track of them all.

[fightforfreedom]

5. It is clear the DOJ/FBI have had enough of Trumps bullshit.

Trump has attacked them for years and continues to do so. They are going to prosecute Trump.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. Lock Traitortump up and interrogate.