The forecast for SoCal is up to 111 degrees today, and all week with elevated temperatures. Thinking and praying for all those stuck in outside jobs, and for animals who can't come inside. Do your outside stuff early or late!

to see what is happening. All that his demand for a Special Master has gotten him so far is testimony from the Government, allowing them to showcase his felony conduct. I think they got to tell the Judge as many as three times in the response brief that they are investigating crimes by Trump under the Espionage Act. Plus, they got an image of some of the docs in there, too.

If this Judge gives Trump a Special Master, it will be a travesty. I think they are ready to indict him and the timing will be keyed from this Special Masters issue. Midterms may just be an inconvenience.

I found this and it tickled me:

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/26/biden-ambassador-role-arctic-00053811

This is really more of a hotbed role than it first appears, but I love it for the immediate optics it brings. I'm not really sure where the North Pole is, but I have visions of some smartly suited, square-jawed gentleman shaking hands with Santa Claus, surrounded by penguins.

after they get their formal summons, to hold tRump's "team" for the Special Masters in contempt of court for not following her directions, or, in the alternative, a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

Then, if tRump's "team" appeals back up the chain, the Appellate Court can sanction the wazzo out of them for it. And, we'll get to watch.

case:

https://standwithreality.org/original-court-documents/

It is offered, not for any say on the merits of Reality Winner and what happened there. I am linking it because this website has listed all the docs involved in her case. They are all linked to the docs.

You can see the tremendous amount of filings involved with just ONE document. Over on the left you can see the date timeline for the activity in this case.

This is my only comment: she got 5 years for one doc, which was a plea bargain. I read somewhere that if she didn't plead, she ran a real risk of a double digit sentence. She served four years and spent another on house arrest.

that the document classifications themselves indicate that national defense harm has presumably been done. You don't have to prove anything beyond the fact that the document has a classification stamp on it. I don't think that you even have to prove that Trump knew the classifications were indicators.

to shorten the reading time, which today is helpful to me.

I don't think this release hurt anything. It just shows the structure and function of the system, which we already gleaned. The definitions are the same as the affidavit in Reality Winners case.

Exhibit 1 is the letter from Trump's attorney to DOJ. In it he emphasizes that 18 USC 1924, which he claims is the principle statute that is applicable, does not apply to the President because he is not an employee, etc. This alarmed me until I realized that the search warrant never mentioned violation of this code. They brought forth 793 and 2071, which state "whoever" without distinguishing the President from the pack.

It might have been a clever ruse to confuse the issue, but the attorney is talking to other professionals. He also wanted his letter shown to anyone who was thinking of charging tRump with anything. That's his job, but who is he kidding? Judges and other attorneys would know.

I think it's pretty clear that Trump has been caught with his tiny fingers in the cookie jar.

From the search warrant: alleged violations of 793 and 2071.

793 is pretty much all encompassing, and can get him as much as 10 years. Even if he had the papers legally, causing them to be removed from their proper custodial places is illegal.

2071 has to do with concealment and removal of said documents, enough to get him another 3 years. But, it also takes away his right to ever hold office again. This is what we want.

So, if they counted each doc as a single instance or violation of these two codes, they might each be worth as much as 13 years apiece. So, he could potentially get 3,900 years in prison. This would be a life sentence. Of course, that was from the first 15 boxes. There are another 11 boxes which have even more docs. If they counted each page as a separate violation, he could get as much as 9,100 years in prison. Or more, based on the boxes removed by warrant.

His defense is flimsy at best. Just having those docs in his basement after he was (and probably before, but let's not quibble) a private citizen is enough to wrap him up. His basement is not a proper place of custody. Just waiving his magic mushroom over nuclear secrets is not enough to declassify them. His wishful thinking is not enough to declassify them. If I were Trump, I'd pack up and leave before indictment.

The key wordage is "gross negligence" and "wilfully and unlawfully" and "relating to the national defense." Just thinking he had some Trumpian right to possess the documents is not enough to get him out of it.

I wouldn't mind a listing of all such documents by title. I've been thinking about this. How much would it hurt? I am in particularly wishing to know for sure whether he had nuclear classified docs in his basement. That would be real bad.

When some Judge is deciding how much time to give him, I hope they don't hand down some tiny sentence or house arrest, not if he purloined nuclear data, not unless the documents are treated singularly.

Apologies if this was posted already.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/lindsey-graham-georgia-election-investigation/index.html

Graham had been ordered to elaborate on the argument, but he just argued more for total quashal. The first link in the article brings up a pdf of the court docs.

So much going on.

I find that NARA letter so fascinating.

All during 2021, the National Archive (NARA) attempted to recover documents that they had discovered were missing. Apparently, in Oct 2021, Trump was seen going through the boxes at MAL (witnesses).

In January 2022, 15 boxes were returned to NARA by negotiation. As we found out later, Trump apparently curated the boxes and kept documents, and not all docs were returned to NARA.

NARA discovered over 100 documents, 700 pages of highly classified documents in the boxes. Those 700 pages do NOT include subsequent document recoveries. So, we are talking about just the 15 boxes. There were further documents recovered during a June 2022 meeting and then the infamous August 11, 2022 search of MAL.

When NARA discovered this, they notified DOJ. DOJ requested Biden to intervene and have NARA provide the records, despite Trump's claim of Executive Privilege. Trump was trying to prevent the FBI from having access to the boxes. (See, I didn't know that NARA could prevent the FBI access, but I guess everything is compartmentalized.)

The FBI and DOJ did not get to see the documents until May 2022. Access was delayed while Trump unsuccessfully attempted to claim Executive Privilege. Biden referred the matter back to Debra Wall, US Archivist, to make the decision whether the FBI could access the boxes.

Wall, being professional and dealing with Trump's team, exchanged official correspondence with Trump's attorney's over Executive Privilege. The FBI made its request to view the documents within the scenario that now the Executive Branch had to do a critical damage assessment, which could not be done without, of course, viewing the documents.

But Trump wanted to do his own filter with his own rep. I guess they were going to be those two guys, the attorney and the Journalist (can't remember their names.)

On April 12th and 29th, the FBI sent correspondence to Wall describing their urgent need to see the documents. Wall notified Trump's team that she intended to allow the FBI access to the material. Trump's team sought and received a delay of that action from Wall.

But, on May 10, 2022, Wall sent formal notification to trump's team that the FBI would have access to the materials on May 12, 2022. Further, Trump's claim of Executive Privilege was so much garbage and wouldn't fly. She finished by informing Trump that his Rep could review the docs, but only if he had a security clearance. (Well, we all know how long that would take.)

I haven't been able to find out enough about the meeting on June 22, 2022, but a handful of further documents were apparently given up to the FBI at that time.

Then, on August 11th, the search warrant was served and the FBI hauled out 26 boxes of documents, 11 of which were marked classified.

I see things that make no sense to me, but one thing is clear. Trump was okay with having some docs in the hands of NARA, but he sure didn't want the FBI to see what he had done.

I am beginning to wonder if Trump already has sold the documents, and that is why he is so desperate to get the docs back. It could be as simple as selling nuclear docs to SA, and getting paid $2 B for it all.

He's gonna end up in a Super Max somewhere.