"The Photo"
Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders
Key witness and security-camera footage offer evidence of Trump’s actions after government subpoena, people familiar say
A Trump employee has told federal agents about moving boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago at the specific direction of the former president, according to people familiar with the investigation, who say the witness account — combined with security-camera footage — offers key evidence of Donald Trump’s behavior as investigators sought the return of classified material.
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The people familiar with the investigation said agents have gathered witness accounts indicating that, after Trump advisers received a subpoena in May for any classified documents that remained at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told people to move boxes to his residence at the property. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage, which showed people moving the boxes,...
Okay...Well...Security cam footage showing the boxes being moved is not corroboration that Trump told the "people" to move the boxes. I'm not trying to be an asshole, that's just the fact. Now here Chief WaPo shifts from the singular, "person" to the plural, "witness accounts," "told people", "showed people." If DOJ has "people", more than one, telling them that Trump told them to move boxes then that is corroboration, but up until this paragraph Chief was speaking in the singular. Look, sometime all you have is one witness. There isn't a street crime prosecutor alive who hasn't gone to trial--and gotten convictions--on cases of one lone witness.
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The employee who was working at Mar-a-Lago is cooperating with the Justice Department and has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents...
Back to the singular.
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In the first interview, these people said, the witness denied handling sensitive documents or the boxes that might contain such documents. As they gathered evidence, agents decided to re-interview the witness, and the witness’s story changed dramatically, these people said. In the second interview, the witness described moving boxes at Trump’s request.
Okay well that sucks. But again, look, we have a saying in the trial law biz, "When you look into a sewer you don't expect to see swans swimming." There is no rule of evidence that says if a witness lied he can't testify. It goes to the "weight" that the jury gives the witness's testimony, not to its admissibility. How many mob trials--and what is Trump if not a mob boss?--have we, lay and law people alike, seen or read where the key witness is a former underling of the mob boss who committed numerous, heinous felonies? However, we law biz'ers also have a rule, it's called "the two scumbag rule." Do not base your entire case on just ONE scumbag. Two scumbags, okay.😂 I'm being 100% honest here. Listen, if prosecutors didn't file charges because their star witness wasn't lily white, guess what? Nobody would ever be indicted. You can reasonably visualize this witness as a schlump, right? He’a a “worker”, an “employee.” I mean, he MOVES BOXES, okay? Likely doesn't have lucrative employment alternatives. Likely owes his source of livelihood to the Don. So the mob boss tells him, “Hey! Go move those boxes! And if anybody asks you about it deny, deny until you die!" Right? So in this exceedingly common visualization the schlump did both: moved the boxes and lied. And your point is?
The witness [singular] is now considered a key part of the Mar-a-Lago investigation, these people said, offering details about the former president’s alleged actions and instructions to subordinates [plural]...
My understanding, although not perfect, is clearer: there is but one witness who told the Feds that Trumpie told him to move the boxes, and according to their one witness (on this point) Trumpie told other schlumps to move boxes. Since that is what the witness says, it is imperative that the Feds have some of the subordinates corroborate. If every subordinate says no, Trump didn't give me any instructions, then the sole witness is severely compromised. However, it seems like they don't have corroboration on this one point. Otherwise, the Lone Witness mightn't be "considered a key part" of the case, you see what I mean? If you have fifty eyewitnesses--nuns--sitting on bleacher seats with binoculars at the fifty yard line, what would distinguish Sister Rose from her forty-nine other sisters to make her "key"?
Multiple witnesses have told the FBI they tried to talk Trump into cooperating with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department...
Oh wait a minute, it doesn't sound like the Lone Witness is from Joe's Movers, it sounds like it's...what's her name, the bimbo lawyer for Trump they just interviewed..Shit! Une momento, wait, Cristina Bobb, is that her name? Let me verify... Christina Bobb with an "h". That has to be who it is. She is the bimbo bozo who signed her name to the search warrant inventory that "everything responsive to the subpoena has been turned over to the best of my knowledge which comes from other bozos." Now, is there a "two bimbo-bozo rule"? Not that I know of. Seriously, I think if Bobb (Bobo? Okay, I'll stop.) is the Lone Witness, no you wouldn't need corroboration; you would need no contradiction, however! Like with Cassidy Hutchinson, about whom I also had initial, unfounded doubts. Before we knew that SS was also involved in the coup d'etat and cover-up, the initial reports that one or both SS agents assigned to Trumpie on Jan. 6 would deny under oath Hutchinson's testimony, was an ominous foretelling on Hutchinson's credibility. But now we know better: SS was involved in both coup and cover-up and the lying Trumpie heavies did not testify under oath. So I take back that the Lone Witness, if it is Christina Bobo, probably didn't have many lucrative career options: she could always get a job with Joe's Movers.
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Within the Justice Department and FBI, the witness’s account has been a closely held secret...
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After months of back-and-forth, Trump agreed in January to turn over 15 boxes of material. When archivists examined the material, they found 184 documents marked classified, including 25 marked top secret, which were scattered throughout the boxes in no particular order, according to court filings.
That discovery suggested to authorities that Trump had not turned over all the classified documents in his possession. In May, a grand jury subpoena demanded the return of classified documents with a wide variety of markings, including a category used for secrets about nuclear weapons.
I'm going to pause, perhaps wrap up, on that point in this article to go to another WaPo article mentioned in the side bar which I also read. An interview with Michael Cohen. Everybody speculates, I speculate, on why Trump had this extraordinarily sensitive material? Here's what Cohen speculates:
Q: You’ve theorized that the classified documents that were kept at Mar-a-Lago were probably a bargaining chip. I wanted to ask you about why you say that...What grounds that theory?
By Donald taking and retaining these top-secret papers, he truly believes — and, again, it’s my theory [You like a witness to be candid about the limits of his actual knowledge, as Cohen is here.] — he believes that he could extort the Justice Department to refrain from indictments and incarceration by threatening to have these documents released to our adversaries. Now, I believe it’s an ill-conceived Trumpian power play, but what other power play does he have?
Q: It’s a pretty risky game, if that’s the game.
Well, for both sides, in his mind. Indict me, incarcerate me, I release top-secret information that places the national security of the United States of America in jeopardy. You see, you asked a good question, which is: Why would I make that statement? Because working for him for more than a decade and seeing what he has done to so many people, myself included, Donald Trump doesn’t care about anyone or anything. And he’s willing to burn down the establishment in order to protect himself.
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Concluding today's article:
That Aug. 8 search turned up, in a matter of hours, 103 documents marked
classified, including 18 marked top secret, according to court papers.
The stash included at least one document that described a foreign
country’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.
So the Feds had in May intel that Trump had nuclear-related materials at MAL, and the search warrant execution in August turned up nuclear-related material. Trump, swallow the gun. You are really most sincerely dead already.
