August 16, 2022

"Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida home..."

"... people familiar with the matter said....  The decision had been the subject of weeks of meetings between senior Justice Department and FBI officials, the people said.... The decision whether to pursue criminal charges promises to be a defining one for Mr. Garland, a former federal judge who, as a Justice Department staffer in the late 1970s, helped codify changes intended to restore trust in the institution and address presidential abuses of power. 'He’s both extremely careful and he understands the critical role of an attorney general in these circumstances,' said former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who was Mr. Garland’s boss when they served under President Bill Clinton. 'He appreciates the context in which this is occurring. I don’t think he considers politics at all, but I do think he recognizes the seriousness of actions against a former president.'... 'The only pressure I feel, and the only pressure that our line prosecutors feel, is to do the right thing,' Mr. Garland said earlier this year. ...  Inside the Justice Department, Mr. Garland is known by colleagues as a contemplative, by-the-book leader who, after roughly a year-and-a-half at the helm of the agency, has slowly begun to shed the cautious and consensus-based approach he followed as a federal judge for the more decisive posture expected of a law-enforcement officer...."

120 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Merrick is a good loyalist. Nothing more.

Sebastian said...

"by-the-book"

Hey, just like O! According to Rice.

"Justice Department asks judge not to unseal affidavit that provided basis for search"

Democracy dies in darkness, by the prog book.

rhhardin said...

Hitler thought he was doing the right thing. What Germany lacked was a constitution to prevent it.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks..."

LMAO. No he didn't. He's been deliberating for years. Ever since he lost his shot at SCOTUS.

The Wall Street Journal...first in financial journalism!!!

Drago said...

So much "urgency"...LOL

I can't wait to see the 5th and 6th versions of focused grouped excuses for the raid to be later this week!

wendybar said...

He refused to raid the Unibombers home. Some fair AG he turned out to be. He is as biased and corrupt as Eric Holder. WHY did they steal Trumps passports? This whole thing STINKS to high heavens. I hope enough Americans wake up before the communist takeover is complete.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/merrick-garland-recommend-approval-ag-search-warrant-unabombers-cabin-former-fbi-official

AMDG said...

These are mutually exclusive:

1. Trump’s possession of highly classified documents was such a threat to national security that it was imperative to execute a search warrant on the former President.

2. Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve a search warrant for former President Trump’s home?

Kevin said...

"Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida home

This doesn't help the exigent circumstances argument.

Howard said...

An honest broker. That should calm everyone down 😂

AMDG said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SGT Ted said...

AG Garland is targetting parents criticizing the bizarre pro-trans teaching curriculum akin to sexual/cult grooming at school board meetings as potential terrorists.

His DOJ claims that historical symbols of the US Revolutionary War are symbols of Domestic Terrorists.

But, it was Trump that "politicized" the DOJ?

This opinion piece is garbage.



M Jordan said...

What a bucket of bilge water. All one needs to do is look at and listen to this weasel asshole and you’ll know you’re looking at and listening to a weak, angry, lying political hack. He’s the weakling in the house break-in who’s holding the gun.

Kevin said...

'He’s both extremely careful and he understands the critical role of an attorney general in these circumstances

Should we trot out the similarly-unimpeachable reviews Comey and Mueller when they were pursuing Trump for comparison?

Because that turned out to be crap.

tolkein said...

Yeah, right.
How come there are all these leaks? Isn't that illegal? Where are the investigations of the leaks and prosecutions of the leakers/ I thought that Trump was holding top secret classified docs (apart from passports) for which the death penalty was appropriate, but it's OK to leak the details of the raid and some docs to the press and there's no outrage by the Government over the leaks?
I'm in the UK and it looks desperately partisan and political.
I now expect trump to be indicted by a DC based grand jury (96% of DC votes were for Biden, I believe) and then convicted by a DC jury of being a Republican.
I, for one, don't think Trump committed suicide. Despite what the press will report.

jim5301 said...

This is disturbing. By waiting he makes it look political. He doesn't seem to have the right temperament this country needs in its AG in these dark times. Everyone involved in the Trump crime syndicate should be in jail by now. This includes Trump, Jared, Ivanka, Eric, Jr., Manafort, Bannon, Stone, Flynn for starters.

Saint Croix said...

What's this shit?

Justice Department asks judge not to unseal affidavit that provided basis for search

Why are you hiding?

Are you afraid you will give too much information to the criminal you are chasing?

Are you afraid Trump is going to flee to a country where he can't be extradited?

You stole his passport!

Remember?

The conclusion that the media makes about how cautious and contemplative he is, holy fuck.

You will not save Garland's reputation! We judge his actions, not your fucking spin.

Tank said...

We are awash in never ending bullshit.

Saint Croix said...

hey Garland the moron

you would be so much better off

if you would stop thinking of Trump as a "criminal" for 10 seconds

and remember that he actually was a "president."

Reality check, nimrod.

I want to fire you all over again!

William said...

When the order came down from Stalin, Beria anguished over how to proceed against Zinoviev. He consulted his conscience and his closest associates about the wisdom of prosecuting and bringing to trial one of the earliest and most committed Bolsheviks. In the end, he decided that the future of the Worker's State depended upon such forthright actions. No one is above the law, and Stalin is the law. It took him upwards of thirty seconds to reach this anguished decision and, during the life of Stalin anyway, he never regretted it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Fauci and Garland. Government is a shit magnet.

Creola Soul said...

Trump: “They took my passports!”
Democrats: “Liar!”
Media: “Yeah, liar.”
DOJ: “Here’s your passports back.”
Democrats: Crickets
Media: Crickets

Lewis Wetzel said...

Reminder: this person who does not consider politics bowed instantly to a letter written by a rogue element of the NSBA to label parents protesting at school board meetings potential terrorists.
Garland stands by his decision to do this even though the NSBA has since disavowed the letter.

Beasts of England said...

‘He doesn't seem to have the right temperament this country needs in its AG in these dark times.’

lol

Mr Wibble said...

So he considered it for weeks, and never thought that it might invite backlash and that the DoJ should have a response prepared?

I'm calling bullshit. The more that comes out, the more I think that he was never in the loop; the WH told the FBI to raid MAL and only when the whole thing started looking bad did they have Garland come out and take responsibility for it.

rcocean said...

What an absurd puff piece on Garland. What does it matter that some friend of Garland, thinks he's a great guy?

THere was NO justification for the raid on an Ex-POTUS. Or spending NINE Fucking hours searching TRump's home. OR refusing to allow his lawyer to be present. OR going through the ex-First ladies underwear drawer looking for "documents".

Or seizing Trump's passport. And if all these documents were classified and TOP SECRET, why did it take 1.5 YEARS for Biden and Garland to decide they needed to be seized.

We need to be completely clear about this. There is NO REASON the DOJ couldn't have issued a supeona and demanded Trump return the documents. Assuming he had to. Instead, they decided to raid trump's home to humiliate him and his supporters.

Of course, the cuck Republicans and "Conservatives" are playing their wishy-washy "Gosh, this may have been OK. Gosh, we need to be measured and responsible. Gosh, there are two sides to every story. Gosh, Garland is an honorable man".

Two sides in the USA: The D's who recognize no limits to their power, and will do anything neccesaary to win. And the R's who are most interested in being "nice" or "responsible" and getting a favorable mention in the WaPo or NYTs. That's why the USA is doomed. You can't win, when your team doesn't want to fight.

Quayle said...

"said former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick"

You mean Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick who was put on the board of Fannie Mae by President Clinton, despite having no experience in the finance or mortgage markets, and walked away with $25M. Yet they cite to her as a credible source to confirm what is what, in Washington DC.

Isn't it interesting how they've created a circle of cross-confirming and cross-affirming witnesses and sources, all attesting to the veracity and probity the others.

Ampersand said...

The fallout from this episode will long survive the current news cycle. The segment of the population that distrusts the political, cultural and economic elite has just grown, and the sentiment is contagious. How can those elites be so oblivious?

Critter said...

The Garland debate:

Garland: Why raid his house if we don’t have a crime to convict him on?

DOJ/FBI Trump Haters: if we don’t raid now it will be too late to help us on the midterms. Trump is too popular. We need to cut him down now.

Garland: But we haven’t negotiated in good faith and Trump is cooperating. We don’t even know what we’re looking for.

DOJ/FBI: We’ll just grab everything. There’s got to be something we can turn into a crime.

Garland: That bastard did steal my Supreme Court seat. Let’s go get him!

Enigma said...

The timing of the Mar-a-Lago raid suggests intense party strong arming behind closed doors. Manchin also recently cracked to vote for the party. Garland consciously or unconsciously cracked to support the party. The party will do anything for wins before the election, despite the real possibility that these are likely pyrrhic victories.

Scotty, beam me up... said...

After Trump complained about his passport and expired passport being taken, the DOJ was “gracious” in giving back the expired passport. That’ll defuse the situation….

Achilles said...

Merrick Garland to weeks to decide to get those Nuclear Codes and Atomic Missile secrets back.

This Regime is a fucking clown show.

Anyone who supports it at this point is just stupid and knowingly dishonest.

Quayle said...

"Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve a search warrant for former President Trump’s home?"

But never once did he bounce the issue off of anyone in the White House? Is that believable?

Achilles said...

jim5301 said...

This is disturbing. By waiting he makes it look political. He doesn't seem to have the right temperament this country needs in its AG in these dark times. Everyone involved in the Trump crime syndicate should be in jail by now. This includes Trump, Jared, Ivanka, Eric, Jr., Manafort, Bannon, Stone, Flynn for starters.


This is how stupid you have to be to support this Regime.

Joe Smith said...

The Trump White House leaked like a sieve and this stays under wraps.

This just shows you how disciplined the Ds are and how fucked up the Rs are.

The Rs had better get their act together or they will be prosecuted and jailed out of existence.

Btw, it couldn't have been very urgent...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Smells like BS, the old “I agonized over this decision” crap we heard from Clinton and Obama. This is just as genuine as their whining. IF he’d given it that much thought he would have realized there was no urgency to do it with a goddamned tactical team at dawn like invading enemy territory. Garland should be impeached.

takirks said...

The question we all need to be asking ourselves is this: Why, precisely, is the Uniparty in DC reacting to Trump and his supporters like this?

That's the elephant in the room. Why the deranged response to his election and presidency? And, it is deranged. Make no mistake about that.

Trump could have been so easily co-opted by the Uniparty. The man has a big ego, and I don't think he's the sort of "down in the weeds" type who would have been able to discern he was being rolled. Look at how easily they did roll him, and ask why they did that the way they did, in order to destroy his presidency? Couldn't the same techniques have been used to co-opt him, use that populist fervor to reinforce things?

The fact that this wasn't the course of action that the Uniparty took tells us much. They're shit-scared of Trump and what he represents, at least in their minds.

What is that, do you suppose? Why are they frightened of him? Why are they tearing down the system to get at him? What in God's name do you suppose motivates them? Is it simple childish reaction to having their toys taken away from them by the voters, or is there more to it?

Either the establishment in DC has gotten exponentially more stupid than it was in the past, or Trump presents a threat of some sort. What could that be? What are they afraid of? Why do they feel this need to destroy him, utterly, rather than work with him?

For the love of God, Trump used to be a Democrat; the guy is still somewhat left of JFK, politically. Why couldn't they work with him, suborn his efforts? What was the reason they reacted the way they did?

Answer that, and much will become clear. Myself, I suspect that there's a bunch of stuff they can't afford to have come out into the open, and they're afraid of an outsider who might upset the applecart. Trump, amazingly enough, appears to be something of a moralist who refused to work with Epstein and had him thrown out of his properties. Are they afraid he'd reveal all? After all, wasn't Epstein arrested and then murdered in prison on Trump's watch, while he'd been essentially ignored and released under Obama?

What the hell is going on, here? Why didn't they work with Trump? I'm pretty sure they could have, so why didn't they?

Duke Dan said...

Right after the raid didn’t the DOJ spokes people say he didn’t make the decision on the raid? How does that square with this latest weeks of deliberation comment?

And if you had all that notice why did it take 72 hours to come up with a four minute statement. Should that have been ready to go day 1?

The more they say the less I believe.

wendybar said...

Trump sent Garland a note to ask how HE can help to bring the temperature down in the Country. Merrick Garland doesn't want the temperature to come down. If he did, he would have not made the statement he did. The left WANTS the right to get as pissed as they do for everything and blow up...then the take over will REALLY begin. https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-private-message-to-merrick-garland-before-doj-press-conference-is-revealed-report

Zavier Onasses said...

"Mr. Garland...has slowly begun to shed the cautious and consensus-based approach he followed as a federal judge...."

Gee, and all these years I thought Judges were s'posed to referee between sides, uniformly applying the Laws passed through Legislative process or evolved through custom.

Turns out, a Judge is just a poll watcher, making decisions based on which side has the most vocal cheering section.

Amadeus 48 said...

This is typical junk from WSJ's news division. What was Garland thinking? He deliberated a long time before squashing our civil liberties? He sucked his thumb while he turned us into a banana republic?

Bah!!

Mike Sylwester said...

The DOJ/FBI leadership is communicating to the public by means of leaks to The New York Times, to The Washington Post and now even to The Wall Street Journal.

An advantage of this means is that the DOJ/FBI leadership does not have to answer any difficult questions publicly.

A disadvantage, though, is that the public might be confused by contradictory leaks. For example:

* Should the public believe the initial leaks that Merrick Garland was not informed at all about the FBI's plan to raid former-President Trump's home?

.... or else ...

* Should the public believe the later leaks that Garland "deliberated for weeks" about the plan?

=======

I think that the raid's primary purpose was to confiscate Trump's documents about the FBI's investigations that he was a secret agent of Russian Intelligence. Those documents were a concern mostly of the FBI. Therefore, I think it's plausible that the FBI did the raid without the DOJ's knowledge.

The FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, established in July 2016, was not the first such investigation.

The FBI surely began a previous investigation no later than 2012, when Trump raised a stink about President Obama's birth certificate. In late 2012, Acting CIA Director Michael Morrell secretly but officially briefed Senator Harry Reid that Trump was "an unwitting agent" of the Kremlin.

The FBI surely began another investigation in 2015 in relation to a Russia-based international gambling ring operating in Trump Tower. That investigation led eventually to the various suspicions that Russia's Alfa Bank (used by that gambling ring) provided secret communications between Trump and Russian Intelligence.

The FBI surely investigated various real-estate deals that seemed to involve Russian businesses and Donald Trump and even his father.

Because Trump was the US President for four years, he managed to acquire much information about those various FBI investigations of him. He compelled the FBI to give him some of that information. He acquired some of that information from FBI insiders who provided it to him secretly. (He must keep the later acquisitions secret as long as he can.)

That situation is the cause of the recent FBI raid on Trump's home. The demagogic nonsense about nuclear-weapons secrets is a smoke-screen to deceive the public about the raid's real purpose.

=======

Lots of high-ranking officials in the US Intelligence Community believe that Trump is a secret agent of the Kremlin. Fifty recent high-ranking officials declared that Russian Intelligence concocted news reports about Hunter Biden's laptop computer as "disinformation" to help Trump defeat Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential election.

That belief is an important circumstance in the recent raid on Trump's home.

If Trump is re-elected, then he will gradually move the USA out of NATO. That is a national-security threat that the USA's Deep State fears.

Narayanan said...

so how long to prepare the affidavit to support the warrant application?
maybe Garland review item by item and why it took so long!

Zavier Onasses said...

Attorney General Garland deliberated for weeks over the most politically effective timing for the armed invasion of the former President's home.

Drago said...

jim5301: "This is disturbing. By waiting he makes it look political."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Seriously, stop it. I'm getting a stitch in my side.

Narayanan said...

Are you afraid Trump is going to flee to a country where he can't be extradited?
=========
can still be dronessinated

Achilles said...

Can you smell the desperation in the air?

50/50 Biden is replaced by the democrat party before Republicans take the House.

They had to raid Trump's house to keep the 1 year anniversary of Afghanistan out of the news. Remember that? When Biden left thousands of Americans and Billions in American weapons to the Taliban/Al Quaeda?

This regime is embarrassingly stupid and inept as well as corrupt.

The only people dumber than Joe Biden with dementia are the people that support him. They also support a known rapist.

I love the sunglasses look they have to use to hide his eyes because the drugs they give him make him buggy eyed.

gilbar said...

'He’s both extremely careful and he understands the critical role of an attorney general in these circumstances,' said former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelic

If so, how could he not recuse himself from these decisions?
He is a man that was offered a job, which was then taken from him; and given to another by Trump
That is pretty much the definition of conflict of interest

madAsHell said...

Bullshit!! This guy heard about it on the TV news.........just like his boss Slow Joe.

Do you really think the FBI is listening to the politicians, and behaving??

Static Ping said...

...people familiar with the matter said...

That is, the information provided is self-serving and therefore useless. But yet our "journalists" consider it absolute truth because they are genuinely stupid.

madAsHell said...

Why do so many in this administration project weakness, and self-doubt? What a bunch of beta males!!

AlbertAnonymous said...

Garland is as political as they come.

We are all being lied to. Right to our damn faces. Every damn day!

What recession? What inflation? Covid restrictions? Eh, we don’t need these anymore on account of Science!

dbp said...

Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, not exactly a paragon of integrity.

She sat on the 9/11 commission and authored a defense of actions she took and which were thought to have contributed to the failure to prevent the attack. She only recused herself from that part of the report after she was pressured to do so.

Amadeus 48 said...

What AMDG said at 9:05.

hawkeyedjb said...

"I don’t think he considers politics at all..."

Hoo-ee! She said it with a straight face, but I could reach out and touch her nose all the way from Arizona after that one.

Buckwheathikes said...

Merrick Garland is TAINTED. He is so judicially conflicted that he cannot be allowed to harass the leader of the opposition party in the United States.

This is harassment, pure and simple.

We would never allow a judge, for example, to rule on a case where they were a long-time enemy of the defendant. That judge would have a CONFLICT OF INTEREST. He would either remove himself (recuse) or he would BE removed by a higher court, or the case thrown out of court because of this conflict.

Garland knows this.

The same is true of police: We do not allow police officers to conduct criminal investigations of their personal enemies.

Merrick Garland was DENIED something he very desperately wanted: A lifetime appointment to the US Supreme Court. He is now acting out in his new capacity to eviscerate the leader of the political party that denied him "his" seat, and which led to the overturning of the Democrat Party's SINGLE issue: Abortion.

He MUST recuse himself and cease his incessant witch hunt to persecute the opposition party for denying him the job he wanted. If he won't do it, then the Supreme Court needs to step in and remove him by force.

narciso said...

this is who the Times employs,

https://honestreporting.com/honestreporting-expose-prompts-new-york-times-to-fire-gaza-stringer-who-called-for-the-murder-of-jews/

they would cheer for the same treatment to be applied here,

Yancey Ward said...

Well, so much for the openess Garland just last week promised on the warrant. Another fucking lie- who is surprised at this point.

You can see it in this story, however- the climb down has now started at the DoJ. It appears the collected material didn't pan out they way they wished.

Amadeus 48 said...

jim5301--

Just wait till they get to the Biden crime family. The Big Guy has been feasting off his public office for 50 years using his family as bagmen. Incidentally, Joe is earning the title Bad Dad of the Century as we learn more about his screwed-up kids.

Thanks for noting that Garland is a political stooge. Not a lot of urgency there on this decision. The pictures of the highly-weaponed FBI goons outside Trump's house are disgusting.

tim in vermont said...

I guess the story that he didn't know anything about it made him look worse, so this is the new story. Thanks God he is not on the Supreme Court, with his abrogation of attorney client prvilege and his insouciant atttitude towers the Fourth Amendment whe his political enemies are the target.

A picture of this raid ought to be in the dictionary next to "unreasonable search and seizure." The passport part should be emphasized.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Justice Department asks judge not to unseal affidavit that provided basis for search

“Why are you hiding?

“Are you afraid you will give too much information to the criminal you are chasing?”

We are all pretty sure what’s going on there. The main pressure in the FBI was no doubt coming from it’s Counterintelligence Division (CD), where Strzok, Clinesmith, etc used to work until they were fired. Plenty of their coworkers, who had lesser involvement no doubt still are. They hid the RussiaGate foundational documents as long as they could, through classifying it. And similarly the Woods Files, and supporting documentation, etc, for their 4 FISA warrants they got on Carter Page. They fought declassification bureaucratically until the day that Trump left office, and in exasperation, the day before, Trump formally ordered their declassification, which they then ignored for the next 18 months. Te documents are still not formally declassified, which is very likely why the search warrant was written to include documents with classified markings, which those would still have, the CD having never formally declassified those documents.

The short answer is that the CD uses secrecy and classification to protect themselves from accountability for their perfidy and malfeasance. This is almost assuredly what’s going on here. Letting anyone outside the cabal running this operation see the affidavits they used to acquire the search warrants would very likely give away that the basis for the warrants was political, and not criminal.

Drago said...

Amadeus 48: "jim5301--

Just wait till they get to the Biden crime family."

Nothing will happen to the Biden's or any other democraticals.

The democraticals own the DOJ/FBI/CIA/NSA/IRS etc.

All federal agencies and bureaucracies belong to the DNC.

We have now reached beyond the initial stages of permanent 1 party control of the ever more powerful federal state. They are consolidating all power as we speak.

They are forcing out any and all military members who show any indications of questioning left wing dogma, they have just funded 87,000 more weaponized and SWAT-armed IRS agents, they have successfully created a permanent dem-controlled mass-vote-by-mail department within the Post Office, and it goes on and on.

They will absolutely, without question, be using 100% partisan dem grand juries, prosecutors and juries to arrest, try and convict Trump to stop him from running. Years later it will be tossed by the Supreme Court (if the dems dont impeach and remove multiple members currently sitting).

The New Soviet Democraticals have long adored, praised and sought to enrich and emulate the ChiComs, and here we are.

narciso said...

ah sadie, adam entous partner, this is why they got some good material re benghazi, but still a drone, waiting to move over to the Times or the Post,

Curious George said...

"But yet our "journalists" consider it absolute truth because they are genuinely stupid."

Most know it's bullshit. It's not even that they don't care. They're in on it. And proud to be.

Big Mike said...

These days the Wall Street Journal apparently targets a more gullible readership than formerly.

Michael K said...

Everyone involved in the Trump crime syndicate should be in jail by now. This includes Trump, Jared, Ivanka, Eric, Jr., Manafort, Bannon, Stone, Flynn for starters.

jim1234 shows us why Inga was bitching about no respect for liberals yesterday. This is what we get from those serious intellects. No trial, no evidence in spite of years of Weissmann trying to find something. Weissmann, whose Arthur Anderson decision was reversed 9-0 by the Supreme Court. Yes, jim1234 knows how to go about it. Put them all in jail. How cares about evidence ?

chuck said...

So careful and considered that the affidavit must be hidden. It's super serious guys.

Beasts of England said...

Eric Trump is going to release the surveillance videos from the FBI raid. As a famous blogger once said: ‘Fuck you. War.’

Maynard said...

This is how stupid you have to be to support this Regime.

It is not stupidity, Achilles.

jim5301 is just another fanatical Democrat. He knows what he is doing to defend the faith.

MikeR said...

Huh. I liked Mickey Kaus's comment on a recent Bloggingheads: I think Garland said, What is the most respectable thing I can do to Donald Trump, that will get the crazies off my back that I need to do something?
That seems more reasonable than your whole sychophantic article about "how carefully he thought about it. We saw him sitting and stroking his chin for hours!"

Milo Minderbinder said...

Four weeks? To come up with one of the dumbest exercises of legal authority in modern history? Four weeks and he still got it wrong.

One thing Garland got right: he's as naive and manipulable as Jeff Sessions.

Leland said...

Just reading the headline; it is pretty damning of Merrick Garland. If you paused and thought about it, and still came to the dumb conclusion it was a good idea; then your judgement is even more in question. This wasn't an issue of do or do not. There were other options, including recommending a special counsel on the harsh side or recommending arbitration on the more reasonable side. Imagine the news stories "FBI meets with Trump officials to discuss recovering classified material contained in Presidential documents shipped to Mar-a-lago." That cast the same shade on Trump while handling the matter consistent with historical examples. The only reservation Garland managed to employ was not conducting the raid while Trump was present and then hauling him off right then in handcuffs. Now he's in the situation of perhaps having to still swoop in and arrest Trump in a very obvious way that will be cause celeb for many to protest.

Mason G said...

You don't have to be a lying POS to be a Democrat. But it helps.

traditionalguy said...

The Obama/Soros junta and their puppet Biden are determined to conquer the USA from within . The way they disguise the invasion under Social Justice is not fooling anyone since Trump exposed the Fake News Brigade. Hence the digging of the vote count became necessary. Hence a pandemic scare was needed to use rigged vote methods.

Will our grandchildren have a free way of life? All depends on the skills of that boastful orange man who fights them while we watch and hide.

Real American said...

he deliberated and deliberated and deliberated and then decided to do what he wanted to do all along, which is go after Trump, his party's chief political rival and a big reason why he's not on the Supreme Court. He didn't have any evidence of wrongdoing, so he needed to go look for some. Democrats pull this garbage all the time of believing their own BS. The worst part is they're gaslighting the country.

Of course, politics entered into the equation! How could they not? Democrats are constitutionally incapable of separating politics from morality, which is why they so often take the position that being a good person means complying with their political preferences. It's amazing how "doing the right thing" so often aligns with the Democrats' politics. It's why they so often argue their policy preferences "aren't political" and then get all pissy and accuse Republicans of politics ("pouncing" and "seizing") when they naturally object to their latest lunacy.

Bailey Yankee said...

Gorelick
Strzok
Hayden

Yup. These are the honorable people MSM goes to for affirmation the regime is "doing the right thing!!" Please, they say, you need to (with gratitude) praise their commie/traitor colleagues as they destroy our Constitution and country.

Rusty said...

Achilles said...
"jim5301 said...

This is disturbing. By waiting he makes it look political. He doesn't seem to have the right temperament this country needs in its AG in these dark times. Everyone involved in the Trump crime syndicate should be in jail by now. This includes Trump, Jared, Ivanka, Eric, Jr., Manafort, Bannon, Stone, Flynn for starters.


This is how stupid you have to be to support this Regime."
Willfully so. How incurious do you have to be? And then I remember that half of this county's population is on the left side of the bell curve and they vote democrat. So little jimmy already has two strikes against him.

Paul said...

Sooner or later... Democrats will reap what they sow.

Big Mike said...

Two weeks to return Trump’s passports and other privileged documents? Is their Xerox machine broken?

Original Mike said...

"He doesn't seem to have the right temperament this country needs in its AG in these dark times."

Not jack-booty enough for you?

Jupiter said...

Just so we're all on the same page, Jamie Gorelick is the gold standard for corruption. If she says you can trust Merrick Garland, then Merrick Garland is a raging dumpster fire of double-dealing, deceit and corruption.

n.n said...

When Biden left thousands of Americans and Billions in American weapons to the Taliban/Al Quaeda

From stable to fetid in less than a trimester. Women and girls come second in the modern model.

When Obama's premature evacuation from Iraq was a segue to the second Iraq War, and he overrode diverse claims in order to return billions to Iran's account, which funded the World War Spring series from Tripoli to Kiev.

Jupiter said...

"AG Garland is targetting parents criticizing the bizarre pro-trans teaching curriculum akin to sexual/cult grooming at school board meetings as potential terrorists."

That's because Merrick Garland's daughter is married to the co-founder of a grift-works that sells CRT training manuals to public schools.

If you go to the supermarket, reach up to the top shelf, and take down a five-pound box of "Corrupt Piece Of Shit", it has Merrick Garland's picture on the front.

n.n said...

Classified or classified-classified? Garland follows the progressive order where there is ostensibly a mystery in sex, conception, and human life. Religion (e.g. moral, ethical, legal philosophy) is politics.

TRISTRAM said...

Given weeks of meetings and preparations, and THAT was their idea of a good enough plan? Ye, Gods!

effinayright said...

Mike S said: I think that the raid's primary purpose was to confiscate Trump's documents about the FBI's investigations that he was a secret agent of Russian Intelligence. Those documents were a concern mostly of the FBI. Therefore, I think it's plausible that the FBI did the raid without the DOJ's knowledge.

The FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, established in July 2016, was not the first such investigation.
**************

I ask myself, if those were what Trump has that the FBI wants to get back, why wouldn't Trump make copies of everything as soon as he got his hands on them?

I hope they're all tucked away in the Cloud by now.

Temujin said...

So glad Garland is not on the Supreme Court. What a mistake it would be to have this moral coward sitting there for life. In his current post he is seemingly run by the Obama team surrounding him, directing him, handing him things to attend to, much as they do Joe Biden. At least he will be 'term' limited. Out with the bathwater in 2024, or sooner.

Bad enough we have Sotomayor on the Court. Jeez. We can do better than this.

Another old lawyer said...

takirks @ 9:43:

I wonder if they hate Musk for the same reason that they hate Trump.

By way of example of the kind of thing that some might think explains part of what's going on in the absence of a more rational explanation to what appears to be inexplicable, I recommend listening to the MartyrMade podcast episodes on Jeffrey Epstein. 2 of the 3 episodes are available for free; the last only to paying subscribers. The Epstein background/history is troubling enough but the recounting of the Marc Dutroux child sex scandal in Belgium is truly horrifying, more so in light of the allegations about gov't officials and prominent figures and what seems to be undeniable light treatment given Dutroux on an early arrest and conviction for child sex offenses.

Benjamin Franklin's 'We must hang together or surely we will all hang separately' is just as true for the bad guys. When you're not part of the 'club', then you're the other that must be dealt with. This almost seems like Animal House playing out at some level.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The raid itself was necessary because of the urgent, time-sensitive nature of the offense and the risk that additional harm could be caused at any moment.
The raid was only approved after weeks of careful deliberation and consultation--this wasn't some spur of the moment, seat of the pants decision and the decisionmakers involved took their time before acting.

What? Oh, those two things seem incongruous, to be incompatible with each other?
Hey, too bad, man; Trump is a bad guy so it's good this thing happened to him. The walls are closing in!

HoodlumDoodlum said...

AG Garland's Song of Himself:

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Dang, remember those very-well-sourced stories that said Garland wasn't involved in greenlighting the raid at all? I'll bet the people who wrote those feel pretty silly--I'll bet they wrote apologies and explained how and why they got that so wrong, huh? I'll wait patiently to read those.

rehajm said...

Well, he’s no reasonable prosecutor…

boatbuilder said...

"Justice Department asks judge not to unseal the affidavit that provided the basis for the search."

A well-buried lede.

Rollo said...

Yes, they said the same thing about Mueller and Comey. Garland "doesn't consider politics" because politics is already "baked into" the information that he gets from the FBI, the lawyers working for him, and the Establishment media. His people believe that going after Trump is a moral imperative and he shares that opinion.

rcocean said...

Don't forget FISA/Russiagate which was presented to us as "Trump's under investigation for Russia Collusion". We were told the FBI had "super-secret spies" that gave CREDIBLE evidence that Mueller had to investigate.

It turns out the whole thing was engineered by the Hillary Clinton campaign and laundered through the FBI. THe "Super spies" were drunk russians in DC paid by Hilalry to make shit up. Documents were forged to get FISA warrants on Trump. There was NO "Trump Russia collusion" and the DOJ/Comey/Mueller all knew it from DAY ONE.

So, here we are again, and they're playing the same fucking game. The CenterRight needs to stop being reasonable. Stop giving them the "Benefit of the doubt". Stop talking about "Well, they wouldn't have done this, unless.."

The name of the game is destroy Trump. That's all its ever been. Quit enabling them by being the wise ol' greybeard who "listens to both sides".

Harun said...

The media is really good at taking lemons and making you plausible lemonade.

Political appointee delays raid until 91 days before an election....

Done on purpose to leverage it for electoral purpose?

or done after "agonizing" delay thinking it through?

Creola Soul said...

We need a Wilford Brimley moment on this:
“Mr. Trump, I seem to want to ask you if you set all of this up. But if I do, you’re not going to tell me. No, I didn’t think you would”.
Except that in this case Trump probably will tell us…..

Jason said...

Jamie Gorelick?

Really?

EdwdLny said...

Eh, he's another lib, another ignorant, fascist twat. They should be careful what they wish for, they just might get it. And, after the smoke clears, the dust settles ,and the carnage is revealed. They will be very unhappy with results.

Rabel said...

"consensus-based approach he followed as a federal judge"

I just don't think that federal judges are generally prone to use a consensus-based approached to their work.

Sebastian said...

Sorry for any repetition, but just so we are clear:

Garland took weeks to decide that circumstances were "exigent" enough to seek a warrant, and then in spite of the exigency the FBI waited several days before executing that warrant.

Gospace said...

The DoJ doesn’t want to rerelease the affidavit due to it being two words long:

Because Trump!!!!

What more justification did they need?

Bob Boyd said...

Really? He deliberated for weeks? About what exactly?

Whether to recover the crucial classified national security materials or not?

Whether to raid Mar-a-Lago vs subpoena the materials?

Why was it such a difficult decision? What were the pros and cons?

It doesn't make sense, if this is such a clearcut case Trump violating the law, the risk to national security was real and the action was legally defensible, that it would take weeks to decide.

Show your work, Garland.

hombre said...

Tick, tick tick! Weeks to decide, but "exigent" circumstances.

Absolute bollocks! Pap for Democrats and other chumps.

traditionalguy said...

The raw courage of DJT is the sine qua non in face of DC’s rulers. That is the Central Intelligence Agency. Those guys not only have six ways from Sunday to destroy separatists, they have their own Army, Navy, Air force, and Space force.
Poor Trump is too stubborn to name his price and sell us out. Silly patriotic boy.

PM said...

"Merr, Nancy again on line 1."

FlyingMike said...

So - wait - timeline question: What was the interval between those “in-person inspections” of what the GAO had sent down and the application for Garland to approve the search warrant?

On the face of it, it does appear that “Merrick agonized for weeks” plus “waited a couple days until he was out of town” eats up a fair chunk of that time. Or did they ask for the warrant before that inspection visit?

Also, can we get any and all emails between the FBI, DoJ and GAO on what the GAO were planning on sending DJT? Did thye inventory anything?

Michael K said...

Poor Trump is too stubborn to name his price and sell us out. Silly patriotic boy.

Isn't that the truth ! Rich men like Tillerson had no problem selling out. I wonder what he got ? Mitt Romney is pure abused ego but some of the sellouts would have interesting stories if they would tell them.

Pettifogger said...

How long will Pappa Doc Garland anguish before sending his Tonton Macoutes out to arrest the GOP Congressional leadership?

realestateacct said...

So grateful to Mitch McConnell for keeping this man off the Supreme Court.

Goldenpause said...

Garland is just a tool in the leftist toolbox. He should be ashamed that he has disgraced his office. But he isn’t, so get over it.

Jamie said...

This is disturbing.

[nodding emphatically]

By waiting he makes it look political.

Right?!

He doesn't seem to have the right temperament this country needs in its AG in these dark times.

It's a good thing he's not a USSC justice, isn't it? Dodged a bullet there!

Everyone involved in the Trump crime syndicate should be in jail by now. This includes Trump, Jared, Ivanka, Eric, Jr., Manafort, Bannon, Stone, Flynn for starters.

[facepalm] Oh, jim5301. You were so close.

Buckwheathikes said...

The Federal Bureau of Idiots (FBI) admitted today that, yes, they did steal 3 of Donald Trump's passports and are now being forced to return them (Nora O'Donnell is biting into her pillow while her source puts it in her behind and finishes her storied career).

If Trump was smart, he'd now complain that a bunch of Melania's panties are also missing and demand their return.

Watch 'em squirm.

Clyde said...

Make your move across the Rubicon,
Future's knocking at your door.
Take your time to choose the road you want,
Opportunity is yours...

walter said...

Once it turned into an op to get some of Melania's panties, he was all in.

walter said...

...not for the reasons you might think...

GrapeApe said...

Gotta give it to the Trump family. Pere et fils. They all have withstood this onslaught of crazy against them for years, yet they keep soldiering through. Donald Jr has taken on the role of attack dog. Eric pipes in now and again. Ivanka looks glamorous. Much like Melania. I don’t believe a word of all this shit coming out today about Jared. Hell, he was the one who was mostly responsible for the middle east agreements between Israel and some Arab states. And not any damn one of them needs any money. Hey Hunter! They seem like normal folks, except they have a good bit of wealth.

To paint the whole bunch as some sort of abnormal ill-functioning crazies is just septic tank dumb.

Owen said...

dbp @ 9:58: Thank you for reminding the readers here that Jamie Gorelick has a really scuzzy history. I think her authorship of the “wall” memo (prohibiting flow of info between CIA and FBI on domestic threats) was a major factor in blinding and paralyzing our intel services as the 9/11 plot took shape. She has the blood of thousands on her hands. And what price did she pay? Less than nothing: a role in writing the CYA “analysis” of 9/11 and a very very lucrative position “overseeing” the subprime mortgage industry that —big surprise— blew up in catastrophic fashion at the end of Bush fils’ second term. In a way her malfeasances nicely bracket his time in office: the first enabling massive physical destruction of the nation, the second enabling massive financial destruction.

I wonder how she sleeps at night.

CWJ said...

Merrick Garland - tortured soul.

Now do Merrick Garland and the school board letter.

I can't believe that this party hack whose response to being told to jump is how high was sold to us as a responsible jurist when up for the Supreme court. Makes me wonder what was dangled in front of the "Epstein" judge to encourage him to sign the search warrant.

effinayright said...

Owen said...
dbp @ 9:58: Thank you for reminding the readers here that Jamie Gorelick has a really scuzzy history.

I wonder how she sleeps at night.
************

Like a baby.

Rosemary's baby.

Cappy said...

I bet.

guitar joe said...

Like this couldn't have waited until after the mid-terms. Between this move and the Jan. 6th hearings, both of which keep Trump well and firmly in the public eye, and you have to wonder if some Dems are just not so bright.