Bob Somerby wrote today about a CNN interview with North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer. Wolf Blitzer wanted to know why Cramer supported Kash Patel to be FBI Director, and Cramer replied that it was all about the FBI's search for Donald Trump's classified documents:
[I] want to get to the root of how is it that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago early in the morning with guns out looking for documents that, if they knew existed, all they had to do was ask for them or get a subpoena and go get them in a peaceful way in cooperation with the president.... There was no need to arm a bunch of FBI agents to the teeth, put on bulletproof vests, show up in their SWAT outfits, and raid Mar-a-Lago. It shows an indignity of the whole thing. And by the way, here we are today with the whole case being dismissed.
You might have a vague memory that this sounds all wrong, but it's way worse than that. Here's a brief timeline of Donald Trump and his top secret documents:
May 2021: The National Archives asks Trump to please return all missing documents in his possession, and keeps asking for the rest of the year.
January 2022: After months of stalling, Trump finally delivers 15 boxes containing 197 classified documents.
May 2022: Sensing that Trump hasn't turned over everything, a grand jury issues a subpoena for any additional classified documents.
June 2022: At Mar-a-Lago, Trump's lawyer responds to the subpoena by turning over to the FBI a small envelope containing 38 classified documents, along with an affidavit that he's searched diligently and this is everything. He also gives agents a tour of Trump's storage room but refuses to allow them to search the boxes inside.
Late June 2022: Upon learning that Mar-a-Lago has a video surveillance system, the Department of Justice subpoenas pretty much all of it.
July 2022: After initially asking his IT director to wipe the surveillance system hard drive, Trump turns it over. It shows Trump aides repeatedly moving boxes out of the storage room to other locations.
August 2022: Since Trump is plainly obstructing them in every way he can, the FBI gets a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago. They show up quietly in plainclothes in the early morning, making every effort to keep the search low key. They find boxes strewn around the mansion, eventually recovering 13,000 documents in 13 boxes, more than a hundred of them with classification markings—including 18 marked Top Secret. .
Top: The famous picture of document boxes "stored" in one of Trump's Mar-a-Lago bathrooms. Bottom: Some of the documents themselves.
Late August 2022: Judge Aileen Cannon, acting on a motion from Trump, halts the FBI's review of the documents and instead appoints a special master to do it. She is quickly overturned by both an appeals court and the Supreme Court.
November 2022: Jack Smith is appointed as a special counsel to investigate the case.
June 2023: Jack Smith indicts Trump.
November 2024. Trump wins the presidential election. Smith drops the case due to longstanding Justice Department rules that prohibit the prosecution of sitting presidents.
This is what conservatives have furiously misrepresented from day one. It became the poster child for charges of "weaponizing" the FBI and "lawfare" by Joe Biden against a political opponent. The simple truth, of course, is that Trump repeatedly and relentlessly tried to obstruct the return of classified documents in the face of polite requests, firmer requests, and finally subpoenas. We now know that he repeatedly insisted he didn't want anyone messing with "his boxes." He enlisted his aides to move boxes around to hide them from his own lawyer's court-ordered searches. He tried to prevent the FBI from reviewing surveillance video. To the bitter end he concealed documents until the FBI was finally forced to recover them by searching Mar-a-Lago themselves—which they did professionally and discreetly.
Nonetheless conservatives keep up their ridiculous version of events and insist the FBI is hopelessly corrupt and politicized. It's disgraceful conduct.
25 thoughts on “Here’s the simple truth about the FBI”
Justin
I can’t keep up… are they disbanding the FBI or turning it into the secret police with assassination squads? Stay away from windows!
Have at it. The more damage the better.
GrueBleen
"It's disgraceful conduct." And that's exactly what the American people love him and elect him for. Expect far more in the next four years than you will ever have time and energy to comment on.
Merry Xmas.
DFPaul
Republicans attacking the police again. Very back the blue.
Dave_MB32
Exactly. Everyone knows how that the FBI is filled with radical left wing agents that are commie sympathizers.
Dana Decker
Sen. Cramer: "[I] want to get to the root of how is it that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago early in the morning with guns ..."
Stop right there. That's the Trump / MAGA / Fox News bullshit he's spouting. He cannot be taken seriously. At all.
re Kevin's: "The simple truth, of course, is that Trump repeatedly and relentlessly tried to obstruct the return of classified documents in the face of polite requests, firmer requests, and finally subpoenas."
This is where Garland / Smith royally screwed up. They should have charged Trump with (easy to prove) obstruction, and nothing else. That avoids all the time consuming and nonsense of having the stolen documents reviewed. Chris Christie, when asked with of the four (then) pending charges against Trump he'd like to take, said he'd do the Mar-a-logo documents case *but only the obstruction element* and have the case wrapped up in three months. I believe that. I also believe that Garland, famous for dotting every i and crossing every t, knew that going after Trump with the secret documents' contents aspect and the inclusion of other defendants was a guarantee of huge delays, likely to hobble the prosecution to the point where it might fail. Which it did.
BTW, when will the next press conference by Garland take place? I can't wait to see him grilled.
rick_jones
Not that I'm fond of who ended-up on the Supreme Court in his place, but I question Biden's ... wisdom in handing Garland the Attorney General post as a consolation prize.
Crissa
Obstruction is hard to prove, even harder when the judge is blocking you from identifying the evidence you collected.
jeffreycmcmahon
Grilled by whom, exactly? The media has been taking the same laissez-faire approach.
David Patin
And it will work because conservatives only get their information, or rather misinformation from conservatives sources.
KenSchulz
You left out July, 2024, when Trump-appointed Judge Cannon dismissed the case, arguing that prosecutor Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional, although similar appointments have been upheld in multiple court decisions.
iamr4man
The biggest disgrace is Wolf Blitzer who made no attempt to dispute the appalling lie that the FBI entered Mar a Lago with guns drawn. What a tool.
SeanT
I don't watch CNN
How did Blitzer respond? Did he fact che....
hahahahaah
I almost got through that.
jamesepowell
If the NYT, WaPo, and cable shows had treated it like . . . I don't now, maybe an email server in a person's house . . . I'd expect the public would have more understanding of what occurred there.
Citizen99
Not to be too partisan about it, but a goddamned shit-eating fuck-stick KNOWS that every word he's saying is a goddamned lie. That's a given. But the bigger problem here is that Wolf Blitzer will not TELL HIM THAT, and ask him "Why do you think you can lie so brazenly about this and our audience should just swallow it? Why do you think no one in the press is going to point this out?"
The press is the ONLY barrier against this slide into the Big Brother cesspool. Thankfully, we have Our Kevin, but we need a couple hundred more of him, on camera, on the scene, humiliating the liars.
Bardi
"Thankfully, we have Our Kevin, but we need a couple hundred more of him, on camera, on the scene, humiliating the liars."
I would pay good money to see something like that.
ConradsGhost
Bingo bingo bingo. Everything else is bullshit. The people who need humiliating are the gutless, complicit sycophants who enable neo-fascists to pound their lies - intentional, deliberate, malicious lies - into the public consciousness.
It's amazing how cowardly and subservient the legacy media and far too many Democrats are. And I mean cowardly - functional cowards, who'll insist on their 'independence' and 'non-partisanship' and whatthefuckever bullshit to cover their impotent, lickspittle asses. We are eyeball level in deep, deep shit.
Heysus
Liars, cheaters, delusionals, and t-Rump sycophants can’t help themselves. Once they step into the shit, they are captives. They just can’t imagine themselves being left out of the bizarre party that ‘his highness’ has created.
MindGame
The fact that this blatantly criminal behavior, which still poses an existential security threat to the country, didn't end Trump's political prospects and land him for the rest of his life in prison is indicative of how broken and inadequate our news organizations have become.
Salamander
Not to mention our slow SLOOOOWWWW moving "justice" system, with innumerable opportunities for a powerful or wealthy person to block it.
MindGame
Although wealth was certainly a factor, having appointed several judges key to either deciding the cases themselves or the issues involving these cases was the one unique element against which our justice system clearly wasn't adequately fortified. And then the voting public decided to elect a convicted felon to the presidency.
Hopefully, if we ever get a chance again to amend things in our system, we'll patch up these loopholes.
Chip Daniels
All Republicans are liars.
I wish it was more complex and nuanced than that, but it isn't.
The Republican project is a collection of bigotries, so they need to lie constantly in order to hide that.
KJK
Perhaps the FBI was better served by an FBI director who was a closeted homosexual (allegedly), and who maintained files with embarrassing / damaging information and photos/film, of politicians and other influential players. Of course it is unclear what additional information, if disclosed, would fatally damage that Orange shit stain's reputation if the Access Hollywood tapes, Stormy Daniels, and referring to fallen/wounded US soldiers "suckers and losers" didn't do the job.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer: "[I] want to get to the root of how is it that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago early in the morning with guns out."
By all means, disarm law enforcement!
memyselfandi
"along with an affidavit that he's searched diligently and this is everything." The lawyer wasn't that grossly incompetent. The affidavit said that Trump told the lawyer that Trump had searched diligently
LactatingAlgore
what i'm curious about is why the secret service, who are also law enforcement, & as part of the department of homeland security are part of the national security apparatus expressly, never raised any concern after january 20, 2021, about a non-sitting president having top secret documents.
I can’t keep up… are they disbanding the FBI or turning it into the secret police with assassination squads? Stay away from windows!
Have at it. The more damage the better.
"It's disgraceful conduct." And that's exactly what the American people love him and elect him for. Expect far more in the next four years than you will ever have time and energy to comment on.
Merry Xmas.
Republicans attacking the police again. Very back the blue.
Exactly. Everyone knows how that the FBI is filled with radical left wing agents that are commie sympathizers.
Sen. Cramer: "[I] want to get to the root of how is it that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago early in the morning with guns ..."
Stop right there. That's the Trump / MAGA / Fox News bullshit he's spouting. He cannot be taken seriously. At all.
re Kevin's: "The simple truth, of course, is that Trump repeatedly and relentlessly tried to obstruct the return of classified documents in the face of polite requests, firmer requests, and finally subpoenas."
This is where Garland / Smith royally screwed up. They should have charged Trump with (easy to prove) obstruction, and nothing else. That avoids all the time consuming and nonsense of having the stolen documents reviewed. Chris Christie, when asked with of the four (then) pending charges against Trump he'd like to take, said he'd do the Mar-a-logo documents case *but only the obstruction element* and have the case wrapped up in three months. I believe that. I also believe that Garland, famous for dotting every i and crossing every t, knew that going after Trump with the secret documents' contents aspect and the inclusion of other defendants was a guarantee of huge delays, likely to hobble the prosecution to the point where it might fail. Which it did.
BTW, when will the next press conference by Garland take place? I can't wait to see him grilled.
Not that I'm fond of who ended-up on the Supreme Court in his place, but I question Biden's ... wisdom in handing Garland the Attorney General post as a consolation prize.
Obstruction is hard to prove, even harder when the judge is blocking you from identifying the evidence you collected.
Grilled by whom, exactly? The media has been taking the same laissez-faire approach.
And it will work because conservatives only get their information, or rather misinformation from conservatives sources.
You left out July, 2024, when Trump-appointed Judge Cannon dismissed the case, arguing that prosecutor Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional, although similar appointments have been upheld in multiple court decisions.
The biggest disgrace is Wolf Blitzer who made no attempt to dispute the appalling lie that the FBI entered Mar a Lago with guns drawn. What a tool.
I don't watch CNN
How did Blitzer respond? Did he fact che....
hahahahaah
I almost got through that.
If the NYT, WaPo, and cable shows had treated it like . . . I don't now, maybe an email server in a person's house . . . I'd expect the public would have more understanding of what occurred there.
Not to be too partisan about it, but a goddamned shit-eating fuck-stick KNOWS that every word he's saying is a goddamned lie. That's a given. But the bigger problem here is that Wolf Blitzer will not TELL HIM THAT, and ask him "Why do you think you can lie so brazenly about this and our audience should just swallow it? Why do you think no one in the press is going to point this out?"
The press is the ONLY barrier against this slide into the Big Brother cesspool. Thankfully, we have Our Kevin, but we need a couple hundred more of him, on camera, on the scene, humiliating the liars.
"Thankfully, we have Our Kevin, but we need a couple hundred more of him, on camera, on the scene, humiliating the liars."
I would pay good money to see something like that.
Bingo bingo bingo. Everything else is bullshit. The people who need humiliating are the gutless, complicit sycophants who enable neo-fascists to pound their lies - intentional, deliberate, malicious lies - into the public consciousness.
It's amazing how cowardly and subservient the legacy media and far too many Democrats are. And I mean cowardly - functional cowards, who'll insist on their 'independence' and 'non-partisanship' and whatthefuckever bullshit to cover their impotent, lickspittle asses. We are eyeball level in deep, deep shit.
Liars, cheaters, delusionals, and t-Rump sycophants can’t help themselves. Once they step into the shit, they are captives. They just can’t imagine themselves being left out of the bizarre party that ‘his highness’ has created.
The fact that this blatantly criminal behavior, which still poses an existential security threat to the country, didn't end Trump's political prospects and land him for the rest of his life in prison is indicative of how broken and inadequate our news organizations have become.
Not to mention our slow SLOOOOWWWW moving "justice" system, with innumerable opportunities for a powerful or wealthy person to block it.
Although wealth was certainly a factor, having appointed several judges key to either deciding the cases themselves or the issues involving these cases was the one unique element against which our justice system clearly wasn't adequately fortified. And then the voting public decided to elect a convicted felon to the presidency.
Hopefully, if we ever get a chance again to amend things in our system, we'll patch up these loopholes.
All Republicans are liars.
I wish it was more complex and nuanced than that, but it isn't.
The Republican project is a collection of bigotries, so they need to lie constantly in order to hide that.
Perhaps the FBI was better served by an FBI director who was a closeted homosexual (allegedly), and who maintained files with embarrassing / damaging information and photos/film, of politicians and other influential players. Of course it is unclear what additional information, if disclosed, would fatally damage that Orange shit stain's reputation if the Access Hollywood tapes, Stormy Daniels, and referring to fallen/wounded US soldiers "suckers and losers" didn't do the job.
The FBI doesn't go outside in Florida without being armed.
https://youtu.be/vrjCtxw-utw?si=C0mKXLd86Mo0GFQJ
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer: "[I] want to get to the root of how is it that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago early in the morning with guns out."
By all means, disarm law enforcement!
"along with an affidavit that he's searched diligently and this is everything." The lawyer wasn't that grossly incompetent. The affidavit said that Trump told the lawyer that Trump had searched diligently
what i'm curious about is why the secret service, who are also law enforcement, & as part of the department of homeland security are part of the national security apparatus expressly, never raised any concern after january 20, 2021, about a non-sitting president having top secret documents.