berg80
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2017
- 16,196
- 13,575
- 2,320
Red states ask court to stop Jack Smith's gag order against Trump in Florida documents case
FIRST ON FOX: A group of 24 Republican state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief in former President Trump's classified documents case, asking a Florida court not to grant special counsel Jack Smith's gag order request, calling it "presumptively unconstitutional."
"Free and fair elections in the United States depend on candidates’ ability to speak about important issues of the day. Attempts to stop a candidate from speaking out harm more than just the candidate. They also hurt the voters, who are denied access to crucial information, and the States, which are responsible for managing elections," the amicus brief filed Monday in the Southern District of Florida stated.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/re...ag-order-against-trump-florida-documents-case
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term Red Tie Brigade, it is used to refer to the Repub public officials who went to speak outside the courthouse in NY to make baseless allegations about the justice system in Don's defense and were dressed like Trump while doing so. I use the term here metaphorically for the purposes of the thread.
Let's go back and review why Smith was asking for the gag order in the first place. It was in response to Trump's use of boilerplate language in the MAL search warrant to accuse the FBI of wanting to assassinate him. An opportunity he used to spread more right wing conspiracy theories.
It Was Legal Boilerplate. Trump Made It Sound Like a Threat to His Life.
On the day before the F.B.I. obtained a search warrant almost two years ago to look for classified materials at former President Donald J. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida, one of the agents on the case sent a reassuring email to his bosses.
“The F.B.I. intends for the execution of the warrant to be handled in a professional, low key manner,” he wrote, “and to be mindful of the optics of the search.”
And that’s more or less what happened when 30 agents and two federal prosecutors entered the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach estate, at 8:59 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2022. Over the next 10 hours, according to court papers, there was little drama as they hauled away a trove of boxes containing highly sensitive state secrets in three vans and a rented Ryder box truck.
Two years later, Mr. Trump has tried to flip the facts about that search entirely on their head, in particular by twisting the meaning of boilerplate instructions to the agents about limits on their use of lethal force.
It Was Legal Boilerplate. Trump Made It Sound Like a Threat to His Life.
Two things are worth noting at this point. 1. Trump was not in MAL when the search was conducted. 2. The same language was used in the search warrant issued for Joe Biden's home in the classified docs investigation.
The Through Line: An extremist anti-government conspiracy theory
In light of this background and history, it is tempting to dismiss the claim that President Biden intended to assassinate Trump as silly nonsense. For anyone operating within the bounds of reason, it is easily disproved. But that is the point – the networks of people that believe in such conspiracies are often beyond reason. If such conspiracy-mongering was confined to the fringes of the Internet, as it once was, then its threat to our democracy would be negligible. But those days are long past.
Conspiracy theories, especially those that undermine the public’s confidence in our democratically elected government and institutions, are a core part of Trump’s political platform. These conspiratorial beliefs can culminate in violence, as Americans witnessed on January 6, 2021, when rightwing extremists and other Trump supporters, who falsely but genuinely believed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, attacked the U.S. Capitol. And this latest episode demonstrates just how rapidly the MAGA network can manufacture and circulate dangerous new conspiracy theories – seemingly out of nothing. Indeed, the speed by which such an obviously false claim spread through the MAGA-verse should be a warning sign during the election period.
Anatomy of MAGA Conspiracy of Assassination Attempt Against Trump: What It Tells Us
What evidence did Smith have leading him to ask for the gag order to protect FBI agents? Among other things..........
Texas man charged with threatening FBI agent involved in Hunter Biden investigation
A Texas man was charged Thursday with threatening a federal agent apparently involved with the Hunter Biden investigation and vowing that agents would be thrown in jail after a new president is elected.
Names are not spelled out in the criminal complaint, but the FBI agent who was threatened “was known to have been involved in an investigation into a laptop belonging to H.B.,” and the threatening call was made Tuesday after “H.B.” was convicted in connection with a 2018 gun purchase, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said.
Muller in the voicemail also apparently referred to false claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen as part of threats to the agent, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...ent-involved-hunter-biden-investig-rcna157118
To be clear, it was an extraordinary thing for those 24 Attorneys General to do. Filing an amicus brief in a state, not a federal, court relating to a gag order is simply unheard of. But this is the error of Trumpery so there is no end to the gestures of fidelity required to stay in the good graces of Dear Leader.
FIRST ON FOX: A group of 24 Republican state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief in former President Trump's classified documents case, asking a Florida court not to grant special counsel Jack Smith's gag order request, calling it "presumptively unconstitutional."
"Free and fair elections in the United States depend on candidates’ ability to speak about important issues of the day. Attempts to stop a candidate from speaking out harm more than just the candidate. They also hurt the voters, who are denied access to crucial information, and the States, which are responsible for managing elections," the amicus brief filed Monday in the Southern District of Florida stated.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/re...ag-order-against-trump-florida-documents-case
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term Red Tie Brigade, it is used to refer to the Repub public officials who went to speak outside the courthouse in NY to make baseless allegations about the justice system in Don's defense and were dressed like Trump while doing so. I use the term here metaphorically for the purposes of the thread.
Let's go back and review why Smith was asking for the gag order in the first place. It was in response to Trump's use of boilerplate language in the MAL search warrant to accuse the FBI of wanting to assassinate him. An opportunity he used to spread more right wing conspiracy theories.
It Was Legal Boilerplate. Trump Made It Sound Like a Threat to His Life.
On the day before the F.B.I. obtained a search warrant almost two years ago to look for classified materials at former President Donald J. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida, one of the agents on the case sent a reassuring email to his bosses.
“The F.B.I. intends for the execution of the warrant to be handled in a professional, low key manner,” he wrote, “and to be mindful of the optics of the search.”
And that’s more or less what happened when 30 agents and two federal prosecutors entered the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach estate, at 8:59 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2022. Over the next 10 hours, according to court papers, there was little drama as they hauled away a trove of boxes containing highly sensitive state secrets in three vans and a rented Ryder box truck.
Two years later, Mr. Trump has tried to flip the facts about that search entirely on their head, in particular by twisting the meaning of boilerplate instructions to the agents about limits on their use of lethal force.
It Was Legal Boilerplate. Trump Made It Sound Like a Threat to His Life.
Two things are worth noting at this point. 1. Trump was not in MAL when the search was conducted. 2. The same language was used in the search warrant issued for Joe Biden's home in the classified docs investigation.
The Through Line: An extremist anti-government conspiracy theory
In light of this background and history, it is tempting to dismiss the claim that President Biden intended to assassinate Trump as silly nonsense. For anyone operating within the bounds of reason, it is easily disproved. But that is the point – the networks of people that believe in such conspiracies are often beyond reason. If such conspiracy-mongering was confined to the fringes of the Internet, as it once was, then its threat to our democracy would be negligible. But those days are long past.
Conspiracy theories, especially those that undermine the public’s confidence in our democratically elected government and institutions, are a core part of Trump’s political platform. These conspiratorial beliefs can culminate in violence, as Americans witnessed on January 6, 2021, when rightwing extremists and other Trump supporters, who falsely but genuinely believed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, attacked the U.S. Capitol. And this latest episode demonstrates just how rapidly the MAGA network can manufacture and circulate dangerous new conspiracy theories – seemingly out of nothing. Indeed, the speed by which such an obviously false claim spread through the MAGA-verse should be a warning sign during the election period.
Anatomy of MAGA Conspiracy of Assassination Attempt Against Trump: What It Tells Us
What evidence did Smith have leading him to ask for the gag order to protect FBI agents? Among other things..........
Texas man charged with threatening FBI agent involved in Hunter Biden investigation
A Texas man was charged Thursday with threatening a federal agent apparently involved with the Hunter Biden investigation and vowing that agents would be thrown in jail after a new president is elected.
Names are not spelled out in the criminal complaint, but the FBI agent who was threatened “was known to have been involved in an investigation into a laptop belonging to H.B.,” and the threatening call was made Tuesday after “H.B.” was convicted in connection with a 2018 gun purchase, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said.
Muller in the voicemail also apparently referred to false claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen as part of threats to the agent, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...ent-involved-hunter-biden-investig-rcna157118
To be clear, it was an extraordinary thing for those 24 Attorneys General to do. Filing an amicus brief in a state, not a federal, court relating to a gag order is simply unheard of. But this is the error of Trumpery so there is no end to the gestures of fidelity required to stay in the good graces of Dear Leader.
