Anderson Cooper Gobsmacked by Trump Attorney's Cross-Examination of Michael Cohen

By Ward Clark | RedState.com

Townhall Media

Warning to the New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his people running the prosecution of former President Donald Trump: When you've lost Anderson Cooper, you're in trouble. Cooper commented Thursday on Trump's team cross-examining "star witness" Michael Cohen, and he wasn't happy with the outcome.

Some of Cooper's more interesting observations included:

...on cross-examination, the lawyers want to kind of put the witness in a... build a box around the witness and then slam it shut. That's what Todd Blanche did to Michael Cohen. The story that Todd Blanche went through, the sequence of events, uh, of this phone conversation, that Michael Cohen had testified to previously, you know, that he had had this consequential phone conversation with Donald Trump, it was a 90-second phone conversation, I believe it was October 24th, was (sic) the date that it was testified to, around 8 PM or so at night, but Todd Blanche, on his cross-examination today, went and kind of looked at the transcripts and text messages that Michael Cohen had received and sent before that time frame, and there had been this series, I guess, of crank calls that Michael Cohen had received that turned out to be from some 14-year-old, there was an exchange of messages between the 14-year-old and Cohen, and then Michael Cohen texts Keith Schiller at like 7:50-something or 7:48 PM, saying "hey, I've got some dope has been harassing me, I got the person's phone number, who can I talk to?"

 Cohen then testified, according to Cooper, that Keith Schiller had directed Cohen to call him — this was supposedly the call in which the discussion about going ahead with payments to Stormy Daniels took place, which seems an odd juxtaposition.

More from Cooper:

It was an extraordinary cross-examination by Todd Blanche, and, you know, Michael Cohen's, throughout the day, when Michael Cohen was cornered when he found himself in a corner, he suddenly has a pattern of not understanding the question that's being asked, continuing, I mean, one might say he's trying to buy time, trying to figure out how  he wants to answer, but he definitely starts to, you know, have Todd Blanche repeat questions, "I don't understand what you mean," and "I'm confused by the question," but this time, Michael Cohen was cornered, in what appeared to be a lie, I think to many in the room, and had to adjust his memory of what he had just testified to on Tuesday.

It is belaboring the obvious to note that Anderson Cooper is scarcely a Trump ally, nor would he be likely to report on Cohen's testimony and Blanche's cross-examination developing in Trump's favor unless it was so lopsided a performance as to make any other observations downright foolish.

While the New York "hush money" trial of Donald Trump still has a way to go, it's beginning to look like the prosecution's star witness was anything but. This case appears to have been built around Cohen's testimony — Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to a financial institution, among other charges —  and who is being taken apart by Trump's legal team.

Given a New York judge and a New York jury, that may not be enough. But all it would take is one juror with a conscience, one juror who is actually committed to the legal principle of "beyond a reasonable doubt," and the result is a hung jury — and there's little chance, even if DA Bragg decides to try the case again, that it could happen before November's election.

Stay tuned, and if you aren't reading Susie Moore's regular updates on this case, you should be.

Inflation Hits 'Sad Milestone' Under Biden

By Spencer Brown | Townhall.com

Inflation continued to rise in April according to the latest print of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released Wednesday morning. Month-over-month, consumer prices increased 0.3 percent for an annual advance of 3.4 percent — still well above the Federal Reserve's target of just 2.0 percent. 

Core CPI inflation — which excludes food and energy — also increased 0.3 percent in April for a 3.6 percent year-over-year gain. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the biggest price increases in April were seen in shelter, an index that also accounts for two-thirds of the annual increase in core CPI inflation. Gas prices also contributed to the monthly increase in costs. Before seasonal adjustment, gas prices surged 5.2 percent in April. 

Since Biden took office in January 2021, average prices have risen 20 percent — but most goods and services broken out by specific item or industry have risen far more than that baseline average:

_____________

Post n "X"

Jacki Kotkiewicz @jackikotkiewicz

SINCE BIDEN TOOK OFFICE:

Gas: +55.5%

Groceries: +21.3%

Eating out: +21.8%

Baby food: +30%

Pet food: +23.1%

K-12 food: +64.9%

Rent: +20.8%

Electricity: +28.5%

Natural gas: +22%

Used cars: +20.4%

Airfare: +38.2%

Public transportation: +26.1%

Real average weekly earnings: -4.4%

________________

Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) called the continuing trend of increasing inflation "very concerning, especially coupled with recent high interest rates and poor first-quarter economic output."

"This report confirms that the grip of inflation won’t loosen anytime soon, even after 11 interest rate increases since March 2022," Arrington added of the Fed's hikes that brought interest rates to their highest level since early 2001. 

"The massive amount of federal spending by President Biden and Democrats has made this inflationary firestorm difficult to contain," he warned.

Echoing Arrington's concerns, Job Creators Network CEO Alfredo Ortiz noted the April CPI release is a "sad milestone" as "inflation under President Biden hit 20%."

"As a result, ordinary Americans face a cost-of-living crisis and declining living standards, with price increases outpacing wages," Ortiz emphasized. "Many businesses don't work in this inflationary environment," he said pointing to Red Lobster's looming bankruptcy. "For every Red Lobster, there are dozens of small businesses that can't make the new numbers work. At a certain price point, consumers refuse to pay for goods and services."

President Joe Biden, while simultaneously 1) claiming inflation is "coming down" (it isn't) and his economic plans are working (they aren't) and 2) blaming "greedy" corporations for rising prices, is attempting to again skirt blame for his damaging policies.

"A new Federal Reserve study concludes that inflation is not the byproduct of corporate greed, with business markups remaining flat during this inflationary period," Ortiz noted, debunking Biden's scapegoating. "The real reason for runaway prices is the Biden administration and congressional Democrats' reckless government spending and anti-cheap energy policies."

According to Ortiz, to actually reduce costs and truly build back better, "voters must elect policymakers this fall who will cut deficit spending and drill, baby drill."

Trump campaign Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday's CPI report shows "Bidenomics is an unmitigated disaster" causing workers and families to "literally" pay the price "for Joe Biden's failed economic policies."

"Overall prices are up 20%, while real average weekly earnings are down 4.4% since Biden took office," Leavitt emphasized. "The American people cannot afford four more years of Bidenomics."

Help Make A Difference in The Lives of At-risk Children

Photo: Frances Rice with the pre-owned 2021 Ford Transit (350 XLT) for sale with 66,224 miles and an asking price of $44,299.00.

We are just $20,000 short and you are the key to success!!

PLEASE MAKE A CHARITABLE DONATION AND HELP FELLOWSHIP WARRIORS ACQUIRE THE PRE-OWNED FORD TRANSPORTATION VAN.

Please donate now to Fellowship Warriors Incorporated (a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organization), to help with the accomplishment of the organization's mission of teaching young people the importance of making good decisions about their education, health, and future through basketball clinics that are designed to instill resolution and communication skills, teamwork, service, physical fitness, and nutrition. 

CLICK HERE AND DONATE NOW.

Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Thank you in advance for your support of this worthwhile endeavor.

Best regards,

Frances Rice

Obama judge mocks top Dem law firm in Wisconsin election lawsuit: 'Makes no sense'

By Michael Lee | Fox News

James Peterson testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jan. 8, 2014, on Capitol Hill. - As the District Judge he ruled against the Elias Law Group lawsuit

The Wisconsin law requires voters to both certify that they meet the requirements to vote and that they have followed the correct process for filling out an absentee ballot, which includes a section that requires "witness certification."

Elias said the witness requirement violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that a witness would be forced to verify the eligibility of the voter filling out the ballot.

"Under plaintiffs’ interpretation, every witness would have to determine the voter’s age, residence, citizenship, criminal history, whether the voter is unable or unwilling to vote in person, whether the voter has voted at another location or is planning to do so, whether the voter is capable of understanding the objective of the voting process, whether the voter is under a guardianship, and, if so, whether a court has determined that the voter is competent," Peterson, an Obama appointee, wrote.

"Many witnesses would be unable to independently verify much of the required information," Peterson continued. "The statute allows any adult U.S. citizen to serve as a witness, suggesting that a wide variety of people should be able to do the job… It makes no sense to interpret § 6.87 in a way that would make compliance virtually impossible."

The decision follows the top firm's failure in another Wisconsin case, which saw Elias attempt to force the state to redraw its congressional maps. But the Wisconsin Supreme Court opted not to hear the case, a victory for Republicans in the state.

"Elias has been sanctioned in past litigation. Yet, other Democrats have continued to hire Elias despite his checkered past," Turley wrote Saturday. "Elias unsuccessfully led efforts to challenge Democratic losses.  Elias also was the subject of intense criticism after a tweet that some have called inherently racist."

The Elias Law Group did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Trump Tells 100K Supporters on Wildwood Beach: ‘We Will Win New Jersey’

By Neil W. McCabe | RedState.com

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

[WILDWOOD, N.J.] Former President Donald J. Trump returned to South Jersey as he continues to put the Garden State in play. He held a Saturday night rally for 100,000 Trump supporters, who packed out the Wildwood Beach boardwalk, beachfront, and bars and restaurants, in addition to the more than 20,000 tickets distributed for inside the fences.

“Even on television, they said [it] might be the biggest political rally they’ve ever seen,” said the former president. 

“We will win New Jersey,” he said.

“If we win New Jersey, we win the whole thing,” he said. “I think we’re going to win some others, actually.” 

The former president said his campaign is expanding the map beyond the Garden State to include Virginia and Minnesota, the latter of which was last won by a Republican in 1972.

Trump said if President Joseph R. Biden Jr. wins the election, the middle class loses and New Jersey loses. 

“If Trump wins the middle class, the people of lower-income are really going to start winning again—and you’re all going to the American Dream,” Trump said. 

There is some reason for optimism in the Trump camp; Emerson College conducted a poll from March 26 through March 29, with Biden leading Trump, 46 percent to 39 percent, with 15 percent undecided. 

It is an old saw that undecided voters break for the challenger, which would put Trump in the lead over his successor. 

The last Republican to win New Jersey was Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988. Then, Bush beat Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, 57 percent to 43 percent. In 1992, Arkansas Gov. William J. Clinton beat Bush, 56 percent to 40 percent, and through the 2020 contest, when Biden beat Trump, 57 percent to 41 percent, that roughly 15-point margin has held remarkably steady for the Democratic standard bearers.

Trump’s 2020 Wildwood was in a different time, place

The rally was Trump’s first rally in New Jersey, since his Jan. 28, 2020, rally held at the Wildwood Convention Center here. 

It is strange to look back at photos of that first Wildwood rally with no one wearing masks. Three days later, the president would ban Chinese travelers from entering the US.

Throughout Trump’s term, the mainstream media was constantly harping on the negatives, but Trump’s actual economic record was outstanding, and it was not just the unemployment below 4 percent.

In Trump’s first three years in office, the economy grew 500,000 new manufacturing jobs, grew median income 2.3 percent, held regulations to roughly at a standstill, and reduced poverty, such that Food Stamps participation dropped 15 percent. 

Then, the president was the master of a growing economy, with an approval rating of 49 percent, which matched the highest ratings of his presidency. He maintained that approval until the second half of May 2020, when it dropped 10 points to 30 percent.

By the week before the 2020 election, Trump’s approval rating rallied to 46 percent.

As of May 5, in the Real Clear Politics polling average, Trump holds a 46 percent to 44 percent lead over President Joseph R. Biden Jr. 

When RCP teases out the Electoral College, Trump and Biden are in a virtual tie with Trump winning 219 electoral votes and Biden winning 215, leaving 104 electoral votes in toss-up states.

However, when RCP forces the toss-ups to the likely winner, Trump commands an Electoral College lead of 312 to 226.

Every Trump rally features MAGA luminaries, such as New York Giants Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, former New Jersey congressional candidate and Live From America host Mike Crispi, and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R.-NJ), who switched parties just moments after voting against Trump’s first impeachment.

Another guest could have significance in the pending veepstakes, as North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum was one of the former president’s opening act—and a guest on the plane, Trump Force One.

Burgum seemed to relish the audition for the traditional role of the vice presidential nominee as the attack dog on the ticket.

The governor told the crowd Biden’s policy towards Israel was a disgrace.

In the past, it was the policy of the United States to never negotiate with terrorists, but not with Biden. “Now, he’s negotiating for the terrorists.”

The governor said Biden was undermining Israel to win support from the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party.

As the sun dropped and the wind picked up, Trump said he marveled at how the crowd was sticking around.

It could be the tens of thousands stuck around for the real Trump rally payoff, when Trump wraps up his speech and walks off to Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming.”

The former president always lingers on stage, waving and clapping with the cheers of the crowd—especially when he clenches his two fists and performs his modified Twist.

It was all worth it.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MOMS

Picture by Getty

We take the time on Mother's Day to honor all of the mothers in America and recognize the enduring nature and worth of our communities, faith, and family. it is with great joy that we celebrate the women who presented us with the gifts of life and wise counsel, sacrificing much and providing for us safe harbors--our homes.

Democrat Pollster Warns RFK's Support Will Crumble When They 'Learn His Real Views'

By Sarah Arnold | Townhall.com

AP Photo/Meg Kinnard

A top Democrat pollster is warning that 2024 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support among Republicans will crumble when they begin to see through his cracks. 

Kennedy has seen some support from the Republican Party primarily due to his right-leaning views such as being pro-parental rights and an anti-vaxxer. 

However, Mark Penn iswarningto look beyond the surface of the Independent candidate. 

“I think that it will drop in half if Republicans learn the views, right now they don’t know these things,” Penn told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. 

“And there’s a group of Republicans that don’t like anybody and he’s now the alternative to the alternative,” he added. “So he’s got some votes, but I agree with you, he would lose a lot of Republican votes if this screen that you’re putting up there really got out and got broadcast.”

According to recent polls, RFK Jr. trails a large margin behind President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. 

In a USA Today/Suffolk University survey, Trump secured 37.1 percent support, Biden 36.7 percent, and Kennedy with just eight percent of support. 

A Redfield & Wilton poll found that Kennedy only holds seven percent of the vote, while Trump holds 43 percent and Biden 41 percent. 

During the interview, Hannity listed some of Kennedy’s most far-left views including his support for eliminating fracking and endorsing Hillary Clinton. 

Supports push to clean energy and zero emissions, supports eliminating fracking, endorsed Bernie’s climate plan, supports divesting from fossil fuels, supports carbon tax, supports Paris Climate Accords, called the NRA a ‘terror group,’ supports affirmative action, supports reparations, supports amnesty for non-violent drug offenders, wants to ‘transform the police,’ called Louis Farrakhan a ‘truly great partner,’ supports raising minimum wage to $15/hour, supports labor unions, supports raising taxes, endorsed Al Gore in 2000, endorsed John Kerry in 2004, claimed 2004 election was stolen, donated to Obama, endorsed Hillary Clinton for Senate in 2000, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2007, repeatedly praised Bernie Sanders, a ‘sin’ for people to not address global warming, blamed America for causing 9/11, supports ESG,” and “called Fidel Castro ‘incredibly charming.’ Via the Daily Wire. 

Hell Freezes Over: CNN Host Says Biden Must Go Back to Trump's Immigration Policies

By Matt Vespa | Townhall.com

AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, Pool

Is Joe Biden becoming the grim reaper for liberal media figures? I only say that because it feels that one by one, he’s making such prominent figures turn against him, even claiming that Trump-era policies were the correct ones on issues like illegal immigration. Of course, these folks will probably vote for Biden in November. Still, it’s saying something about the president where even CNN’s Fareed Zakaria says Biden must re-adopt Trump-era immigration policies. Zakaria was on PBS’ Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, where the GPS host said millions are especially gaming the asylum process. Ryan Saavedra of Daily Wire clipped and transcribed the segment:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO.

ZAKARIA: "The whole system is broken," he said. "And Biden needs to confront that and say, you know, ‘We are going to have to reform the whole system.’ I would wish he'd do something much more extreme, like, say ‘the old asylum system is dead. No one is coming in through that process. You have to apply from your home country’. 

MARGARET HOOVER: "Which was, which was a Trump policy." 

ZAKARIA: "Which was a Trump– and also the Mexico, let– you know, you have to be in Mexico to apply. I think that's all correct." 

HOOVER: "So strategically, you think [cross] if Biden would tack towards Trump policies he would have a better political chance?" 

ZAKARIA: "Yeah. And by the way, it's the right policy because the old asylum system is being gamed by millions of people." 

So, is hell freezing over? 

Biden is so wrong that CNN hosts are saying Trump’s immigration agenda was not just better but correct. We all knew when Biden issued those infamous executive orders reversing the border policies at the border. We now have millions pouring in, receiving better treatment than American citizens in some cases. New York City gives them pre-paid credit cards, while other blue states offer them driver’s licenses and voting rights. 

Biden's New Low

By Guy Benson |Townhall.com

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Consider the timeline: On May 5th, Axios reported that the Biden administration was withholding a shipment of ammunition to Israel, in an effort to pressure the Israelis not to eliminate Hamas' final stronghold in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.  For a few days, the administration refused to comment about this report.  On May 7th, President Biden delivered a speech condemning anti-Semitism at the national Holocaust Museum, aligning with Holocaust Remembrance Day.  During that speech, he described his support for Israel as "ironclad."  

Immediately following that address, administration officials began confirming the 'paused ammunition' report, affirmations that were reportedly delayed until after Biden's remarks.  Having played to one side of the Hamas-started war in Gaza, by repudiating anti-Semitism and offering pro-Israel rhetoric, the Biden team instantly pivoted to once again pandering to the other side of the conflict.  The pro-Hamas side, for clarity.  By Wednesday night, the president himself not only took personal ownership of this delay, he also escalated.  Genuinely shocking and indefensible.

Biden and company will insist this is about bringing about "peace," rooted in "humanitarian concerns" regarding civilian casualties.  It's not.  It's about trying to placate the 'Genocide Joe' screamers within Islamist and hard-left voting blocs.  This is morally repulsive, and also astoundingly weak and pathetic.

This enfeebled man is so desperate to attract these people's votes that he's willing to debase himself by accepting the premise of a despicable smear against him.  If this man had any moral clarity of self-respect, he'd forcefully reject the slander about an Israeli "genocide," in which the pro-Hamas mob insists he is complicit.  He'd defend himself and our ally.  He'd focus the conversation immediately upon the genocidal actions and statements of Hamas (who deliberately embed their terror operations among civilians), including Hamas' attacks and raids on sources of aid for the civilians of Gaza.  

Instead, Biden responded to the appalling 'Genocide Joe' moniker with a shrug and an 'I hear ya.'  He is prostrating himself before these hateful hordes, begging for their votes.  If he actually cared about civilian lives, he'd exert maximum pressure on Hamas and its enablers, including the Qatari regime.  He'd show no public daylight with Israel, strengthening our allies' hand as they try to negotiate a ceasefire that might guarantee the release of Hamas-held hostages, including the Americans Biden rarely mentions.  He'd expedite, not hold back, precision munitions that would help the Israelis mitigate collateral damage in their defensive war to root out the savages who murdered their people.  Instead, incoherence.

These decisions can only be explained through the prism of domestic coalition politics, which is a scandal and a disgrace.  And somehow, it's even worse than that.

Beneath contempt.  The president is a disgrace.  I'll leave you with this:

_____________________

Post on "X"

Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch

Fwiw. I’ve heard from a LOT of reliably anti-Trump people - I mean really, really, anti-Trump people - who have had it with Biden tonight. Anecdotal, to be sure. But very telling in my circle.

Liberal Media Shocked to Learn Joe Biden Isn't Doing Too Hot in the Polls

By Sarah Arnold | Townhall.com

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Liberal media is slowly but surely coming to terms that President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election chances look like nothing but a dream. 

An MSNBC panel was astounded to find that more Americans believe Biden is the biggest threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump. 

“I find it shocking, honestly,” MSNBC political analyst Susan Del Percio said. “I can’t make sense of that number. I wish I could. I wish I could have some really great insight into it, but I don’t know if it’s an outlier or not, because the other numbers of independents are going in the right direction. So, that may be it.”

The panel was referring to a recent PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll that found 53 percent of independents believe Biden’s second term will “weaken America.” Meanwhile, only 42 percent of voters think Trump would be a threat to democracy. 

At the same time, CNN hurled hard-hitting truth bombs at Biden during a live interview with the president. 

“Voters trust Trump more on the economy,” CNN host Erin Burnett said. “Housing prices have doubled, real income is down after inflation, GDP is down, and consumer confidence has hit a low.” 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO.

Burnett asked the president if he was worried that he may be running out of time to turn the country around ahead of the November election. 

Biden attempted to defend his administration’s policies that have wreaked havoc on the nation saying that his administration has already turned the country around for the better. 

He claimed that although most Americans think the U.S. is not in good shape economically, Biden said that individual Americans are, in fact, in “good shape.”

The 81-year-old president also claimed the U.S. has the “strongest economy in the world,” adding that the inflation rate was nine percent when he entered office. 

However, the inflation rate was less than two percent when he took office. 

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll revealed that Trump holds a 46-45 percent lead over Biden ahead of the 2024 race. 

_________________

RELATED ARTICLES

MSNBC Loses Their Minds Over Polling Results on Who the Real 'Threat to Democracy' Is

AARP: Trump Winning Pennsylvania Decisively

BOMBSHELL: FBI Staged Fake Photo of Classified Documents for PR Purposes

BY DAVID STROM | HOT AIR

FBI

You know that famous photo of Trump's purloined Top Secret documents? The one that the FBI released that showed all those classified documents hidden in folders?

It's kinda, sorta faked. Staged. Not accurate at all. A sham. A con. Complete BS. 

No, it's not a photoshop. That would be worse, I suppose. Maybe. 

You see, those folders that scream Top Secret were brought by the FBI and the documents were inserted in them by FBI agents. 

Think about this for a minute. The General Services Administration shipped these documents to Trump, which is why they are stuffed away in Mar a Lago in the first place. Then, the Archives met with the Biden administration to prod it to investigate Trump. 

Then the FBI raids Mar a Lago, armed with folders screaming "Top Secret," photographs them, and releases the photo to the world, suggesting that Trump stole away with these documents in these folders screaming Top Secret. 

Smells like a setup. 

Julie Kelley has the scoop. And it is a big one. 

It is the picture that launched a thousand pearl-clutching articles.

A few weeks after the armed FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, the Department of Justice released a stunning photograph depicting alleged contraband seized from Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate that day; the image showed colored sheets representing scary classification levels attached to files purportedly discovered in Trump’s private office.

Included as a government exhibit to oppose Trump’s lawsuit requesting a special master to vet the 13,000 items taken from his residence, the crime scene pic immediately went viral—just as Attorney General Merrick Garland, who authorized the unprecedented raid, intended. 

At the time, even regime-friendly mouthpieces questioned the need and optics of the raid; the photo helped juice the DOJ’s justification for the storming of Trump’s castle.

“[The] question of whether Trump had classified material with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort has captured the public’s attention. The photo published by the government appears to answer that question quite affirmatively,” Washington Post resident fact checker Philip Bump wrote on August 31, 2022.

Some of Bump’s colleagues were more hyperbolic. An ex-CIA officer told ABC News the cover sheets indicated the highest level of secrecy, which in the wrong hands could have resulted in murder. “People's lives are truly at stake. Without being melodramatic, anything that helps an adversary identify a human source means life and death," intelligence expert Douglas London melodramatically warned in reaction to the photo.

 The photo was staged precisely to create this outrage. Proof positive that Trump was a Russian spy or something. It is the Steele Dossier reborn. 

The photo was staged. 

The folders weren't there before the FBI TAMPERED WITH EVIDENCE. 

Amazing. 

New court filings in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s espionage and obstruction case against Trump and two co-defendants conclusively demonstrate that the government used the cover sheets to deceive the public as well as the court. The photo was a stunt, and one that adds more fuel to this dumpster-fire case.

Jay Bratt, who was the lead DOJ prosecutor on the investigation at the time and now is assigned to Smith’s team, described the photo this way in his August 30, 2022 response to Trump’s special master lawsuit:

“[Thirteen] boxes or containers contained documents with classification markings, and in all, over one hundred unique documents with classification markings…were seized. Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status. (Emphasis added.) See, e.g., Attachment F (redacted FBI photograph of certain documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container in the ‘45 office’).”

The DOJ’s clever wordsmithing, however, did not accurately describe the origin of the cover sheets. In what must be considered not only an act of doctoring evidence but willfully misleading the American people into believing the former president is a criminal and threat to national security, agents involved in the raid attached the cover sheets to at least seven files to stage the photo.

Classified cover sheets were not “recovered” in the container, contrary to Bratt’s declaration to the court. In fact, after being busted recently by defense attorneys for mishandling evidence in the case, Bratt had to fess up about how the cover sheets actually ended up on the documents.  

Here is Bratt’s new version of the story, where he finally admits a critical detail that he failed to disclose in his August 2022 filing:

“[If] the investigative team found a document with classification markings, it removed the document, segregated it, and replaced it with a placeholder sheet. The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose.”

 These two stories are different. At all. Last I checked, Judges don't like being lied to. Not even a little bit. The FBI and Special Counsel have been lying to the Court. 

This revelation follows an earlier story in which the FBI admitted to mishandling the documents and scrambling them up, which is never, ever supposed to happen. They are doing a modified limited hangout, admitting that the documents aren't as they found them. 

How much do you want to bet there is a reason for that?

But Jack Smith might have bigger problems. During the raid, agents took a box in its entirety if it contained papers with classified markings; the box usually contained other items, which is how the FBI ended up with so many of Trump’s personal belongings.

So, in order to flag the location of the alleged classified record in the box, agents, as Bratt noted, used the cover sheets as placeholders. (The classified records were then placed in a separate secure file.)

But now defense attorneys claim, and the special counsel concedes, that some placeholders do not match the relevant document. “Following defense counsel’s review of the physical boxes…and the documents produced in classified discovery, defense counsel has learned that the cross-reference provided by the Special Counsel’s Office does not contain accurate information,” attorneys representing Trump’s co-defendant Waltine Nauta wrote in a May 1 motion.

The motion forced the special counsel to admit the error. “In many but not all instances, the FBI was able to determine which document with classification markings corresponded to a particular placeholder sheet,” Bratt wrote.

In other words, in their zeal to stage a phony photo using official classified cover sheets, FBI agents might have failed to accurately match the placeholder sheet with the appropriate document. This is a potentially case-blowing mistake, particularly if the document in question is one of the 34 records that represents the basis of espionage charges against Trump.

 Cases have fallen apart for less. 

Further, the FBI "determined" the documents' classification status at the time of the raid without actually knowing if those documents were classified or not. 

We could have expected the folders to tell us, but it turns out the folders were planted by the FBI. They are not dispositive at all. What appeared to be proof of Trump's guilt means nothing at all. Those could have been newspaper clippings in those folders or nothing at all. 

The intelligence community determined whether the documents remained classified long after the raid, which is why the FBI took all sorts of things from Trump that were purely personal. They had no idea what was classified or not. They wanted everybody to believe they knew, but how could they? A "classified" marking on a document only tells you whether the material was at one time classified, not whether it remains so. 

Which Bratt also admitted is an issue. After the boxes were transported from Florida to the hopelessly corrupt Washington FBI field office (another scandalous aspect of the case since the investigation should have been conducted in southern Florida not in another jurisdiction), a private company took scans of the inside of the boxes. But according to the defense team, the current condition of the boxes does not match the scans taken in August 2022. 

Bratt explained that “there are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans.” He then offered a list of excuses including how some “boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily when the boxes are carried, especially because many of the boxes are not full.”

It is safe to assume Judge Cannon will not take these new revelations lightly--particularly since Bratt also had to admit in the same filing that he did not tell her the truth when she asked about the condition of the boxes during a hearing last month. On April 12, Cannon directly asked Bratt, “are the boxes in their original, intact form as seized?” Bratt replied yes, but “with one exception, and that is that the classified documents have been removed and placeholders have been put in the documents [place.]”

 Will any of this matter in the courtroom? Maybe, maybe not. The case is rigged, and the Special Counsel, the FBI, and the Justice Department don't even care if a guilty verdict holds up on appeal. The Judge may, though. And maybe even a jury. 

But this is all about the election, which is why they staged that photo in the first place. 

UPDATE: Unfortunately for Biden, the trial was just delayed because of so many outstanding issues. 

_______________

RELATED ARTICLES

Trump's Florida Trial Postponed 'Indefinitely'

Judge Indefinitely Postpones Trump's Classified Documents Trial

Dems use the legal system to target the right — yet give the left a pass

By Glenn H. Reynolds | New York Post

Former President Donald Trump in court for his "hush money" trial in Manhattan on May 6, 2024. Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images - Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images

“For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

This philosophy, announced by Brazilian President Getulio Vargas in the 1940s, is no longer just the favored approach of Latin American strongmen. It has become the openly practiced strategy of today’s Democratic machine.

Laws that hamper Democrats are ignored. Laws that might be used to hurt Republicans are enforced to — and often well past — the limits of the law.

One need look no farther than the absurd circus-clown show trial (one pundit prefers the term “goat rodeo”) in which the state of New York has gone so far in trying to turn Donald Trump’s (alleged) personal peccadilloes into business crimes that Gov. Hochul had to go out of her way to reassure other businessmen that this was a one-off, and that only Trump would be prosecuted under this novel approach to the law. 

As law professor Jonathan Turley noted in these pages, the New York statute in question has never been used this way before: “Even The New York Times agreed that it could not find a single case in history where this statute was used against an individual or a company that did not commit a criminal offense, go bankrupt, or leave financial victims.”

Nothing says “rule of law” like custom-made forms of liability designed for a single hated defendant.

And while prosecutor Alvin Bragg leaves no stone unthrown in his assault on Trump’s creatively designed “crimes,” he’s letting thieves, murderers and illegal immigrants who assault cops run free. 

He’s not policing the streets, he’s policing threats to Democratic power.

(Meanwhile, prosecutor Jack Smith, who’s after Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, had to admit to the court this week that his office had . . . mishandled those same classified documents, mixing them up in ways that disadvantaged Trump’s defense lawyers and then falsely representing to the court that the documents were exactly as they had been received.)

Of course it’s not just Trump. 

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro is doing time for contempt of Congress after being prosecuted by the Biden administration. 

Obama’s attorney general and self-described “wingman” Eric Holder was also charged with contempt by Congress, but the Obama Justice Department — headed by one Eric Holder — gave him a pass. 

(Personally, I think there’s something wrong with anyone who doesn’t possess a fair amount of contempt for Congress.  As Mae West once said when a judge asked her if she wanted to be found in contempt, “Why no, your honor, I was tryin’ to conceal it.”)

And outside the world of Washington we see a similar two-faced approach. 

On campuses around the nation (well, around the blue parts of the nation, anyway), anti-Israel protesters are being treated with kid gloves by law enforcement in a way that no one believes protesters in support of right-wing causes would be.

Legal pundit Hans Bader has rounded up examples: In Baltimore, police declined to remove an illegal encampment at Johns Hopkins University because the city’s mayor told them not to.

No one has a right to camp out on private property in the exercise of their First Amendment rights — or, as the Supreme Court ruled in Clark v. Community for Creative Non Violence, on public property.  

But the same thing is happening in Philadelphia, where the Philadelphia police disregarded a request from the University of Pennsylvania to clear the encampment on Penn’s property. 

Similarly, DC police are refusing to remove protesters from the George Washington University campus. 

As Bader notes, the reason seems to be, again, that Democratic officials favor the speech of these protesters.

No one, he notes, thinks that right-wing protesters would get the same treatment. 

If they were pro-life, anti-election fraud or gun-rights encampments, the bulldozers would have been fired up at once. 

Yet the Supreme Court has made clear that officials have to be evenhanded in their treatment of protests, and can’t discriminate based on whether or not they like the viewpoint, something California federal judge Cormac J. Carney recently noted regarding selective prosecution of right-wing protesters vs. Antifa. 

But for all the talk about “rule of law,” they’re doing just that in all sorts of cases, all over the country. 

That needs to stop. 

For the longer term, we need to do something about policing prosecutors’ discretion to prosecute, and not to. 

Over a decade ago, before the madness of the Trump years, I wrote about this in the Columbia Law Review, in a piece titled “Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything Is a Crime.” 

As New York Judge Sol Wachtler once said, any competent prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, which appears to be what Trump prosecutor Alvin Bragg has done. 

We used to rely on the political process to discipline this sort of overreach, but with politics polarized as they are today, it’s not likely to work.

Even more dangerous, in a way, is the refusal of police and prosecutors to protect people whose lives or property are being threatened. 

Over time, that can only lead to cynicism, and to self-help.

In Brazil, starting in the 1960s and continuing on and off until the present, we wound up seeing “death squads” deal out vigilante justice that the legal system couldn’t, or wouldn’t deliver, with predictably bad results. 

We’re not in danger of that in New York, yet, but Alvin Bragg, both through his overreach aimed at Trump, and his no-prosecution approach to many genuine criminals, is moving us closer. 

That needs to stop, too.  But will it?

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the InstaPundit.com blog.