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A Deeply Fractured US

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When do we get to read your comments about the Biden crime family? And why haven't you commented about the Trump rape case yet?
 
QV said:
When do we get to read your comments about the Biden crime family?
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When there’s indication of a meaningful criminal investigation, and information sufficiently authoritative that it’s worth commentary. Show me an indictment, a search warrant affidavit or something and I may find something worth commenting on.

QV said:
And why haven't you commented about the Trump rape case yet?
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Because I don’t really care enough to. This is a thread about the fracture of the United States, not Donald Trump’s private legal dramas. He’s civilly liable for battery and defamation; it’s not a criminal matter, it doesn’t impact his ability to run for office, and there’s no fascinating or novel legal questions at bar. I’m glad the victim will see justice, and that’s as far as I care to comment on that.
 
brihard said:
Or, alternatively, George Santos is ludicrously, even comically corrupt, and DOJ conducted an investigation and developed reasonable grounds to indict on the strength of the evidence? The indictment document is public record and is floating around for anyone to read. It’s completely possible and reasonable for this to happen unconnected with other politically charged investigations. Santos appears to basically just be an absurd grifter who, quite accidentally, found himself taking his scheme WAY too far and ended up in Congress. He’s a total caricature of a compulsive liar. This one is pure FAFO.

What I find most interesting about the Santos indictment is that DOJ empaneled a grand jury, conducted an investigation, obtained documents, took statements, and laid a sealed indictment on a serving congressman with nobody outside being any the wiser that it was going on. That sort of investigative and prosecutorial work has to be making a few people nervous right now.
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I'm not defending Santos. Why would I? He's a slug. I'm just saying the timing is suspect. Maybe that's why it was kept hush, hush. So they could take it out of the drawer when they needed a diversion.

In other news today, beside the House announcing the investigation in the biden's corruption, there's also a connected incident. There are important documents pertaining to the investigation, that the FBI is withholding from the Select Committee in defiance of the House request for them. I'm pretty sure they have a copy already, but want it from the FBI to make it public. The FBI has never said they don't have it and cemented it's existence today. Instead of saying they have nothing, they told the House they can't have it.

The two tiered justice system just gets more exposure every day.
 
brihard said:
When there’s indication of a meaningful criminal investigation, and information sufficiently authoritative that it’s worth commentary. Show me an indictment, a search warrant affidavit or something and I may find something worth commenting on.



Because I don’t really care enough to. This is a thread about the fracture of the United States, not Donald Trump’s private legal dramas. He’s civilly liable for battery and defamation; it’s not a criminal matter, it doesn’t impact his ability to run for office, and there’s no fascinating or novel legal questions at bar. I’m glad the victim will see justice, and that’s as far as I care to comment on that.
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It still has to go through the appeal process anyway.
 
Fishbone Jones said:
In other news today, beside the House announcing the investigation in the biden's corruption, there's also a connected incident. There are important documents pertaining to the investigation, that the FBI is withholding from the Select Committee in defiance of the House request for them. I'm pretty sure they have a copy already, but want it from the FBI to make it public. The FBI has never said they don't have it and cemented its existence today. Instead of saying they have nothing, they told the House they can't have it.

The two tiered justice system just gets more exposure every day.
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I’ve not followed this bit, busy week for me. Is the House committee asserting that they have a right to obtain FBI documents that stem from an ongoing investigation? Generally, current investigative materials should be subject to considerable privilege from compelled disclosure. Law enforcement is an executive function; there would be major, major issues if a legislative committee could arbitrarily command disclosure of an ongoing criminal investigation.

If it’s not material that’s part of ongoing investigation, then I’m much less sure. I don’t have as much knowledge of that aspect of their system, but I can’t see it being the case that the party in power in a legislative house could force disclosure of current investigative material. That would greatly upset the balance of powers between the branches.
 
The FBI haven't said anything about an ongoing investigation. They just said the House can't have it. It was a FBI whistle-blower that went to Grassley and told him about it. That's why I think he already has a copy, but they want the legality of it being provided by the FBI. Given the ongoing malfeasance of the FBI, I would have to be convinced that there is really any kind of investigation, into the bidens, going on.

The House has, currently in hand, subpoenaed bank records from a bunch of banks that have numbered LLC accounts related to about 8-9 Biden family members. They have also identified the middle man who took all the money from China and split it into all the various accounts.
 
Fishbone Jones said:
The FBI haven't said anything about an ongoing investigation. They just said the House can't have it. It was a FBI whistle-blower that went to Grassley and told him about it. That's why I think he already has a copy, but they want the legality of it being provided by the FBI. Given the ongoing malfeasance of the FBI, I would have to be convinced that there is really any kind of investigation, into the bidens, going on.
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You piqued my curiosity, and I found the FBI response letter to the subpoena. This makes much more sense now; the house committee was requesting a Confidential Human Source information form called an FD-1023; I recognize this from when it started last week.

Confidential human sources are highly protected by law enforcement for very obvious reasons. The specific information on a single source debriefing can, potentially, ‘out’ and imperil a source. Up here, and I believe down there, there’s a VERY strong privilege attached to informant information.

The FBI is refusing to confirm the existence of or to disclose a specific human source form, which doesn’t surprise me at all. They’ve offered further dialogue to reach an accommodation that allows the committee to exercise any proper oversight authorities. They’ve also noted that there are legal precedents limiting those oversight authorities; they aren’t a blank cheque to peer into all affairs of the executive branch willy nilly. FBI will have engaged counsel heavily on this and I’m quite confident they’ll have made sure they’re on the right side of the law. The house committee does of course have access to the courts if they need the third branch of government to adjudicate a dispute between the other two.

Finding a copy of the letter was a bit of a pain in the ass, but here it is, heavily footnoted with legal references: https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/FBI-Response-to-Subpoena-2023-05-10.pdf
 
brihard said:
You piqued my curiosity, and I found the FBI response letter to the subpoena. This makes much more sense now; the house committee was requesting a Confidential Human Source information form called an FD-1023; I recognize this from when it started last week.

Confidential human sources are highly protected by law enforcement for very obvious reasons. The specific information on a single source debriefing can, potentially, ‘out’ and imperil a source. Up here, and I believe down there, there’s a VERY strong privilege attached to informant information.

The FBI is refusing to confirm the existence of or to disclose a specific human source form, which doesn’t surprise me at all. They’ve offered further dialogue to reach an accommodation that allows the committee to exercise any proper oversight authorities. They’ve also noted that there are legal precedents limiting those oversight authorities; they aren’t a blank cheque to peer into all affairs of the executive branch willy nilly. FBI will have engaged counsel heavily on this and I’m quite confident they’ll have made sure they’re on the right side of the law. The house committee does of course have access to the courts if they need the third branch of government to adjudicate a dispute between the other two.

Finding a copy of the letter was a bit of a pain in the ass, but here it is, heavily footnoted with legal references: https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/FBI-Response-to-Subpoena-2023-05-10.pdf
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I found this to be very interesting. About 30 years ago I asked why a photo of a piece of equipment was still classified.

The answer was very similar. The bad guys could figure out where the photos were taken from and then find out who took it. In some cases I guess the source or the family was still alive and potentially could be in danger
 
Trump just participated in a live CNN town hall with a hostile journalist, unscripted. He wrecked the journo and I doubt this turned out like CNN had hoped. The majority of the audience was definitely in his corner. I bet his ratings just went up again.
 
Navy_Pete said:
This guy must be an absolute nightmare as a client for lawyers and PR people. He self incriminates and defames like he has a monthly target to hit for a performance bonus.
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He just doesn’t care about anything but himself.
He then gets angry when people take offense to his offensive comments and actions.

Trump in a nutshell: Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
 
Odd that people so opposed to him keep giving him a platform, particularly one with a sympathetic audience.

What could they possibly be trying to achieve?
 
QV said:
Trump just participated in a live CNN town hall with a hostile journalist, unscripted. He wrecked the journo and I doubt this turned out like CNN had hoped. The majority of the audience was definitely in his corner. I bet his ratings just went up again.
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The majority of his audience were Republican voters and people that voted for him last election. That was by design given that this town hall was for the primary audience. They said so from the get go.

I’m sure he won’t lose any support but he provided a snapshot of what to expect. He’s pretty much going to abandon Ukraine. That is all I need to hear from that guy.
 
Last edited:
dimsum said:
Traffic.
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There are two answers; that's one of them (ratings). Trump was/is always good for ratings.

The other is political, hinging on the belief that Trump can win the Republican primary but cannot win the general election (and would, by the evidence, be a drag on Republican fortunes in many other contests).
 
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