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Tag: Mar-a-Lago

  • Trump responds to special counsel’s effort to limit his remarks about FBI in documents case

    Trump responds to special counsel’s effort to limit his remarks about FBI in documents case

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    Attorneys for former President Donald Trump on Monday evening pushed back against special counsel Jack Smith’s request Friday that a federal judge in Florida modify Trump’s conditions of release in the probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents.

    Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the documents case, to modify the condition of Trump’s release in order to bar him from making public statements that “pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents” who are participating in the prosecution.

    “Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family, and Secret Service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings,” prosecutors told Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump.

    “A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech,” they said.

    The special counsel’s request to Cannon followed a false claim by Trump last week that the FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 were “authorized to shoot me” and were “locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”

    Trump was referring to a disclosure in a court document that the FBI, during that search, followed a standard use-of-force policy that prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

    The policy is routine and intended to limit the use of force during searches. Prosecutors noted that the search was intentionally conducted while Trump and his family were away and was coordinated with the Secret Service. No force was used.

    Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team contended in a court filing late Friday that Trump’s statements falsely suggesting that federal agents “were complicit in a plot to assassinate him” would expose law enforcement officers “to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment.” Some of them are expected to be called as witnesses at Trump’s trial.

    But Trump’s attorneys on Monday called Smith’s request “extraordinary, unprecedented, and unconstitutional censorship,” and they said in their filing, “[t]he Motion unjustly targets President Trump’s campaign speech while he is the leading candidate for the presidency.” 

    They argue that Smith is going further than any previous requests by any other prosecutor in the cases against the former president because the prosecution’s motion ties Trump’s freedom to his campaign speech. 

    The former president also argues that prosecutors violated local rules in failing to properly “confer” with them before filing the motion. Trump’s lawyers said that Smith’s team, in filing the motion late on a holiday Friday, ahead of closing arguments this week in the separate New York “hush money” criminal case against Trump, did not offer a reasonable conferral period, which they claim is required by local rules in the Southern District of Florida. Trump’s lawyers provided email correspondence between the parties from Friday night as exhibits. 

    Trump also asked Cannon to sanction the Justice Department’s legal team for allegedly violating the local rules. 

    Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this week slammed Trump’s claim as “extremely dangerous.” Garland noted that the document Trump was referring to is a standard policy limiting the use of force that was even used in the consensual search of President Joe Biden’s home as part of an investigation into the Democrat’s handling of classified documents.

    Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021, and then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to get them back. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

    It’s one of four criminal cases Trump is facing as he seeks to reclaim the White House, but outside of the ongoing New York hush money prosecution, it’s not clear that any of the other three will reach trial before the election.

    —Robert Legare contributed reporting.

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  • Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case seek to bar him from making statements that

    Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case seek to bar him from making statements that

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    Federal prosecutors on Friday asked the judge overseeing the classified documents case against Donald Trump to bar the former president from public statements that “pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents” participating in the prosecution.

    The request to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon follows a false claim by Trump earlier this week that the FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 were “authorized to shoot me” and were “locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”

    The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was referring to the disclosure in a court document that the FBI, during the search, followed a standard use-of-force policy that prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

    The policy is routine and meant to limit the use of force during searches. Prosecutors noted that the search was intentionally conducted when Trump and his family were away and was coordinated with the Secret Service. No force was used.

    Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team said in court papers late Friday that Trump’s statements falsely suggesting that federal agents “were complicit in a plot to assassinate him” expose law enforcement — some of whom prosecutors noted will be called as witnesses at his trial — “to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment.”

    “Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family, and Secret Service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings,” prosecutors told Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump.

    “A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech,” they said.

    Defense lawyers have objected to the government’s motion, prosecutors said. An attorney for Trump didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday night.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this week slammed Trump’s claim as “extremely dangerous.” Garland noted that the document Trump was referring to is a standard policy limiting the use of force that was even used in the consensual search of President Joe Biden’s home as part of an investigation into the Democrat’s handling of classified documents.

    Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021, and then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to get them back. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

    It’s one of four criminal cases Trump is facing as he seeks to reclaim the White House, but outside of the ongoing New York hush money prosecution, it’s not clear that any of the other three will reach trial before the election.

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  • Donald Trump Jr. Discusses His Hunting And Outdoor Magazine – ‘One Of The Least Political Things I Do’

    Donald Trump Jr. Discusses His Hunting And Outdoor Magazine – ‘One Of The Least Political Things I Do’

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    Source: Field Ethos YouTube

    Donald Trump Jr. has launched his own hunting and outdoor magazine called Field Ethos, describing it as ” probably one of the least political things I do.”

    Trump Jr.’s New Magazine

    When Trump Jr. is not campaigning for his father, he can typically be found in the great outdoors.

    “If I’m in Colorado doing an event, I’ll sneak off for half a day and go fly fishing,” he told Politico. “Today, I had a pretty crazy day of conference calls, but I’m literally in the car, banging all of those out. I’m gonna go do a quail hunt in upstate Florida before I have to drive back down to Palm Beach to have a business dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

    “That’s my decompression from the five-speaking-events-a-day general lifestyle that will be my next, let’s call it year,” he added. “The next 12 months are going to be interesting for me and my family ,and it’s great to know I can pick up one of our journals when I just need a break from it all.”

    Trump Jr. was first introduced to the great outdoors by his maternal grandfather Milos Zelnicek, who would take his New Yorker grandson on camping trips in then-communist Czechoslovakia. 

    “I literally just fell in love with it; I read every book there was on the subject,” Trump Jr. said. “All of those things, I think, are getting lost in today’s instant gratification society. You know, kids sit there on a video game. Everything’s … instant gratification.”

    Related: Trump Jr. Rips Mitch McConnell as ‘Pro-Amnesty Turtle’ After Vast Majority of $118 Billion Senate Bill Goes to Israel, Ukraine

    Field Ethos Co-Founder Speaks Out

    Field Ethos co-founder and CEO Jason Vincent explained that the target demographic for the magazine is men between the ages of 25 and 55, though a quarter or more of the audience is female.

    “That may really just come from the fact that there’s still kind of a draw to that unapologetic male mindset,” Vincent said. “That may be why we’ve built the female following that we have … it doesn’t feel like it’s being watered down to try to get traction with them.”

    Vincent went on to say that while the magazine is not explicitly political, there are times when politics intersects with issues that readers are inherently interested in, like gun rights.

     “Yes, Don is involved. He’s part of our group of friends and our team at Field Ethos,” Vincent said. “But … Field Ethos is really designed to be a place people can go when they’re kind of sick of that.”

    When politics does find its way into the magazine, Vincent said that the politics are “sensible,” middle-of-the-road, and emphatically not far-right.

    “The extreme right is not our brand,” Vincent said. “We see ourselves as speaking to a sophisticated audience that is smart enough to not find themselves at the extreme of either side.”

    Related: Donald Trump Jr. Calls For ‘Mass Deportations’ As Reports Show Over 1,000 ‘Gotaways’ Escaping Into Country Every Day

    Trump Jr.’s Goal With Field Ethos

    In the end, Trump Jr. has a clear goal in launching Field Ethos.

    “Creating an alternate viewpoint for the Americans who felt like they’ve been left behind who don’t want to support those things,” he concluded, “that’s a big part of the focus.”

    Given how crazy this year is likely to be for the Trump family, we’re glad to see that Trump Jr. has a passion project that will allow him to escape. If you’re a fan of the great outdoors, be sure to pick up a copy of Field Ethos!

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    An Ivy leaguer, proud conservative millennial, history lover, writer, and lifelong New Englander, James specializes in the intersection of… More about James Conrad

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  • Jack Smith’s “clean hands” could help remove Aileen Cannon: attorney

    Jack Smith’s “clean hands” could help remove Aileen Cannon: attorney

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    Special counsel Jack Smith‘s “clean” record could help remove Judge Aileen Cannon from the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, a legal expert has said.

    On Tuesday February 6, Cannon rejected special counsel Smith’s bid to keep the identities of government witnesses secret in the ongoing case involving the former president. Smith later wrote, in a court filing asking her to reconsider the decision, that the judge had made a “clear error” that could expose many potential witnesses to threats.

    Cannon, a Republican, was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Trump during his presidency. She is overseeing the case in which Trump has been charged with 40 federal charges over allegations he retained classified papers after leaving the White House and subsequently obstructed efforts to have them returned. He has entered a not guilty plea and has denied all allegations against him.

    Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former U.S. President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. Smith recently said the judge in the classified…


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    Writing in her newsletter “Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance,” the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama said the ruling by Cannon could actually play in favor of Smith and U.S. government. Newsweek has contacted the Department of Justice via the contact form on its website.

    Vance, who was nominated to become U.S. attorney by then President Barack Obama, argues that Smith’s good faith approach to Cannon’s rulings may help him in the long run should a higher court seek to remove her from the case. “[T]he government is showing its efforts to comply with the Judge’s orders in good faith. That record of ‘clean hands’ will prove helpful to the government if the case ends up before the 11th Circuit and would strengthen the case for removing Judge Cannon if her rulings on matters this week continue to be off base,” Vance wrote.

    Vance wrote that despite the ruling in his favor, the provision of witness names to the defense is not a “clean win” for Trump. “Any use he makes of the information would be highly problematic for him,” she wrote. “So, the government has some small comfort in this situation.”

    Legal experts have criticized Cannon’s decision to unseal the identities of potential witnesses. “It’s really one after another, and the way she’s handled this case shows her clear bias for Trump and the defense,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Business Insider.

    “Obviously Trump appointed her, but he couldn’t have gotten a better draw. Really at every stage of the proceedings so far, she’s allowed Trump to delay—so there’s almost no chance that that trial is going to happen before the November election. And of course, if Trump is elected and he regains control of the White House, the prosecution goes away.”

    MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “If information about an ongoing federal investigation into threats to a prosecution witness is not worthy of an ex parte, under seal filing, I don’t know what is.”