The Lawfare Group Draw up a Modified 4 Count Indictment Hoping to Regenerate Legal Battles Against President Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on August 27, 2024 | Sundance

It’s really not Jack Smith, so we should drop the pretenses.  Mary McCord, Norm Eisen and Andrew Weissmann have recrafted a new DC indictment against President Trump by dropping around 10 pages of fraudulent evidence from the prior indictment and labeling it a “superseding indictment.”

The 36-page indictment is available HERE.  Essentially, after the supreme court decision on immunity, the majority of the previous case against President Trump was likely to fail, so Mary, Norm and Andrew went back and modified the previously lawfare to fit a narrower scale as requested by the supreme court.

The Lawfare crew then hand off the indictment to Jack Smith who runs it through a Grand Jury, and re-files it as a new set of issues; however, the majority of the case is structurally the same, they just took out the evidence they were using.  This fiasco does not appear to be any better than the previous pages of Lawfare.

(Via Politico) – […] The new indictment removes some specific allegations against Trump but contains the same four criminal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. It’s a signal that Smith believes the high court’s immunity decision doesn’t pose a major impediment to convicting the former president.

“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions,” Smith’s team wrote in an accompanying court filing.

The development is unlikely to alter the reality that a trial in the case before the November election looks impossible. In fact, the new indictment could drag the case out further — defense attorneys often seek delays after prosecutors revise criminal allegations.

Both sides face a Friday deadline to propose next steps to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Biden appointee who is overseeing the proceedings in the trial court. Chutkan has scheduled a Sept. 5 hearing to set a course for the case. (read more)

Jack Smith, Andrew Weissmann and Norm Eisen Are Big Mad at Judge Aileen Cannon Overseeing the Trump Documents Case


Posted originally on the CTH on April 3, 2024 | Sundance

Before getting into the weeds, here’s the big picture baseline.  All

documents and records created within the executive branch are created
for the benefit of the head of the Executive Branch, the president.

There is no entity, organization, assembly, institution, person or
individual, above the President of the United States. The president
holds absolute power and absolute immunity. Everyone within the
executive branch works at the pleasure of the president, and all work
products are created for his administration. This is the plenary power
of the president.

The
entire documents case in Florida rests on the principle that another
entity supersedes the president within the executive branch.  Some
unknown, unnamed bureaucracy can override the president and decide for
themselves what would be called a “presidential record” and what would
be called “classified information.”

Jack Smith, Norm Eisen (pictured left, red tie) and Andrew Weissmann
each argue that some other entity rests atop the president and can make
this decision.

Judge Aileen Cannon has not determined which constitutional argument
is correct, and has told the parties to create jury instructions both
ways. The Lawfare crew of Smith, Eisen and Weissmann are going bananas.

[…] Cannon’s
first scenario would allow the jury to make a factual determination
about whether a former president deemed a record to be personal or
official under the PRA. That is nonsensical – presidents are not allowed
to designate official records as personal ones, so there is no factual
issue for a jury to resolve.

A different set of laws govern the
classification process and the rules for handling highly sensitive
classified documents — not the PRA. They include Executive Order 13526. One of the authors of this column (Eisen) helped write that executive order. The 11th Circuit has already established that those rules fully apply to former presidents.

Cannon seems to think that the PRA
somehow supersedes the executive order and the rest of federal law
pertaining to the handling of classified materials. It does not. On the
contrary, the PRA defines “personal records” as “all documentary
materials … of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not
relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional,
statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.”
That cannot possibly include highly classified battle plans, nuclear
secrets and the other official documents at issue in this criminal
prosecution.

That rules out Cannon’s first
hypothetical. But as Smith points out in his filing, the second
alternative is just as bad. She made up a legal standard, asking both
sides to assume that Trump could have deemed a record personal by simply
not including it with the records transmitted to the National Archives
and Records Administration at the end of his term. If this were true,
the mere fact that Trump took the documents with him from the White
House would inherently turn them into personal records.

Of course, Trump leaped at this
interpretation, fashioning proposed jury instructions that would
inevitably result in his acquittal. But, as Smith noted, this approach
has no basis in the law — or the facts. Even Trump himself does not seem
to have considered classified documents personal after he left the
White House, as evidenced in an audio recording CNN obtained last year
in which Trump, during a conversation at his Bedminster, New Jersey,
estate in 2021, discussed documents remaining classified even though he
took them with him upon leaving office. Smith hits this point hard,
arguing that Trump’s position that records are personal was “invented”
when the controversy over the documents began to emerge in February
2022, over a year after Trump left the White House. (read more)



Special Counsel Jack Smith Unseals Criminal Indictment of President Trump for Protesting Results of 2020 Election


posted originally on the CTH on August 1, 2023 | Sundance | 321 Comments

Special Counsel Jack Smith held a press conference today following the unsealing of a federal criminal indictment alleging four counts against President Donald J Trump. [Full Indictment pdf Link]

The four alleged criminal counts are: (1) Conspiracy to defraud the U.S Government; (2) Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding; (3) Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding; and (4) Conspiracy against Rights.

Interestingly, nowhere in the indictment is anything criminally alleged relating to the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington DC.  However, you will notice in the Lawfare delivery of the remarks, Special Counsel Jack Smith factually speaks almost exclusively of the January 6th events.

The absence of a criminal charge (ie. seditious conspiracy or insurrection) when contrast against the extreme verbal emphasis of the event as outlined by Smith in the presser, will be missed by most.  Speaking of the non-criminal event as the context for a fabricated/stretched criminal allegation, is Lawfare in action.  Why emphasize but not charge?  Because the DOJ/FBI does not want the risk of litigated discovery and evidence of coordinated government activity therein, that’s why.

Jack Smith knows he is out on a limb with his Lawfare effort to criminalize the legal and constitutional challenge to an election outcome. He is nervous, WATCH:

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The brighter the sunlight falling upon government corruption and weaponization, the more those who perpetrate corruption and weaponization will have to shield against it.

At this point in history these attacks against President Donald Trump are Lawfare members sticking fingers and toes into the cracks of a justice dam that is increasingly unstable and about to collapse.  The pressure on the other side is the dam is the collective anger of We The People, and when that dam breaks no pre-positioned scuba gear is going to protect them.

Continue living your very best life.  Do not let yourself or your family fall victim to the fear of dark imaginings.  However, look beyond our current proximity and keep your eyes open for any/all constructs that can be repurposed to protect government interests through physical lock downs.

The Man Who Will Destroy America


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re- Posted Jul 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Trump Superseding Indictment

This is the man who will tear the United States apart at the seams – Special Counsel Jack Smith who has filed a superseding indictment against Donald J. Trump (see above). This is not a big deal. It is simply more charges on the same theories to interfere with the 2024 election. Smith is actually violating the civil rights of everyone in the country by trying to prevent Trump from running for office.

No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to …

Even this aside, the real purpose of this superseding indictment is not more charges. That is just to make the headlines and hide the real purpose.  He has indicted a new defendant: Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. They cannot win a case without a co-defendant. They need someone to take the stand and perjure themselves as the prosecutor, then will rehearse them on what to say in return for no time. This is how they win CONSPIRACY cases. They desperately need a co-defendant. They threaten them with 20 years to life unless they testify for the government. They need that to prove “intent,” for otherwise, they can just infer from something. The co-defendant will get on the stand and say Trump told him x, y, z, and the jury would have to find him guilty.

For virtually every crime in this country, you are charged with CONSPIRACY, and then they threaten someone to testify against you. This is the law of tyrants. They always go for the conspiracy charge if they cannot prove a direct crime.

By doing this to Trump while ignoring everything done by Biden and his son, it is a slap in the face to all Americans, proving that there is no rule of law. It is as Thrasymacus warned Socrates who they sentenced to death – there is no justice – it is always the self-interest of those in power. Nothing has ever changed in 6,000 years.

Judge Aileen Cannon Sets DOJ Trial Date -vs- Donald Trump for May 20, 2024


Posted originally on the CTH on July 21, 2023 | Sundance 

There are buckets and buckets of legal contingencies in the fabricated case created by Special Counsel Jack Smith, acting on behalf of Andrew Weissmann, Barry Berke, Norm Eisen and Mary McCord, and the DOJ case against Donald J. Trump.

So many contingencies, there is almost no reason to look at any procedural process with any inclination the date will have consequence.  However, that said, Judge Aileen Cannon has smartly delayed the trial portion of the case until May 20, 2024.  [Full Legal Outline pdf]

I say smartly, because by Mid-May 2024, President Trump will likely have wrapped up the GOP nomination, and that structural reality itself will punt the rest of the gibberish into a time ever more distant.   Smart base-covering and no room for appeal move by Judge Cannon.

Some may see this as a loss or a gain for either side.  Personally, I view this as a structural and procedural win for President Trump, a wrongly targeted American citizen within a process weaponized by a comprehensively corrupt government.

Judge Cannon is no dummy. She knows the stakes, sees the transparency of the effort, and is not an ideologue.  Her earlier rulings, in the document side of the FBI raid, reflected her awareness the system was being manipulated by agents of Lawfare intent.  May 20th, which will never happen, is a good target all things considered.

Full Ruling pdf Here]

(Via politico) – […] U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon appeared to split the difference between prosecutors’ request for a December 2023 trial date and Trump’s request to postpone the trial until after the November 2024 election.

[…] While Cannon earned a reputation as being deferential to Trump due to her rulings in a civil case challenging the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last year, her early rulings in the criminal case appear designed to chart a middle course between Trump and the government. She has so far avoided tipping her hand on most of the explosive legal issues likely to arise during the pretrial proceedings. (more

CBS Report, Mysterious DoD Iran Attack Memo Does Not Exist and Is Not Part of Jack Smith Case Against Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on June 27, 2023 | Sundance 

I’m not going to say I toldyaso; I’m just smiling.

After a full media cycle of apoplexy and pearl-clutching, which included Andrew Weissmann appearing on MSNBC to declare “It’s the end of Trump,” CBS is now reporting there is no Defense Department memo about attacking Iran – the foundation of the media claims surrounding the leaked audio tapes from Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Worse still, and exactly as CTH previously outlined, despite the claims by CNN about how this audio would be used as the “central element” by the prosecution of Trump, the audio and mysterious memo are not part of the Special Counsel case.

So, why was the transcript of the audio recording used by Jack Smith in the indictment if the audio and nonexistent memo were never going to be used?  Because it’s Lawfare, that’s why.  Everything, yes including the specific language being deployed (ie “documents containing classification markings“), is hype for public consumption.

(Via CBS) – The Defense Department memo on Iran — at the heart of the now-public audio recording that captured a July 2021 meeting with former President Donald Trump — is not part of the 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information charged in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. 

[…] The document and recording are described in the indictment Smith’s team secured against Trump earlier this month, recounted as an alleged meeting with “a writer, a publisher, and two members of” Trump’s staff, “none of whom possessed a security clearance.”  But according to a source familiar with the matter, Trump was not charged with unlawfully holding onto the Iran-related document discussed in the recording.

[…] Multiple sources familiar with the investigation previously told CBS News that defense attorneys were not certain the Iran memo in question was ever recovered and returned to the government. (read more)

There never was an Iran memo document.   President Trump was discussing newspaper reports, “newspapers” and stacks of “papers”, as he originally told Brett Baier. Duh.

Reminder, in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on June 19, Trump said that at the meeting with the book’s publisher, he was not referring to the document itself, but newspaper articles:

“There was no document… That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.”

Robert Barnes Summary – The Administrative State Motive to Weaponize Secrets and Create Precedent


Posted originally on the CTH on June 19, 2023 | Sundance 

Attorney Robert Barnes does a good job framing the motive of the DC administrative state, specifically the Lawfare ideologues currently in control of the DOJ, to create a precedent to usurp constitutional power by targeting President Trump.

Segment prompted to 23:40 WATCH:

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President Trump Interview With Fox News Brett Baier


Posted originally on the CTH on June 19, 2023 | Sundance 

Earlier this evening, President Trump sat down for an extensive interview with Fox’s human cabbage patch doll, Brett Baier.  {Direct Rumble Link} Many people were apprehensive about President Trump talking to DC gatekeeper Mr. Baier given that Fox News would like to support the prosecution effort against Trump.

President Trump appears with Baier because President Trump has done nothing wrong.  The legal arguments against him, and more succinctly against the power of the office of the president, are nonsensical.   There is no person, agency, bureaucracy or process that exists above the executive office of the president.

The President has every right to any and all documents that are created, distributed, reviewed and/or utilized during his administration.  WATCH:

Anyone who is saying President Trump did not have the unilateral right to define his presidential records -as he sees fit- needs to answer this question:

Who is this power that supersedes the executive office of the President? and where are they outlined in the constitution?

WE THE PEOPLE are the only entity that grants and/or removes presidential authority.  We vest and affirm our power every 4 years to the President of the United States.  We do not vest power to a bureaucracy or administrative state that believes they are above the power of We The People.  The President reports to us, and we affirm or deny our support with reelection.

There is no governmental system or constitutional process that supersedes the Office of the President within the executive branch.

There are co-equal branches outside the Executive, the Legislative and Judicial branches, with their own constitutional power.  However, the Legislative and Judicial cannot impede or reach into in the structure of the Executive to limit the power outlined in the constitution and granted by We The People.

Apparently, President Trump is Aware of Lisa Monaco’s Purpose


Posted originally on the CTH on June 19, 2023 | Sundance 

Posted to Truth Social by President Trump:

A little more than a week before Special Counsel Jack Smith released his indictment against President Trump, Andrew Weissmann, Norm Eisen and fellow lawfare travelers, wrote an internal prosecution memo for current Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to use on behalf of the conscripted Special Counsel. [SEE 186-page Guidance MEMO HERE]

When Jack Smith revealed his indictment in Florida, not accidentally it was almost identical to the guidance memo that Weissmann had written.  Even the novel use of the Espionage Act was identical in format to the outline by Weissmann, Eisen and their crew.

Here are the instructions from Andrew Weissmann:

Here is the Special Counsel indictment:

[NOTE: In the post 9-11 surveillance state, this approach by the DOJ-NSD is a pillar holding the Fourth Branch of Government in place, as we have outlined.  The other pillars are (2) the Dept of Homeland Security, (3) the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and (4) the secret FISA Court system.  All four pillars maintain an omnipotent fourth branch of government that operates entirely without oversight.  As you can see in the 11th Circuit Court ruling, there is no check or balance in the post 9-11 national security state.]

Essentially, what we are witnessing is what Lawfare researchers would expect.

The Lawfare operatives, represented by Weissmann, Eisen and company, are all ideological agents connected directly to the anti-Trump efforts.  Their ally in the DOJ is Deputy AG Lisa Monaco.

I use the term “Lawfare” to describe their general group association, as well as the actual organization funded by the Brookings Institute that carries the same name.

Essentially, Lawfare et al, are the group of current and former Dept of Justice ideologues that we find throughout the deployment of all Main Justice weaponization, activism and corruption.

The Muller team were all Lawfare members. The legal team in/around the accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, what Christine Blasey-Ford called “beach friends,” are all Lawfare members.  The legal team behind both of Trump’s impeachment efforts were all Lawfare members.  It is one large network of legally minded ideologues working toward a common goal; they are inside government and connected to the same DOJ minds outside government.

The second thing they have in common is their collective risk within their action.  Many of their activities were/are unlawful (spygate, FISA, Mueller probe, impeachment background etc), so to the extent the Lawfare group can mitigate risk by attacking anyone who would be a threat to them, this is what we see.

Andrew Weissmann and Norm Eisen are two of the most well-known members of this politically motivated group.  Together they have created novel legal theories to use by the DOJ against their political opposition.  They write the legal filings for Main Justice to use inside government.

The fact the DOJ uses these novel theories and legal filings in the actual practice of law and prosecution shows how deeply connected the outside Lawfare group is to the Lawfare group inside DC.

Much of their Lawfare approach, that is using the law as a weapon, is based on a goal of attrition. Wear down the target until they are eventually destroyed.  The same approach and motive is intended toward the supporters of the target.  Wear down the psyche of the target’s supporters until they too are destroyed.

Creating demoralization is a very familiar approach from the Saul Alinsky methods rulebook.  It is another way to create fear through isolation, ridicule and marginalization of their opponent.  Threatening to make any defender a target is exactly the key behind Andrew Weissmann’s entire tenure as a prosecutor.  You will note, they did this Lt Gen Mike Flynn when Weissmann expanded their scope and then threatened Flynn’s son, Mike Flynn Jr.

On June 2, 2023, Andrew Weissmann and Norm Eisen published their “Model Prosecution Memo” for use inside the DOJ and for the legal scribes in media to review prior to the DOJ making any Trump indictment announcement.  {SEE MEMO HERE}  This is the same playbook they have used successfully in the past to get all of their allies on the same page for the preferred narrative.

Anticipating that Lisa Monaco would then be distributing the talking points and giving Jack Smith the groundwork for his upcoming novel indictment effort, Andrew Weissmann then appears on MSNBC to discuss.

Same Magistrate Judge That Authorized FBI Mar-a-Lago Raid Now Limits Trump Public Defense Against Secret FBI Evidence


Posted originally on the CTH on June 19, 2023 | Sundance

Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart is the judge who authorized the fraudulent search warrant used by the DOJ and FBI in the Mar-a-Lago raid against President Trump in August of last year.  Today, Judge Reinhart accepted the position of Special Counsel Jack Smith and puts restrictions on President Trump’s ability to defend himself.

Judge Reinhart has approved the motion filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith to restrict President Trump’s access to the materials the DOJ claims to use against him and block the ability of President Trump to state publicly his defense against the evidence.  The star chamber of the DOJ Lawfare operation is continuing unabated.

(Via ABC NEWS) – A federal judge on Monday approved a protective order sought by special counsel Jack Smith to keep former President Donald Trump from disclosing sensitive information in his classified documents case.

Smith sought the order to ensure that neither Trump nor codefendant Walt Nauta, Trump’s presidential valet, disclose sensitive information obtained during the discovery process, where prosecutors will show the defense what evidence it has amassed during their investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents since leaving office. (read more)

“The Discovery Materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court,” Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said in the order.

“Defendants shall only have access to Discovery Materials under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff. Defendants shall not retain copies of Discovery Material,” the ruling said.

“The materials also include information pertaining to ongoing investigations, the disclosure of which could compromise those investigations and identify uncharged individuals,” their Friday filing said.

Furthermore, the protective order limits Trump’s access to the material, stating that he can only view the discovery materials under the direct supervision of his defense counsel or a member of the counsel’s staff. As demanded by the Special Counsel, Trump is not allowed to retain copies of the discovery material.

The order applies to both Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, and prohibits them from disseminating any evidence provided to their lawyers during the discovery process. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart emphasized that the discovery materials, along with any derived information, should not be made public or shared on news or social media platforms without prior consent from the United States or approval from the court.

The DOJ wants to limit public knowledge of the material evidence, not because it would harm national security – but rather because the nature of the evidence itself would highlight to the nation how fraudulent the targeting is. This is the guaranteed DOJ motive, that’s why everything is under seal and even the media will not talk about how they are gaining their leak knowledge. This is LAWFARE narrative engineering at its apex deployment. (more)

Hopefully everyone can see now why I created so much context for the Fourth Branch of Government.  The DOJ is essentially arguing that some unknown administrative state has a superior position to the executive branch of government.

The US DOJ are affirming a belief in the omnipotent Fourth Branch of Government that Barack Obama created.