Biden’s Doc Prob

16 thoughts on “Biden’s Doc Prob”

1. seems like judge is not sure there’re not more to be found still stashed by former loser guy and wants more info on the private searchers

   Judge rules Trump must name investigators he hired to search classified documents | Washington Examiner

   Lawyers for Donald Trump were ordered by a judge to provide the names of people who searched the former president’s residences for any remaining classified materials, according to the New York Times.
   The Wednesday ruling by Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is the latest in the legal battles between Trump and the Justice Department over classified documents.
   […]
   The private investigators, who are to be named in the court as a result of this order, were ordered to search four of Trump’s residences for any more classified documents after the August raid, the New York Times reported.

   [continues]

2. No matter the excuse, or even the reason if there is one, the greedy old perverts will use this to bless their orange ass. 
    
   One thing this does show is there are separate levels of handling classified information.  One is those of us who handle the stuff for a living.  We would be in jail for doing either of the political runs, orange and Veep.  The other is political, carry the things around, forget where they came from, or in the case of the former guy, purposely select a few to sell to foreign governments. No penalty there. 

3. The former president appeared to help Kevin McCarthy win the Speaker’s gavel on the 15th round of voting, and former presidential advisor Steve Bannon is suspected of involvement in Sunday’s coup attempt in Brazil.

4. BB, they’ll also use it to add to judi chair Gym’s bengazi-styled hearings list.

5. the guardian also reported about the questionable search:

   […]
   The department was given a general explanation from Trump’s lawyers at the time about who conducted the search – a company known to Trump with experience handling classified records cases – when the new documents marked as classified were returned to the government around Thanksgiving last year.
   But the department, unsatisfied with that accounting, last week convinced a federal judge in a sealed hearing to force Trump’s lawyers to give the names of the people who retrieved the documents with an intent to question them directly, according to sources familiar with the matter.
   […]
   The justice department told Trump’s legal team in October that it suspected the former president was still in possession of additional documents with classified markings even after the FBI seized hundreds of sensitive materials when agents searched his Mar-a-Lago property on 8 August.
   After initially resisting suggestions to retain an outside firm to search his properties for any classified documents, Trump retained people to search his other properties including Trump Tower in New York, Trump Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, Mar-a-Lago, and a storage unit in Florida.
   The search of the storage unit, carried out by a company described as being a known entity to the former president, turned up at least two more documents with classified markings that Trump’s lawyers then hurriedly turned over to prosecutors on the documents case.
   But the discovery exasperated the justice department, which in December asked the chief US district court judge for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, to hold Trump’s office in contempt of the first subpoena issued to Trump back in May demanding the return of any and all classified documents.
   The contempt motion was not immediately granted, the Guardian first reported, and Howell told prosecutors to work out the matter with Trump’s lawyers. Still, the issue lingered, and the department subsequently asked for the names of the people involved in the search.
   Trump’s legal team initially demurred and disputed that prosecutors needed to know the names, according to a source familiar with the matter, before they relented and offered to make them available – but only under a protective order because they worried it would leak to the news media.
   Frustrated with the back-and-forth with Trump’s lawyers, the department instead filed a motion to compel the names in a sealed hearing last Thursday before Howell, who granted the request after a tense exchange with the former president’s lawyers where she insisted the government needed to know the names.
   [continues]

6. KO has a thing or two to say about the difference 
    
   https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-countdown-with-keith-olbe-99705496/

   We’re really doing “But Hillary’s Emails” again, huh, CNN? Huh, NBC? Huh, CBS? Huh, New York Times? Huh, Washington Post? THE HELL WE ARE. CBS’s website broke the story accurately (“Documents MARKED classified…found at Biden’s think tank”) and then Norah O’Donnell dropped the caveats and mitigations and tarted the story up. The Post bothsidesed and whataboutismed the Biden story, invoking Trump in the subhead. The Times comped Trump in Paragraph 5. And worst of all, an hour after CNN broke a genuinely important story: Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaing Rudy Giuliani in the Trump Post-Election “Save America PAC” Fundraising crimes, what did Anderson Cooper lead with? His network’s own, important, resonating scoop? Nope. The Paste Eaters of CNN buried their own scoop – six nights before their Giuliani Documentary Series starts, too! – so television’s longest-running failed marketing experience Anderson Cooper could alter the facts and mislead the nation by saying “Turns out the former president is not the only one with a classified documents problem. The CURRENT president has one as well.” Sure, Coop. If a Swiss Army knife is the same as Jack The Ripper’s Murder Weapon.
   Fire. Them. All.

   He has more to say than what’s written here. It’s nice, though probably futile, to hear someone saying these things.

7. another guardian story today:

   The Republican-led US House of Representatives on Monday adopted a package of internal rules that give rightwing hardliners more leverage over the chamber’s newly elected Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy.
   Lawmakers voted 220-213 for the legislation, with only one Republican voting against. All 212 Democrats voted against the rules package, saying it was full of concessions to the right wing of the Republican party.
   The rules package, which will govern House operations over the next two years, represented an early test of McCarthy’s ability to keep his caucus together, after he suffered the humiliation of 14 failed ballots last week at the hands of 20 hardliners before finally being elected speaker on Saturday.
   The legislation includes key concessions that hardliners sought and McCarthy agreed to in his quest for the speaker’s gavel. The changes include allowing a single lawmaker to call for his removal at any time. Other changes would place new restrictions on federal spending, potentially limiting McCarthy’s ability to negotiate government funding packages with President Joe Biden, whose fellow Democrats control the Senate.
   Democrats denounced the legislation as a rules package for “Maga extremists” that would favor wealthy corporations over workers, undermine congressional ethics standards and lead to further restrictions on abortion services. “These rules are not a serious attempt at governing. They’re essentially a ransom note to America from the extreme right,” Representative Jim McGovern said.
   [continues]

8. I wonder if the Brazilian Confederates  (those from the american south who went to Brazil after our civil war) threw in with the would-be coup.    (Nothing says “morons” like
   ” Brazilian Confederates” ).

9. with an emphasis on the “greedy” in BB’s fav name for the GOPers, here’s the hill on the greedy perverts’ 1st bill of the session:

   House Republicans fulfilled a key campaign promise on Monday, passing legislation to rescind the bulk of an IRS funding boost signed into law last year, marking the first bill passed by the GOP-controlled House this Congress.
   The bill, which is unlikely to see action in the Democratic-controlled Senate, passed in a party-line 221-210 vote on Monday evening.
   Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced that the first bill for a GOP-controlled House would be to repeal the new IRS funding in September, when House Republicans released their “Commitment to America” midterm policy and messaging platform ahead of the election.
   A boost of about $80 billion in IRS funding over a decade generally aimed at upping high-income enforcement was included in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ sweeping tax, health and climate bill. 
   The Republican bill, formally titled the “Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act,” is barely longer than one page. It directs any “unobligated balances of amounts appropriated or otherwise made available” to the IRS from the Inflation Reduction Act to be rescinded.
   The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated Monday that the legislation would eliminate about $71 billion of the total $80 billion that was allocated for the IRS but would reduce tax revenue by about $186 billion, translating to a $114 billion increase in deficits over the next decade.
   […]
   “With their first economic legislation of the new Congress, House Republicans are making clear that their top economic priority is to allow the rich and multi-billion dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes, while making life harder for ordinary, middle-class families that pay the taxes they owe,” the White House said in a statement.
   [continues]

10. think these 2 stories are somehow related?

    House GOP Votes to Gut Ethics Body, George Santos Calls It ‘Fantastic’ (businessinsider.com)

    The House of Representatives on Monday passed a new set of rules to govern the chamber that will severely weaken the ability of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate members of Congress for potential wrongdoing.
    “I think it’s fantastic,” Republican Rep. George Santos of New York said of the rules package, which passed by a 220-213 margin, in a brief interview with Insider at the Capitol on Monday.
    The changes come just days after Santos — who was revealed to have lied about much of his background, is under investigation in multiple countries, and faces at least two OCE complaints related to his financial disclosures — was sworn into Congress.
    “The proposed rules package severely curtails the ability of OCE to do the job it exists to do,” a constellation of good-government groups wrote in a letter published on January 4.

    and

    Rep. Santos Fundraiser Posed As McCarthy Aide to Get Cash From Donors (businessinsider.com)

    George Santos campaign paid staffer nearly $100k to pretend to be Kevin McCarthy’s chief of staff and get money from donors

11. Yeah, I’ll bet Santos thinks weakening the OCE investigative power is a good idea. Santos may be getting into hot water with  the campaign finance investigation that I understand is underway.  I’m not sure this guy could begin a speech with “I’m George Santos” without telling at least one lie.

12. Here’s some great news!
     
    Progressive Rep. Katie Porter launches a Senate bid for Diane Feinstein’s California seat.

13. off topic, but it looks like wapo has gone to the dogs

    Dogs in Alaska ride a bus like humans with Mo Mountain Mutts – The Washington Post

    When the dogs board the bus, Mo does a small obedience drill, and passes out treatsto reward good behavior. Once they’re settled and buckled in, Mo said, “they have to stay on their seats” — just like humans — while being transported to the trailhead.

    Mo and Lee regularly film portions of their bus rides and walks and share videos on social media. Lately they’ve been going viral. Mo Mountain Mutts has around 237,000 followers on Instagram, and 1.3 million followers on TikTok, but they reach far more people than that on social media.

    “I originally started posting on social media for my clients,” Mo said, adding that she often shared “class photos” for dog parents.

    “Somewhere along the line,” she said, “the puppy bus just took off, and now the internet is in love.”

    and so has cnn Watch: Doggie daycare bus goes viral on TikTok | CNN

     

14. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/politics/katie-porter-california-2024-senate-race/index.html

    “California Rep. Katie Porter announced a 2024 Senate bid on Tuesday, launching her campaign for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat…”

15. Santoast, George, One each. 

16. NEW THREAD

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