Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Sunday of “riots down the street” if former President Donald Trump is prosecuted over his handling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home during the FBI’s investigation. “If Donald Trump is prosecuted for mishandling classified information, after the Clinton debacle … there will be riots in the streets,” he told Fox News, in an apparent reference to the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server . it was revealed after the 2012 terrorist attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead. Mr Graham made allegations of “double standards” by investigators in investigating cases against Mr Trump, with the aim of “getting him”. “Most Republicans, myself included, believe that when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It’s all about getting him,” he said. “There’s a double standard when it comes to Trump.” The South Carolina senator also claimed the FBI was told to “walk away” from the investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop in an effort to “make sure the story doesn’t fall apart before the 2020 election.”
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National Archives receives threats after Trump attacks, reports say
Days after Donald Trump launched attacks on the National Archives Administration (NARA), the agency has become the latest target of attacks and vitriol, sources told The Washington Post. “NARA has received messages from the public accusing us of corruption and conspiracy against the former President, or congratulating NARA for ‘taking him down,’” archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote in a message obtained by The Post. “It is neither accurate nor welcome.” The National Archives has been embroiled in a protracted dispute with the former president after it discovered that enough classified documents had not been returned to the agency months after he stepped down, prompting it to alert the Justice Department. With the FBI searching his Florida home on August 8, Mr Trump launched a series of attacks against NARA. FILE: A man walks past the headquarters of the US National Archives and Records Administration on May 3, 2013 in Washington, DC (AFP via Getty Images) “They could have had it whenever they wanted — and that includes WAY BEFORE,” he wrote Aug. 12 on his Truth Social website. “All they had to do was ask.” “The biggest problem is, what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of them classified, that President Obama brought to Chicago?” he asked with an inaccurate and unsubstantiated reference to unclassified files stored at the Archives facility in Chicago for possible use in Barack Obama’s presidential library. The police department has increased patrols around the building after a growing online debate about the facility, the agency said, citing sources. Namita Singh29 August 2022 09:30 1661760000
Justice Department: Safety of ‘significant’ number of witnesses at risk in release of information on FBI raids
A previously sealed memo explaining the redactions in the affidavit for the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home explains that a “significant” number of witnesses will be compromised, forcing federal prosecutors to further disclose the document. In the memo unsealed Friday, prosecutors warned that “materials marked for redaction must remain sealed to protect the safety and privacy of a significant number of political witnesses.” John Bowden of the Independent reports:
Witnesses at risk from releasing info on FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, DoJ says
DoJ memo explains redactions from affidavit that led to Trump search warrant Alex Woodward29 August 2022 09:00 1661758203
QAnon accounts find support from Trump on Truth Social
Several pro-QAnon social media handles have flocked to Truth Social after being banned from Twitter and other social media giants and are being actively promoted by Donald Trump, according to a report published Monday. NewsGuard, a media watchdog that analyzes news outlets, found in its review that the former president “and other Truth Social leaders and funders routinely boost QAnon accounts and messages on the fledgling platform.” These include top executives such as Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman who is now CEO of Truth Social, and Patrick Orlando, CEO of Digital World Acquisition Corporation, the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that finances Mr. .Trump. . Former US President Donald Trump applauds as he arrives at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Hilton Anatole on August 6, 2022 in Dallas, Texas (Getty Images) NewsGuard, in its report, found a total of 88 users with more than 10,000 followers each who promoted QAnon slogans, graphics and ideas. Of those, 47 were verified accounts, including Mr Trump, who has 3.8 million followers. According to the report, Trump has “re-verified” 30 different accounts promoting QAnon a total of 65 times since his first post in April 2022. Of the 88 users promoting QAnon-related ideas, 32 had previously been banned from Twitter, according to the report. Namita Singh29 August 2022 08:30 1661756400
ICYMI: Director of National Intelligence Examining Security Risk of Documents Seized from Mar-a-Lago
The director of national intelligence told congressional leaders she would review the national security implications of the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago. Avril Haines told lawmakers that her office is working with the Justice Department “to facilitate the declassification of relevant materials, including those recovered during the investigation.”
Intelligence chief looking into security risk of documents seized from Mar-a-Lago
Congressional leaders acknowledge the intelligence chief’s investigation Alex Woodward29 August 2022 08:00 1661754603
Deep skepticism as Liz Cheney openly considers a presidential run
As the sun set in Wyoming, Rep. Liz Cheney described her loss as the beginning of a more consequential step in her political career. He called Abraham Lincoln, who lost both the House and Senate elections and went on to become one of the nation’s most successful presidents. But in the days that followed, would-be supporters in key states openly expressed skepticism about Ms. Cheney’s presidential bid, even one designed solely to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House. In fact, Republican voters and local officials in three of the states that matter most in presidential politics — Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — believe the soon-to-be-unemployed congressman has some way to go to be relevant in the presidential primary. 2024, never think of a way to victory. Some supporters fear it would actually help Mr Trump if he runs. That’s the colossal political challenge facing Mrs. Cheney, a Republican seeking to turn a 37-percentage-point hometown loss into a national campaign to destroy the former president’s White House ambitions. There is no precedent for what he hopes to achieve.
Liz Cheney in 2024? Deep skepticism appears in key states
Liz Cheney is openly considering a presidential run Namita Singh29 August 2022 07:30 1661752800
ICYMI: Judge to appoint third lawyer to review evidence of FBI raid on Trump win
A federal judge in Florida will hold a hearing on a motion Thursday to determine whether to appoint a third-party “special expert” to review documents seized from Trump by the FBI at Trump’s request. Judge Aileen M Cannon suggested she might be inclined to grant the former president’s request to have a “special master” review the documents, but said her order “should not be construed as a final decision on the motion of the plaintiff”. He gave the government until Tuesday to present its arguments in the case and set a hearing for Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Judge to appoint third-party lawyer to review evidence of FBI raid on Trump victory
Trump and his lawyers called the search of his Mar-a-Lago home “politically motivated, overboard and shockingly aggressive.” Alex Woodward29 August 2022 07:00 1661750872
“Evolving and deepening anti-democratic threats could trigger electoral chaos”
In the first seven months of 2022, GOP-controlled legislatures introduced at least 244 such bills. Twenty-four became law, according to a new report from the United States Democracy Center and Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan organization that supports democratic elections. Such a state-level effort — backed by Donald Trump’s baseless narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him and false claims that fraud and voter manipulation tainted the results — “would make it much easier for partisan actors to incite the doubt, chaos. and confusion that could be used as a pretext for electoral subversion,” according to the report. Election experts and elected officials are also sounding the alarm, warning that the explosion of legislation — and a wave of prominent election naysayers running for office to enact it — is giving anti-Democrats the tools to do whatever they could overturn the bogus attempts to overturn the 2020 results no, and with a better chance of success. My colleague Alex Woodward reports:
‘Evolving’ anti-democratic threats could spark election chaos, experts warn
Secretaries and voting rights experts are warning against an explosion of legislation to “guess” election results and a wave of prominent suffragettes running for office Namita Singh29 August 2022 06:27 1661748623
Graham warns of “riots in the street” if Trump is impeached
Sen. Lindsey Graham has predicted “riots in the street” if Donald Trump is prosecuted for mishandling classified documents found during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home. Criticizing what he saw as a two-tier legal system working to get him, Mr.
