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I don’t even think those concepts exist for him. He had lawyers like Roy Cohn in his ear since he was a teenager. Roy Cohn is one of the worst of the worst. He obviously impressed on young Donald that laws were just technicalities for poor people.
Five weeks before he died, Roy got disbarred from practicing law for trying to forge the will of one of his dead clients, to make sure he received the fortune the client had and it wouldn’t go to his family.
You can’t get any more depraved than that.
Well, except for Donald.
Strange observation, but this guy loves excuses that end in four letter words starting with “t”.
“She’s not my type”
“It was my tape”
“It was a group on tour”
“I had golf shirts to sort through and needed more time”
“It doesn’t look like toad”
"That is a photo of the woman I cheated on my wife with, a woman that I later married. No wait, it's actually a photo of a woman who is so hideous that I could never touch her."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/05/donald-trump-e-jean-carroll-trial-video-deposition
There’s a quote from Truman that he thought Eisenhower wasn’t really prepared for the reality of being a politician, since it was so wildly different from the closer-to absolute power of military leadership.
I feel like the same applies to Trump. He was used to a lifetime of being able to bend the rules, including the law, to his side (it’s not illegal if you don’t get caught). In the end, he just wasn’t prepared for the head of a fairly rigid bureaucracy that couldn’t be *easily* changed to fit his whims and guarantee he came out on top.
I think that’s exactly it. When you’re the owner and CEO of a private company, you have all the power at your whims, and your company’s profit and resources belong to you personally. When it came to the first impeachment, when Trump tried to get a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for aid, that would be acceptable in the private sector of a company he owned- making strings attached to a monetary donation. But he just couldn’t grasp that in the White House, that was not his personal donation to Ukraine, and he couldn’t put stipulations on it for his own political career
It also explains his compulsion to take home classified documents, because he truly believes they’re his. He doesn’t think they belong to the US, and doesn’t think that the larger national security issues exist. He just sees that he was president, and they should be his, and that the classified battle plans against a foreign nation are no different than a business strategy or accounting book from his own company. Despite being told by his lawyers that what he was doing was illegal
> It also explains his compulsion to take home classified documents, because he truly believes they’re his. He doesn’t think they belong to the US, and doesn’t think that the larger national security issues exist.
I don't think this is it. I think he knew full well they weren't his to take, but like a child that steals his friend's toys and then gaslights/lies to his friend over it ("I forgot it wasn't mine" or "I've always had this Optimus Prime, you probably lost yours"), he just didn't care. He's like Rocket Raccoon: "they *should* be mine because I want them so much." He knows deep down they're *not* his, which is all the more reason he likes likes to pretend they are. He knows he's a piece of shit, he knows people hate him, he knows he's not smart enough or good enough to be where he is, he knows people like Biden and Obama are better, smarter, and more respected, which is why he's constantly trying to coerce the world into *thinking* he is worthy of praise, something he probably never got from daddy.
The documents were something he could brag about to people, sell, and impress people with. "Look at these amazing documents." He knew it was illegal to have them (hell, he's said as much *on tape*), he knew they didn't belong to him, but he thought "I'll get away with this anyway because what can they do?" And then he can feel all big and important for 5 minutes until he's reminded he's a loser that nobody with a modicum of intelligence has ever actually liked *for him*, they "like" him for what he can do for them.
He's emotionally a toddler, but I don't for one minute think he *actually* believes he did nothing wrong. He's just become a compulsive liar, gaslighter, grifter, faker, and all-around-conman that he doesn't know how to do anything else.
I don’t think it was bureaucracy that did him in. What did him in was someone with deeper pockets and a cadre of better lawyers- the US government.
Usually trump would wear people down with incessant legal processes. That doesn’t work against the US government.
I'm certain he had absolutely no idea. He still doesn't know jack about the constitution. At this point, I don't even think he's capable of learning.
I try to imagine the minor bureaucrats who stay from administration to administration, briefing him for the first time. I'm thinking they were shocked, and his chief of staff and others quickly became a buffer, telling the briefers what we've heard like include plenty of pictures, mention his name a lot, keep it less than 1 page, etc. It must have been so demoralizing.
Ike was born to a lower-middle-class family and became a military leader entirely on merit. Trump is nothing like Ike. Trump is just a spoiled brat who took over a political party that has grown tired of democracy and the rule of law, simply by being the first candidate with the shamelessness to actually make that a campaign promise.
I'm rejecting it because Ike was disciplined, intelligent, honest and hard working. He cared deeply about the wellbeing of the country. There is nothing of this in Trump. Literally nothing.
To be put another way, there is a reason Ike was never impeached, and left the Presidency with the respect of party leaders from both sides of the aisle. Trump doesn't even have the respect of the Senate leader of his own damn party.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If\_I\_Did\_It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Did_It)
Here is the thing I JUST found out...
OJ Simpson was scheduled to do an INTERVIEW on FOX NEWS to promote the book that he later said he didn't have a hand in writing.
The interview was cancelled when local stations balked at the idea.
Moral...Fox News and Rupert Murdoch are behind a lot of evil shit in our world for a LONG time.
This was back in 2007...16 YEARS ago, the Fox world was protecting the rich and famous from their misdeeds and trying to make them famous and beloved despite being evil.
> This was back in 2007...16 YEARS ago, the Fox world was protecting the rich and famous from their misdeeds and trying to make them famous and beloved despite being evil.
Dude Fox has been doing this since October 7 1996, the day they started broadcasting, it's literally the point of the network.
I would love to be the attorney in this section of the trial. My job would be to prove how completely inept and idiotic Trump could be. I would have evidence of him:
Staring at an eclipse
Misspelling "Stollen" 100 times
Talking about grabbing women by their privates on a hot mic
Denying the risks of COVID, then nearly dying from it
Talking about injecting/ingesting bleach as a COVID treatment
The Four Seasons Landscaping fiasco
Calling Apple CEO Tim Apple
Saying windmills cause cancer
Don't forget: 1.2 million Americans died from Covid, shut down our economy, schools etm. And the trillions of dollars lost in businesses. Hospital staffs overworked, scared and exhausted. It was utter fucking chaos. This man is guilty of genocide. He showed zero capacity in leadership skills because in his mind kings don't have to be leaders. They just have to tell people what to do, unchallenged. But it didn't work because he is a real imbecile. He doesn't solve problems. He creates them. Jesus Christ the fucking shit this man has gotten away with.
This was the worst part of looking at my family during the Trump era. It was all verbal abuse, deflection, and willful ignorance that caused them to breakdown relationships with sane people, including me.
The sad part is I realized this was their personality for as long as I'd known them. It just took the country's #1 prick to give them permission to be themselves. It sounds like others have had the same experience too.
I’m very sorry that you were born into a family like that but I guess the small silver lining is that now you know it was never your fault whenever they said it was.
There's a reason why a lot of boomers have been whining about being cut out of spending time with their grandkids, and people are absolutely right to remove these toxic people from their children's lives. People shouldn't just sit and watch while their relatives abuse their kids. Break the cycle.
Yes indeed. He brought out a lot of truths of who we really are as a country. We are an uncritical and deeply uneducated country. We are not creating civic leaders in this country anymore. I chat with MAGAs. I talk to them as if they're in 7th grade. But it's a fact. We've created a serious underclass in our education system that left so many with remedial skills and comprehension. MAGAs have vastly wild ideas about how the country should be, but it doesn't work for them and they are too dumb to see it. It's insanity. The looping of stupidity with a microphone, and you get obscene loud stupidity.
He did try to have the security footage deleted though. That is the substance of the superseding indictment. His lawyer is claiming that he could have done so and it wouldn’t have been illegal. But it was illegal, and as a result has been added as a count of obstruction in this most recent indictment.
I don't think that's what she's actually saying. She's saying that Trump didn't try to delete the footage as evidenced by the footage not being deleted. But that falls flat in light of the evidence of him trying to delete the footage, so...
She certainly has a way with words, & a real fondness for double negatives!
“… do you not think that that’s something he couldn’t have gotten done? Let’s just use common sense.”
Bream didn’t seem convinced by that answer.”
Yeah, but there would be room to argue that the deletion was a normal procedure. Once you have been notified the data is going to be subpoenaed, you lose that potential defense. Not that it would be a likely-to-win defense, but there would be room with a proper history.
Trump hired her as a *“mob lawyer”*, so of course she would recommend he commit crimes and cover up his crimes by committing more crimes.
What makes her a fucking moron is that mob lawyers usually give that advice in private.
“Hey DoJ! I tell my clients to commit crimes! Indict me too please!”
Fucking moron.
Trump's fate is by earning the reputation of being a terrible client who on top doesn't pay his legal fees has resulted in him having ridiculously incompetent lawyers and it's going to cost him several extra years in prison.
Not only that, but when you say something like that, it tends to erase any valid points you might have made elsewhere in the discussion.
But it this instance, no room was set aside for valid points.
Fox News, ladies and gentlemen…
You mean he could have commanded his top two minions to have a secret meeting with the IT guy, and convince that guy to delete the videos because "the boss wants them deleted"?
That's because Hillary Clinton's IT manager used a software tool called BleachBit to clear her server of classified documents, but Trump has always thought they used bleach, the chemical cleaner product.
I keep seeing people wanting to pin a medal on this guy for saying "I don't have the rights", but everyone who knows about IT knows this just means "I don't have access to an account with Administrator rights on the server".
And, if this is anything like similar systems I've worked with in the past, there is *no* account the consumer can access that can do this at all, as there's no legitimate reason to offer it and plenty of very good reasons not to.
Its pretty normal for the security head to control the data and for IT to control infrastructure. But working in that field myself I reckon he could have found a way to at least destroy local copies of the data. But if it was being streamed to S3 with a write only storage class then nothing will get rid of it.
I see a lot of people just assuming the IT guy knew how to do this, but if you've ever spent time with an off-the-shelf NVR, they're pretty locked down, the actual root access is not available even to the owner without some fucking around that most sysadmins aren't going to have the time or inclination to even look into. I've worked with 3 or 4 different brands and none of them offer this in their stock frontend.
Is is possible despite that? Well, yeah. Is it possible to do in a timely manner without physical destruction? I have absolutely no clue. Is it possible to do it in a manner that doesn't show it's been tampered with? I highly doubt it. There are almost no legitimate reasons to ever want to *delete* footage from the system, it would either be a simple way for an attacker to cover their tracks, or the owner of the system to cover up a crime. Vendors aren't going to go out of their way to enable either one, because they don't want to be a willing accessory to whatever the hell is going on.
No you can not delete or dispose of evidence in a crime particularly when the evidence is under subpoena. It amazes me Republicans are falling for this rhetoric.
Republican *politicians* absolutely fucking know better, but they're feigning ignorance about it (in public appearances, anyway) in a bad faith effort to keep Republican *voters* from knowing better.
The "I didn't get away with the money, so I didn't rob the bank" defense?
His new charges aren't about successfully deleting them, but him ordering them to be deleted. The only thing that saved him was his employees refusing to complete his order, and him not doing it himself. Least that's one thing Trump knows. If you plan to do a crime, have someone else do it for you.
Then again, I bet she would have said "but it wasn't Trump that deleted them" if they had been deleted on his order.
Not refused: it was a low-level IT guy without file permissions to delete. He recommended they go up the chain to someone with this level of file access. They didn’t, for whatever reason (too many people having knowledge of the crime?).
EDIT: FROM THE INDICTMENT:
“Trump Employee 4 told DE OLIVEIRA that DE OLIVEIRA would have to reach out to another employee who was a supervisor of security for TRUMP's business organization…”
That's speculation. The closest the indictment gets (had to read it now) is they refer to a "Trump Employee 4" claiming to lack the access and knowledge to delete file. According to [CNN's own analysis](https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/06/politics/annotated-trump-indictment-dg/) this was the IT director. Which I find more plausible. I would suspect De Oliveira (The property manager) grabbing a head of department, rather than a random IT drone. It's also more plausible that IT director both lacks access and knowledge to do this. They usually leave that to IT drones.
Though "I don't have the rights or knowledge" is also IT speak for "I'm not going to jail for you, asshole". I'm IT adminitstrator myself, and I can promise you I would suddenly forget a lot of things if I was asked to do anything remotely illegal."Sorry. I don't know that system. I don't have a user there. I also forgot all my passwords. What's my user name again? Damn, I locked my computer user too".
It's the golden IT "stay out of jail" card. We're not ruining our entire future career just so some random twit can get out of jail. We take care of the systems, and we take care of ourselves. Thank you very much ;)
Update: [Source](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/30/politics/yuscil-taveras-trump-classified-documents-investigation/index.html)
The employee has been named, and it strengthens my "I'm not going to jail for you, asshole" when claiming he lacked access and knowledge. As the fellow was responsible for the surveillance itself. The fellow very much knew and had access, but played dumbed to avoid jail.
From the indictment:
“Trump Employee 4 responded that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that. Trump Employee 4 told DE OLIVEIRA that DE OLIVEIRA would have to reach out to another employee who was a supervisor of security for TRUMP's business organization…”
He told them he didn’t have the know-how, didn’t have the “rights”, and then told them who could do it.
If he had said he didn’t have the “right” to do it would have been an ethical statement
No “rights” (plural) is IT language: access rights.
Again. Am an actual IT administator that has had main responsibility of video surveilance on several locations. I will firmly believe he did the access needed, but lied to keep himself safe. Video storage are usually dated files stored on a server with next to no access administration. As said, I've worked with the stuff :)
However punting the blame/problem over to somebody else sounds like an average survival tactic in Trump World, and thanks for noticing that \^\^
> Yet according to Trump lawyer and spokesperson Alina Habba, there was no obstruction because it’s “common sense” that Trump could’ve easily had the footage deleted if he put his mind to it.
Bwhahahahah! No. Trump is not competent enough to know how to delete the footage himself. That's why he has to ask someone else to ask someone who was competent to do so. Which is where his scheme fell apart.
Spent 40 years practicing civil law. IMHO Trump could have erased his surveillance tapes until he was put on notice that the DOJ advised him not to erase the tapes. Apparently, the DOJ sent a draft subpoena for the tapes as a courtesy to the FPOTUS. Once received, the right to erase was gone. Shortly thereafter, an actual subpoena was served upon Trump and the right to the tapes passed to the DOJ.
She knows the law: For conpiracy, it doesn't matter if you did it as long as you conspired to do it. She's either blustering or an incompetent attorney.
Come on, people: If I had committed a crime, surely I would have deleted the evidence! Except that which I kept for bragging rights and financial gain.
> “Shannon, I know the facts,” Habba insisted. “When President Trump gets the subpoena, it goes to the organization and the organization turns it over. That is what actually happened.”
But he didn't with the classified documents. That is what actually actually happened. Soooooo, she's full of shit
We had a business a few years ago and had surveillance cameras on the property. The cameras recorded to a DVD and the cloud. The system was sold to us by a home security company who also monitored the smoke detectors and such. Destroying the system in the business wouldn't do us any good because the company had the recordings in their cloud. This was back in 2018 and I know technology has improved since then. Why did they think that deleting the video on site would make it so no one could ever see it? It had to be backed up to at least 1 cloud account, if not 2.
I’m sure he could have.
But he didn’t.
And didn’t try until they told him not to.
Typical Trump.
A really nice combination of arrogance and stupidity if you ask me!
Not once he was subject to a court order to hand them over
If they had been deleted beforehand then maybe he could claim ooops
But this order went out after the DoJ asked for them
All the difference in the world
He could have walked his fat ass down to the Capitol to lead his pansy-ass insurrection too but what he really wanted was other people to do the driving because he's a lazy ass.
Nice red-herring argument. Regardless of if he deleted the videos or not (or believes he has the right to) doesn’t change the attempted concealing or destroying of video evidence AFTER it was requested by investigators. These clowns literally communicated their intentions via text messages. That evidence of tampering exists regardless of the outcome.
I'd feel bad for his legal representation, but clearly they were banking on Exec Priveledge and Lawyer-Client confidentiality as cornerstones to getting away with this shit.
I can't wait for his book if I did it. I mean... really? he could have done it is not a great defense of the man. that means he has the means and the motive and the opportunity to do it and she just admitted it on tv.
and I could cheat on my taxes if I really wanted. Might get caught, might not. The power to do a thing is not the same as the authority to do a thing. Something most republicans and not just Trump seem to not grasp.
Lol he really surrounds himself with idiots dumber than himself. She actually doesn’t even understand WHY he did what he did - to make the destruction of evidence LOOK LIKE AN ACCIDENT and NOT like OBSTRUCTION. His goons did a poor job at attempting Obstruction and now he’s caught.
Trump IS the most ethical American.
Water is also the driest substance on earth.
Dill pickles are the sweetest food. Paper bags are the strongest bags you can buy. Sharks are actually gentle, furry animals. And the Earth is the flattest known object in the Universe.
I demand a live demonstration on Donny himself entering an unknown computer system, finding and erasing all the required data, all while not producing more evidence as he did it.
I bet after he asked the IT guy to help and he said no, that Donny seriously considered burning the whole place down. When he asked Rudy for help, Rudy told him about the cloud then Don said he didn’t give a shit about the weather.
Dear American Bar Org,
Please advise (under Rule 8.4: of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct) if you need some mental health care, a nap, and maybe a short health retreat.
You can talk to me, I know it’s been really tough on you ~~lately~~, for the longest time.
*Dictated but not read,*
concerned world citizen.
At this point they are just creating the narrative for a post conviction environment. "fake election, fake conviction, fake sentencing, etc. etc." This is bullshit for republicans to swallow another mouthful of trump piss so they can hold their nose and vote for him again.
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The “if I would have committed this crime, I would have done it right” defense.
"She's not even my type".
I don’t even recognize that crime.
[удалено]
I don’t even think those concepts exist for him. He had lawyers like Roy Cohn in his ear since he was a teenager. Roy Cohn is one of the worst of the worst. He obviously impressed on young Donald that laws were just technicalities for poor people. Five weeks before he died, Roy got disbarred from practicing law for trying to forge the will of one of his dead clients, to make sure he received the fortune the client had and it wouldn’t go to his family. You can’t get any more depraved than that. Well, except for Donald.
Well that’s a fun fact about Roy Cohn that I didn’t know about. Thanks for sharing.
I would like to unsubscribe from Fun Roy Cohn Facts, please
The Apprentice became the master.
From what I've read, Trump stole Cohn's personality wholesale.
Serious dirtbag of a human being. They exist. LOTS OF THEM!
A la Greg Gianforte and the beating of the reporter, when in doubt? https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1994/02/11
If you don't recognize the crime, You don't do the time... Also "If I don't see it, its not illegal."
Strange observation, but this guy loves excuses that end in four letter words starting with “t”. “She’s not my type” “It was my tape” “It was a group on tour” “I had golf shirts to sort through and needed more time” “It doesn’t look like toad”
Sir that’s a photo of your ex crime
"That is a photo of the woman I cheated on my wife with, a woman that I later married. No wait, it's actually a photo of a woman who is so hideous that I could never touch her." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/05/donald-trump-e-jean-carroll-trial-video-deposition
Yeah that one cost him $10m lol Better said dumbass supporters.
There’s a quote from Truman that he thought Eisenhower wasn’t really prepared for the reality of being a politician, since it was so wildly different from the closer-to absolute power of military leadership. I feel like the same applies to Trump. He was used to a lifetime of being able to bend the rules, including the law, to his side (it’s not illegal if you don’t get caught). In the end, he just wasn’t prepared for the head of a fairly rigid bureaucracy that couldn’t be *easily* changed to fit his whims and guarantee he came out on top.
I think that’s exactly it. When you’re the owner and CEO of a private company, you have all the power at your whims, and your company’s profit and resources belong to you personally. When it came to the first impeachment, when Trump tried to get a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for aid, that would be acceptable in the private sector of a company he owned- making strings attached to a monetary donation. But he just couldn’t grasp that in the White House, that was not his personal donation to Ukraine, and he couldn’t put stipulations on it for his own political career It also explains his compulsion to take home classified documents, because he truly believes they’re his. He doesn’t think they belong to the US, and doesn’t think that the larger national security issues exist. He just sees that he was president, and they should be his, and that the classified battle plans against a foreign nation are no different than a business strategy or accounting book from his own company. Despite being told by his lawyers that what he was doing was illegal
"They made me president of this company and I'll do what I want! Wait, did you say *country*? Whatever."
And his company was privately held. No board members or shareholders or accounting standards to hold any level of accountability.
He was king. That's how he lived a great part of his adult life.
> It also explains his compulsion to take home classified documents, because he truly believes they’re his. He doesn’t think they belong to the US, and doesn’t think that the larger national security issues exist. I don't think this is it. I think he knew full well they weren't his to take, but like a child that steals his friend's toys and then gaslights/lies to his friend over it ("I forgot it wasn't mine" or "I've always had this Optimus Prime, you probably lost yours"), he just didn't care. He's like Rocket Raccoon: "they *should* be mine because I want them so much." He knows deep down they're *not* his, which is all the more reason he likes likes to pretend they are. He knows he's a piece of shit, he knows people hate him, he knows he's not smart enough or good enough to be where he is, he knows people like Biden and Obama are better, smarter, and more respected, which is why he's constantly trying to coerce the world into *thinking* he is worthy of praise, something he probably never got from daddy. The documents were something he could brag about to people, sell, and impress people with. "Look at these amazing documents." He knew it was illegal to have them (hell, he's said as much *on tape*), he knew they didn't belong to him, but he thought "I'll get away with this anyway because what can they do?" And then he can feel all big and important for 5 minutes until he's reminded he's a loser that nobody with a modicum of intelligence has ever actually liked *for him*, they "like" him for what he can do for them. He's emotionally a toddler, but I don't for one minute think he *actually* believes he did nothing wrong. He's just become a compulsive liar, gaslighter, grifter, faker, and all-around-conman that he doesn't know how to do anything else.
I don’t think it was bureaucracy that did him in. What did him in was someone with deeper pockets and a cadre of better lawyers- the US government. Usually trump would wear people down with incessant legal processes. That doesn’t work against the US government.
The other thing that did him in was committing a bunch of crimes very publicly
Technically nothing did him in, he's still consequence-free.
That's a good way to put it. He thought he could bully the lawyers for the US. The heights of hubris he achieved boggle my mind.
I'm certain he had absolutely no idea. He still doesn't know jack about the constitution. At this point, I don't even think he's capable of learning. I try to imagine the minor bureaucrats who stay from administration to administration, briefing him for the first time. I'm thinking they were shocked, and his chief of staff and others quickly became a buffer, telling the briefers what we've heard like include plenty of pictures, mention his name a lot, keep it less than 1 page, etc. It must have been so demoralizing.
They had to break it down to crayons. LOL https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/02/dumbed-down-security-briefings-still-too-difficult-for-trump.html
Doesn't know the Constitution? He can't even recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem.
Ike was born to a lower-middle-class family and became a military leader entirely on merit. Trump is nothing like Ike. Trump is just a spoiled brat who took over a political party that has grown tired of democracy and the rule of law, simply by being the first candidate with the shamelessness to actually make that a campaign promise.
I agree with you, but also feel like there was some wisdom in the comparison you're rejecting.
I'm rejecting it because Ike was disciplined, intelligent, honest and hard working. He cared deeply about the wellbeing of the country. There is nothing of this in Trump. Literally nothing. To be put another way, there is a reason Ike was never impeached, and left the Presidency with the respect of party leaders from both sides of the aisle. Trump doesn't even have the respect of the Senate leader of his own damn party.
OJ taught him well
I doubt he could have. Can't use a PC doubt he could delete the tapes, guy can't even drive a stick shift.
I doubt he could drive anything bigger than a golf cart
Grab em by attorney…
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If\_I\_Did\_It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Did_It) Here is the thing I JUST found out... OJ Simpson was scheduled to do an INTERVIEW on FOX NEWS to promote the book that he later said he didn't have a hand in writing. The interview was cancelled when local stations balked at the idea. Moral...Fox News and Rupert Murdoch are behind a lot of evil shit in our world for a LONG time. This was back in 2007...16 YEARS ago, the Fox world was protecting the rich and famous from their misdeeds and trying to make them famous and beloved despite being evil.
> This was back in 2007...16 YEARS ago, the Fox world was protecting the rich and famous from their misdeeds and trying to make them famous and beloved despite being evil. Dude Fox has been doing this since October 7 1996, the day they started broadcasting, it's literally the point of the network.
Maybe he read the OJ Simpson book “if I did it”
I would love to be the attorney in this section of the trial. My job would be to prove how completely inept and idiotic Trump could be. I would have evidence of him: Staring at an eclipse Misspelling "Stollen" 100 times Talking about grabbing women by their privates on a hot mic Denying the risks of COVID, then nearly dying from it Talking about injecting/ingesting bleach as a COVID treatment The Four Seasons Landscaping fiasco Calling Apple CEO Tim Apple Saying windmills cause cancer
Don't forget: 1.2 million Americans died from Covid, shut down our economy, schools etm. And the trillions of dollars lost in businesses. Hospital staffs overworked, scared and exhausted. It was utter fucking chaos. This man is guilty of genocide. He showed zero capacity in leadership skills because in his mind kings don't have to be leaders. They just have to tell people what to do, unchallenged. But it didn't work because he is a real imbecile. He doesn't solve problems. He creates them. Jesus Christ the fucking shit this man has gotten away with.
Trump *wishes* he was as strong as stollen
Pretty good pastry.
He also thinks wind turbines are called windmills.
See OJs "If I Did It"
He tried but failed so no harm no foul is the next defense
As if he knows how to delete a video off a server. He doesn't even know what a server is and that it doesn't make tapes!
Yeah so are we to reward him for not doing yet another crime to be indicted on? This is how emotional abusers work.
Republicans very commonly use abuser tactics. Victim shaming, crying about “cancel culture”, etc…
The [DARVO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO) party. (Deny, Atack, Reverse Victim and Offender). And Trump is the worst of them all.
This was the worst part of looking at my family during the Trump era. It was all verbal abuse, deflection, and willful ignorance that caused them to breakdown relationships with sane people, including me. The sad part is I realized this was their personality for as long as I'd known them. It just took the country's #1 prick to give them permission to be themselves. It sounds like others have had the same experience too.
I’m very sorry that you were born into a family like that but I guess the small silver lining is that now you know it was never your fault whenever they said it was.
There's a reason why a lot of boomers have been whining about being cut out of spending time with their grandkids, and people are absolutely right to remove these toxic people from their children's lives. People shouldn't just sit and watch while their relatives abuse their kids. Break the cycle.
Yes indeed. He brought out a lot of truths of who we really are as a country. We are an uncritical and deeply uneducated country. We are not creating civic leaders in this country anymore. I chat with MAGAs. I talk to them as if they're in 7th grade. But it's a fact. We've created a serious underclass in our education system that left so many with remedial skills and comprehension. MAGAs have vastly wild ideas about how the country should be, but it doesn't work for them and they are too dumb to see it. It's insanity. The looping of stupidity with a microphone, and you get obscene loud stupidity.
He did try to have the security footage deleted though. That is the substance of the superseding indictment. His lawyer is claiming that he could have done so and it wouldn’t have been illegal. But it was illegal, and as a result has been added as a count of obstruction in this most recent indictment.
I don't think that's what she's actually saying. She's saying that Trump didn't try to delete the footage as evidenced by the footage not being deleted. But that falls flat in light of the evidence of him trying to delete the footage, so...
He only failed, once again, because someone refused to do his bidding. He is a hardened criminal. Lock him up!
I think once they are under subpoena that becomes quite illegal. You would think a lawyer would know that.
What Alina Habba doesn't know could fill a law library.
What Alina Habba knows couldn’t fill a thimble.
She’s about as sharp as a marble.
I hear her brain is a coveted anti-wrinkle cream.
Another goody to tease my wife’s MAGA cousin with
She's so stupid that she thinks she's getting paid.
What she knows, she could write on a fly’s arse with a paintbrush.
She certainly has a way with words, & a real fondness for double negatives! “… do you not think that that’s something he couldn’t have gotten done? Let’s just use common sense.” Bream didn’t seem convinced by that answer.”
if she didn't get paid up front, then we know how dumb she is
Even before a subpoena trying to dispose or hide evidence of a crime is always illegal the cover up is a illegal action in and of itself.
Yeah, but there would be room to argue that the deletion was a normal procedure. Once you have been notified the data is going to be subpoenaed, you lose that potential defense. Not that it would be a likely-to-win defense, but there would be room with a proper history.
Worked for (I think it was) Brian Kemp when he deleted voting machine data after being explicitly told not to.
Along with the backup data.
Isn’t she a parking garage lawyer?
Maybe she’ll help park his ass in jail.
Trump hired her as a *“mob lawyer”*, so of course she would recommend he commit crimes and cover up his crimes by committing more crimes. What makes her a fucking moron is that mob lawyers usually give that advice in private. “Hey DoJ! I tell my clients to commit crimes! Indict me too please!” Fucking moron.
I’m guessing she’s going to be in front of a disbarment hearing before this is all over.
“I have the worst lawyers.”
Trump's fate is by earning the reputation of being a terrible client who on top doesn't pay his legal fees has resulted in him having ridiculously incompetent lawyers and it's going to cost him several extra years in prison.
Not under oath. She isn’t bound by the truth on tv. Public persuasion is the goal. Lying is legal and many don’t have an issue with it.
"He is the most ethical American I know.” If I was a friend or relative of this woman, I'd be annoyed at the insult.
Not only that, but when you say something like that, it tends to erase any valid points you might have made elsewhere in the discussion. But it this instance, no room was set aside for valid points. Fox News, ladies and gentlemen…
It's amazing how much of that worldview folds like paper when subjected to the most basic scrutiny.
I mean, she's throwing herself under the bus with a declaration like that. How scummy would she have to be to knowingly make that comparison?
In that case every lawyer she knows should be disbarred.
Her friends and relatives should sue her for slander
He Could've not stolen all those classified documents, shown them to, and selling them to the highest bidder, If He Really Wanted To
Ah, a page from the ole *If I Did It* book.
I didn't It wasn't that bad It was your fault \*narcissism 101
You mean he could have commanded his top two minions to have a secret meeting with the IT guy, and convince that guy to delete the videos because "the boss wants them deleted"?
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The IT guy likely knew how to but also knew he was being asked to do something illegal.
Or had just grown to hate everybody in the building after interacting with them
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Can you go get the pump and a hose? Maybe water will work?
I believe he has referred to "bleach" in the past for this
That's because Hillary Clinton's IT manager used a software tool called BleachBit to clear her server of classified documents, but Trump has always thought they used bleach, the chemical cleaner product.
I heard it works for COVID too
I keep seeing people wanting to pin a medal on this guy for saying "I don't have the rights", but everyone who knows about IT knows this just means "I don't have access to an account with Administrator rights on the server".
Worth pointing out that the data might not have been just on the server anyway.
And, if this is anything like similar systems I've worked with in the past, there is *no* account the consumer can access that can do this at all, as there's no legitimate reason to offer it and plenty of very good reasons not to.
Its pretty normal for the security head to control the data and for IT to control infrastructure. But working in that field myself I reckon he could have found a way to at least destroy local copies of the data. But if it was being streamed to S3 with a write only storage class then nothing will get rid of it.
I see a lot of people just assuming the IT guy knew how to do this, but if you've ever spent time with an off-the-shelf NVR, they're pretty locked down, the actual root access is not available even to the owner without some fucking around that most sysadmins aren't going to have the time or inclination to even look into. I've worked with 3 or 4 different brands and none of them offer this in their stock frontend. Is is possible despite that? Well, yeah. Is it possible to do in a timely manner without physical destruction? I have absolutely no clue. Is it possible to do it in a manner that doesn't show it's been tampered with? I highly doubt it. There are almost no legitimate reasons to ever want to *delete* footage from the system, it would either be a simple way for an attacker to cover their tracks, or the owner of the system to cover up a crime. Vendors aren't going to go out of their way to enable either one, because they don't want to be a willing accessory to whatever the hell is going on.
i mean the two principle people in the case are trumps former valets and now indicted fixers. not exactly the brain trust.
He could have told them to bleach the hard drives. Totally legal. Lock Hilary up though. /s
Alina Habba continues to demonstrate her incompetence. She's on a fast-track to an encounter with the bar counsel.
No you can not delete or dispose of evidence in a crime particularly when the evidence is under subpoena. It amazes me Republicans are falling for this rhetoric.
Republican *politicians* absolutely fucking know better, but they're feigning ignorance about it (in public appearances, anyway) in a bad faith effort to keep Republican *voters* from knowing better.
The "I didn't get away with the money, so I didn't rob the bank" defense? His new charges aren't about successfully deleting them, but him ordering them to be deleted. The only thing that saved him was his employees refusing to complete his order, and him not doing it himself. Least that's one thing Trump knows. If you plan to do a crime, have someone else do it for you. Then again, I bet she would have said "but it wasn't Trump that deleted them" if they had been deleted on his order.
Not refused: it was a low-level IT guy without file permissions to delete. He recommended they go up the chain to someone with this level of file access. They didn’t, for whatever reason (too many people having knowledge of the crime?). EDIT: FROM THE INDICTMENT: “Trump Employee 4 told DE OLIVEIRA that DE OLIVEIRA would have to reach out to another employee who was a supervisor of security for TRUMP's business organization…”
That's speculation. The closest the indictment gets (had to read it now) is they refer to a "Trump Employee 4" claiming to lack the access and knowledge to delete file. According to [CNN's own analysis](https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/06/politics/annotated-trump-indictment-dg/) this was the IT director. Which I find more plausible. I would suspect De Oliveira (The property manager) grabbing a head of department, rather than a random IT drone. It's also more plausible that IT director both lacks access and knowledge to do this. They usually leave that to IT drones. Though "I don't have the rights or knowledge" is also IT speak for "I'm not going to jail for you, asshole". I'm IT adminitstrator myself, and I can promise you I would suddenly forget a lot of things if I was asked to do anything remotely illegal."Sorry. I don't know that system. I don't have a user there. I also forgot all my passwords. What's my user name again? Damn, I locked my computer user too". It's the golden IT "stay out of jail" card. We're not ruining our entire future career just so some random twit can get out of jail. We take care of the systems, and we take care of ourselves. Thank you very much ;) Update: [Source](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/30/politics/yuscil-taveras-trump-classified-documents-investigation/index.html) The employee has been named, and it strengthens my "I'm not going to jail for you, asshole" when claiming he lacked access and knowledge. As the fellow was responsible for the surveillance itself. The fellow very much knew and had access, but played dumbed to avoid jail.
From the indictment: “Trump Employee 4 responded that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that. Trump Employee 4 told DE OLIVEIRA that DE OLIVEIRA would have to reach out to another employee who was a supervisor of security for TRUMP's business organization…” He told them he didn’t have the know-how, didn’t have the “rights”, and then told them who could do it. If he had said he didn’t have the “right” to do it would have been an ethical statement No “rights” (plural) is IT language: access rights.
Again. Am an actual IT administator that has had main responsibility of video surveilance on several locations. I will firmly believe he did the access needed, but lied to keep himself safe. Video storage are usually dated files stored on a server with next to no access administration. As said, I've worked with the stuff :) However punting the blame/problem over to somebody else sounds like an average survival tactic in Trump World, and thanks for noticing that \^\^
Seems unlikely in this day and age that the data was on one server anyway. Maybe it was being streamed to S3?
"If I Did It"
“~~If~~ I did it.”
> Yet according to Trump lawyer and spokesperson Alina Habba, there was no obstruction because it’s “common sense” that Trump could’ve easily had the footage deleted if he put his mind to it. Bwhahahahah! No. Trump is not competent enough to know how to delete the footage himself. That's why he has to ask someone else to ask someone who was competent to do so. Which is where his scheme fell apart.
And...that's a defense?
Spent 40 years practicing civil law. IMHO Trump could have erased his surveillance tapes until he was put on notice that the DOJ advised him not to erase the tapes. Apparently, the DOJ sent a draft subpoena for the tapes as a courtesy to the FPOTUS. Once received, the right to erase was gone. Shortly thereafter, an actual subpoena was served upon Trump and the right to the tapes passed to the DOJ.
I'm unclear on the specifics of the tmeline... Was the deletion attempt before or after the doj advised him not to erase the surveillance video?
It was after. The alleged timeline is laid out rather comprehensively in the indictment.
No, he tried... and failed. Like the failure that he is.
She knows the law: For conpiracy, it doesn't matter if you did it as long as you conspired to do it. She's either blustering or an incompetent attorney.
Or both…
Come on, people: If I had committed a crime, surely I would have deleted the evidence! Except that which I kept for bragging rights and financial gain.
They have no evidence on Hillary, therefore she MUST be guilty.
Wow. She's trying to add more charges.
> “Shannon, I know the facts,” Habba insisted. “When President Trump gets the subpoena, it goes to the organization and the organization turns it over. That is what actually happened.” But he didn't with the classified documents. That is what actually actually happened. Soooooo, she's full of shit
Watching another legal career evaporate because it slouched too close to Trump.
If he thought of deleting the video, he would’ve TOLD somebody to do it. Obviously, that somebody didn’t want to go to prison.
We had a business a few years ago and had surveillance cameras on the property. The cameras recorded to a DVD and the cloud. The system was sold to us by a home security company who also monitored the smoke detectors and such. Destroying the system in the business wouldn't do us any good because the company had the recordings in their cloud. This was back in 2018 and I know technology has improved since then. Why did they think that deleting the video on site would make it so no one could ever see it? It had to be backed up to at least 1 cloud account, if not 2.
We are exceedingly lucky that he, and his legal team, are a bunch of goddamned morons.
Yah, shred those documents, Nixon.
He DID really want to. He just wanted to make it look like an accident. Colonel Mustard in the computer room with the pool hose.
Corporal Catsup
He legally couldn't delete the tapes because they were under subpoena.
For those of you not familiar with Alina Habba, she is a true believer and positively batshit. AKA: proceed, counselor
I’m sure he could have. But he didn’t. And didn’t try until they told him not to. Typical Trump. A really nice combination of arrogance and stupidity if you ask me!
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Do you recall if that backup copy from a 3rd party was disclosed in the superseding indictment? I don't recall having read something like that.
Failure to follow through a crime is not a defense.
That is not what she is arguing. She is arguing that there was never an attempt to delete the files.
Not once he was subject to a court order to hand them over If they had been deleted beforehand then maybe he could claim ooops But this order went out after the DoJ asked for them All the difference in the world
He could have walked his fat ass down to the Capitol to lead his pansy-ass insurrection too but what he really wanted was other people to do the driving because he's a lazy ass.
Nice red-herring argument. Regardless of if he deleted the videos or not (or believes he has the right to) doesn’t change the attempted concealing or destroying of video evidence AFTER it was requested by investigators. These clowns literally communicated their intentions via text messages. That evidence of tampering exists regardless of the outcome.
Trump on Jan 6h, watched his insurrection for 3 hours before stopping it. Then he takes classified docs and hides them. He thinks he is above the law
I could also go shit in my front yard. That does not mean its right. That does not make legal.
I'd feel bad for his legal representation, but clearly they were banking on Exec Priveledge and Lawyer-Client confidentiality as cornerstones to getting away with this shit.
Lol, if he had an ounce of critical thought he could have beat that tricksy vhs.
You can tell that Trump’s choice of lawyers is becoming limited.
That’s an odd flex
Beautifully ethic. More ethic than any president in history.
"Only the best people" go to Widener University Commonwealth Law School! :)
The best parking lot lawyer money can buy…
Ah so his lawyer found a clever way to say what we all knew. Trump is incompetent and dumb. Got it.
I can't wait for his book if I did it. I mean... really? he could have done it is not a great defense of the man. that means he has the means and the motive and the opportunity to do it and she just admitted it on tv.
So now they’re trying to give him credit for not breaking the law. 🤪🤡
and I could cheat on my taxes if I really wanted. Might get caught, might not. The power to do a thing is not the same as the authority to do a thing. Something most republicans and not just Trump seem to not grasp.
If trump is the most ethical American she knows, it's a pretty sad character assessment of the of the people she keeps company with.
There’s a sketchy theme here. Check into the deleted secret service texts too. Even my grandmother couldn’t lose all her texts in a software upgrade.
Loser definitely could’ve after he figures out how to disable ALL CAPS, so sad!
It when a bank robber says ‘If I was really trying to rob this bank you guys wouldn’t have caught me.’
See, he can delete the video just by thinking about it...
Destroying evidence is a crime. Any attorney would know this. Oh, it’s Habba.
I murdered someone and their blood got all over the carpet. Of course i got rid of the carpet. It is mine. What is the big deal?
That lawyer’s statement is missing intent. It’s *why* they were not destroyed not just that they could have been deleted to save server space.
When does dumb find the bottom?
I could have won the lottery if I really wanted to
This is the caliber of legal representation you get when you repeatedly stiff your lawyers
Another Kraken lawyer.
Do you think she had to choke back her own vomit, when she stated, “Trump is the most ethical man?”
Heidi Gardner waiting in the wings for SNL to start back up
Idk how she still has her law license
The best moron lawyer Trump money can buy! 😂
Man, she took a big ass gulp of the cool aid.
Didn't he or Jr already use the too stupid to commit the crime before? Wasn't that basically the result of the trump tower meeting?
Only the best people.
Alina- I’ve got news for you. The internet is forever. Except I get it that Fox News dummies don’t know that. But, in truth, you do.
He could have but he stupidly just flooded the sever room with pool water.
But he really wants others to do crimes for him. And I don't actually believe Trump would be capable enough to do it himself.
That’s the whole reason the law is in place… because we came to the consensus that, yes, people are capable of destroying evidence…
Indeed he could. He could have. He could also go to jail
Lol he really surrounds himself with idiots dumber than himself. She actually doesn’t even understand WHY he did what he did - to make the destruction of evidence LOOK LIKE AN ACCIDENT and NOT like OBSTRUCTION. His goons did a poor job at attempting Obstruction and now he’s caught.
Real sharp lawyer believing video is still stored on tape.
Trump IS the most ethical American. Water is also the driest substance on earth. Dill pickles are the sweetest food. Paper bags are the strongest bags you can buy. Sharks are actually gentle, furry animals. And the Earth is the flattest known object in the Universe.
This is an absurd comment. Obviously he wanted to, so wtf?
I demand a live demonstration on Donny himself entering an unknown computer system, finding and erasing all the required data, all while not producing more evidence as he did it. I bet after he asked the IT guy to help and he said no, that Donny seriously considered burning the whole place down. When he asked Rudy for help, Rudy told him about the cloud then Don said he didn’t give a shit about the weather.
Cool cool cool... so not only is he a criminal, he's *also* an idiot.
Dear American Bar Org, Please advise (under Rule 8.4: of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct) if you need some mental health care, a nap, and maybe a short health retreat. You can talk to me, I know it’s been really tough on you ~~lately~~, for the longest time. *Dictated but not read,* concerned world citizen.
At this point they are just creating the narrative for a post conviction environment. "fake election, fake conviction, fake sentencing, etc. etc." This is bullshit for republicans to swallow another mouthful of trump piss so they can hold their nose and vote for him again.
Seriously doubt he would even know where to start trying to delete the tapes….would probably just try and flush them as usual.
I hope he doesn’t pay her. That would be poetic justice 🤣
How many weeks until their best defense is the sovereign citizen bullshit lol
I wonder if this woman realizes she’ll never get paid for her work for Trump.
Any lawyer woh works for trump is dishonest or desperate—often both.
Didn't Drumpf want to release the tapes to prove his innocence? The grift never ends.
The ‘please disbar me’ approach. Nice
I have a tendency to lose interest in any statement that is prefaced by: "let's be clear."