Joe Rogan says ‘morons’ had a ‘king’ in Donald Trump
Donald Trump has had a busy Saturday venting on Truth Social grievances relating to his treatment since a large trove of classified material was recovered from Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach home, in the summer.
The former president’s ire on the matter has been reignited following the discovery of a small number of classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president at his home and an office he once used.
Mr Trump is especially vexed by his perception of the differences in the respective special counsels that Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed to investigate the separate matters.
Robert Hur, whom Mr Trump calls a “nice guy” friendly to Democrats, will oversee an investigation into Mr Biden’s case, while Jack Smith, whom he characterises as a “Radical Left Trump HATING Lunatic”, will look into his alleged transgressions.
Meanwhile, a judge has unsealed portions of a transcript from Mr Trump’s deposition stemming from E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against him.
In his testimony, he repeatedly denied allegations against him and claimed to not know the woman who accused him of raping her in the 1990s, calling her a “wack job” while threatening to sue her and her attorneys.
Trump boasted about Truth Social in rape case deposition
The one-term president boasted about the number of users on his “hot” social media site he set up after being kicked off Twitter and Facebook in the newly unsealed deposition.
Graeme Massie has the story.
Oliver O’Connell15 January 2023 01:15
Judge rejects Trump’s ‘absurd’ bid to throw out E Jean Carroll rape lawsuit
A judge has thrown out an attempt by Donald Trump to have a sexual assault lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll dismissed.
Ms Carroll accused the former president in 2019 of raping her in a department store in New York in the mid-1990s. She filed a lawsuit last year after New York enacted the Adult Survivors Act (ASA), which allows victims of sexual assault to sue for decades-old offences.
Mr Trump had asked for the sexual assault lawsuit accusing him of battery and defamation to be dismissed, claiming he had been denied due process.
On Friday, Judge Lewis Kaplan said in a decision denying the motion that Mr Trump’s argument was “absurd”.
Bevan Hurley filed this report.
Oliver O’Connell15 January 2023 00:15
For better or worse, Buttigieg find himself in the spotlight
The nation’s transportation secretary usually holds one of the most public-facing roles in any presidential administration. A core aspect of the Cabinet job is to travel the country, doling out millions of public dollars and attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new bridges and overpasses and ports.
Even by those standards, Pete Buttigieg has spent an inordinate amount of time in the national spotlight delivering the largesse of the big infrastructure and domestic spending bills. But at the same time, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and onetime mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also has been the public face of a string of transportation-related crises, all amid steady speculation about his future political prospects.
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 23:15
Analysis: It’s Trump not Biden under more threat from new special counsel probe
The appointment of a new special counsel to investigate Joe Biden is actually bad news for Donald Trump, Justice Department veterans tell Andrew Feinberg.
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 22:15
Trump reposts creepy image of Adam Schiff on Truth Social
Creepy stuff over on the former president’s Truth Social account.
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 22:06
Analysis: Why Republicans aren’t all reacting the way you think to Biden’s classified documents
The Independent’s Eric Garcia writes:
When news broke this week that classified documents were discovered in president Joe Biden’s former office, dating from his time as vice president in the Obama administration, it seemed as though Republicans were given a late Christmas present.
They had, after all, spent months on the defensive on behalf of Donald Trump, who was found with hundreds of classified documents of his own from his time as president.
But the new House Republican majority is split on how to respond to the issue after Mr Biden’s personal lawyers announced they had discovered more classified documents in the garage of his home in Delaware.
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 21:40
Explained: How more classified documents were found at Biden home
The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg explains the circumstances that led to the discovery of more classified documents at President Joe Biden’s home.
A lawyer who lacks a valid security clearance was looking through a box at @JoeBiden’s home when he discovered a paper with classification markings.
It is illegal for the lawyer to view such papers, so he stopped his search rather than keep looking to see if there were *more* documents that would’ve been a crime for him to look at. Instead, he called someone who is permitted to look at such things without risking prison time. That person finished the job and found five more pages, allowing the search to be finished without anyone committing a felony.
Generally, lawyers prefer to get through their day without doing crimes, which is why (per @jdawsey1 / @JaxAlemany) even a Trump lawyer, Alex Cannon, told Trump aides not to go through the boxes stashed at Mar-a-Lago because they might contain classified documents that would have exposed the viewer to criminal jeopardy. So Bauer (Biden lawyer) and Cannon (Trump lawyer) both understood the importance of not looking at stuff they’re not cleared to look at and acted accordingly.
Here’s Andrew’s full report:
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 21:20
Nevertheless, Trump angered by special counsel selection
Saturday is for complaining about legal woes for one former president…
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 21:00
ICYMI: DoJ enters political fray with two special counsels
In naming a special counsel to investigate the presence of classified documents at President Joe Biden‘s Delaware home and former office, Attorney General Merrick Garland described the appointment as underscoring the Justice Department‘s commitment to independence and accountability in particularly sensitive investigations.
If those words sounded familiar, they should.
Garland used identical phrasing in November in appointing a different special counsel for a different politically explosive investigation into different classified documents for a different political figure — this one, into the retention of top-secret records at former President Donald Trump‘s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 20:30
Don Jr mocks paying taxes after tax fraud fine
The former president’s oldest son appeared to mock the idea of paying taxes in a meme on his Instagram page after his father’s eponymous company was fined $1.6m following a conviction stemming from a years-long tax avoidance scheme.
Alex Woodward has the story.
Oliver O’Connell14 January 2023 20:00