Critics attacked former President Donald Trump when they noticed that former First Lady Melania Trump was missing from the family Christmas photo — but Trump <a href="https://pagesix.com/2024/01/01/celebrity-news/donald-trump-confirms-melanias-mother-amalija-is-very-ill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed the reason</a> for her absence during his New Year&#8217;s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago.
Taking the microphone and addressing party-goers, Trump announced that he had just gotten off the phone with Melania — who was at a Miami hospital with her mother, Amalija Knavs.
WATCH:
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President Trump at Mar-a-Lago on New Year&#39;s Eve 2023! <a href="https://t.co/YmUSIJ8QHI">pic.twitter.com/YmUSIJ8QHI</a>
&mdash; Shannon Ford (@shannonfordUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/shannonfordUSA/status/1741654612422295889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Her mother Amalija is very ill. Hopefully she’ll be recovering, but she&#8217;s been very ill, so &#8230; we just spoke, she&#8217;s down in Miami, a great hospital,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Hopefully, that’ll be okay, but it’s a tough one, a very tough one.&#8221;
&#8220;She sends her love to everybody,&#8221; Trump continued, adding, &#8220;She knows probably about 95 percent of the people in this room. We just want to wish Amalija that she gets better as quickly as possible.&#8221;
The former First Lady has reportedly been at her mother&#8217;s side since before Christmas, which was why she did not appear in the family photo. A source close to Melania Trump told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/melania-trump-spends-christmas-ailing-mother?intcmp=tw_pols" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News Digital</a> that the former First Lady had always been very close with her family, adding, &#8220;It should be no surprise that she spent this Christmas with her ailing mother.&#8221;
But that did not stop critics and media outlets from speculating about all the possible reasons — up to and including claims that she couldn&#8217;t no longer stand her own husband — that she might have missed the moment.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Melania mystery: Why was the former first lady missing from family Christmas photo? <a href="https://t.co/Dwosw6BnTW">https://t.co/Dwosw6BnTW</a>
&mdash; Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) <a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiHerald/status/1741731090044260507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Trump Family Christmas photo. Melania wants nothing to do with her lowlife husband anymore. <a href="https://t.co/WjDZbeNJgl">pic.twitter.com/WjDZbeNJgl</a>
&mdash; Reno Ciccotta (@RenoCiccotta) <a href="https://twitter.com/RenoCiccotta/status/1739992990469304626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
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One even suggested that Trump&#8217;s daughter Ivanka Trump — who appeared in the photo with her husband Jared Kushner and their children — was &#8220;standing in as the former First Lady.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Trump family Christmas portrait featuring Ivanka standing in as the former first lady. 
Where is Melania? <a href="https://t.co/T2OnZyPWWq">pic.twitter.com/T2OnZyPWWq</a>
&mdash; BlueDream (@58bugeye) <a href="https://twitter.com/58bugeye/status/1740017225963376906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Trump did not reveal the nature of his mother-in-law&#8217;s illness, nor did he give any indication of her prognosis.

Celebrity Sightings In New York City – July 20, 2022

Critics Slammed Trump After Melania Missed Christmas Photo — He Just Confirmed The Reason Why

Donald Trump

Mar-a-Lago

Melania Trump

New Year's

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan demanded on Tuesday that the Biden Administration disclose details about its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-counsels-office-met-with-top-aide-for-jack-smith-fbi-agent-weeks-before-trump-indictment-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> with Special Counsel Jack Smith&#8217;s office and an FBI agent two months before Smith indicted former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case.
&#8220;This new information raises serious concerns regarding the potential for a coordinated effort between the Department and the White House to investigate and prosecute President Biden&#8217;s political opponents,&#8221; Jordan wrote in a duplicated <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-08-29-jdj-to-zients-re-bratt-wh-meetings.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
Smith indicted Trump on June 8 in the classified documents case that the Justice Department had appointed him to oversee as special counsel. The visitor logs don&#8217;t provide details about the meeting between Smith&#8217;s aide, the White House counsel&#8217;s office, and the FBI. Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 counts relating to his handling of classified documents seized during the FBI raid of Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 8, 2022.
Smith&#8217;s top aide, Jay Bratt, met with Caroline Seba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel&#8217;s office, on March 31, according to White House visitor logs — as first reported by The New York Post. Danielle Ray, an FBI agent in the Washington, D.C., field office, also joined Bratt and Seba at the meeting.
A spokesman for the special counsel told the Post that Bratt was at the White House for a &#8220;case-related interview,&#8221; and the FBI declined to comment on the meeting.
Bratt also reportedly met with an advisor to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain in September 2021 and a second time two months later with other Biden officials related to &#8220;national security,&#8221; according to Jordan&#8217;s letter.
Jordan requested federal authorities disclose all relevant documents on Bratt&#8217;s three known meetings or other visits to the White House or the Executive Office of the President&#8221; and those &#8220;between the Executive Office of the President and the Department of Justice referring or relating to the investigation and/or prosecutions of Special Counsel Jack Smith.&#8221;
Two months before the August FBI raid on Trump&#8217;s Florida compound, Bratt reportedly visited and interacted with the former president.
According to The Washington Post, Bratt then pushed for a warrant for the unannounced raid on Trump&#8217;s property. Bratt&#8217;s temper flared during the meeting when he told FBI agents they could no longer trust the former president or his lawyers.
Bratt allegedly also &#8220;improperly pressured&#8221; a lawyer representing a Trump employee &#8220;to induce the lawyer’s client to cooperate with the Department’s prosecution&#8221; of the former president, according to the letter.
The letter claims Bratt told the lawyer believed the lawyer &#8220;would do the right thing&#8221; because he wasn&#8217;t a &#8220;Trump guy&#8221; and appeared to bribe him by saying his application for a D.C. judgeship would be received more favorably if he cooperated with the prosecution.
&#8220;These facts reinforce the serious concern that Mr. Smith is not running an impartial and unprejudiced investigation and prosecution,&#8221; Jordan&#8217;s letter reads.
Smith also indicted Trump on additional felony charges for his alleged role in seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, pointing to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot as an &#8220;unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.&#8221; Smith was appointed special counsel in both the classified documents case and the 2020 election case by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Zach Jewell contributed to this report.

House Judiciary Committee On Oversight Of Department Of Homeland Security

Jordan Demands Details On WH Counsel’s Meeting With Jack Smith Aide, FBI Agent Ahead Of Trump Indictment

House Republicans

Jack Smith

Jim Jordan

Merrick Garland

Former President Trump is facing some additional legal challenges, according to new filings from special counsel Jack Smith. One of Trump’s employees at Mar-a-Lago has now flipped and apparently is testifying against the former president.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-employee-at-mar-a-lago-retracts-false-testimony-implicates-trump-court-docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>:
<blockquote>The employee — identified in court documents as “Trump Employee 4” — quickly changed his grand jury testimony after a meeting with a lawyer from the federal defender’s office in Washington, D.C., in which he decided that he no longer wanted to be represented by a lawyer paid for by Trump’s political action committee and who was recommended to him by Trump’s lawyer.
The revelation was made in a court filing from Smith’s team in response to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge overseeing the case, who demanded to know why prosecutors continued to collect grand jury evidence in Washington, D.C., for the case in Florida. Smith also notified Cannon that the grand jury in Washington, D.C., finished its work last week.
“During these investigations, the Government gathered evidence that Trump employee Carlos De Oliveira tried to enlist the director of information technology for Mar-a-Lago (identified in the superseding indictment as Trump Employee 4) to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage after the grand jury in the District of Columbia had issued a subpoena for the footage,” the court filing said.
The U.S. government approached Stanley Woodward, the lawyer representing Trump Employee 4, to notify him that he had a potential conflict by representing him and Walt Nauta, the Trump aide accused of conspiring with Trump to obstruct the grand jury investigation into Trump’s handling of classified material.
“Mr. Woodward responded that he did not have a reason to believe that his concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta raised a conflict of interest,” the filing said. “When Trump Employee 4 testified before the grand jury in the District of Columbia in March 2023, he repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago. In testimony before the same grand jury, De Oliveira likewise denied any contact with Trump Employee 4 regarding security footage.</blockquote>
Apparently, the government evidence indicated that this testimony was false. Prosecutors informed the Trump employee he was the target of the grand jury investigation, and he seemingly didn’t want to go to jail. So now, he is flipping lawyers and plans to testify that people were destroying the security footage at Trump’s direction. 
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team is experiencing a number of setbacks. David Shafer, former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and one of the 19 defendants in the Georgia election interference case, is now claiming in court filings he and other Republican electors who tried to certify Trump as the winner in Georgia were acting directly at Trump’s behest.
This may signal that more people who are in Trump’s orbit are ready to flip on him legally to avoid jail time themselves, which is one of the things that comes into play when Trump does not pay your legal bills. 
That is a major danger for the former president. 
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Ben Shapiro 2 (1)

Former Trump Employee Flips On Him. There’s Real Danger For Trump Here.

Ben Shapiro

Georgia

Indictment

Readers Pass

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mar-a-lago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mar-a-Lago</a> property manager Carlos De Oliveira pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal charges related to the prosecution of former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. 
De Oliveira <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-personal-aide-plead-not-guilty-to-new-charges-in-us-documents-superseding-indictment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was named</a> a co-defendant in the classified documents case for allegedly hiding security camera footage from federal investigators. He is also accused of helping Trump aide Walt Nauta move boxes of classified material around Mar-a-Lago after the Department of Justice issued a subpoena seeking the materials.
The property manager is <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carlos-de-oliveira-mar-a-lago-property-manager-classified-documents-case-fort-pierce-court/#textHe20faces20one20count20ofand20representations20during20a20voluntary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged</a> with allegedly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object; conspiracy to obstruct justice; and making false statements and representations during a voluntary interview with federal investigators, according to CBS News. 
De Oliveira, represented by Donald Murrell, pleaded not guilty to the charges before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard.
The charges follow an investigation from special counsel Jack Smith who was tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland to look into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. 
The property manager is accused of asking another Mar-a-Lago employee to delete “the server” at the property to get rid of security footage. 
Last week, both Trump and Nauta pleaded not guilty to new federal charges in the classified documents superseding the indictment brought by Smith. Trump faces 40 criminal charges in the case, including possession at Mar-a-Lago of information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries and U.S. nuclear programs. 
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Trump has denied all wrongdoing and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/department-of-injustice-trump-takes-aim-at-biden-doj-in-first-post-indictment-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the prosecution is politically motivated. 
“The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” the former president said in his first speech after the document indictment against him was announced. “Many people have said that; Democrats have even said it. This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice.”
President Joe Biden is also being investigated over alleged mishandling of classified documents, including the storage of classified documents at a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and the garage of his Delaware home. 
No charges or conclusions have yet been made on the investigation by special counsel Robert Hur into the Biden document investigation.

Mar-A-Lago Worker Goes To Court As More Charges Are Filed In Trump Documents Case

Mar-a-Lago Property Manager Pleads Not Guilty In Trump Documents Case

classified documents

Courts

Department of Justice

Joe Biden

Politics

Former President Donald Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago golf club property manager appeared in a federal court in Florida on Monday for the first time after the Justice Department named him in an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/third-person-criminally-charged-in-trump-mar-a-lago-documents-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation</a> of Trump&#8217;s handling of classified documents.
The case against Trump added Carlos De Oliveira as a co-defendant for allegedly hiding security camera footage from federal investigators. He is also accused of helping Trump aide Walt Nauta move boxes of classified material around Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago property after the Department of Justice issued a subpoena seeking the materials.
De Oliveira is facing several charges related to the Trump classified documents case, including conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record or other object; and false statements and representations, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carlos-de-oliveira-mar-a-lago-documents-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS</a>.
&#8220;The Justice Department has unfortunately decided to bring these charges,&#8221; Attorney John Irving said, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/31/politics/carlos-de-oliveira-court-appearance-classified-documents-case/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. &#8220;Now it&#8217;s time for them to put their money where their mouth is.&#8221;
Prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith&#8217;s office filed the charges in a superseding indictment last week, which could carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted, Just the News <a href="https://justthenews.com/videos/mar-lago-employee-charged-trump-classified-documents-case-makes-first-court-appearance?utm_source=mux&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=tw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
According to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/carlos-de-oliveira-trump-classified-documents-maralago-f7e6879fe80e96a321b46279b150bdf9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Associated Press,</a> De Oliveira did not enter a plea on the four criminal charges he faces because he has not yet found a Florida-based attorney who could represent him.
A judge ordered him to turn over his passport to the court and sign an agreement saying he could not leave Florida without prior authorization and would face a $100,000 fine if he failed to appear in court.
Although De Oliveira heard the charges and received pre-trial orders, POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/31/carlos-de0oliveira-first-court-appearance-classified-documents-00108985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> the court could not fully arraign him after being unable to find legal legal representation authorized to practice in the South Florida district.
His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 10 in Fort Pierce.
Prosecutors had been reportedly investigating De Oliveira for months over his communications with Mar-a-Lago IT expert Yuscil Taveras, who oversaw the surveillance camera footage at the property.
The indictment laid out the following interaction between De Oliveira and Taveras, who is only identified as &#8220;Employee 4,&#8221; on June 27, 2022, saying that &#8220;the boss&#8221; wanted the server deleted after Trump&#8217;s team had already received a subpoena for the surveillance footage.
Trump, co-defendant Walt Nauta, and De Oliveira were all charged in the new superseding indictment in connection with an alleged attempt to delete surveillance footage at the property. Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the charges in the case.
Steve Cheung, spokesman for the Trump campaign, reportedly said the superseding indictment filed last week is &#8220;nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.&#8221;
Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.

Mar-a-Lago Employee Charged In Trump’s Classified Documents Superseding Indictment Makes First Appearance In Court

Mar-a-Lago Employee Charged In Trump's Classified Documents Superseding Indictment Makes First Appearance In Court 

The classified documents charges against Donald Trump warrant two questions. The first: Should he be prosecuted? The second: Did he violate the actual law?
Let’s answer the second question first, based on the allegations presented by the indictment: If Jack Smith has the evidence to back those allegations (and he appears to), then yes, Trump violated the law.
The current version of the indictment, again, points out the tape of Trump informing people with no security clearance that he is showing them classified documents — and that he could have declassified them if he had chosen to do so, but that he didn’t. Trump claimed for a few weeks that the actual document he showed them wasn’t classified, but Jack Smith now alleges they were in fact classified documents. If proved by witness testimony, Trump’s defense on that score implodes.
The current version of the indictment also alleges that another Trump aide, a maintenance person at Mar-a-Lago, worked to destroy evidence of Trump’s people moving around classified documents. It also alleges Trump ordered the security tapes be wiped. This looks like it fulfills the legal elements of obstruction, which is Smith’s accusation.
Now to the first question: Should Trump be prosecuted? The answer is, no. He shouldn’t be prosecuted. Hillary Clinton was let off the hook in 2016 for precisely the same crimes of which Trump is now accused, down to the wiping of the servers and the exposing of classified information to those without classification status. 
Remember when Clinton directed her immigrant maid to print out classified information — and even enter a SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) to pick up classified faxes, including the <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/11/06/clinton-directed-her-maid-to-print-out-classified-materials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Presidential Daily Brief</a>? Remember when <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/03/fbi-report-platte-river-network-employee-bleachbit-delete-clinton-e-mails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clinton’s tech firm used BleachBit</a> to wipe away her private server’s classified emails — and then she joked about it, asking whether the server had been wiped “like with a cloth”?
Yet Clinton wasn’t prosecuted. Why? Because, as then-FBI Director James Comey said, despite the likelihood that foreign actors may have gained access to classified materials, Clinton didn’t have intent to distribute classified materials to foreign actors. Comey rewrote the law to avoid charging her because she was a presidential candidate. 
Now, the DOJ is hitting Trump with the book. 
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1776-more-trump-charges-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Everyone can see the legal double standard here. It’s perfectly obvious. And the double system of justice is far more of a threat to the country than Trump’s mishandling of classified information — which was not based on any nefarious security threat, but rather on Trump’s tendency to hoard materials he personally likes. 
If half the country rightly believes when Republicans commit crimes, they go to jail, but when Democrats commit crimes, they get sweetheart plea deals, the credibility of the entire justice system collapses.
New charges were dropped on Trump the day after Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal was blown up by a judge — humiliating the DOJ in the process. The irony is not lost on anyone.
So no, Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted. His handling of classified materials was likely illegal and certainly foolish. But that foolishness isn’t anywhere close to the level of national security threat of Hunter Biden picking up bags of cash in Ukraine while his daddy presides over Ukrainian foreign policy — and Hunter calls in daddy as a shadowy enforcer.
And everyone knows it.
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BSS ME

New Charges Against Trump Added. Should He Be Prosecuted?

Hillary Clinton

James Comey

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday denied allegations that he deleted Mar-a-Lago security footage after FBI and DOJ investigators collected documents from his Florida home in June 2022.
Last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-first-rally-since-being-hit-with-expanded-charges-trump-calls-on-gop-challengers-to-drop-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unveiled a superseding indictment</a> against Trump, adding charges of willful retention of national defense information and obstruction. Prosecutors accused Trump and aides of asking an employee of Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to delete security camera footage so evidence could not be provided to a federal grand jury.
Trump categorically denied the accusations and insisted his team handed the tapes to the DOJ.
&#8220;Mar-a-Lago security tapes were not deleted,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110802995966716632" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on TRUTH Social. &#8220;They were voluntarily handed over to the thugs, headed up by deranged Jack Smith. We did not even go to court to stop them from getting these tapes. I never told anybody to delete them. Prosecutorial fiction &amp; misconduct! Election interference!&#8221;
In a follow-up <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110803050765013405" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a>, the former president compared the latest accusation to the &#8220;Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX.&#8221;
&#8220;They knowingly accuse you of a fake crime, a crime that they actually make up, you fight these false charges hard, and they try and get you on &#8220;obstruction.&#8221; We are dealing with sick and evil people!&#8221; he added.
DOJ prosecutors claim in the latest court filings <a href="https://www.ntd.com/trump-mar-a-lago-tapes-were-not-deleted_933822.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Epoch Times that Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Olivera told another employee that &#8220;the boss&#8221; wanted a server &#8220;deleted&#8221; on June 27, 2022 — about two months before FBI agents raided Trump&#8217;s home where they allegedly discovered documents in a storage area.
Trump&#8217;s attorney Alina Habba reiterated her client&#8217;s dismissal of the claims during an interview with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-mar-a-lago-security-tapes-not-deleted-accuses-special-counsel-prosecutorial-fiction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a> on Sunday.
&#8220;What was the obstruction of justice? Because no tapes were deleted,&#8221; Habba said. &#8220;He turned them over. He cooperated as he always does. But they would like the American public to believe in these bogus indictments.&#8221;
&#8220;When he has his turn in court, and when we get to file our papers, you will see that every single video, every single surveillance tape that was requested, was turned over,&#8221; she added. &#8220;If President Trump didn&#8217;t want something turned over, I assure you, that is something that could have been done. But he never would act like that. He is the most ethical American I know.&#8221;
In a third Truth Social post from Trump, the former president said the Justice Department allegedly admitted that the tapes were not deleted.
&#8220;The Crooked Election Interference &#8216;Thugs&#8217; from the DOJ, headed by the worst Thug of them all, Deranged Jack Smith, are now admitting that the Mar-a-Lago Security Tapes were NOT DELETED,&#8221; he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110803827916390609" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s not what they were illegally leaking to the press. These guys should be prosecuted for MISCONDUCT. Also, whatever happened to Crooked Joe&#8217;s Documents? Where are the ones he sent and stored in Chinatown? Is Deranged Jack going to Indict him for this and, at the same time, receiving BRIBES FROM CHINA?&#8221;
Trump, who pleaded not guilty to the 37 federal counts he previously faced in the documents case, contended that the charges are a continuation of a &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; against him and his supporters.
The legal jeopardy Trump faces extends beyond the documents case. He may also face charges stemming from Smith&#8217;s inquiry into efforts geared toward fighting the outcome of the 2020 election. Trump also faces state-level charges in the New York hush-money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Charges in a 2020 election-focused inquiry in Georgia could also follow.
The former president and current Republican frontrunner for the 2024 election is scheduled to go to trial for the classified documents case in May.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

Donald Trump Holds A Campaign Rally In Erie, Pennsylvania

Trump Dismisses Allegations From ‘Deranged’ Special Counsel That He Deleted Mar-a-Lago Security Tapes

Trump Dismisses Allegations From 'Deranged' Special Counsel That He Deleted Mar-a-Lago Security Tapes

Biden Administration

Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> with additional criminal counts in his investigation into Trump&#8217;s handling of classified U.S. material after leaving office.
The former president was charged with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts stemming from alleged attempts to delete surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago after investigators had delivered a subpoena to Trump seeking the materials that he had in his possession.
One of the key revelations in the new superseding is that prosecutors now have in their possession the document that Trump showed to a writer and a publisher during a recorded interview in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster.
After he was first indicted in the case, Trump claimed in media interviews that he was not holding up any documents and that it was a case of him displaying too much &#8220;bravado.&#8221;
“I would say it was bravado; if you want to know the truth, it was bravado,” Trump <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4071294-trump-says-he-wasnt-holding-classified-documents-mentioned-in-tape-i-would-say-it-was-bravado/">said</a>. “I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn’t have any documents.”
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However, the new superseding indictment makes clear that prosecutors are now in possession of the document.
&#8220;The document that TRUMP possessed and showed on July 21, 2021, is charged as Count 32 in this Superseding Indictment,&#8221; the indictment says.
Prosecutors said that on June 3, 2022, when FBI agents were at Mar-a-Lago collecting classified documents, they noticed that there were surveillance cameras near the storage room.
A few weeks later, the DOJ contacted Trump&#8217;s team and notified them that they needed the video footage from those cameras.
Trump, co-defendant Walt Nauta, and newly added co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker, were all charged in connection with an alleged attempt to delete surveillance footage at the property.
Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira &#8220;did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and with others known and unknown to the grand jury, to engage in misleading conduct toward another person and corruptly persuade another person to withhold a record, document, and other object from an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(A); to corruptly persuade another person, with intent to cause and induce any person to alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal an object with intent to impair the object&#8217;s integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(8); and to corruptly alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal a record, document, and other object from an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(l),&#8221; the indictment said.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

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Trump Charged With 3 More Crimes In Classified Documents Case

Crime

U.S.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged a third defendant in the criminal case against former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> over his handling of sensitive U.S. government records after he left the White House.
Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker, is accused of helping Trump aide Walt Nauta move boxes of classified material around Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago property after the Department of Justice issued a subpoena seeking the materials.
Trump, co-defendant Walt Nauta, and De Oliveira were all charged in the new superseding indictment in connection with an alleged attempt to delete surveillance footage at the property.
Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira &#8220;did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and with others known and unknown to the grand jury, to engage in misleading conduct toward another person and corruptly persuade another person to withhold a record, document, and other object from an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(A); to corruptly persuade another person, with intent to cause and induce any person to alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal an object with intent to impair the object&#8217;s integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(8); and to corruptly alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal a record, document, and other object from an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(l),&#8221; the indictment said.
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The New York Times reported that prosecutors had been investigating De Oliveira for months over his communications with Mar-a-Lago IT expert, Yuscil Taveras, who the Times says oversaw the surveillance camera footage at the property.
The indictment laid out the following interaction that De Oliveira had with Taveras, who is only identified as &#8220;Employee 4,&#8221; on June 27, 2022, after Trump&#8217;s team had already received a subpoena for the surveillance footage:
<blockquote>DE OLIVEIRA told Trump Employee 4 that &#8220;the boss&#8221; wanted the server deleted. 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&#8217;s business organization. DE OLIVEIRA then insisted to TRUMP Employee 4 that &#8220;the boss&#8221; wanted the server deleted and asked, &#8220;what are we going to do?&#8221;</blockquote>
A couple of weeks after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors said that Trump employees had signaled that De Oliveira was &#8220;loyal&#8221; and Trump later called him and told him that he would provide him an attorney.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

Third Person Criminally Charged In Trump Mar-A-Lago Documents Case

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy disputed claims on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump was allowed to retain the sensitive documents that were recovered from his home because of the Presidential Records Act.
Appearing on Fox News while Trump was being arraigned in a Miami courthouse, McCarthy, who is a staunch conservative, pushed back on claims that the classified material that Trump is accused of improperly retaining were his &#8220;personal records.&#8221;
&#8220;As far as the Presidential Records Act is concerned, I must say, I&#8217;m tempted to say that the argument is frivolous,&#8221; he said. &#8220;What President Trump is accused of hoarding down at Mar-a-Lago is not presidential records. These are agency reports. Their agency reports are not what the Presidential Records Act is directed at, it&#8217;s not even clear that they would count as presidential records.&#8221;
&#8220;But in terms of what he&#8217;s allowed to keep as personal records, there&#8217;s not a conceivable contention that the information that was down there is covered because what personal records under the Act are is things in the nature of diaries and journals and the like,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;This doesn&#8217;t come close to that, this is agency reporting. And on the Espionage Act, you know, the word &#8216;espionage&#8217; doesn&#8217;t appear in any of the codified provision of the crimes that went into federal law as a result of the Espionage Act.&#8221;
McCarthy said that there are &#8220;various prongs&#8221; in the Espionage Act and that the one prosecutors charged Trump with has nothing to do with spying. It pertains to &#8220;government officials, who are trusted with national security information, who hold it in unauthorized circumstances, that is in a place where it doesn&#8217;t belong, and who willfully retain it when there was a demand made by the government&#8221; to return it because they are not legally allowed to have it.
&#8220;So what President Trump is accused of is that part of the Espionage Act,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s irrelevant whether there was an intent to harm the United States or not. That&#8217;s not a defense to this charge. What the charge is, is he was unauthorized to have it, he willfully retained it. They demanded to have it back and he refused. That&#8217;s the crime.&#8221;
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who is right-wing and has defended Trump in the past, explains why claims from Trump’s allies that Trump should not be prosecuted because of the Presidential Records Act are not legitimate. <a href="https://t.co/jNoYJnZXaN">pic.twitter.com/jNoYJnZXaN</a>
&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1668691163505885185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Former President Trump Is Arraigned On Federal Espionage Charges

Ex-U.S. Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy Explains Why Trump’s Presidential Records Act Defense May Not Work

Florida

Media

House Judiciary Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH) revealed new information on the events leading up to the raid of former President Donald Trump&#8217;s Florida home in a Friday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. 
Jordan sent a <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-06-09-jdj-to-garland-re-mal.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Garland stating that the House Judiciary Committee was concerned that the actions of the Justice Department regarding its investigation into Trump over his handling of classified documents were “nothing more than a politically motivated prosecution.”
“According to reports, the Department will indict President Donald Trump, despite declining to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information and failing to indict President Biden for his mishandling of classified information. The indictment creates, at the minimum, a serious appearance of a double standard and a miscarriage of justice,” the letter from Jordan says. 
In the letter, Jordan gives new details from an interview the committee conducted on Wednesday with Steven D’Antuono, the former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. 
“D’Antuono expressed strong concerns with the Department’s pursuit of the raid and noted several unusual features in the Department’s handling of the case. Mr. D’Antuono, who had over two decades of FBI experience, noted his frustration that the FBI was going to be ‘left holding the bag again’ with respect to the search of President Trump’s residence,” Jordan’s letter says. 
Jordan says that D’Antuono “disagreed” with the DOJ’s handling of the raid, and pointed to several examples that he said concerned the former FBI official.
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D’Antuono said he had “absolutely no idea” why it was the Washington, D.C. FBI office that raided Mar-a-Lago, and not the Miami office, according to Jordan. Investigations were supposed to be run by field offices, not FBI headquarters, D’Antuono reportedly said. 
“According to Mr. D’Antuono, it was unusual to not have a U.S. Attorney assigned to an investigative matter, especially a matter of this magnitude,” the letter says.  
The former official also reportedly told Jordan that the DOJ pushed “the FBI to promptly execute the search warrant” before they could obtain &#8220;consent&#8221; from Trump&#8217;s team.  
The letter adds that D’Antuono “testified that the FBI sought to exclude President Trump’s attorney from the search, a move with which Mr. D’Antuono disagreed. Mr. D’Antuono believed that the FBI should have worked with the attorney to get consent to search the residence prior to seeking a warrant for the search.”
Jordan concludes his letter by asking for more documentation on communications regarding the Trump raid by the DOJ and the FBI.

Attorney Gen. Garland Meets With Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin At Dept. Of Justice

Former Top FBI Official ‘Disagreed’ With DOJ’s Approach To Trump Raid, Jim Jordan Says

After he is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-to-be-arraigned-next-week-in-manhattan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arraigned</a> in Manhattan on Tuesday, former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> plans to deliver a public address that same day.
The remarks are scheduled for 8:15 p.m. EDT at Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, his re-election campaign announced on Sunday.
No further details about the substance of Trump&#8217;s comments were immediately released.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump to Deliver Remarks at Mar-a-Lago <a href="https://t.co/rUDGnJqMfC">pic.twitter.com/rUDGnJqMfC</a>
&mdash; Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1642536804006916096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Still, the address will follow Trump&#8217;s expected trip to New York City, where a grand jury indicted him last week and his arraignment is <a href="https://twitter.com/politico/status/1641939020048367617" target="_blank" rel="noopener">set for Tuesday afternoon</a>. Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges.
Though the indictment remains under seal, Trump&#8217;s attorney Joe Tacopina <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-attorney-says-he-doesnt-know-how-arraignment-will-go" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told ABC News</a> on Sunday that he was certain the charges &#8220;revolve around&#8221; the documentation of hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle.
Trump claims he is the target of a &#8220;political persecution&#8221; led by Manhattan District Attorney <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/alvin-bragg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alvin Bragg</a>, a Democrat, and denies any wrongdoing.
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to &#8216;Get Trump,&#8217; but now they’ve done the unthinkable &#8211; indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,&#8221; Trump said in one of his recent statements on the case.
Trump faces other investigations that could result in charges, including a 2020 election investigation in Georgia and a federal inquiry focused on his handling of documents and the events surrounding January 6, 2021, led by special counsel Jack Smith.
Besides Trump, former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have entered the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination. Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican governor of Arkansas, announced his campaign on Sunday. He also said Trump should drop out of the race.
“First of all, the office is more important than any individual person,” Hutchinson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-gop-governor-announces-presidential-bid-calls-on-trump-to-drop-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on ABC News</a>. “And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process and there is a presumption of innocence.&#8221;
Others who are expected to join the race for the GOP presidential nomination are former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said he plans to seek re-election but has yet to formally declare a campaign.

Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Trump To Deliver Mar-a-Lago Speech After Arraignment

2024 Election

Alvin Bragg

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