The Mar-a-Lago Affidavit: Read It For Yourself

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has been the Managing Editor of Ordinary Times since 2018, is a widely published opinion writer, and appears in media, radio, and occasionally as a talking head on TV. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter@four4thefire. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew'sHeard Tell Substack for free here:

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9 Responses

  1. Saul Degraw says:

    What ever you think Trump did, the reality is always is worse.Report

  2. Philip H says:

    So, Trump’s lawyers appear to have lied to NARA and the FBI about what he had or didn’t have.

    There was a filter team on the ground looking things over for attorney client privilege concerns.

    There were classified materials in Trump’s possession after he left office.

    And the best portions were blacked out.

    Exactly what we expected.

    And unlikely to change anyone’s narrative.Report

  3. Chip Daniels says:

    Well, its not like there were foreign spies roaming around a place where our nations’ most sensitive secrets were in an unlocked storeroom, right?

    Wait hold on, I’m getting an update…Report

  4. Kolohe says:

    One of the footnotes lead to this spy case: https://www.justice.gov/osg/brief/squillacote-v-united-states-opposition.

    It’s a fascinating read because, summarized:

    1) they started their plan in the 1980s to spy for East Germany, but by the time they had a job ‘on the inside’ it was 1991(!)

    2) their East German handler didn’t miss a beat and went right to work for the KGB, but in turn was arrested by the Germans about a year later.

    3) the Americans regained contact with the ex-East German guy *after* he was released from jail.

    4) the Americans decide they really want to still be good commies, and really want to spy, so they decide to spy for the Communist Party of South Africa. Thus, they reach out to a government official there, but by this time it’s *1995* and not only is apartheid no more, the ANC is in charge and Mandela was President already,

    5) the ‘government official’ from South Africa who wrote them back was, of course, really a US FBI agent. The FBI agent winds up not even having to ask for anything, the American spies just give the agent what they had access to. (Which were mostly force assessments for budgeting decisions, which, funny enough – and argued by the defense – would have probably been declassified anyway within a year when that budget was passed and everyone would be able to read it.)Report

    • Kolohe in reply to Kolohe says:

      It seems like everyone is out of jail now because enough time has passed, but one of them is still active in Washington DC area Democratic Socialists of America politics, based on some sort of ‘socialism wiki’ I came across.Report

  5. Burt Likko says:

    There’s enough redacted out of here that there’s just not a lot of meaningful commentary for any of us to offer. That ought to be a surprise to no one.

    It is worth noting (as did Philip H above) that a privilege screen crew was on the premises during the execution of the search warrant, and (as Philip H also notes) not everything that the Trump people have been telling us about the early handling of the documents is consistent with what the Government says here. Wow. Imagine that.

    I’ll close with an excerpt of a mutually-exasperated conversation my father and I had in 2016 during the election. Background: my father worked on a classified military program for most of my childhood and some of my young adulthood; later in life, he worked on additional classified programs in a related field of defense. Our conversation went something like this: “Dad, you don’t think Trump himself is a security risk? With his personal history? With his business networks not even being held in a blind trust if he gets elected?” “Son, all I can tell you is, if I had done what Hillary Clinton had done with her classified documents and e-mails, I’d be in jail right now. I can’t possibly vote for her knowing what I know about how she dealt with our secrets.”

    My father is, today, outraged at the search warrant and the awful, political way that the government is treating former President Trump. Who he now says he never liked at all. Well, okay. I can see voting for someone you don’t actually like, especially if you think the other plausible candidate is worse.Report

  6. Affidavit is better than none.Report