Kingmaker - Big IF! (True) Profile picture
Sep 9, 2020 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
@shipwreckedcrew @shipwreckedcrew does the best job I’ve seen of explaining why it’s not the job- indeed the Constitution prohibits it- for an executive branch employee such as an FBI agent or director, to launch a counterintelligence investigation of a duly elected president to determine whether
@shipwreckedcrew ... he is a threat to national security. If the president commits crimes that threaten national security, it’s Congress’ job to impeach. If what’s at stake is a difference of opinion on how best to keep the country safe, that’s an issue for the voters in elections to decide.
@shipwreckedcrew But employees of the executive branch answer to the president, who is exclusively in charge of determining foreign policy. If employees disagree, talk to the president or someone close to him. If that doesn’t help, quit. Write a book. Become a whistleblower if you believe there
@shipwreckedcrew ... are crimes being committed. But national security is at bottom a policy issue. And the president decides. Allowing arrogant imbeciles like Peter Strzok to elevate themselves to running a secret inquisition into the ins, outs, and origins of that policy is destructive of govt
@shipwreckedcrew The product of all counter intelligence investigations goes to the president. It’s one of his tools that he can use or toss aside in deciding what his foreign policy and domestic security policies should be. Running a counter intel investigation on the president is upside down.

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More from @KingMakerFT

Sep 7
@JeffClarkUS is spot on here in identifying serious 5th Amendment due process issues with Jack Smith’s upside down proposal, adopted by Judge Chutkan, that the prosecution be allowed to file a comprehensive public “brief” as to Trump’s guilt and the absence of immunity in the height of election season.
In addition to the blatant political purpose of Smith’s proposed “brief,” there are serious 5th Amendment due process problems as well as denial of the 6th Amendment right to confront witnesses in a criminal case. Smith proposes to recast the indictment by laying out in the public record 1) the details of his office’s plan as to what evidence to present at trial to prove Trump’s guilt, 2) his evidence showing there is no immunity because the conduct involved private and not official acts of the former president; and 3) as to any official acts, Smith’s evidence to rebut the presumption of immunity.
This “brief” of the special counsel will not be the standard legal brief. Rather, it will include Smith’s evidence. Smith’s office has told the court that to support the prosecution’s narrative, they plan to file in the public record documentary evidence, grand jury testimony, and FBI 302 forms summarizing witness interviews.
Read 6 tweets
May 20
Judge Merchan is severely limiting the defense expert’s discussion of how the FEC works, including definitions of terms like “campaign contributions,” and such concepts as dual use expenses exempted from the law. Right now the jury has heard enough to assume the worst for Trump:
The judge refuses to say how he will instruct the jury on the FEC. As it stands now the jury probably assumes the FEC was violated and that Trump has no defense, because it’s obvious sex with a porn star might affect the number of Trump’s votes. But that’s not the law.
And this issue of whether the FEC was violated is beyond the court’s jurisdiction altogether. The FEC supersedes and preempts all state laws. So a NY state court jury cannot decide whether there has been a criminal violation of the FEC.
Read 4 tweets
May 13
@shipwreckedcrew has the basic outline of what a good cross examination of Cohen will likely look like. I would add that an effective cross can be used to tell your side of the story, if you’ve got the right witness to do it with. Cohen might be that witness.
Elements of Trump’s story here could be that campaign donations and expenses is a complex area of federal law that require a lawyer to fully understand. Cohen, the lawyer, took charge of deciding how to structure transactions. Cohen and Weisslberg talked about that.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 27
Yesterday I posted a long thread on the sleight of hand pulled by D.A. Bragg in NY to conceal the fact that his theory of the case against Trump is, in effect, a prosecution of federal crimes that by law preempt and supersede the state laws Bragg says he is using.
This fact becomes more and more obvious as the trial progresses, beginning with the opening statement to the jury. The prosecution told the jury that this case involved a conspiracy and a coverup. What crimes were the object of the conspiracy? Federal election finance crimes.
Specifically Bragg has produced evidence tending to show that David Pecker and Michael Cohen conspired with Trump and others to make disguised campaign contributions to Trump in 2016 by making payments to Karen MacDougal and Stormy Daniels to buy their silence about affairs.
Read 11 tweets
Apr 26
This is a THREAD on the sleight of hand, shell and pea game AG Bragg is playing in his case against Trump in NY. The object of this confidence game is to hide that Bragg is prosecuting a crime he has no authority over and that the court has no jurisdiction to hear.
To understand what’s going on, let’s start with the indictment. Trump is charged with violating NY Penal Law 175.10, providing, “A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when he commits the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree, ..
… and when his intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”
Read 21 tweets
Apr 6
Excellent analysis of the implications of the DC Bar’s attempt to disbar former DOJ official, Jeff Clark. I’d like to weigh in on the concepts of fraud vs irregularities in the election, a subject addressed at length during the hearing.
The DOJ took the position in 2020 that they only would investigate criminal fraud and civil rights violations in connection with the election. So when Clark drafted a letter from the Department to Ga legislators, Clark went beyond the DOJ’s role by including irregularities.
Stop for a minute and consider what that means. Fraud operates in the shadows. Concealment is the name of the game for every fraudster from time immemorial. So when a law enforcement official claims, “We only investigate fraud, not irregularities,” in effect abdicating his duty.
Read 13 tweets

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