An FBI agent who worked in Mueller's office told agents there was a "get Trump attitude by some" of the people who worked on the special counsel review, according to a very unusual court filing by DOJ just before midnight.
The agent said special counsel prosecutors tended to take the most sinister potential meaning from Trump's public remarks, and also that the attorneys were persuaded there was criminal wrongdoing to be found and they were competing to find it first.
(As it happens, the special counsel investigation found quite a bit of criminal conduct, including by Trump's campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, a longtime adviser, a bunch of Russians and others. DOJ helpfully lists it here: justice.gov/sco.)
DOJ submitted the interview summary, conducted Sept. 17, to buttress its earlier request to drop the prosecution of Mike Flynn. But the agent believed that Flynn lied to the FBI; he disagreed whether Flynn had sinister motives. He seems to suggest KT McFarland lied, too.
The filing suggests there was disagreement within the FBI and within Mueller's office about the merits of the Flynn investigation. But the agent who raised those concerns also suggested interviewing Flynn, obtaining NSLs for some of his records, etc.
All this either proves political persecution or suggests the FBI doesn't move in lockstep and that @petestrzok went out of way to include an agent skeptical of the premise on the team investigating Trump's connection to Russian election interference.
.@big_cases has the whole thing. If nothing else, the prosecution of Mike Flynn is providing a very granular view of how things work inside the FBI. ->
Twitter's lawyers told a federal court yesterday that nothing in the "Twitter Files" cited by Donald Trump actually show that the social media platform was a tool of government censorship.
Twitter also says the appointment of a new CEO won't result in any changes to its content moderation strategy.
Twitter's lawyers also point out the problem with claims -- echoed by the company's CEO -- that the government was paying it to censor people. (The gov't was paying it to comply with search orders, which it is required to do by law.)
The Mar-a-Lago special master is telling Trump's lawyers to say once and for all whether they really think the FBI planted evidence during its search, as the former president has publicly alleged.
This isn't the first time Judge Dearie has told Trump's lawyers to essentially put up or shut up about the things they've been saying in TV but not in court.
A lawyer from the Texas Attorney General's office just entered an appearance in the 11th Cir. case over classified records at Mar-a-Lago. He claims to represent Texas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.
Texas' brief is quite a document. It's basically a litany of why-Biden-is-bad-and-shouldn't-be-trusted, going through everything from immigration litigation to theories about COVID's origin to the Vice President's assertion that the border is secure.
Texas - with support from 10 other states - says courts should mistrust this administration. It argues Judge Cannon was right to set aside the "presumption of regularity," though she didn't actually do that.
A federal court in Florida has dismissed - for many different reasons - former President Trump's lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, various government officials and various others over "Russiagate." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Judge: Trump's 193-page conspiracy allegation "is neither short nor plain, and it certainly does not establish that Plaintiff is entitled to any relief."
The judge said Trump's lawsuit that he was the victim of a plot by Hillary Clinton and others relied on misrepresented evidence, legal theories rejected by the Supreme Court and hyperbole to settle political scores. And that's just what you see before page 5.
One of the lawyers who asked a federal court to invalidate two of the three branches of government, @kellyesorelle, says she's filed another case in the Supreme Court to invalidate the 2020 election.
I checked with the clerk today. There is no such case.
This is not surprising. You can't just file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court (unless you happen to be a state and are suing another state or similar things). And even then you can't just file a lawsuit; you have to file a motion for leave to file. None of that has happened.
(Many thanks to the person who took the time to call me to ask about this.)
A large part of the totally-unsubstantiated theory that the FBI actually incited the Jan. 6 riot started with people not understanding how to read charging documents and making assumptions about their misunderstanding. And it's gone downhill from there.
Guys, there were federal agents in the crowd on Jan. 6. We know because one of them, a DEA agent, was prosecuted.
Here he is showing his creds.
He was with his brother, an FBI agent, who was investigated but not charged. He even went on Tucker Carlson's show to talk about it.
Here's the story. The DEA learned one of its agents was at the Capitol (with his weapon) because he was group-texting pics to a bunch of other agents. reuters.com/article/us-usa…