The DOJ has been trying to get Trump to return Government owned documents for a year and a half.

Trump has failed to comply with subpoenas by only returning a subset of the documents in his possession. His lawyer lied by informing the DOJ there were no more in Trump's possession.

I am surprised the DOJ did not lose its patience much sooner.

Edit: The key point that is widely ignored is "why did Trump want to keep them"? This a topic that our imaginations can run wild on

It has not "become" corrupt. It has been like this for a long time. With all the light and shadows.

In case of doubt, just look at the evolution of the American empire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territ..._United_States

Yes, I've seen this floated that it's a Dem strategy to push the Republicans to vote for more extreme nominees. If this really is the case it's both irresponsible and playing with fire.

It certainly fits with the theory in wanting to keep Donald Trump relevant in order to help their own political goals. Another reason for the continuing focus on Jan 6 is that is sits so badly with independents, I believe 50% still see President Trump's behavior around the riot as criminal which would pose a big problem for him should he choose to run in 2024. Despite all the evidence, I remain to be fully convinced this is the goal.

Back to the raid last week, the prosecutors have rejected releasing the affidavit. It's all very much following the Russiagate playbook, which let's not forget the Mueller report failed to find any shred of evidence, which essentially showed the whole thing up to be a hoax. Then there was the Steele dossier too along with a whole host of other examples.

This is why I find it difficult to accept the komsomolez view that we should just trust the DoJ and FBI to do their jobs. This may be understandable if we hadn't just had 6 years of the whole get Trump thing with the DoJ and FBI complicit.

__________________
Thou/Thee

This is an ongoing criminal investigation. The affidavit's purpose is to convince the judge that the issue of a warrant is necessary / probable cause exists. In what world is the suspect provided with all info the investigators have while they are still building their case and the suspect has not yet been indicted?

Yes, I have confidence that the institutions still work and there is a proper process here. You can call that naive. I call it naive to believe everything the "government" does is "rigged" against Trump. I believe that any other person, any normal government employee would have long been arrested for this "handling" of documents. There are actually people in prison for that.

Let's not forget how hard the media promoted Trump in 2015 and up until he defeated Cruz in the primaries. They gave him enormous coverage despite being "outraged" by his comments. They wanted him to weaken the establishment republicans who had huge fundraising capabilities. (ie Jeb Bush)

Information came out in John Podesta's emails that the DNC was fretting about Bush and this is what steered the media coverage

"the Mueller report failed to find any shred of evidence"
"the whole get Trump thing with the DoJ and FBI complicit"

Do you see your contradiction here?
If "the DoJ and FBI really were complicit" then they would long ago have "found" enough evidence to "get him".

In fact, your statement "the Mueller report failed to find any shred of evidence" reveals your true belief that the DoJ and FBI are independent and act with honesty and integrity.

What is your point?
Sure the media gave Trump enormous coverage in 2015 and almost every day since and even now when he lives in a retirement home, so what?

You failed to mention the leaked John Podesta's emails were hacked by the Russians and "coincidentally" helped Trump.

Let's wait and see what comes out of it, at this stage it looks like it will take months. But yes, I think it is naive to believe they act impartially at all times when recent history shows that they withheld facts and made false statements in order to get a court order to conduce surveillance on Carter Page.

Thus far, the only thing that comes out of this whole raid so far is that it is a validation of the Trump narrative that America's intuitions are out to stop Donald Trump from running again. At this stage it looks like a spectacular own goal.

The pre-2016 actions of the media is remarkable, it's ironic to think they were all over the man, and in a large way responsible for his rise.

I still think the ultimate goal is to put Donald Trump in prison. The New York Times reported earlier this year that the Biden himself is supposed to have said that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and essentially needs to be put in jail.

That's not to say there can't be two goals, however judging by the reactions I still think the most likely aim is that Trump needs to be gone by any means necessary. For example there was a breathless piece in the Washington Post speculating (without any sources or facts of course) that Donald Trump was holding on to nuclear secrets in Mar-a-Lago. This was then taken up on a CNBC panel discussing how these could then be handed over to America's enemies

Sadly, this just reinforces that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a fact of life these days. Moreover that such disinformation gets given a "serious" platform.

__________________
Thou/Thee

I guess some are falling for Trump's victim mentality and it is the Democrats who are full of blind hate and want him done. And it is all corrupt so what does it matter what he does. And Clinton did it.

I think his "legal problems", his lying, his pleading of the 5th, the facts that many of his underlings have already been convicted of crimes and that the walls are coming closer also in the Georgia investigation point to another possibility: He is a criminal.

[now someone teach me about innocent until proven guilty]

I think teaching you is not worth it anymore. How does that saying go....

You can take the east german out of the the ddr, but you can't take the stasi out of the east german

Now I am hurt. And I had such hopes for us.

Don't give up so easy....if Russel Brand could be redeemed, so can you

That's mighty cool.

I actually don't think the Stasi label is the right one. Looks like the friends of Trump prefer to compare this to the Gestapo. Or was it Gazpacho?

Nazis, Gestapo is what the left likes to call the right, it's lost all meaning

Though Stasi actions seem kind compared to the FBI recently

Allegedly hacked by Russia. WIll never be known 100% for sure who was behind it. They hacked Podesta because he had the cybersecurity skills of a 9 year old girl. If they had hacked someone from Trump's team, I have no doubt it would also get leaked.

As for the coverage, my point is that one candidate was amplified above all others because he was deemed unelectable. He wasn't scrutinzed like he would be after becoming a candidate because the media wanted him to be the candidate.

PS: you seem awful transfixed on the terms retirement home & heavens waiting room...projecting much?

I know people who were on the receiving end of some very real life Stasi actions. The kind of stuff where they were threatened that their kids would be taken to a state home. But I am sure you were just making a rhetorical point.

Why would the Russians hack Trump's team? He is their puppet.

When all else fails then you spread nonsense.

Interesting podcast with conservative lawyer George Conway and former FBI special agent Asha Ranggapa (Deep State!) on the Mar a Lago search and Trump's legal position.

No certainty that DOJ indicts, but in Conway's view (31:00 mins) Trump is dead to rights.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6vE...urce=copy-link

The great George Conway….talk about the fat balding guy who cried wolf, then again, and again and again…..

And he‘ll do it again because he will always be given a platform to spew his garbage as he has the desired opinion and is moderately articulate