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Merrick Garland speaks — 75 Comments

  1. Integrity and fairness left the FBI and DOJ years ago. We know it, and Garland knows it.

  2. He did not say he approved the raid, he approved seeking the search warrant

    @2:29 “I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter.”

    Meaning, the raid was left to others to plan and execute, which is in line with what his spokesman said.

  3. The Gretchen set up fiasco, many FBI personal lying to Congress, more than probably the Jan6 set up with Ray Epps and cohorts.
    They have 0 integrity left
    And that was 45 minutes of my life I won’t get back

  4. Kate:

    I’m not so sure Garland knows it. The most convincing zealots are those who are convinced of their own innocence. It gives them that energy of self-righteous indignation.

    As an example, there’s Robespierre.

  5. You should assume he’s lying. It’s not merely people in political life. Anyone occupying a position in institutional administration you should assume is lying. Ditto people in word merchant occupations. That’s the culture in our time.

  6. I’m not so sure Garland knows it.

    Either Trump’s lawyers are lying about the warrant or Garland is lying. The latter proposition is a safer bet than the former.

  7. I don’t think he knows it. Garland crowed about how he and his team were going to “depoliticize” the DOJ after Barr, who was as old-school and apolitical an AG as you will find. This administration truly believes its own BS, which is why they keep making these dumbfounding errors.

  8. This administration truly believes its own BS

    No, they’re sociopaths who have no conception of the difference between truth and falsehood.

  9. “You should assume he’s lying. Art Deco

    No. We know he’s lying. They are sociopaths but they understand quite well the difference between truth and falsehood. That is because understanding that difference is necessary to lying skillfully, as Garland demonstrated in his performance before a congressional committee the other day. And ‘skillful’ lying, when no possibility of being held accountable exists is solely in the getting away with it. Which he did and they do.

    It’s simply that truth and falsehood are tools to be employed as best they serve in the advancement of the agenda. Ideology justifies all.

  10. AG Garland’s salary is like to the “Bullet Fee” charged to the families of executed prisoners in places such as Iran and China: Americans have the “privilege” to pay for their own destruction.

  11. So, the alternate is that Garland is so deeply steeped in his leftist worldview that he thinks what he says is true. Maybe. It doesn’t help much; in fact, it makes it worse.

  12. A tie in my view between Garland and Mayorkas as the worst of the worst in this regime.

  13. zenman:

    If you approve the search warrant you approve the raid. It doesn’t mean you plan every detail of the raid, of course. That’s what the FBI does.

  14. “and his feigned or real outrage”

    I WISH the outrage was feigned because that would indicate some connection with reality.

    Mike

  15. Art Deco:

    You write, “they’re sociopaths who have no conception of the difference between truth and falsehood.”

    But that’s one path towards believing one’s own falsehood. Nothing stands in the way of believing, and the belief can change on a dime if it seems to be to the person’s advantage.

  16. If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations. And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be.

    CS Lewis.

    We have a theocracy, albeit an atheist one. Climate change is their religion, along with power.

  17. FWIW: short (4-minute) video of Jason Miller and Nigel Farage discussing the raid on Mar-a-Lago:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMbLO7bxYXo&ab_channel=GBNews

    A much longer view, but I found it refreshing and a needed break from the Garland three-ring circus: Neil Oliver on Magna Carta: “Governments and the would be powerful want us to think Magna Carta and the truths it contains do not matter anymore.” Much of what Oliver says is true of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, whose authors took Magna Carta as an antecedent.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xhUbp6loAw&ab_channel=NeilOliver

    Wonderful just to listen to his voice.

  18. Ace notes that the usual media suspects are attributing anger over the raid to anti-Semitism: “ABC now claims that anger about the raid is… just because Merrick Garland is Jewish. Which, by the way, I didn’t know. That name sounds so Waspy it could have been in Bonfire of the Vanities.”

    https://ace.mu.nu/archives/400444.php

    Video of the ABC guy at the link.

  19. The fact that it was deemed necessary to make an unscheduled speech says they are peeing their pants.

    Of course, maybe it was planned ahead of time.

  20. unless he changes his name back to Garfinkle and drops Merrick for Abraham and his daughter divorces her husband, and knows what Va’etchanan means, he has lost the ability to play the race card.

  21. Fullmoon, he *did* look nervous and put-upon.

    As far his “knowing it” is concerned, I’m with Kate. Garland says he and his department are dedicated to keeping us ‘safe.’ But I think he means ‘safe’ in the woke-est sense possible—basically, safe from Republicans, safe from conservative ideas, safe from accountability for destroying the Constitution and other norms of ‘the American way.’

  22. Although I disagree with Bari Weiss on several issues, I at least thought she had a bit of the common sense that her newsletter advertises. Today to explain what to make of the Mar-a-Lago raid she actually recommended her readers to a column and podcast by David French.

    I don’t think there is a person on this earth who would be happier to see Trump in jail than David French. Why Weiss would think he is capable of offering any type of objective analysis is beyond me.

  23. I watched Wray on the hearings about the fibbies ignoring a bunch of teenage girl gymnasts being ignored. (I guess the settlement is going to be pretty substantial.)
    Said he was going to institute training to make sure his people knew to take this stuff seriously. Even had an acronym, which I have forgotten. But it seems to lead to the inference that he thinks fibby agents don’t already know to take such things seriously, which leads to asking who in the H they’re hiring.
    Between that, missing the Orlando shooter, massacring innocents by the score, and faking up charges on, at least, Richard Jewell…there’s no reason on this Earth to give them the slightest credit for anything before very careful investigation.

  24. “Governments and the would be powerful want us to think Magna Carta and the truths it contains do not matter anymore.” Much of what Oliver says is true of our Constitution and Bill of Rights,” PA+ Cat

    The left and globalists don’t think they matter anymore, as they reject the premises upon which they rest.

    But then they don’t believe we have a right to life itself. In their brave new world, the needs of the deserving few outweigh the needs of the undeserving many.

    “Common people” are right to be fearful of a future in which they will be made “redundant“, according to World Economic Forum (WEF) advisor Yuval Noah Harari, who said “We just don’t need the vast majority of the population” in the early 21st century given modern technologies.”

    Harari’s extraordinary remarks were made in an interview with Chris Anderson, the head of TED, published on Tuesday, and represent the strongest warning yet that Klaus Schwab’s WEF is intent on depopulating the world.”
    https://www.newsfromtheperimeter.com/home/2022/8/11/wef-advisor-common-people-should-live-in-fear-we-dont-need-the-vast-majority-of-you

    Think about it if you dare. Harari dared to make those statements in a public interview on the widely viewed TED talks.

  25. “the Barr, who was as old-school and apolitical an AG as you will find.”
    Is that the same Barr who sat mute when Hunter’s lap top was described as Russian disinformation? That Barr?

  26. When it was reported yesterday that Garland wasn’t involved; I didn’t believe but accepted if true, then it would mean perhaps it was just out of control FBI agents that Democrats wouldn’t let escalate into actually trying to arrest Trump. Now that Garland has come out and said, “yeah I did it, and I see nothing wrong”; I suspect an arrest to come soon when it is politically advantages. Probably after Biden has time to sign the BBB bill and a news cycle to say how great it is; then arrest Trump so no one will talk about all the bad that is in the final bill.

  27. Say, aren’t we close to the 30th anniversary of Ruby Ridge?

    We want to trust them? Why!

    Industrial alcohol would be distilled by mob chemists during Prohibition. The government added benzene, which could not be distilled out. Estimates were 10 to 15 thousand deaths and many more injuries, particularly blindness. Our government, for us.

    Right on, Mike. C. S. Lewis really nailed it.

  28. Note in the “it depends on what the meaning of IS is” world of DC lawyerdom, it is technically possible that the initial “Garland did not know the specifics of the totally-not-a-raid” anonymous story and Garland’s “I approved seeking the warrant” could both be true, if conflicting in what any rational person would be expected to conclude: Merrick approved asking for a warrant, and then his minions didn’t loop him in when they got the warrant approved on any details of the not-a-Melania-panty-raid so he’d have deniability.

  29. Mr. Garland was 40 minutes late to the press announcement that he scheduled.

    He’s not competent enough to show up on time, nor ethical enough to let everyone waiting for him know his new updated ETA.

    Since we can’t trust him to keep his word when he says “I’m going to make an announcement at 2:30” why would anyone be foolish enough to believe him about something more important, like the apolitical professionalism of the FBI?

  30. We have a theocracy, albeit an atheist one. Climate change is their religion, along with power.

    Consider that some among the “faithful” may be more like Hans Gruber in Die Hard … hiding their base greed behind a manifesto.

    IMO, they see green tech as the Next Big Thing that – unlike mature energy tech – will get them 1990’s levels of ROI, as long as they can churn it and cash out before the green tech does not deliver and the bubble pops.

  31. Gregory Harper on August 11, 2022 at 7:08 pm said:

    “Although I disagree with Bari Weiss on several issues, I at least thought she had a bit of the common sense that her newsletter advertises. Today to explain what to make of the Mar-a-Lago raid she actually recommended her readers to a column and podcast by David French.

    I don’t think there is a person on this earth who would be happier to see Trump in jail than David French. Why Weiss would think he is capable of offering any type of objective analysis is beyond me.”
    ______________________________________________________________

    One of the principal themes of this blog is change — that is, people who change their minds, or at least their politics. When I run across someone like that, I’m always looking for the possibility of finding an ally. Like Gregory Harper, I never expected to agree with everything Bari Weiss wrote, but her strong support for David French’s piece about the FBI’s raid on Trump’s house is terribly disappointing.

    If this is how she looks at such an obviously political assault on the constitutional rights of a former president, and by extension on all of our rights, then I despair for her clarity of mind. Apparently, Bari Weiss is still stuck in the swamp of the Left.

  32. In today’s world, it’s not hard for people — especially people in power — to find reasons to believe what they want to believe. Bureaucracies are excellent at providing pretexts for what they want to do. If they can’t find the evidence, they fake it in the sincere conviction that the real evidence waiting to be uncovered will confirm what they believe. Bureaucracies are so complicated and multilayered that they people who deal with the public may not know what’s true and what isn’t, and aren’t shaken in their belief that the organization has things right.

  33. At least we got Neil Gorsuch instead of this guy on the Supreme Court. Not that Gorsuch is always right, but it’s going to make a difference in the long term.

  34. Now the Washington Post is claiming that they were looking for “top secret documents on nuclear weapons”. Good try- do they really think that anyone is going to believe that at this point? If that doesn’t work then they’ll just make up something else.

  35. I had really expected to get to bed early tonight while everyone argued what the meaning of “personally approved” is, and then this happens.

    @ Chris B > “Now the Washington Post is claiming that they were looking for “top secret documents on nuclear weapons”… ”

    Sourced to anonymous “people with knowledge” of the operation.
    Yeah, right.
    I’ve been reading posts on that Breaking Bombshell all evening.

    If the Democrats want anyone outside their cult to believe anything they produce now, they should have followed the raiding rules that Neo laid out in another post.
    The immediate assumption, which I assess to have a high probability of accuracy, is that they planted whatever they will proceed to wave around as “evidence” of Trump’s perfidy.

    As someone said about the raid itself: the boxes have been there for 18 months, why the rush?
    If the mole knew there were nuclear weapons related documents, why didn’t “it” push to retrieve them in the first tranche in June, or much much much earlier?

    OTOH, maybe there was something in the 15 boxes already retrieved that led the FBI to think there were nuclear secrets in the boxes they left behind (which were not stored in Melania’s closet), and they had to rush over NOW and get the docs (and whatever else they could pick up), and assumed Trump had taken them out and hidden them somewhere — and he would pick his own house for that.

    Nothing in Trump’s reported actions the first time the boxes were examined gave any indication that he was worried about what they would find or take – obviously, he must have already secreted the documents elsewhere!!
    And what do they plan to allege that he intended to do with them?

    I do lend some credence to the observations that 9 hours is about right for planting bugs throughout the mansion.

    Waiting now on the release of the MaL internal cameras.

    I cannot believe we are still living through this grade-B suspense movie franchise, part 42.

  36. John Hinderaker’s post at PowerLine is generating lots of comments (no surprise there), and they run along the same lines as the ones here, except for this:
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/08/observations-on-the-mir-a-lago-raid.php#comment-5945089721

    ralph • 3 hours ago
    I just read something especially disturbing. According to a social media influencer, “multiple federal LE sources are telling me that a message was blasted to all federal LE agencies to start cataloguing social media posts of known conservative influencers so they can be threat assessed.”

    Well, well. See, Pelosi was not kidding when she told the CCP they have a “great democracy.” Sometimes, tyranny comes in the form of a mustachioed, violent militant who holds large, bigoted rallies. And sometimes it comes in the form of a demented crook covering for a regime of wicked sanctimonious henchmen talking about “democracy.”

    Even a couple of years into the coup against Trump, I would not have considered that something like this could possibly be true.
    Now, it’s a certainty.

  37. Some questions I have not yet seen addressed:

    IF the raid was to recover seriously classified top top secret nuclear material (which Trump was going to use to do … what, exactly?), why not say so at the very beginning after the raid was completed, and make Biden out to be the Great Defender of the World, instead of pretending “he” (and they) didn’t know anything about it?

    IF the alleged nuclear material was recovered (and with the FBI resources they could sift through that paltry number of boxes in an hour), why didn’t Wray or Garland present something (redacted of course) about it in their pressers?

    IF the oh-so-dangerous secret documents were NOT recovered in the raid, why was someone leaking to the Washington Post and alerting the Bond villain, Agent Orange Man Bad, that he had better move pronto to get them into a safer place?
    (Okay, maybe that was to force him to do exactly that, and they have a secret spy watching to see what Trump will do, and then they will nab him in the act…. orange-handed, as it were.)

    The thrust of a lot of punditry yesterday and earlier today was that Garland had better produce a motive for the raid better than just taking back some archival documents that MIGHT be classified and (since everything in DC is classified), MIGHT be a problem if left laying around outside of the much more secure hands of the FBI (which only leaks national secrets to the press on alternate Tuesdays).

    NOW the punditry is going to be that Garland had better produce something stronger than an anonymously sourced story in the Washington Post to justify the raid.

    Although, come to think of it, that’s how they justified Crossfire Hurricane, at least partially – by citing news stories that they had planted themselves.

    I can’t even, anymore.

  38. They.Are.All.FOS.
    All.Of.Them.

    And, no…they DON’T care that anyone and everyone KNOWS they’re lying ALL THE TIME.
    (They’ve “evolved” to “the next level”)
    Cf.
    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/marktapscott/2022/08/11/warning-destroying-the-right-is-why-the-dems-are-doubling-the-irs-giving-agents-deadly-force-n1620182

    The problem is that there is always a part of the human being—the human SPIRIT—that WANTS to BELIEVE…
    …in spite of everything…

    …because otherwise…otherwise…

    (AND “BIDEN”—like all power-hungry psychopaths—KNOWS THIS.)

    Trust, respect and an adherence (for the most part) to laws is what enabled the West to become GREAT.

    “Biden” is saying, “Yeah, but if we continue along THAT route, we may lose power…to the DEPLORABLES…” —(“deplorables” meaning anyone who does NOT support the Democrats).

    Elections?…

    File under: “Goody-bye to All That”

  39. Neo and Commenters, thank you for discussing this issue. With the Covid lockdowns and a questionable election, the last year and half has been viewing a sinking ship off in the distance, from half way around the world.

    The latest action by our ‘dementia regime’ is the result when a country is rudderless with unelected ‘snobs’ directing a weak leader. They are all terrible people and they are all liars. Garland is bitter and small, but unfortunately he has power. For now.

    We spoke with a person from Brazil who said things are terrible, but Brazilians aways have hope and they are happy.

  40. I saw the report about nuclear secrets this morning (I go to sleep early). Good heavens, do they think anyone will believe this?

  41. The “nuclear secrets” angle is the biggest load of nonsense, outside the FBI/DOJ themselves, in this debacle. Not only were any codes he allegedly had likely changed at noon on 20 January 2021, those who would execute a launch based upon these codes would NEVER accept an order from someone not recognized by the government* as the serving President.

    Those in the nuclear chain-of-command, from the officer with the Emergency Action Satchel to the lieutenants turning the keys, are the most politics-resistant entities in the nation when it comes to the control of those weapons. They know the stakes.

    * which is different than actually being the elected President, in this Banana Pudding Republic.

  42. Milwaukee- I suspect Barr would respond that the job of a prosecutor is to investigate and, if called for, prosecute crimes. The job of a prosecutor is not to run political interference for the party in power. He might say that it was regrettable and very concerning that so many former intelligence higher-ups signed on to a lie about Hunter Biden’s laptop, but that doesn’t change the prosecutor’s job.

    In other words. Barr’s behavior during the Hunter Biden laptop incident demonstrates that he was a by-the-book, non-partisan AG. Garland would do well to take a lesson, but he won’t.

  43. Something to think about – what prevents a backlash the next time Republicans control the justice department or otherwise have the power to retaliate?

    I think Garland’s head on a platter might head things off, perhaps if accompanied by the sacking of the prosecutors and FBI agents who came up with this idea, which certainly appears to be less half-baked.

    As good as it will feel to impeach Biden next year or raid Obama’s private residence in 2025, this cycle of retaliation will be terrible for the republic. I wonder if there are any grown-ups in the Democratic party who have the self-awareness to realize this and push for some sort of dramatic move to cut off the cycle, like firing the DOJ and FBI leadership. Sadly, I doubt it.

  44. Milwaukee- I suspect Barr would respond that the job of a prosecutor is to investigate and, if called for, prosecute crimes. The job of a prosecutor is not to run political interference for the party in power. He might say that it was regrettable and very concerning that so many former intelligence higher-ups signed on to a lie about Hunter Biden’s laptop, but that doesn’t change the prosecutor’s job.

    Yeah. Otiose indifference is the hallmark of a by-the-book prosecutor.

    A more sensible hypothesis about Barr is that he thought that Andrew Weismann’s shyster crew were endangering the institutions in question and Rod Rosenstein was too compromised and too unscrupulous to do anything about it, so he auditions for the post of Attorney-General. His wife is friends with the wife of Robert Mueller, so Mueller’s dementia was almost certainly known to him.

  45. The storage of the classified docs Pres Trump has was subcontracted upon his leaving the White House to a company in Chappaqua NY, I can’t remember the name of the company. There never was anything in Mar a Lago.

    The Chappaqua company was chosen because of their logo, “Secure Storage for things you REALLY don’t want ANYONE to see”.

  46. Art Deco, I find your explanation of Barr’s becoming AG plausible. I believe that he was concerned about maintaining the institution of the DOJ.

    Regarding the Hunter Biden laptop though, are you really suggesting that a prosecutor should disclose a secret, politically sensitive investigation shortly before an election to respond to political maneuvering from the party out of power? Wouldn’t that be the inverse of what Garland did here? Republicans would have been thrilled and Democrats would have screamed (with some cause) about a politicized DOJ.

    The pickle we’re in here is about how to defend institutions when the other side of the political divide has no interest in defending those institutions. The next question is what is the best way to proceed when the institutions of society are failing and cannot be shored up?

    (I think Trump’s answer to both questions is “YOLO, fight fire with fire.”)

  47. are you really suggesting that a prosecutor should disclose a secret, politically sensitive investigation shortly before an election to respond to political maneuvering from the party out of power?

    There is no indication that there was any investigation. The FBI took the lap top and sat on it.

  48. Aesopfan,

    All good points.

    re: the directive to start compiling lists of conservatives guilty of wrongthink

    No surprise. They have been calling run of the mill conservatives “domestic terrorists” for years. They have even labelled upset parents at school boards with the same tag.

    They have been using Big Tech to censor dissent. They have been cancelling dissenters in science, medicine, on university campuses, in corporations, even NFL assistant football coaches.

    They have endorsed the use of violence in a large number of situations — to intimidate justices, shut down speakers, etc.

    They have been blatantly stealing elections and using the justice system as a weapon for years.

    They attempted a coup. They stole the presidency. AGAIN.

    They have been using the NSA to spy on all Americans and allowed Democrat operatives to sift through the data for blackmail material for over a decade.

    The last one should be enough, by itself, to prompt a revolution. We haven’t even seen a yawn.

  49. @Bauxite-

    Past republican performance suggests that there will be no backlash.

    The establishment is not going to nominate Trump, nor DeSantis, for President.

    The likely nominee will be Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney again, or an establishment politician of similar pedigree.

    And we will all “hold our noses” and vote for the candidate who promises to “heal” America.

  50. Something to think about – what prevents a backlash the next time Republicans control the justice department or otherwise have the power to retaliate?

    Nothing will happen. It never does. The closest the Democrats have come to having the prosecutocracy turned loose on them in the last 50 years was the Starr investigation. The Clintons avoided the worst the investigation had in store for them when James McDougal died in a federal prison for want of his heart medication. The latter half of the investigation was ruined by pursuit of munchkins like Monica Lewinsky and Julie Hiatt Steele. They never did figure out the ultimate source of the $800,000 in ‘consulting fees’ bagged by Webster Hubbell after he was disbarred.

    Federal prosecutors will take down Democrats who engage in quite crude and readily explicable offenses (see William ‘Cold Cash’ Jefferson) and Democrats who run afoul of other factional bosses in the Democratic Party. (My sense is that the defenstrations of Anthony Wiener, Jesse Jackson Jr, Al Franken, and Andrew Cuomo were each attributable to both of these vectors).

  51. Baux: “what prevents a backlash the next time Republicans control the justice department or otherwise have the power to retaliate?”

    As I recall, the Repubs contemplated a certain parliamentary maneuver. Dems didn’t like it and the NYT coined the phrase “nuclear option”? Vast buckets of ink were spilled denouncing the maneuver. Republicans caved.
    Was it the very next legislative session that Dems used the nuclear option themselves?

  52. It’s clear that those presently in power in the American govt. have no intention of ever relinquishing that power, irrespective of the will of the people. That they will use any and all means to remain in power.

    They have their street thugs, their Sturm Abteiling, – ANTIFA, BLM, etc – to destroy and kill, in total collusion with the media (the propaganda arm of the demonkrat party) and the demokrat party to send a clear message to all that violence will be used whenever they deem it necessary.

    They have official govt.”organs,” – FBI, DOJ, NSA, CIA, IRS, etc, that are used to destroy “enemies of the state,” by indicting, arresting, seizing property, etc. of /from anybody they define as enemies.

    They have instituted Stalinist show trials in the halls of Congress to accuse, slander, and hopefully indict enemies of the state. These show trials ONLY allowed witnesses for the prosecution to testify.

    The only thing those presiding over these show trials regretted was that they were unable to bring in , in person, Andréy Vyshínskiy and Roland Freisler to help deliver the pre-determined final decision .

    They have corrupted / perverted and “fixed” the presidential voting procedures and vote counting so that their opponents are guaranteed never to prevail in any national election. This includes the upcoming presidential election.

    Recall Stalin’s famous remark; “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”

    Joseph Stalin
    (who was FDR’s good pal and rock star idol of the CPUSA, whose head quarters are presently domiciled in Manhattan).

    Appears to me that the punishment ultimately given to that wonderful husband and wife team, Nicolae and Elena Ceaucescu of Romania, would also be appropriate for many of those presently in control of the federal govt.

    It’s clear that there is no shortage of “Good Americans;” federal employees of the Federal govt. , who are willing to “follow orders,” regardless of the legality or purpose of those orders.

    As for Trump, his enemies in DC will use any and all means to get rid of him. This includes , if they so deem, arranging for his internment, six feet under, well before he would otherwise pass on due to natural causes.

  53. Susan mcdougal whined and got applause judy miller was jailed for something they already knew and she got pwned by the likes of howard kurtz

  54. Or take maria butina who was doing essentially the same thing as monica (i dont have to draw you a picture do i) you wrap it in muh russia and anything is fine

  55. I was also struck by Garland’s statement that “Copies of both the warrant and the FBI property receipt were provided on the day of the search to the former president’s counsel, who was on site during the search.” He went on to say that “The property receipt is a document that federal law requires law enforcement agents to leave with the property owner.” It now seems clear that Trump’s attorneys were NOT given a copy of the warrant, although they might have been given some kind of access to review it on the premises. Garland’s word choice in this context was peculiar, and created a false impression, something you’d think he would have wanted to avoid in this situation. But maybe he’s so immersed in DC-speak that these kind of obscure formulations are second nature to him.

  56. There is no indication that there was any investigation. The FBI took the lap top and sat on it.

    Exactly. They had it for a year. Then the FBI raid on O’Keefe to punish him for having Ashley’s diary. The FBI has become the KGB and I have a daughter who is a 20 year FBI agent. We don ‘t talk politics but she is a far left Democrat. I was taking the entire family out to dinner last Christmas and she told me, “Daddy, you have to stop watching Fox news.” Her brother shushed her up but that is illustrative of how they think. A few years ago, she gave me a copy of Bill O’Reilly’s book, “Killing Lincoln.” It is full of errors but they think this stuff is all we read. Also, Fox News is all we watch on TV.

  57. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/moral-dimension-crisis-we-face-david-horowitz/#commento

    David Horowitz understands the Left far better than most.

    “The root cause of the American crisis is the moral depravity of the ‘Woke’ progressives.”

    they understand them very well. For progressives the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the “revolution” – the “re-imagining” and transformation of American society into a future where genders are selected and “social justice” prevails. That goal is so worthy and so necessary, it justifies any and all means to achieve it. Once this is understood, one can see that under the surface of the crises we face is a sinister force that poses an existential threat to our way of life – a threat far more immediate than the so-called climate apocalypse.”

    Indeed.

    “A sinister force that poses an existential threat to our way of life”

  58. @ Chris B > “Now the Washington Post is claiming that they were looking for “top secret documents on nuclear weapons”… ”

    I think that the top secret nuclear stuff is nonsense. Trump doesn’t think that way. I think it is a red herring, aimed at explaining a possible Espionage Act arrest. If the BRE is an Espionage Act case, I think that it involves the Crossfire Hurricane materials that Trump ordered declassified, and that never apparently were. The reason it makes sense to me is that those documents directly implicate the FBI in malfeasance. The same FBI carrying out the raid.

  59. Which primary or caucus can Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney win? I don’t think either would even crack the top 3 in even a single primary.

    Don’t be surprised if a lot of GOPe types line up behind DeSantis, or at least promote him behind the scenes. DeSantis may be the only candidate who can take down Trump if Trump runs.

  60. DeSantis may be the only candidate who can take down Trump if Trump runs.

    All velleity aside, it’s my belief about Gov. DeSantis that he’s far more prudent politically than to voluntarily enter face first into a contest he already knows he won’t win. The man is no fool, and has great patience with plenty of time for future service as well.

  61. sdferr – I’m not so sure. If DeSantis passes on 2024, he will have been out of office for two years in 2028. Returning to the US House would be a backwards step. Florida already has two young Republican senators, but even if it didn’t, the Senate isn’t the greatest place for a presidential contender to distinguish him or herself (Obama being the exception that proves the rule).

    There’s a strong argument that 2024 is DeSantis’s best shot at the presidency, even against Trump in the primaries. Remember too that Trump has never won a majority in any contested election. I think DeSantis would beat Trump in a straight fight. (The only question then would be how many Trump supporters would pull a 2020 Georgia run-off and boycott the general.)

  62. Don’t be surprised if a lot of GOPe types line up behind DeSantis,

    I’m sure that’ll do him a world of good.

  63. If you harbor well founded uncertainty as to Gov. DeSantis’ future political prospects Bauxite, it isn’t me you’re going to have to persuade; for my part, I’ll adopt your position right when you manage to persuade Gov. DeSantis himself. He’s very approachable, I think, so, good luck to you.

  64. Bari Weiss comes from a culture wherein Sunday morning with the New York Times is a touchstone, a shared ritual. The Times cannot be anything else. Her culture also loathes Trump.

    So when she’s slapped in the face by evidence that the Times is not only biased but actively working for the Democrats, she is Shocked! Shocked! by it. And then five minutes later, because her psyche cannot sustain the dissonance, she forgets what she witnessed (and in some cases reported).

    She also dare not wander too far from the shared worldview lest she and her partner not be invited to brunch at that trendy new place.

    French is acceptable in her world because he’s conservative (look, he says he is!) and professes to loathe Trump. Thus he’s acceptable as the dissident fourth person on the panel, because he’s out there, but not totally out there.

  65. “Barr’s behavior during the Hunter Biden laptop incident demonstrates that he was a by-the-book, non-partisan AG.” Bauxite

    To put it politely… bullpucky.

    “The root cause of the American crisis is the moral depravity of the ‘Woke’ progressives.” David Horowitz

    The average WWll German soldier was not a member of the Nazi Party. They still shot people in support of the Nazis.

    How lawlessly does the left have to act before democrat voters withdraw their support? Does not that support enable the left’s lawlessness? In which case, does that not render them complicit in that lawlessness?

  66. Bari Weiss comes from a culture wherein Sunday morning with the New York Times is a touchstone, a shared ritual. The Times cannot be anything else. Her culture also loathes Trump.

    I grew up in a world where getting the Sunday Times and riffling through it on your screened porch in an afternoon while sipping tea and petting the cat was considered the most agreeable of activities in a non-athletic family. I’ll bet you Louis and Amy Weiss grew up in the same world and passed on a memory of it to their daughter, who is regrettably too young to have lived in it.

  67. French is acceptable in her world because he’s conservative (look, he says he is!) and professes to loathe Trump. Thus he’s acceptable as the dissident fourth person on the panel, because he’s out there, but not totally out there.

    I have a suspicion the intramural features of intellectual life in the evangelical world are completely foreign territory to Weiss.

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