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Criminal Confederates & The Mar-a-Lago Raid – Top 3 Takeaways – August 29th, 2022
- Criminal confederates are more common than you think. The beginning and ending of our collective association with confederates would be succession and concession of the south. Meaning, for most of us the confederates haven’t been a thing since 1865. That’s why the redacted DOJ affidavit released Friday which triggered the warrant for the Mar-a-Lago raid, had nuggets which caught many by surprise. Namely, a couple of references to “criminal confederates” on page 30 of the 38-page document. Now, I’m not sure how your weekend went, but I’m pretty sure it was less wonky than mine. In working my sources, along with my own investigative research and analysis, here’s what I can tell you about the confederates and the affidavit generally. The term confederate is a fairly common legal term in federal legal proceedings. The primary definition, when used as a noun, is an accomplice. On page 30 when the term is used twice, it’s in two contexts as the DOJ was attempting to justify why they felt the affidavit should remain sealed. The final line read: Premature disclosure of the contents of this affidavit and related documents may have a significant and negative impact on the continuing investigation and may severely jeopardize its effectiveness by allowing criminal parties an opportunity to flee, destroy evidence (stored electronically and otherwise), change patterns of behavior, and notify criminal confederates. That’s the line that’s fairly standard operating procedure in affidavits for search warrant requests by the federal government anytime they believe multiple actors in alleged unlawful behavior were potentially involved. The far more interesting use of the term which generally conjures up thoughts of the Civil War preceding it:
- The FBI has not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation. That’s not typical language and it also is highly instructive as we’re looking for a reason as to why, after over a year and half of Trump having had these docs at Mar-a-Lago – there was a sudden sense of urgency. All of the focus has been and is on Trump for obvious reasons. But perhaps that’s been a bit of intentional misdirection right along. Early on in this saga I repeatedly highlighted two immovable facts. President Trump never prepared any of the boxes of docs himself and therefore the government knew exactly what were in them since he took them with him no later than January 20th of last year. That is unless... They didn’t. I’ll explain. The DOJ flatly stated they haven’t identified all potential criminal actors. They know where Trump is, and they know his role in their investigation. It would appear the real focus regarding a sense of urgency would be identifying the other actors and the scope of what might be involved here. Let’s say material was packaged and given to Trump that never should have been (which is obviously the case), it could well be reasoned that the actor(s) involved may have also not kept an accurate accounting of what went out the door with the former president and perhaps the feds recently figured some things out. That’s a problem for obvious reasons. Especially if they’re still actively handling sensitive material for the federal government. It would also stand to reason you’d only be able to identify the potential actors involved by recovering all of the materials to see all of the potential peeps who would have had access to it originally. The biggest takeaway from Friday’s affidavit isn’t about Trump specifically, it’s about those the feds are still looking for which were involved in the packaging and handling of the materials...the potential criminal confederates as the case may be. Trump may well still be charged, over 90% of the time in federal search warrants that’s what happens. However, there’s nothing typical about this situation, so don’t be surprised if this as much about those who gave him this stuff and moved classified stuff around, as him personally. Tomorrow I’ll dive into this week’s hearing regarding a potential special master in the case. A potentially huge development which also broke over the weekend.
- You got to keep it separated. It’s hard to know what was more awkward with Charlie Crist’s naming of the United Teachers of Dade President, Karla Hernandez-Mats over the weekend. The fact that she was introduced by Crist as “Karla Hernandez” when she has always gone by Karla Hernandez-Mats, or that she decided to go along with it and has suddenly dropped the Mats. In the words of former Florida Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera as tweeted over the weekend, I am proof that someone with a hyphenated last name can be elected Lieutenant Governor. Why would you let Charlie Crist change your name? Right, so her first official act of running with Charlie Crist was to change her name. She’s the perfect running mate for Florida’s political chameleon and original Orangeman. She fits right in. I wonder if she’ll break the Mats back out after she loses?