The indictment of former President Trump on charges relating to the Mar-a-Lago documents is outraging Republicans. The charges mark the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced federal charges.
The weaponization of the Biden FBI and DOJ toward Trump is now being documented, as a former agent involved in the matter speaks out. Three days before the indictment the Judiciary Committee did a transcribed interview with Steven D’Antuono, the former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan announced Friday that FBI agent D’Antuono had voiced ‘strong concerns’ and revealed ‘several unusual features’ in the Department of Justice’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, Daily Mail reports. D’Antuono, one of the most senior agents in charge’ of the raid told the committee he was frustrated the FBI was going to be left ‘holding the bag again’ with the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.
Daily Mail reported the agent’s concerns:
D’Antuono laid out several abnormalities in the raid, including first that the Miami field office did not handle it – headquarters instead assigned the Washington, D.C., Field Office to carry out the warrant.
D’Antuono said he had ‘absolutely no idea’ why the decision was made. He also noted that the FBI would not wait for Trump’s attorney to show up before conducting the search. He said the FBI should have tried to work with the attorney to get consent to search the residence before conducting the search.
D’Antuono said he believed either Attorney General Merrick Garland or FBI Director Christopher Wray made the decision to seek the warrant ‘despite opposition from the line agents’ working the case, noting that the FBI did not assign a U.S. attorney’s office to the matter.
The abnormalities in the raid mentioned by D’Antuono included that the Miami field office did not handle it, and that the FBI would not wait for Trump’s attorney to show up before conducting the search. This sheds even more disturbing light on the FBI’s procedures that Republicans say have been weaponized against Trump.
This unprecedented event is seen by Republicans as being politically motivated, as no Democrats who have also had documents int their possession after leaving the white House have not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Biden’s White House insisted Friday that it had no prior knowledge of the indictment, which seems strange since the possibility has been reported by multiple news sources, and President Biden said he had not spoken to Garland about the matter. “I have not spoken to him at all and I’m not going to speak with him. And I have no comment on that.”
The charges against Trump include: conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; and concealing a document in a federal investigation. Some of the charges have a maximum sentence of 20 years.
The count of those amazed and disturbed by the proceedings is rising, as Tim Parlatore, a former member of the 45th President Donald Trump’s legal team managed to describe the “blatant” prosecutorial misconduct carried out by the investigation of Special Counsel Jack Smith during an interview with CBS’ Catherine Herridge, highlighting serious serious improprieties, DC Enquirer reported.
According to The Post Millennial, Parlatore told Herridge, “I was really stunned by what I saw in the grand jury room by the conduct of the prosecutors. They made many attempts to try to get privileged communications, they would ask me about conversations with my client. They would make improper references to the jury trying to mislead them about that.”
Citizen Free Press shared a video of the moment on Twitter noting, “How did this get past CBS News censors. Catherine Herridge interview today. Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore describes prosecutorial misconduct from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team.”
He continued, “At one point, it got to the level where they’re asking me this again, and then they’ll turn to the grand jury and say you’re refusing to provide this information.” This represented a huge logical fallacy and a major breach of ethics.
Parlatore explained: “No, I’m not refusing to provide, the ethical rules prohibit me, even if the answer to this question is helpful. I’m not allowed to give it, and I turned to the jury and said, and she knows it. She knows that it’s an improper question.”
He added that the back and forth between the two attorneys continued with a wildly improper inference from the Biden admin attorney that “if the person’s so cooperative, why won’t he waive privilege and allow you to tell the grand jury about his conversations?”
“This is a massive legal fallacy that is precluded by the Constitution as well as both state and federal laws that someone is guilty “based on the invocation of a constitutional right.” And, “This is frequently seen with people ‘pleading the fifth.”
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