Newsweek magazine: AG Merrick Garland on the FBI raid at Trump’s Florida residence. “Huh? I know nothing, Man.”

Mar-a-Lago parcel, Palm Beach, Florida (Photo: Reuters)

By Robert Willmann

You cannot make this stuff up. Newsweek magazine published an article on 10 August 2022 at 10:03 a.m. eastern time that would make S.J. Perelman grin [1]. It is entitled “Exclusive: An Informer Told the FBI What Docs Trump Was Hiding, and Where”. The puff piece makes a hilarious attempt to cover the derrieres of the FBI, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Bruce E. Reinhart, the federal magistrate in Florida who signed the search warrant that facially allowed FBI agents, and maybe others, to make their way into the rather large property pictured above.

Two unnamed “senior government officials”, the article says, “have direct knowledge of the FBI’s deliberations”. One of them is a “senior Justice Department official who is a 30-year veteran of the FBI”. This person may or may not still be in the FBI. The other person is more vaguely described as a “senior intelligence official”. The article contains descriptive language seeking to paint a picture that the process of getting the warrant was legal.

Then the fun parts appear. First: “The Biden White House says the president was not briefed about the Mar-a-Lago raid and knew nothing about it in advance”. Well, a child might ask, “Was any person in the White House briefed who was not the president?”

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31 Responses to Newsweek magazine: AG Merrick Garland on the FBI raid at Trump’s Florida residence. “Huh? I know nothing, Man.”

  1. mcohen says:

    I reckon this it.If trump goes down at least melania will be happy.

  2. Whitewall says:

    I thought we, the West, won the Cold War? We thought we did as the Wall came down and then the USSR collapsed and Eastern Europe was freed and all that. But I guess Kremlin wannabees set up shop in DC and damned if they don’t take up where the KGB left off. America isn’t crumbling so much as our government central planners have run their course and outlived their sell by date. Every branch of government is in a frenzy to protect itself from ‘pouncing’ right wingers—Trump and MAGA world. More laws and rules and Orwellian spending bills to fix all the solutions to past problems caused by DC in the first place. Nobody knows about anything and nobody is responsible for anything but Republicans are to be blamed just in case. I sense a big time fight is coming and it is going to be loud and ugly. And necessary.

  3. SRW says:

    An ironic editorial on the Donald Trump FBI raid from a “down under” web site. Love Australian humor. This year a second cousin decoded her DNA on the “23 and me” site and found out we have a lot of cousins down under. Gggrandfather immigrated to Victoria Australia in 1852 with two of his sons from Aberdeen Scotland. One of the distant cousins was kind enough to send death certificates of gggrandparents from there. Small world.

    https://www.theshovel.com.au/2022/08/10/the-shovels-view-on-the-fbis-raid-on-donald-trumps-home/?fbclid=IwAR0g0LpZNl252M55pnC1M4XAit6H-qo3pB0liLCh5Rsi-06W-wMidSyPZy4

  4. JK/AR says:

    I’m thinking it’d probably be sound policy individually, for “everybody” to mind their Ps and Qs very diligently for the next few weeks to months. And especially so where blog commenting and, though I’m personally “virgin” so-to-speak where social media [& Twitter/Gab?] is/are concerned doubly so. We would all be well advised to remember our earlier colonial History the hysteria that erupted in that small hamlet of Salem when first it dawned on those three young girls [three letter agencies!] when they discovered how useful it could be to be the center of attention during a Witch Hunt.

    People sometimes discuss ‘False Flag’ stuff as simply a literary device to help in plotting works of fiction. And thinking along such lines innocuous, but, tell that to the victims of Cotton Mather and those three young girls.

    “Cotton Mather denied ever attending a trial but did attend the executions. Despite his record of opposing the use of spectral evidence, Mather celebrated the trials as a triumph of justice, and despite claiming to be a non-partisan historian he presumes guilt in his writings about the trials. ”

    Sound familiar? Seem like it might offer valuable services for us today?

    https://thehistoryjunkie.com/cotton-mather-and-the-salem-witch-trials/

    If that doesn’t ring any bells for one or, the study of History just seems “quaint” in these modern times – Search out the transcripts for the recent Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot/farce trials. The least little intemperate remark can be used to choreograph a snowball into an avalanche.

  5. Notfakebot says:

    Thank you, Robert.

    First time in US history the FBI conducted a search of a president.

    The Reinhart-Epstein connection is interesting. It saying something when the very man who granted this search warrant was one of the very same people who made sure Epstein got off light. Why was Epstein, a sexual predator of young girls and who tried to blackmail influential figures, protected by some in the government for so long?

    And for all the denials, clearly Garland approved this cockamie idea. I’d really like to know why is Garland the AG? Who pulled the strings to get him the nomination for the Supreme Court while we are it? It might go a lomg way to explain who is is directing this seeming cabal of government officials who pull every trick in the book to destroy Trump.

    He’s another person good at protecting thevfeds when they misbehave. Garland was the prosecutor in the OKC bombing trial and did his best in that trial to protect FBI malfeasance and failures. I would strongly encourage people to read up on Kenneth Trentadue and John Doe #2 if they are not familiar with what I’m referring to. It was claimed Kenneth committed suicide when it was very clear he was tortured to death. Epstein committed suice too. He also recused himself in the judicial misconduct of a colleague who raped a 16-year-old girl decades earlier. That colleague was Richard Roberts and he too helped to deny Trentadue’s murder by federal law enforcement.

    These aren’t trivial concerns.

    We are talking about the people who concocted the Trump-Russian collision nonsense. These same actors put a Sword of Damocles over Hillary Clinton owing to her mishandling of classified documents, as they are now doing to Trump. Comey had the power to reopen her case at any time he so chose, ust like Wray can do to Trump now. What’s to stop the FBI from exercising another fishing expedition?

    It’s time someone investigated the FBI, State Department, and DOJ methinks. Some people other than the president seem to think these agencies and departments are the real executors of government. Congress needs to do its job and remind the unelected that they are accountable to the elected.

    • Fourth and Long says:

      —The Reinhart-Epstein connection is interesting. It saying something when the very man who granted this search warrant was one of the very same people who made sure Epstein got off light. Why was Epstein, a sexual predator of young girls and who tried to blackmail influential figures, protected by some in the government for so long?—

      Can the kids these days be blamed for thinking we are ruled by a race of alien lizard creatures? It’s a shame the Marquis de Sade has such a terrible if well deserved reputation. He wrote a couple of hysterical intensely satirical pieces on the ruling predator class of the France of his days. They are exceedingly risqué to put it mildly but they are amongst the most brilliant pieces of writing ever.

    • Eliot says:

      “ The Reinhart-Epstein connection is interesting.”

      These people all know each other, and they’re all sleezebags

      – Eliot

  6. lobo says:

    someone stateside clue me in

    i been looking at some us right wing online discourse and there is a view that there was a potential race between trump and de santis coming up. But with this mess, unless trump is permanently crippled, trump will take the repub nomination and de santis wont even try.

    any validity to this ?

    • Datil D says:

      Haven’t seen any validity but there is an air of a new push behind Trump after the FBI action. Trump didn’t do well the first time around loading up the administration with neocons and being used to push the covid scam etc. He did accomplish putting the destruction of the US on hold for 4 years, which has accelerated since they pushed him out. This looks like an act of desperation that shows how fearful they are of another Trump term now that he understands the depth of their depravity, corruption and agenda and the mistakes he made in the first term.

    • JK/AR says:

      Stateside Lobo, as I commented earlier today ‘Discretion’ has to be one of our considerations.

      Yesterday somebody emailed me a video clip featuring some FBI ‘Know-It-All’ getting interviewed on CNN smugly articulating on behalf of “all the good people” that they ‘better not associate with the bad people.”

      I usually wait until later in the evening for my local newsites to update their content and so I missed this earlier posted:

      https://www.ktlo.com/2022/08/11/authorities-monitoring-online-threats-following-fbis-mar-a-lago-raid/

      Somebody supposedly famous reputedly said “Discretion is the better part of valor” and so it appears to me at least to suggest you check either CNN or MSNBC to verify any possible validity.

  7. Fourth and Long says:

    It’s Watergator 2.0.

    What didn’t the Attorney General know, and when didn’t he know it?

  8. Fourth and Long says:

    Why not:

    Check availability. Mothra, Godzilla or King Kong.

    A giant foot, apparently belonging to a creature which emerged from the seas off Mar a Lago crushes the estate, the safe, and everyone in it. End of story. Think of the film rights. Or TV serials. Silver linings abound. One: When Joe or Merrick say they had nothing to do with it?

    Did anyone else notice that Merrick is the middle section of Amerricka?
    We need to know the explanation for the extra r and k. Wasn’t there once a great actress and singer named Judy Garland who starred in The Wizard of Oz and famously sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow?”

    Many unanswered questions here.

  9. Barbara Ann says:

    Very interesting as always Mr Willmann. Questioning the meaning of ‘it’ is reminiscent of the Clinton defense if you don’t mind me saying so, though thoroughly appropriate here.

    There is a theory doing the rounds that the fishing expedition may itself have been biting on some bait – i.e. that this was a counterintelligence op by team Trump to uncover a mole (and generate a boat load of free publicity). A stretch perhaps, but being in Trump’s position he must surely have a CI team of some sort and I’d be astonished if he hasn’t been expecting exactly this kind of raid for some time. As Fred indicated in his last post this “surprise” was anything but, for those paying attention. Would Trump really be so dumb as to keep compromising material in a safe at MAL?

    As for Reinhart, I expect he “belongs to Intelligence” every bit as much as Epstein did. In fact I have the strong impression that there is little of any consequence in the Federal government that does not. Unwinding the skein of blackmail in the structures of power is a prerequisite to reclaiming the Republic and my expectation is it will be unimaginably ugly when it finally all spills out.

    • Fourth and Long says:

      My theory: An entire hoax perpetrated to remove attention from Cry me a river and Your Cranium. Why do I say so? Because the timing is just too da*m patently weirdly perfect – meaning witness the ongoing shelling of a nuclear power complex which hasn’t stopped despite pleas from Gueterres of UN and simultaneous with escalating into the Novofederovka air base in Crimea. That increasingly looks like Nato on both counts. Why would Ukraine shell a huge nuclear complex in their own country? Answer: they wouldn’t. Why would Ru do it when they are only miles away and effluents would radiate the Dniepr and Black Sea and surrounding farmlands would be lost to agriculture and the people of Russia, Ukraine and the wider world not to mention the uncalculable harm to the people of both countries and surrounding areas. Same answer. So it’s Uncle Josephine, I’m afraid to say.

      Garland just held a presser and he isn’t revealing anything. Well well, that’s consistent with the above. It’s an easy deception to carry off on the American public, they are absorbed in their iPhone playlists and their red-blue divide obsessions. The country is riveted on this Mar a Lago nonsense. It’s a guaranteed ratings booster for the media conglomerates, who also make the weapons, so it’s thoroughly in their interest to deceive like this.

  10. longarch says:

    Some of 8kun’s anonymous researchers are gloating because they believe pro-Trump forces arranged the entire episode as a grand trap. These anons believe Trump uses genius-tier insight, also known as “5-dimensional chess,” to always stay ahead of the competition. If that be true, then the USA will ultimately be saved by such masterful machinations, but hope is not a plan. Most people — perhaps even most dedicated anons on 8kun — do not trust “5-dimensional chess” to save the USA.

    An example of a true believe in Trump wrote:

    This event has lit a fire under an already highly motivated Trump base, and mobilized the conservative media in a way that I have never seen before. It’s also establishing justifiable grounds to take corrective action against the DOJ/FBI. It’s also establishing a precedent that former Presidents and political opponents are fair game. It’s opening the door to accomplish our end goals.

    Given the impending indictment of Hunter Biden, and the escalating allegations from Russia against the DNC of Bioterrorism via the creation of C19 in Ukraine; this is not just a victory, it’s a MASSIVE one.

    What negative happened to Trump?

    -Nothing.

    What negative happened to the enemy?

    -They are losing court of public opinion.

    -They have terrible optics heading into the midterms.

    -They just went full fascist dictatorship in front of all the normies and weaponized law enforcement to carry out political operations.

    -They did all this and didn’t even find what they were looking for.

    The boomerang already happened. Trump suffered no losses, he knew they were coming, the media narrative and the optics are PERFECT, and the “war-like posture” from the DNC Globalists will cause for an equal and opposite reaction from Trump and America First GOP when they assume power after the midterms.

    This move has opened the doorway to accelerated political warfare. The gloves are off. Trump doesn’t have to worry as much about optics moving forward, because the enemy crossed the Rubicon.

    Source:

    https://bioclandestine.substack.com/p/it-was-a-trap

    Even these “true believers” like bioclandestine seem to believe that some conventional political means will be used, and that someone else will come along to do all the heavy lifting for them. If the upcoming elections will be free of fraud, no doubt the Democrats will lose bigly. If the upcoming elections are significantly marred by fraud — or even if millions of Trump supporters just believe those elections to be fraudulent — then the political situation could be very uncomfortable for dissidents.

    For example, during the raid on Mar-a-Lago, 8kun was under exceptionally intense attack by spammers. It is not impossible that the Deep State elements who arranged the raid regard 8kun as a target worthy of considerable effort. If fraudulent elections put Deep State swamp monsters into sufficient power, most forms of dissent could be criminalized, and 8kun could be wiped off the face of the Internet.

  11. SRW says:

    Ah ha! The Trumpster suckered the FBI in to raise more money!

    “A day after the FBI executed a search warrant on his home at Mar-a-Lago, the former president sent out emails to his supporters saying the FBI had “raided” his home, “broke into” his safe and possibly planted evidence. Was he upset? Maybe. Was he innocent? Who cares? But he was open about needing money to help battle “the corrupt left,” whatever that means. And so, dear friends and neighbors, the preacher in the big pop-up tent is going to pass around the hat, and if you’d very graciously give everything you have, the billionaire who needs your money would much appreciate it. By the way, would you like a new shirt with Donald’s portrait? He’s got those too.”

    Sound crazy? Not as much as some of the stuff I’m hearing from the right.

  12. Al says:

    SRW, you meant the Trump shirts made in China that they put made in USA labels on?

  13. JK/AR says:

    Supposedly SRW, Hillary is raising money of the thing too.

    Don’t know whether she’s got t-shirts with her picture silk-screened onto it like Trump supposedly has but I do know she’s got coffee cups.

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-fbi-raid-hillary-clinton-141605258.html

    I hesitate (of course) but Tit for Tat?

    Left to me sounds as crazy as the stuff you’re SRW hearing from the Right.

    (And anyway – Who in their sane minds would contribute money to either?)

  14. Fourth and Long says:

    Is Roy Cohn’s ghost ready for a redo of the Rosenberg trial with Donald Trump playing Julius and Ethel on alternate days? Hopefully ex Potus Donald has the old Herman Goering cyanide capsule sewed in belly paunch trick down pat.

    Be a bit of a stretch to think he tried to sell nuclear secrets to the rooskies. Lets hope for North Korea or China – nostalgic anti commie angle. Who else? Remember Nuremburg. Precedents. Herman Pompeo, Heinrich Bolton, Adolph Alito. Let’s try not to leave old Clarence aka Long Dong Silver hanging around either. I guess Texas or Alabama for executions? No? The moon?

    I can’t imagine this reporter has his facts straight because that would mean the Democratic party guys and gals (and non binaries) let the theft of nuclear secrets go unnoticed for what – two years? No way.

    ———————————————————

    Leaks to WaPo now claim “documents relating to nuclear weapons” were “sought” at Mar-a-Lago. No word on whether they were recovered. Taking this story at face value, the DOJ decided to wait a year and a half before tracking down the USA’s most closely guarded nuclear secrets?

    https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1557893833521758209?s=21&t=PZBsEV1wEv5baUQLV5su8w

    • TTG says:

      F&L,

      The rumors talk about passing nuclear data to the Saudis. They want that info badly and almost got nuclear power tech from Trump when he was in the White House. And Kushner got 2 billion dollars from MBS not that long ago.

      • Fred says:

        TTG,

        “rumors talk about” and TTG passes them on here. If Saudi Arabia wants nuclear power they can talk to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. The USE already has an operational nuclear plant. One of my former industry colleauges is running it for them. Those ‘rumors’ deserve to be spread on DailyKos, not bandied about here.

        • TTG says:

          Fred,

          The Saudis have long wanted nuclear technology. Trump attempted to pass that technology to the Saudis while he was in office and Kushner recently got 2 billion dollars from MBS. Those are facts. The talk of Trump passing nuclear secrets to the Saudis is just a rumor that may be dispelled as early as this afternoon, much like the rumor of Garland not knowing about the search warrant and raid was dispelled yesterday afternoon..

          • Fred says:

            My, my and no impeachment over “nuclear tech” that Trump was gonna give them. So much so that it didn’t come out in the 2020 election.

            “Jared Kushner’s new private equity firm got $2 billion from Saudi Arabia ….”
            wow, an investment – into his company not to his bank account – two years after his father loses an election. Did the FBI raid his house?
            https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-04-11/how-did-jared-kushner-get-2-billion-from-the-saudis

            And whatever happed to making Saudi Arabia :
            ““We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are,” Biden said at a 2019 Democratic debate. ” (from Vox)?

      • JK/AR says:

        TTG,

        The ME has had these ambitions for longer than Trump. While I don’t have the report immediately to hand I do distinctly recall FAS reporting on a Korean firm’s getting approval from DOE to provide reactor tech to the Saudis.

        Fairly certain I’ve a flashdrive laying around somewhere in my office that’s a dedicated record of all much of the goings-on during the first decade or so of this century – I will look to see if I can find it.

        But remembering some specific search terms to plug into a Swiss search engine – terrible idea to try the Goog from here in the US – Anyway I find this:

        “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed contracts with Korean firms worth about $20 billion to build four reactors last year and the drive for growth and need to diversify the economy in the UAE are the same as in Saudi Arabia. Other Persian Gulf states—Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar—have also expressed interest in nuclear energy, but if Saudi Arabia succeeds in setting up reactors on its territory, these countries may instead choose to establish grid connections to Saudi Arabia with GCC assistance and buy power from those reactors.”

        The year that was published? 2010 or, six years before Trump!

        https://carnegieendowment.org/2010/07/20/saudi-arabia-s-nuclear-ambitions-pub-41243

        If I recall correctly Netanyahu personally alerted somebody in the Senate of the time – can’t recall who offhand – but anyway the pace of the business went snail.

        • TTG says:

          JK/AR,

          The Saudi hunger to join the nuclear club, and not just nuclear power, extends a lot further back than 2010. It was an issue I became involved with almost as soon as I arrived at DIA in 1996.

          • JK/AR says:

            Yes TTG, no argument from me over here in the peanut gallery.

            And oh my – I guess I best hither my yest to some sort of ‘tech-accounting class’ to see if I can round up a posse of youngsters to hep me catalog all the flashdrives I seem to’ve gathered.

            Ah well TTG – As you’re familiar as far back as ’96 I can abandon my search?

            Nah, don’t bother answering, I’m taking it on myself and raising the white flag!

      • Fourth and Long says:

        Awesome. I hope your rumors are substantiated. He’ll be a tough one to catch though. He is Herman Melville’s great white whale come to life.

  15. jim ticehurst says:

    Rumors…Who is The “Informant”‘ ? Female..? House Keeper..? Nuke Stuff..?
    Wow…Better than The Steele Dossier..So much Intrigue..So Many “Rumors..”
    More Tranfusions..to The Royals Going..
    JT

  16. Vince Turner says:

    The genie is out of the bottle. Trump would be advised to ‘sweep’ his property for listening devices and hidden cameras. The FBI should be dismantled. The DOJ should have their workforce reduced by 50%. The Democrats are truly the party of treason; antagonizing Russia and sucking up to China. The NIH, CDC, FDA, and the NIAID should be cleansed of every scientist that thinks GoF research is a good idea.

  17. LeaNder says:

    Appreciated, Robert.
    Not that I expect too much as a result of the publication of search warrant and affidavit. But we’ll see.

    Interesting, to paraphrase Sir Walter Scott, (oh!*) how effectively people manage to weave their hopes and desires into the tangled web of American elections, politics and law.
    * popped up on my mind.

  18. JK/AR says:

    It has come to my attention …

    Well, actually, some few days before I noticed something of a forewarning that the last link I place on this comment was probably gonna happen. So first, the forewarning:

    Via the always excellent American Digest

    https://americandigest.org/noted-in-passing-it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-the-word-is-is/

    Now then, Mr. Willman? The legacy media would prefer you change your title:

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/08/what-were-once-raids-are-now-searches.php

    If that video provided by Powerline weren’t so pitiful it would almost be hilarious!

    So c’mon people, let’s get with the program …

    Over & Out

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