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"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32
WEBCommentary Contributor
Author:  Michael J. Gaynor
Bio: Michael J. Gaynor
Date:  August 12, 2022
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Topic category:  Partisan Politics

Mar-A-Lago Raid Shows Trump Derangement Syndrome Has Fortuitously Worsened

Hopefully the truth will prevail and the United States and its Justice Department and FBI soon will have the leadership that they desperately need and sorely lack.

Wikipedia:

"Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) is a perjorative term usually for criticism or negative reactions to former United States President Donald Trump that are perceived to be irrational, and presumed to have little regard towards Trump's actual policy positions, or actions undertaken by his administration."

Former President Donald J. Trump issued the following "official statement" after the United States Department of Justice secured and executed a search warrant to seize allegedly classified documents at his home:

"These are dark times for our Nation, as my  beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections. Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe! What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States."

Merriam-Webster defines "raid" as "a hostile or predatory incursion" and "a surprise attack by a small force."

Since the once and perhaps future President had been negotiating with the Department of Justice with respect to documents that had been transferred from the White House to Mar-A-Lago in January 2021 and documents there had been further secured by a lock as requested before the Department of Justice suddenly sought a search warrant on an ex parte basis, calling the operation a "raid" strikes me as fair, especially when it began when Trump was in New York and his lawyer at Mar-A-Lago was not given a copy of the warrant or allowed to watch the operation.

Nevertheless, we are supposed to believe that the operation was conducted properly not long after a jury decided that the FBI had entrapped persons they found not guilty of attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrowing Michigan's government.

Wikipedia:

"On October 8, 2020, a federal indictment against six men associated with the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan-based militia group, was unsealed. The indictment charges the men with plotting to kidnap Whitmer and violently overthrow Michigan's government. The FBI became aware of the scheme in early 2020 after communications among the far-right group were discovered, and via an undercover agent who met with more than a dozen individuals at a meeting in Dublin, Ohio....

"In the wake of the unsealed indictment, Whitmer, in a livestream, thanked the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, called the plotters 'sick and depraved men', and cast blame on Trump for refusing to explicitly condemn far-right groups and for his handling of the COVID-19. In April 2022 two of the perpetrators were acquitted on all charges on grounds of entrapment by federal authorities."

Attorney General Merrick Garland insists that President Biden was not notified of the raid in advance.

I am not aware of evidence that  President Biden had foreknowledge of the raid, but I wonder why Garland supposedly did not give President Biden a head's up after the warrant was issued and before it was executed.

Could not President Biden be trusted with that information?

Should not President Biden have been given time to prepare to deal with the foreseeable firestorm?

President Trump had the power to declassify document when he was President and claims that the documents at issue had been declassified by him.

That makes sense.

Why would he not declassify any documents that he wanted to take with him when no one could stop him from doing so?

The presidential declassification power comes from the Constitution, not regulations.

President Biden may dread a rematch with Trump in 2024, if he is well enough to run and capable of being renominated, and Attorney General Garland may be eager to please President Biden after being chastised by President Biden for timidity, but if he did not notify Biden after the warrant was issued (midday Friday) and before it was executed the following Monday morning), he should be dismissed for incompetence.

Moreover, if there was a genuine urgency to protect nuclear codes, there was no excuse for waiting until Monday.

Hopefully the truth will prevail and the United States and its Justice Department and FBI soon will have the leadership that they desperately need and sorely lack.

Bottom line: As statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand might say of the raid: “This is worse than a crime, it’s a blunder.”

Michael J. Gaynor

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Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.


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