Divining the principal purpose of the DOJ/FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago on 8 August 2022 hasn’t really been that hard. The timing and its juxtaposition with the Justice Department’s motion to substitute itself for FBI employees, as defendant in Trump’s RICO lawsuit over Russiagate, have produced a “speaking timeline.”
But it’s good to know that one of the two most important events in that timeline yields a treasure trove of motive for DOJ to seize materials from Mar-a-Lago. That event is former president Trump’s filing of an amended complaint in the RICO lawsuit, which he did on 21 June 2022.
I’ve been threatening to inspect the amendments to the lawsuit, and have now completed that extensive task (So You Don’t Have To). The short version up front: the amendments include a raft of details that weren’t in the original complaint, although many of them have been known for years (having come from sources like the DOJ IG report on the FISA process, and summaries of findings about Russiagate/Spygate from Senate and House committees). Continue reading “Here’s motive on the Mar-a-Lago raid; or, Dog-paddling outside the OODA loop”