The Clue Is Emails Are ‘.gov’: Mueller, GSA, Attorneys Laugh Off Letter From Trump Transition Lawyer
On Saturday evening, we learned that Robert Mueller is in possession of "tens of thousands" of e-mails from the Trump transition.
As Axios first reported, Mueller “obtained the emails from the General Services Administration, the government agency that hosted the transition email system, which had addresses ending in ‘ptt.gov,’ for Presidential Transition Team.”
About an hour later, Fox News reported that Kory Langhofer, an attorney for Trump for America, Inc. wrote a letter to congre
Donald Trump is officially George Bluth from Arrested Development. He’s a third rate real estate developer who’s committed a host of financial crimes and “some light treason” who also happens to have the worst attorneys.
haha nice
At least Mueller’s team didn’t ask the Russians for these emails. Or did he?
The key line in Loewentritt’s statement is “Loewentritt told BuzzFeed News that the GSA initially “suggested a warrant or subpoena” for the materials, but that the Special Counsel’s Office determined the letter route was sufficient.” Thus, the SCO did not obtain a warrant or subpoena for the email, but rather issued a self-serving opinion that a letter was sufficient. The GSA should have obtained there own legal opinion on the correct procedure for releasing the email. There could be a problem here, if a warrant or subpoena is required.
Nope.
Let’s put it this way. The police can ask to come into your house to look around. If you let them, they can use anything they find in a criminal case. If you refuse, then they need a warrant in order to legally be able to enter and find evidence.
Therefore, if the GSA had refused to provide the information, then it would have been necessary for the SCO to get a warrant or subpoena. Instead, the GSA handed it over at the SCO’s request, thus proving the SCO correct that a letter was sufficient.
BA DA BING!
The difference here, of course, is that the emails were not (and never were) private communications. Going back to the original story – if TFA’s attorneys thought they had even the slightest change of suppressing the emails on 4th amendment (or any other) grounds, they would have been in front of a Federal judge to argue it within hours of the discovery.
TFA’s letter to Congress is just more PR baloney, designed to sucker gullible folks into thinking that Mueller is incompetent or careless. Their hope is that the blather will help obscure the seriousness of the emails’ content, and the distinct possibility that those 13 account users did not disclose all, as they had sworn to do.
Please read “chance” where I mis-typed “change!”
This is why, by the way, that it’s always best to have a lawyer when dealing with law enforcement. Letting a lawyer handle all your communications (or at least be present for direct interviews) allows the lawyer to prevent you from giving away incriminating evidence. It’s not illegal to give information to the police without a lawyer present. It’s just ill-advised.
If anyone can be held at fault here, it’s the GSA staff who complied with the SCO request without first consulting legal staff. They can get in trouble, possibly fired, but it doesn’t ruin the SCO’s ability to use it in a case.
It’d be like if you weren’t talking with the police, so they instead asked your friend if you did it and he spilled the beans. That gives the cops the information they need, completely legally, and hurts your case through no fault of your own.
Chris, I’m just curious about the dead guy — was his word to trump’s cluster – to keep those emails private – legal or binding? So, if he was not dead would his word to hide them be acceptable or would he be facing a judge? Take it one more step, if he had made it known to his co-workers or staff and they failed to keep them hidden – handing them over when they got the letter, this ending would be the same, too bad trump? OR they kept then hidden and were in violation of concealing public records?
exactly. the idea that this is somehow Mueller’s fault is laughable. there’s plenty of blame here, but it doesn’t fall on the damn prosecutor.
You can bet that the SCO’s request was reviewed by GSA counsel.