Describing Trump confidant Thomas Barrack as a “serious flight risk” who may receive the support of foreign leaders in fleeing the Justice Department, federal prosecutors asked a judge in a Tuesday memo to detain the 2017 Trump inaugural committee chair.
As I posted on the first TPM article about this:
ETA: This is a charge of what Dr. Wheeler refers to as “Espionage Lite.”
who may receive the support of foreign leaders
Not the Pope, I take it.
Or any other “foreign leader” who has the best interests of the United States at heart, I bet ; - )
To me, the article suggests that the true instigators of 1/6, weren’t at the Capitol.
Like Trump.
My favorite is that he has passports - plural. I’m sure all of us have passport - singular.
provided UAE government officials, through Al Malik, with sensitive non-public information about developments within the [Trump] Administration.
But none dare call it espionage.
And just who was providing him, an uncleared non-federal-employee with sensitive non-public information? (That phrase seems also rather close to the “material non-public information” that gets you into insider-trading trouble. )
Yo DOJ, you forgot submarines, helicopters, jet packs and rockets!
Sounds like Barrack better start singing and better have plenty to sing about. He isn’t spending time outside a prison without nailing Trump/co-conspirators to the wall.
So, was most of this just business as usual?
Are a lot of rich people shocked that any of this is being prosecuted?
It just strikes me that smart people are being indicted for things they did not try particularly hard to hide, which makes me think a lot of it was SOP.
Is it just the overwhelming rancidness of Trump that is resulting in so many collateral casualties?
Prosecutors said that they would be amenable to Barrack leaving custody before trial if he disclosed “the full scope” of his foreign ties and assets
In other words, give us Trump.
I think you may be underestimating what unlimited funds and big time white shoe lawyers can buy you.
I am betting the Feds have an ironclad case. They know what big money can buy and they aren’t taking any chances. We will know when/if he starts spilling his guts. We should hear he is “in talks” with the DOJ soon.
I am not sure where he would go, because now that he’s been indicted he may also be a liability to the folks he might want to take refuge with.
Also: what portion of his holdings and his company count as the instrumentality of his crimes, and can they be seized while all this is being figured out, the way they do for less-rich accused criminals?
So, Trump is just the victim here.
“provided UAE government officials, through Al Malik, with sensitive non-public information about developments within the [Trump] Administration.”
A billionaire not getting the kid gloves treatment? I’m actually shocked, and not in the there’s gambling going on here way.
posted a substantial bond, and agreed to GPS monitoring, movement restrictions, and to surrender his passports and access to private jets.
What about his spacecraft? Is he the one billionaire without one? They must laugh at him at Davos and Sun Valley.
Barrack was not only employed by a foreign government, which seems to have been job requirement with TFG, but also spying for them.
Kinda like Manafort.
Ain’t no reason to release him without equally onerous conditions.
Marcy Wheeler
I know many have questioned AG Garland’s desire to pursue justice against the wrongdoers in the previous Administration, but if he’s going after Barrack (a good “friend” of Trump’s) and quite aggressively at that, then to this layman, it looks like a good sign.
I’d assume there’s be some reassurance to having themselves, and not the US government, in control of his disposition.
God, this is sickening.
A guy so easily motivated by money is an easy mark. UAE had Tom Barack, Turkey had Flynn, Russia had Flynn and Manafort, Saudi Arabia had Kushner…they were all bought and paid for…
Because each of those… people… can say, “We did it in plain sight,” as though it’s all… our… fault."