The disclosure of a subpoena of Twitter by Special Counsel Jack Smith was surprising in a number of respects, including the hefty $350,000 fine imposed by U.S. District Court Beryl Howell (left) for a three-day delay as the company sought to address the demand. However, the two most surprising, and concerning, elements were that the subpoena was secret and Howell justified it, in part, on Trump being a flight risk. Neither seems warranted in this case even assuming that the subpoena was in other respects warranted.
Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed and obtained a search warrant related to former President Trump’s account on Twitter, now X. However, he also sought the information with a nondisclosure order that prohibited X from disclosing the existence or contents of the search warrant to Trump or anyone else. However, Trump already knew he was under investigation, so why was there a need for nondisclosure?
The court found that Trump might change his course of conduct but that seems unlikely. If anything Trump has been most consistent in his social media practices. Indeed, while some of us have criticized him for his posting, he has remained entirely undeterred.
The lower court stated that “The district court found that there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump ‘would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ by giving him ‘an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates.'”
It is not clear how Trump would destroy the evidence in possession of Twitter, particularly after the company is informed that it must preserve and disclose the meta data.
Then there was the added rational that was tucked into footnote 2 of the D.C. Circuit opinion: Trump might flee.
Judge Howell actually agreed that the former President was a flight risk.
Process that for a second. Trump has 24/7 security. So Howell agreed that he might shake his sizable security detail, evade them, and go on the lam. He is one of the most recognized figures in the world. He would have to go to Mars to live incognito.
It is facially absurd. Trump has been sued and criminally charged across the country. He has never made a break for it. Where would he go? Cuba?
The finding of a flight risk undermines the credibility of the court’s order. This is not to question the ability to force the release of the information. However, the need for secrecy is far from evident. Rather it succeeded in preventing any challenge.
Here is the D.C. Circuit opinion: Trump-Twitter Opinion
IF Trump goes to jail, they will kill him.
100%
Trump indicted.
Bolsonaro banned.
Nigel Farage de-banked.
Imran Khan jailed.
Right wing Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio shot and killed at a political rally.
Populist & right-wing figures are being removed.
Here comes global dictatorship. (@emeraldrobinson)
They’re coming after Trump supporters too:
J Michael Waller
@JMichaelWaller
“Report in Utah: *Courageous @FBI agents* use vehicle-mounted ram to smash into elderly man’s house, and shoot the man to death. The apparent reason: A threatening Facebook post.”
[*note the sarcasm]
Now you understand…
COMMUNISM IS GLOBAL.
Lincoln was Karl Marx’s “earnest of the epoch to come…that it fell to Abraham Lincoln…to lead his country through…the reconstruction of a social world.”
Socialism is communism and communism is global dictatorship.
The phrase is not “globalism,” it’s communism.
Xi Jinping is all for “globalism.”
Well, duuuuh!!!
General Secretary, Dear Leader and Dictator, Xi Jinping, is all for globalism and all for communism.
Oops! Communism is unconstitutional.
Now we have a problem, Houston!
If Trump goes to jail, which he will not (remember this is theatre), he will have the support of all of the in prison affiliations, read gangs. You are more at risk in your house than Trump would be in prison.
Was Epstein killed?
epsteinjustice.com
Will they will deliberately induce him to Epsticide himself?
Trump is rich, has his own plane, facing years of prison, and zero ethics. He is a flight risk. The Secret Service is there to protect him, not police him.
The one with zero ethics is you!
A head ought to be used for more than mere decoration.
Unfortunately, yours is not.
Think much?
That’s ridiculous and you know it’s ridiculous! TDS trolls are okay with the destruction of the integrity of the justice system in order to “get Trump.” Pathetic!
Yep. He’ll just jump into his 757 at KEWR and fly to Moscow at tree-top level to stay under the radar (without filing an IFR flight plan or talking to ATC). Happens all the time.
Can you say with any degree of authority that the SS would aid and abet him in flight from the US?
Or are you just spewing out garbage again with no real merit?
Such an As.s, Sammy had no problem letting violent people out of jail with no bail, some of who committed homicide when they were released.
When Sammy is in the discussion, we are at the bottom of the barrel.
This has to be the most idiotic statement I’ve read all day! Well done.
Are you a Chinese spy?
Title: “Biden has appointed 105 federal judges, outpacing Trump, Obama and Bush-Democrats want to change the demographic makeup of the courts.”
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-appointed-105-federal-judges-outpacing-trump-obama/story?id=97200133
Excerpt: “Since the Trump administration, confirming judges has been a major focus of the Senate’s Democratic majority — who can now move even more quickly with an outright majority on the Judiciary Committee — and Biden’s choices will alter the demographic and professional makeup of the judiciary branch.”
Lin, this is pretty misleading. Also from the same article:
“While Biden is currently pacing ahead of his three immediate predecessors — and tied with Reagan for the fastest first-year confirmations in four decades — he is not on track to outpace President Trump’s overall rate. Trump confirmed 234 federal judges by the end of his term. And both he and former President Obama appointed multiple Supreme Court justices — Trump, three; Obama, two — though Obama also sought to appoint a third justice but was blocked by Senate Republicans in the final year of his term, drawing outcry from Democrats.
In other words, he would need to more than double the appointments he has made to surpass Trump by the end of his term.
Dear Green Anonymous: You stepped on your own foot—with your own quote from the article!
Here’s what you quote as contradictory: “While Biden is currently PACING (emphasis mine) ahead of his three immediate predecessors…”.
That is completely in lockstep with the title of the article that I cited, ““Biden has appointed 105 federal judges, OUTPACING (emphasis mine) Trump, Obama and Bush.”
NO one is talking about cumulative totals at the end of each’s presidency (except maybe you).
Aren’t you the one who was just talking about “reading comprehension?”
Thanks anyway, your truly, lin.
This poorly written ABC article states both that Biden is “pacing ahead” of Trump, yet “he is not on track to outpace President Trump’s overall rate.
ABC does not break down the month-to-month appointments of each President to explain the meaning of this confusing sentence. The only sensible explanation of this is that Biden has appointed more judges at this point (February of Year 3) relative to where Trump was at February of Year 3 of his presidency, but, on a per month basis measured over the full length of Trump’s presidency (and on a pro rated portion of Biden’s presidency), Trump has a higher monthly appointment rate.
I would contend that the latter definition would be the generally accepted definition of “pacing.” Hence, I stand by my comment that calling failing to provide this context is “pretty misleading.” You can check the dictionary definition of “pacing” if you disagree.
Finally, a much more detailed article from around the same time period as your article provides much greater context for why Biden is unlikely to out-appoint Trump in the final years of his presidency. Some important context:
1. Pending Confirmations: Halfway through Trump’s presidency, there were 71 pending nominations, whereas Biden (through 2 years), had 53.
2. Senate Majority: GOP had a 53-47 edge in the 2019-2020 Senate. Dems have 51-49.
3. Limited Vacancies or Potential Vacancies: Biden’s 28 circuit court and district appointments are well short of Trump’s final numbers, and there are not a large number of over-80 circuit court judges likely to retire for the remainder of Biden’s term, nor are there many vacant district appointments in blue states.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/based-on-bidens-two-years-of-judicial-appointments-trumps-four-year-record-seems-secure/#:~:text=Biden's%20appointees%20increased%20his%20proportion,30%25%20of%20circuit%20judgeships.)
The judge is an Obama appointee, of course.
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
“I’ve often said the real villains in DOJs abusive prosecution of Trump, his allies, and his voters are the DC judges. And no one is more villainous than Beryl Howell, former chief judge appointed by Obama.
Almost all of her orders are under seal–so much so that she was mocked by her own colleagues during her send off in March for her secret rulings and hearings.
She claimed Trump’s Twitter records would reveal evidence of a crime so she ordered the company to produce the files while keeping her order secret from both the public and Trump.
A few of her greatest hit jobs:
She claimed Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, was used in furtherance of a crime (obstruction, lol) so she took the highly unusual step of piercing atty-client privilege between the former president and his attorney to force Corcoran to testify to DC grand jury and produce all of his comms with Trump related to classified documents case. (Her order remains under seal.)
She claimed security footage would show evidence of a crime so she approved subpoena for 9 months of video from Mar a Lago cameras from inside the former president’s home. (Also under seal.)
She denied exec privilege claims for Trump associates including Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller to compel them to testify to DC grand jury. (Order under seal, pending at appellate ct.)
She claimed Rep. Scott Perry’s phone, stolen by FBI agents a year ago, could have evidence of a crime so she denied his Speech and Debate Clause defense and ordered the phone’s contents turned over to DOJ. (Also on appeal.)
Her treatment of J6 defendants is grotesque. She authored a Feb 2021 opinion establishing special no-bail rules just for Trump supporters. She confronted prosecutors in 2021 demanding to know why they weren’t bringing harsher charges against J6ers.
The rot and corruption in our nation’s capital lies squarely in her courtroom. She’s not chief judge anymore but her legacy of destruction will last a very long time.”
____________________________________
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
“This is exactly why DOJ then Jack Smith conducted the entire classified docs case in DC. They knew Howell would sign off on whatever they wanted and keep the details under wraps.
As always, the ones shrieking about “rule of law” and “protecting democracy” are the ones destroying it.”
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
“My occasional reminder that the federal prosecutor in charge of DOJs public corruption unit when son of VP and stepson of Sec of State (John Kerry) were forming LLCs to vacuum up foreign $ was none other than Jack Smith.”
______________________________________
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_
“NEW: Bank records show Hunter Biden opened Rosemont Seneca Bohai in Delaware THE DAY BEFORE Russian oligarch Baturina wired $3.5 mil to Rosemont Seneca Thornton in 2014. Funds were then transferred to Bohai,which was a shell to help hide Russian payola to Bidens when Biden was VP.”
yikes! and yikes!
Yes, the people involved in not prosecuting the Biden’s and prosecuting Trump are the same people who have been close to the Biden’s forever.
One of the most fundimental differences between Trump and Biden is that Biden came into office with an ARMY of people with decades of involvment in government who were all dependent on each other for their power.
Of Course they protect each other.
Trump came into office with a great deal of experience managing organizations efficiently – but without a huge carde of loyal govenrment followers.
You do know that many of those involved int he collusion delusion or in investigating Hunter were also part of the FBI team that worked with Biden to push the false claim that Shokin was corrupt.
We have people who were implicitly complicit in at the very least turning a blind eye to what was going on now responsible for investigating what they were in the middle of and often turned a blind eye towards if not actively participated in .
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
“I mean, at what point do we call out the sick voyeurism of a DOJ and Special Counsel that raids the president’s home for 9 hours taking 13,000 items; watches 3 years worth of security video from inside his home; and reads his Twitter DMs?”
@julie_kelly2
2 Biden judges, one Obama judge uphold another Obama judge going after Trump.
🍌Republic
🍌Republic
🍌Republic
Now there I wuz…..thinking what the Left wants is to be rid of Donald Trump…..whatever got over me I wonder?
Would they not be tickled pink to see him disappearing over the horizon at warp speed leaving nothing but a trailing dust storm from his passage?
The one thing Trump is NOT….is a flight risk except for using his personal Jet Liner to conduct campaign events all around the Country,
At now we understand what the FBI seized his Passport during the illustrious Mar-a-Lago SWAT Team Raid by the small army of FBI Agents…..done no doubt to ensure he could not leave the Country as the FBI held his Passport.
The mind boggles at all of this.
Is this the what “justice” is about by the Garland DOJ?
Folks….we are a Nation run by Idiots when this passes for acceptable Judicial and Law Enforcement behavior and standards of conduct.
No, we are a nation being run by those who would turn us from a Republic into a Communist dictatorship, with the forever power that goes along with that.
Wow. This takes the cake.
Vote Trump2024 – twice.
FJB: Clever, clever, clever. I chuckled out loud.
Trump could perform a magic trick and pull a rabbit out of the hat.
Donald could go to North Korea and meet his best friend on a mission of peace. That’s right. Do a meeting with Glorious Supreme Dear Divine Leader Kim Jong Un.
After all, his Excellency and Dear Leader did exchange love letters.
Trump could deescalate tensions between NK & SK and gain the release of that US soldier who defected to NK.
Why?
George, Why?
Did he doubt or did he try? Answers aplenty in the bye and bye. Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills. One man gathers what another man spills.
All he’s lost he shall regain, Seashore washed by the suds and foam. Been here so long, he’s got to calling it home.
Spinnin that curious sense of your own. Can you answer? Yes I can. But what would be the answer to the answer man?
Who gives a —- about a felonious un-soldier, Walt?
Yet again, ad nauseum, the Radical Left has violated their precious playbook, i.e. Saul Alinsky’s 12 Rules for Radicals…
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
Former President Donald John Trump, the leading candidate for the Office of President of the United States, is deemed a flight risk by a Radical Left Barack Obama appointed Federal District Judge. Astounding and unbelievable.
This insane, myopic, all compelling obsession with destroying President Trump by any and all means possible is the Achilles Heel that is going to destroy the Deep State and guarantee President Trump’s re-election in 2024.
You define “radical left” as anyone who isn’t as far right as you.
We learned that play directly from you leftists !!!
The far right in this country is virtually non-existant.
The far left is much smaller with much less support than it beleives.
I hope you are right, but I believe they are so desperate to keep Trump out they will resort to Arkancide.
Why don’t they just cut out the preliminaries and declare Trump “An Enemy of the “State,” and immediately send out a wet work team to assassinate him? It’s what they truly want, as anyone can plainly observe. “Death by a Thousand Cuts” is only different in the amount of time it takes to achieve the goal.
I think the real goal is seeing Mr. Trump in prison as they get way more mileage from that event and they don’t turn Mr. Trump into a Conservative martyr. Yes, the left is that vulgar and evil.
RedDog,
Watching the polls, Trump could get convicted and sent to jail AND get elected for a second term!
That would be so much fun to watch our leftists friends have their collective meltdown.
I’m sure they’ve tried.
He couldn’t flee to Mars either. We have cameras there now!
Anonymous writes: “Because Trump has a bad habit of intimidating or threatening witnesses.”
However, you have no problem with arkanside, corruption, illegal guns, drugs, interstate prostitution, etc.
When has Trump been convicted of intimidating witnesses. What we have is judges and prosecutors flagrantly violating the law.
Comments by anonymous should not be read. Not even this reply.
You have omitted their favorite pasttime : PEDOPHILIA !!!
Why must Trump be “convicted of intimidating witnesses to justify the silent subpoena. Can you point to where in the text (or in subsequent case law) where such an artificially high bar has been set?
If that bar isn’t a legal requirement, why would civilian Trump get the benefit of a higher bar than Joe the Plumber?
TURLEY: “The lower court stated that ‘The district court found that there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump ‘would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ by giving him ‘an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates.” It is not clear how Trump would destroy the evidence in possession of Twitter, particularly after the company is informed that it must preserve and disclose the meta data.”
ANYONE WITH BASIC READING COMPREHENSION: “Where does it say the concern was destruction of evidence IN POSSESSION OF TWITTER? This is a man, who has repeatedly been found to destroy, hide, or move evidence of criminal activity in other contexts.”
Professor, with all due respect, why do you believe your readers are lacking in basic reading comprehension? Of course, Trump, with this information, may want to further destroy other communications he has had with Twitter or other social media sites, with this news.
Yet again, ad nauseum, the Radical Left has violated their precious playbook, i.e. Saul Alinsky’s 12 Rules for Radicals…
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
Former President Donald John Trump, the leading candidate for the Office of President of the United States, is deemed a flight risk by a Radical Left Barack Obama appointed Federal District Judge. Astounding and unbelievable.
This insane, myopic, all compelling obsession with destroying President Trump by any and all means possible is the Achilles Heel that is going to destroy the Deep State and guarantee President Trump’s re-election in 2024.
Is this a response to the post it is tagged under? It seems neither to address the topic, nor respond to anything remotely related to it. Although perhaps that fact provides context as to the limitations on Turley’s readership regarding reading comprehension skills.
Always enlightening to read Mr Turley’s column. The people can see what this administration is trying to do and We the People are bigger than the present gov’t. Its NOT working!
“. . . the subpoena was secret . . .”
In its manic desire to criminalize its leading political opponent, we now add secret subpoenas.
Can the Left get any more Soviet?
Once again, our leftist friends appear to be desperate with their various TDS posts.
And it is not even 1000EST.
The good professor must be on target.
Bravo!
They do sound scared.
These Democrat operatives are acting are like wild dogs on a meat truck. Maybe the Republicans should call Cesar Milan to calm these them down. These savage attacks on Trump have got to stop and Raymond Burr might the one to help if he were around. I guess the average taxpayer needs to take a shot of miraLax and hope all comes out with Mr Smith in D,C,
fascist DA, Fascist DOJ, Fascist Judge, Fascist Government
You all seem to be missing Prof. Turley’s main point in this piece—this latest ‘episode’ in the pursuit of Donald J. Trump with a view to preventing him from becoming President again is being either very well-orchestrated, or very poorly-orchestrated, by the DOJ and the White House — not by Joe Biden personally because his brain isn’t all there, but by those who control the levers of power —
Some of the initial comments here sound like they’re coming from MSNBC —
The WH isn’t involved.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. That was hilarious.
Biden is not a flight risk because he hasnt a clue of where he has been, where he is or where he is going. The DNC paid trolls on here, on the other hand, will ensure that the official narrative is copied/pasted until the server crashes or the moderator becomes a flight risk due to exhaustion from clean up duties
Hang in there Darren
😉
Do you have evidence of DNC paid trolls on here, or is that an inference you are making in your expert medical judgment?
THE FORENSICS IS IN… THIS PARTICULAR ‘ANONYMOUS’ FROM THE DARKSIDE, FORMERLY KNOWN AS ‘SVELAZ’ IS A PAID TROLL, ASSIGNED TO CLUTTER PROF. TURLEY’S BLOG WITH RADICAL LEFT GARBAGE COMMENTS… PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION, EVERYONE.
“Where would he go?”
Oh, maybe the UAE or Saudi Arabia. They’ll let him continue playing golf.