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CENTCOM Commander Who Oversaw Afghanistan Pullout Blames Biden and Trump

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Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, who oversaw the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as commander of U.S. Central Command, placed blame on both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for how the war ended in an interview Sunday.

McKenzie made the comments in a wide-ranging discussion with defense journalist Jennifer Griffin on Fox News Sunday about the end to the nation’s longest war and the fallout from it. McKenzie, who retired in April after 42 years of service, was asked about Biden and Trump individually. He reiterated that he opposed a complete military exit from the failed state, arguing to Griffin after she asked about the chaotic August withdrawal that the decision to eliminate any troop presence was largely responsible for what went wrong.

“Subsequently, after we made the decision to go to zero, the decision to try to maintain an embassy platform until far too late contributed also to what happened in August,” McKenzie said. “Those are, I think, two of the big decisions that led us to the events that you just described.”

Asked if Trump’s Doha Agreement, the U.S.-Taliban withdrawal deal, was responsible for the collapse of the Afghan government, McKenzie offered his most pointed criticism of both commanders-in-chief. (Read more from “CENTCOM Commander Who Oversaw Afghanistan Pullout Blames Biden and Trump” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Judge Might Grant Something ‘Special’ for Trump Following FBI Raid

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. . .It seems the core of this raid was to warn the former president not to run again in 2024 and that they want some documents back, papers which Trump quite possibly was allowed to possess.

Spencer wrote that Trump wanted a “special master” to review the seized records, which isn’t an abnormal motion. Trump also wants to prevent federal agents from reviewing the documents until a special master is appointed. A federal judge granted a premilitary motion to do just that on Saturday (via Fox News):

A federal judge on Saturday announced her “preliminary intent to appoint a special master” to review records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, at the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the “exceptional circumstances.”

Trump and his legal team filed a motion Monday evening seeking an independent review of the records seized by the FBI during its raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, saying the decision to search his private residence just months before the 2022 midterm elections “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.”

(Read more from “Judge Might Grant Something ‘Special’ for Trump Following FBI Raid” HERE)

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Biden Uses the F-Word to Describe MAGA Republicans

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This week, President Joe Biden rolled out a new adjective to describe Republicans in the mold of former President Donald Trump: “semifascist.”

Biden first publicly used the term at a Democratic National Committee reception ahead of an end-of-summer rally for the coming midterm elections.

While exuding confidence that the forces of democracy were defeating the Trump Republicans, on the heels of recent Democratic momentum, Biden warned that “the entire philosophy that underpins” their politics is “almost like semifascism, the way in which it deals.”

Despite the “almost,” “like,” and “semi” qualifiers, it was a major rhetorical escalation from Biden.

Biden has long suggested that Trump’s political movement was anti-democratic, especially following the former president’s 2020 election challenges, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College results, and the enactment of Republican voting laws in several GOP-run states. (Read more from “Biden Uses the F-Word to Describe MAGA Republicans” HERE)

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Here’s What We Still Don’t Know After Release of Redacted FBI Trump Raid Affidavit

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Friday’s unsealing of the affidavit tied to the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate has raised more questions than answers.

West Palm Beach US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhardt had ordered the Justice Department earlier in the week to prepare a redacted version of the document in which authorities laid out their reasons for the controversial Aug. 8 search-and-seizure operation at Mar-a-Lago. . .

Reports have said an informant tipped off authorities about official documents that remained in Trump’s possession even though they were supposed to have been turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration when he left office last year. . .

The blacked-out-affidavit doesn’t provide any new details about the 11 sets of classified records seized during the raid, but it alleges that 14 of the 15 boxes of records recovered from Trump’s West Palm Beach mansion earlier this year contained classified documents. . .

The blacked-out affidavit doesn’t reveal the targets or subjects of the Justice Department probe, but anyone who allegedly moved or hid classified records could face prosecution, according to USA Today. (Read more from “Here’s What We Still Don’t Know After Release of Redacted FBI Trump Raid Affidavit” HERE)

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Donald Trump Trolls FBI With Redacted ‘Make America Great Again’ Statement: ‘They Missed a Page!’

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Former President Donald Trump mocked the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) heavily redacted search warrant affidavit that was used as the basis for the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

DOJ released the affidavit on Friday after Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the search warrant, ordered the underlying affidavit to be unsealed on Thursday. However, the released affidavit was heavily redacted after Judge Reinhart found the federal government provided “good cause” to keep portions of the document under seal.

The redactions were put in place “in order to protect the safety of multiple civilian witnesses,” according to a DOJ filing.

Trump mocked the highly redacted document in a statement issued several hours after the affidavit was released.

“They missed a page,” Trump said, along with an edited version of the document that redacted all but four words: Make America Great Again.

(Read more from “Donald Trump Trolls FBI With Redacted ‘Make America Great Again’ Statement: ‘They Missed a Page!’” HERE)

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DOJ Redacts Reasons for Redacting Info in Mar-a-Lago Raid Affidavit

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) redacted its reasoning for redacting nearly the entire search warrant affidavit relating to the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

The DOJ released the highly redacted affidavit Friday after Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the agency to submit redactions to the affidavits following his rejection of their push to keep the document private. Reinhart — who also signed off on the search warrant used in the FBI’s raid — approved the redactions Thursday.

The DOJ, however, redacted its reasoning for the redactions while simultaneously attempting to justify the raid.

The only justification not redacted is “agent safety,” while every other reason for the redactions is redacted.

(Read more from “DOJ Redacts Reasons for Redacting Info in Mar-A-Lago Raid Affidavit” HERE)

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Here’s the Woman Who Launched the FBI Ransacking of Mar-a-Lago

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By Townhall. . .The latest development in this legal fiasco is Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall’s role in the document retrieval, where she seems to be one of the leading figures who triggered the FBI raid. As Tom Elliott of Grabien clipped, Trump honored this woman during his presidency, which he cited as a failure on the former president’s part for not draining the swamp (via WaPo):

Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall also notified Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran that the agency would provide the FBI access to 15 boxes of materials in order to investigate “whether those records were handled in an unlawful manner” and conduct an assessment to determine if any damage might have resulted from the improper handling of materials, according to the May 10 letter.

[…]

“As the Department of Justice’s National Security Division explained to you on April 29, 2022: ‘There are important national security interests in the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community getting access to these materials. According to NARA, among the materials in the boxes are over 100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages. Some include the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials,’” Steidel Wall wrote.

The FBI removed an additional 20 boxes of items from the Mar-a-Lago Club earlier this month, including four sets of top-secret documents and seven other sets of classified information, according to a written inventory of the items seized in the high-profile search of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.

(Read more from “Here’s the Woman Who Launched the FBI Ransacking of Mar-a-Lago” HERE)

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Judge Gives Trump Until Friday to Clarify Request for Special Master on Records Seized by FBI

By The Hill. A federal judge on Tuesday responded to former President Trump’s lawsuit requesting a special master to review the documents collected by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago residence, giving Trump a Friday deadline to clarify his request.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order for Trump to elaborate on how the court has jurisdiction and precisely what he wants the court to order in the case.

She also asked Trump’s team to provide more details on whether it served the Department of Justice (DOJ) with the suit and on the lawsuit’s effect on another proceeding determining if parts of the affidavit that supported the search warrant should be released.

The request was one of two brief orders filed on Tuesday by Cannon, who was nominated to the position by Trump in 2020. She also issued a separate one asking two of his attorneys to correctly format and resubmit their motions to appear pro hac vice, which allow lawyers to appear in courts in which they are not admitted for a particular case. (Read more from “Judge Gives Trump Until Friday to Clarify Request for Special Master on Records Seized by FBI” HERE)

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More Lies? Biden Insists He Had ‘Zero’ Prior Notice of FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid

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President Joe Biden broke his silence Wednesday on the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s home. . .

“I didn’t have any advance notice. None. Zero,” Biden said, raising his hand to make a circle with his finger and thumb. “Not one single bit.” . . .

At the time, Biden officials speaking to media outlets repeated that no one in the White House had advance notice of the raid. . .

Recently uncovered correspondence with Trump’s attorneys and members of Biden’s legal team show that Biden’s then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su waived Trump’s claim of executive privilege surrounding documents in the president’s possession.

That suggests that while some of Biden’s legal staffers might not have known about the specifics of the raid, they could have known about the effect their actions would have on the ongoing FBI investigation. (Read more from “More Lies? Biden Insists He Had ‘Zero’ Prior Notice of FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid” HERE)

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‘GREAT CANDIDATES’: Trump Celebrates ‘All Wins’ After Sarcastically Endorsing Dems

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Former President Donald Trump celebrated “ALL WINS” from his favorites in primary races on Tuesday evening – a tongue-in-cheek statement that may have included his sarcastic “endorsements” of Democrats.

The former president, who endorsed a handful of candidates in the 2022 midterm season, gushed about the wins on his social platform Truth Social.

“Looks like a fantastic evening of ALL WINS – Great Candidates!!!” Trump wrote Tuesday evening.

He later added: “26 and 0 tonight, turning numerous tight races into big and easy wins. Overall for last 4 years, 98.4% on Endorsements!”

Trump had jokingly endorsed Democratic candidates such as Dan Goldman, who won his New York primary on Tuesday night. “It is my great honor to Strongly Endorse him,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last week. (Read more from “‘GREAT CANDIDATES’: Trump Celebrates ‘All Wins’ After Sarcastically Endorsing Dems” HERE)

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Trump Sues FBI Over Mar-a-Lago Raid; Report: Documents Show Biden White House Involvement in Trump Criminal Probe; But Joe Said ’No Advanced Knowledge’!?

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By New York Post. Former President Donald Trump filed a motion Monday demanding federal investigators stop going through material seized from his Mar-a-Lago mansion earlier this month until a neutral special master could be appointed to review the records.

The 27-page filing in Florida federal court also asked for the federal government to provide more detail about what was seized in the Aug. 8 raid on the 45th president’s Palm Beach estate and demanded the Justice Department return any item not covered by the search warrant.

“We are now demanding that the Department of ‘Justice’ be instructed to immediately STOP the review of documents illegally seized from my home. ALL documents have been previously declassified,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform soon after the motion was filed.

The former president went on to call the FBI’s raid an “unnecessary, unwarranted, and unAmerican break-in” that violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The filing, which is the first by Trump’s side since the raid, suggests the FBI search was politically motivated – calling it a “shockingly aggressive move” that was undertaken with “no understanding of the distress that it would cause most Americans.” (Read more from “Trump Sues FBI Over Mar-a-Lago Raid” HERE)

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Report: Documents Show Biden White House Involvement in Trump Criminal Probe; But Joe Said ’No Advanced Knowledge’!?

By Breitbart. President Joe Biden’s White House was intimately involved in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal probe into former President Donald Trump, according to government documents reviewed by Just The News.

Several correspondences between Trump’s attorneys and members of the Biden administration revealed that the federal government appeared poised to waive Trump’s claims of executive privilege over documents that Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago until earlier this year.

As Just The News reported:

The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.

By May, Su conveyed to the Archives that President Joe Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for DOJ to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena compelling Trump to turn over any remaining materials he possessed from his presidency.

(Read more from “Report: Documents Show Biden White House Involvement in Trump Criminal Probe; But Joe Said ’No Advanced Knowledge’!?” HERE)

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