(EurekAlert) ITHACA, N.Y. – In a diverse society, attitudes and perspectives on police and policing vary based on lived experiences.
Research by social psychology doctoral student Mikaela Spruill and her adviser, Neil Lewis Jr., assistant professor of communication, revealed that referring to police using the legal phrase “objectively reasonable” puts the officer in a more favorable light, regardless of race.
Spruill and Lewis are co-authors of “Legal Descriptions of Police Officers Affect How Citizens Judge Them,” which published March 18 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
In trying to better understand the legal landscape, Spruill and Lewis came across a podcast about the Supreme Court, and an episode talking about the objective reasonableness standard that is applied in court proceedings about police use of force.
“We were both really intrigued,” said Spruill. “We both wondered how this legal standard may be having psychological effects that are shaping the way people are coming to these decisions.”
SAN FRANCISCO (Courthouse News) – The United States and Germany took down the world’s largest and longest-running online criminal marketplace Tuesday, as the U.S. indicted a Russian man accused of keeping the illegal sales hub running for almost seven years.
Hydra Market, which started operating on the encrypted and anonymous dark web in 2015, made up 80% of darknet sales and brought in about $5.2 billion in cryptocurrency, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Hydra’s servers were seized in Germany by police there Tuesday morning in coordination with U.S. law enforcement.
“The Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable those who violate our laws – no matter where they are located or how they try to hide their crimes,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Together with our German law enforcement partners, we have seized the infrastructure of the world’s largest darknet market, but our work is far from over.”
Hydra’s online criminal marketplace allowed users primarily from Russian-speaking nations to buy and sell illegal drugs, stolen financial data, fake IDs, money-laundering services and other illegal goods and services. Transactions were made using cryptocurrency like bitcoin, and Hydra’s operators received a cut for each transaction conducted on the platform.
“The Department of Justice will not allow darknet markets and cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering and the sale of hacking tools and services,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Our message should be clear: we will continue to go after darknet markets and those who exploit them. Together with our partners in Germany and around the world, we will continue our work to disrupt the ecosystem that allows these criminal actors to operate.”
Latinos Believe in Better Ways to Improve Safety Than Funding Police
by Hector Luis Alamo
May 17, 2022
Introduction:
(Latino Rebels) Almost all Latinos believe there are better ways to make their communities safer than simply funding police departments, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by Mijente and other groups.
In “Futuro y Esperanza: Latinx Perspectives on Policing and Safety,” 93 percent of the Latinos surveyed believe that making their communities safer requires “investing money in things that prevent crime from happening in the first place, such as good schools, access to good-paying jobs, and affordable housing, instead of just funding police to respond to it.”
Most Latinos (62 percent) also say they or a loved one have had negative or even “unsafe” experiences with police, though the prevalence of such experiences varies across race, class, and gender.
While 52 percent of all Latino respondents said they have been stopped by the police, the rate increases to 67 percent for Afro-Latino and drops to 51 percent for Latinos who identify as white. The experience was more common among Latinos in the Midwest and West, in non-urban areas, and also among multiracial Latinos compared to white Latinos.
“Forty-four percent (44%) of Afro-Latinxs say a police officer has been aggressive with them, versus 19% of respondents who identify as white,” write the authors.
'Perverse' Supreme Court Ruling 'Effectively Ensures That Innocent People Will Remain Imprisoned'
By Jessica Corbett
May 23, 2022
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Legal experts responded with alarm Monday to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority that could lead to the indefinite imprisonment and even execution of people who argue their lawyers didn't provide adequate representation after convictions in state court.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor—joined by the other two liberals on the court—also blasted the majority opinion in Shinn v. Martinez Ramirez, writing in her scathing dissent that the decision is both "perverse" and "illogical."
The case involved two men, David Martinez Ramirez and Barry Lee Jones, who are on death row in Arizona. The majority determined that inmates can't present new evidence in federal court to support a claim that their post-conviction attorney in state court was ineffective, in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which affirms the right to "the assistance of counsel" in all criminal prosecutions.
"A federal habeas court may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or otherwise consider evidence beyond the state court record based on ineffective assistance of state post-conviction counsel," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, adding that "serial relitigation of final convictions undermines the finality that 'is essential to both the retributive and deterrent functions of criminal law.'"
Sotomayor, meanwhile, wrote that "the Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to the effective assistance of counsel at trial. This court has recognized that right as 'a bedrock principle' that constitutes the very 'foundation for our adversary system' of criminal justice."
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
Nonprofit Helps Former Inmate Firefighters Get Jobs by Eden Stiffman
June 2, 2022
Introduction:
( The Chronicle of Philanthropy via Fire Engineering) For years California, Florida, Oregon, Washington, and other states have relied on incarcerated men and women to fight wildfires. They are trained to perform grueling work while earning just a few dollars, sometimes as little as $2 a day.
Incarcerated workers who serve as volunteer firefighters help contain and combat blazes as wildfires have become more frequent and intense while the U.S. Forest Service has struggled with staffing shortages due in part to low pay. Now a nonprofit group – with help from foundations and others – is helping incarcerated people who have been trained as firefighters secure careers in the profession once they leave prison.
Navigating the hurdles to a steady firefighting job isn’t easy. Brandon Smith knows those challenges firsthand. In 2012, he was at Wasco State Prison, near Bakersfield, Calif., about eight months into his sentence for nonviolent charges, when his prison counselor suggested he move to a fire camp. He would be able to live there and learn to fight fires while earning the same certifications as California’s seasonal firefighters.
At Bautista Conservation Camp in Riverside County, Smith came to love firefighting. It was one of the first times he was out in nature, and he was good at what he did. He became the leader of his hand crew, wielding a chainsaw at the front of a team that cut back flammable brush and trees to create perimeters that contain fires.
“When you’re incarcerated, you have this stigma of being a public nuisance, but being a firefighter provided an opportunity for me to give back to the community and also give myself a sense of pride,” Smith said. “It was something that I wanted to continue as a way of giving back to the community once I came home.”
The Alternative to Police That Is Proven to Reduce Violence by Samantha Michaels
June 7, 2022
Introduction:
(MotherJones) Roy Sapp had just gotten to work at the Rock Bar in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood when he heard a man shouting outside. It was a Tuesday afternoon in October, and the man, middle-aged and thin with stained gray sweatpants, flailed his arms as he ranted at no one in particular. Sapp wondered if the guy was experiencing a mental health crisis or if he was high: A crack pipe and a meth pipe lay on the ground where he’d been standing. Suddenly, the man threw himself onto an SUV that was driving slowly down the block. “Get out of here, kids!” he yelled after scrambling back onto his feet, blocking traffic. “I’m not gonna hurt anyone!”
Sapp, then 60, looked on in concern. Born just down the street, he had lived in the neighborhood his entire life. Until recently, he had spent decades addicted to drugs, and now he was missing some teeth and one of his eyes. One year sober, he wished he could help the man raving outside, but he didn’t want to dial 911. “I always see people like him and don’t call,” he told me later, as we stood outside the bar. “I don’t want to call the cops on somebody and have them locked up. That’s normally what happens.”
Sapp hadn’t realized that if he had made the call, it wouldn’t necessarily have been the police who would have shown up. After the George Floyd protests shook the country in 2020, San Francisco started redirecting these sorts of 911 calls to paramedics and trained behavioral health workers. The city’s new Street Crisis Response Team, which responds to unarmed adults in crisis from mental illness, substance use, or homelessness, tries to reduce interactions between the public and the police, to prevent officers from reacting violently to people in these situations.
Nationwide, cops fatally shoot hundreds of people experiencing mental health emergencies every year. The city’s crisis responders, by contrast, don’t carry weapons. And they don’t have law enforcement backgrounds: Each three-person team includes a Fire Department paramedic, a behavioral health specialist, and a peer support counselor…
Did the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 Bring Down Mass Shootings? by Michale J. Klein
June 10, 2022
Introduction:
(The Conversation) A spate of high-profile mass shootings in the U.S. has sparked calls for Congress to look at imposing a ban on so-called assault weapons – covering the types of guns used in both the recent Buffalo grocery attack and that on an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Such a prohibition has been in place before. As President Joe Biden noted in his June 2, 2022, speech addressing gun violence, almost three decades ago bipartisan support in Congress helped push through a federal assault weapons ban in 1994, as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
That ban was limited – it covered only certain categories of semi-automatic weapons such as AR-15s and applied to a ban on sales only after the act was signed into law, allowing people to keep hold of weapons purchased before that date. And it also had in it a so-called “sunset provision” that allowed the ban to expire in 2004.
Nonetheless, the 10-year life span of that ban – with a clear beginning and end date – gives researchers the opportunity to compare what happened with mass shooting deaths before, during and after the prohibition was in place. Our group of injury epidemiologists and trauma surgeons did just that. In 2019, we published a population-based study analyzing the data in a bid to evaluate the effect that the federal ban on assault weapons had on mass shootings, defined by the FBI as a shooting with four or more fatalities, not including the shooter. Here’s what the data shows: (see linked article)
Further extract:
During the 1994-2004 ban:
In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the number of deaths from mass shootings fell, and the increase in the annual number of incidents slowed down. Even including 1999’s Columbine High School massacre – the deadliest mass shooting during the period of the ban – the 1994 to 2004 period saw lower average annual rates of both mass shootings and deaths resulting from such incidents than before the ban’s inception.
caltrek’s comment: So, if Democrats are so much softer and ineffective on crime than answer me this: why is that the assault weapons ban was enacted when the Democrats were in power and allowed to lapse without being re-extended when the Republicans were in power?
Denver Deployed Mental Health Workers Instead of Police—and Some Crimes Went Down by Samantha Michaels
June 12, 2022
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Over the past couple of years, many cities have started dispatching mental health clinicians in response to certain 911 calls instead of the cops. One of the main goals behind this strategy is to reduce police killings of people who are experiencing mental health crises—and as I’ve written previously, that’s been fairly successful, since the health clinicians aren’t armed like law enforcement are. Now, a new study in Denver suggests the strategy might be making cities safer in another way: by reducing crime.
The study, published in Science Advances (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm2106#con1), examined the results of Denver’s new Support Team Assistance Response (STAR) program, which sends mental health clinicians and paramedics to 911 calls involving people who aren’t violent but are accused of things like public intoxication, indecent exposure, trespassing, and drug use. The program launched as a pilot in June 2020, as people around the country were protesting the murder of George Floyd. Over the next six months, the clinicians responded to 748 incidents.
To get a sense of how this affected crime, Stanford researchers Thomas Dee and Jaymes Pyne examined police data across the city—in neighborhoods where the STAR responders worked and in neighborhoods where they didn’t, both before the pilot program started and in the months afterward. Reports of many lower-level crimes—things like trespassing—dropped by about 34 percent in the neighborhoods where STAR responders worked compared with the neighborhoods where they didn’t. Over six months, that meant a reduction of nearly 1,400 reported criminal offenses.
Some of that change can be explained by the fact that police weren’t responding to so many of these calls anymore—the medical workers were—which meant that even if there were a low-level crime taking place, the cops wouldn’t be there to record it in their data and arrest the person. But not all of the change can be explained by that fact. The researchers believe that a fairly significant chunk of the reduction in reported crimes was due to a drop in actual crime.
In 'Dangerous Decision,' Supreme Court Guts Protection of Miranda Rights by Julia Conley
June 23, 2022
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Legals experts warned law enforcement agencies will have "zero incentive" to ensure that a person being arrested is read their Miranda rights after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed down a ruling the ACLU characterized as a "dangerous" assault on long-established protections.
Ruling in the case of Vega vs. Tekoh, the majority decided that people cannot sue an officer under Section 1983, a key federal civil rights enforcement law, for not informing them of their right to remain silent and other protections under the Miranda statute.
To protect people's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, officers are required to inform suspects of their rights as soon as they are taken into custody.
While those rights are still intact, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck told CNN, the 6-3 ruling effectively guts the law.
"Today's ruling doesn't get rid of the Miranda right," Vladeck said. "But it does make it far harder to enforce. Under this ruling, the only remedy for a violation of Miranda is to suppress statements obtained from a suspect who's not properly advised of his right to remain silent. But if the case never goes to trial, or if the government never seeks to use the statement, or if the statement is admitted notwithstanding the Miranda violation, there's no remedy at all for the government's misconduct."
Algorithm Predicts Crime a Week in Advance, but Reveals Bias in Police Response
June 30, 2022
Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have sparked interest from governments that would like to use these tools for predictive policing to deter crime. Early efforts at crime prediction have been controversial, however, because they do not account for systemic biases in police enforcement and its complex relationship with crime and society.
Data and social scientists from the University of Chicago have developed a new algorithm that forecasts crime by learning patterns in time and geographic locations from public data on violent and property crimes. The model can predict future crimes one week in advance with about 90% accuracy.
In a separate model, the research team also studied the police response to crime by analyzing the number of arrests following incidents and comparing those rates among neighborhoods with different socioeconomic status. They saw that crime in wealthier areas resulted in more arrests, while arrests in disadvantaged neighborhoods dropped. Crime in poor neighborhoods didn’t lead to more arrests, however, suggesting bias in police response and enforcement.
“What we’re seeing is that when you stress the system, it requires more resources to arrest more people in response to crime in a wealthy area and draws police resources away from lower socioeconomic status areas,” said Ishanu Chattopadhyay, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at UChicago and senior author of the new study, which was published this week in Nature Human Behavior.
The tool was tested and validated using historical data from the City of Chicago around two broad categories of reported events: violent crimes (homicides, assaults, and batteries) and property crimes (burglaries, thefts, and motor vehicle thefts). These data were used because they were most likely to be reported to police in urban areas where there is historical distrust and lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Such crimes are also less prone to enforcement bias, as is the case with drug crimes, traffic stops, and other misdemeanor infractions.
Department of Justice Asks Court to Unseal Trump Search Warrant by Josh Kovensky
August 11, 2022
Introduction:
(Talking Points Memo) The Justice Department moved Thursday to unseal the search warrant that lead to the unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, absent any complaints from former President Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
The DOJ wants to reveal the property receipt that Trump received for records that were taken, along with a copy of the warrant itself. Garland said that the DOJ would also seek the release of two attachments to the warrant, though its not clear what those are.
It’s not clear whether an affidavit laying out to the magistrate judge the reasons for the search will be released. That document typically contains the most detailed and comprehensive version of the government’s case in a given investigation.
Garland’s statement was narrow and tailored to focus on the circumstances that led him to decide to push for the release of elements of the warrant. Trump, he remarked, had chosen on Monday to disclose the existence of the searches, and currently possesses a copy of the search warrant and of the receipt.
“The public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,” the filing reads.
Unsealed Court Documents Show the FBI Was Looking for Evidence Trump Violated the Espionage Act and Other Laws by Clark D. Cunningham
August 9, 2022
Introduction:
(The Conversation) The FBI recovered confidential and top-secret items from Mar-a-Lago during its Aug. 8, 2022, search of the estate – pointing to former President Donald Trump’s potential violation of several federal laws.
A Florida federal judge – the same one who issued the warrant to search Trump’s estate – ordered on Aug. 12, 2022, that the document be made public – along with an inventory of items seized during the FBI’s raid.
The unsealed documents seem to indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice believes Trump may have violated the Espionage Act, as well as other criminal laws relating to the handling of public records.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Lawsuit Spotlights How Difficult Search Warrants are to Challenge – by a Criminal Suspect or an Ex-president – Until Charges are Brought by Clark D. Cunningham
August 23 , 2022
Introduction:
(The Conversation) Some observers say that the lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump on Aug. 22, 2022, challenging the FBI’s recent search of his Mar-a-Lago estate is “filled with bombastic complaints” and will “blow up in his face.”
I am a legal scholar who is an expert on the various Trump investigations and the constitutional protections against wrongful searches.
I think it is important to recognize that Trump’s lawsuit raises a very serious point: Current federal law does not provide good procedures to protect the rights of people subjected to a search warrant.
Federal law’s limits on searches
The Constitution protects “the right of the people to be secure in their houses and papers” and requires that search warrants must “particularly describe” the place to be searched and the things to be seized.
Trump’s lawsuit asserts that these Constitutional protections were violated both by the broad language of the search warrant and the way it has been carried out by the FBI.
Insider-Only Hiring of Police Chiefs May Violate Civil Rights Law, Officials Say by Christine Willmsen
August 26, 2022
Introduction:
(ProPublica) Both U.S. senators from Massachusetts criticized local bans on hiring outsiders as police chiefs, while the top federal law enforcement official in the state said that the restrictions may violate civil rights law.
U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said that requiring police chiefs to be hired from within their departments is “problematic” and “ridiculous.” Such rules may limit the diversity of the candidate pool, she said.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged state and local officials to “address these pressing civil rights concerns” and lift “harmful policies that have only made it more difficult for women and people of color to take on leadership roles.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said that “excluding outside candidates from consideration for key public positions is not a good idea.” An ordinance in the Boston suburb of Revere “should be reexamined to ensure all qualified candidates, internal and external, get a fair shot in an inclusive hiring process,” she said.
Rollins, Markey and Warren were reacting to a recent WBUR and ProPublica investigation of the police chief in Revere and the circumstances that led to his selection. Revere and another suburb, Waltham, have had ordinances for more than two decades that ban hiring an outside candidate as chief.
'Huge Win' for Civil Liberties as Judge Blocks Arizona Law Limiting Filming of Police by Brett Wilkins
September 9, 2022
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Civil libertarians on Friday applauded as a federal judge blocked enforcement of an Arizona law restricting how people can film police officers after agreeing that the legislation is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi granted a preliminary injunction sought by the ACLU of Arizona and media outlets on the grounds that H.B. 2319 violates their First Amendment rights.
The law—which was passed by Arizona's Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Doug Ducey in July—outlaws recording police at a distance of closer than eight feet if the officer verbally objects. It also empowers police officers to order people to stop filming them on private property, even if the property owner consents to the recording.
"Today's ruling is an incredible win for our First Amendment rights and will allow Arizonans to continue to hold police accountable," ACLU of Arizona staff attorney K.M. Bell said in a statement.
"At a time when recording law enforcement interactions is one of the best tools to hold police accountable, we should be working to protect this vital right—not undermine it," they added. "H.B. 2319 is a blatant attempt to prohibit people from exercising their constitutional right to record police in public and we're glad to see the court take action to stop it from going into effect."
I sometimes wonder what it is that motivates extremists like Steve Bannon. Perhaps this article has some clues.
Steve Bannon Claims Money Laundering, Conspiracy Arrest was 'One of the Best Days of My Life' by Meaghan Ellis
September 10, 2022
Introduction:
(Alternet) Steve Bannon, a former White House advisor for Donald Trump, recently revealed the day he was arrested on money laundering and conspiracy charges was actually "one of the best days" of his life.
On Friday, September 9, Bannon recalled his arrest during the latest episode of his podcast. Back in 2021, Bannon was arrested on money laundering and conspiracy in connection with a financial plot involving the "We Build the Wall" fundraising effort.
Speaking to conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Bannon said, "It was a very powerful, spiritual day for me. A lot of things came into high clarity."
Bannon went on to describe that day as "one of the best days of my life."
"I was totally in the zone — as you say in sports — the entire time," he continued, "They're not gonna shut me up."
caltrek’s comment: Of course, the irony is that the laundering and conspiracy charges were brought to protect people who contributed to Bannon’s build the wall crusade. Their continued support of Bannon is perhaps a good example of false consciousness on steroids.
California Could Give More Than a Million People with Criminal Records a Fresh Start by Rachel M. Cohen
September 9, 2022
Introduction:
(Vox) Encounters with the criminal justice system, no matter how long ago or for what reason, can ruin a person’s life. California is on the verge of an ambitious attempt to change that.
An estimated 70 million to 100 million Americans have a criminal record, a history with law enforcement that turns up on background checks and sometimes Google searches. Applicants with criminal records can be half as likely as those without them to get a callback or job offer. Nearly 9 in 10 employers use criminal background checks; so do 4 in 5 landlords, and 3 in 5 colleges and universities. These practical realities make it harder to successfully reintegrate into society, in what researchers call “collateral consequences” of mass incarceration.
Most states have laws allowing for some form of criminal record clearing. Eligible individuals — generally those with no convictions, or who were convicted of a low-level offense — are typically required to petition a judge or state agency for clearance. Most don’t, whether because of the cost, complexity, or simply from lack of information. One University of Michigan study published in 2019 found over 90 percent of those eligible didn’t apply.
As a result, the “Clean Slate” movement was born — a recent push by criminal justice reformers to automatically clear, or seal from public view, records for eligible offenses.
Further extract:
Under SB 731, while landlords and most employers would not be able to view expunged records, public and private schools would still be able to review them during job background checks. Law enforcement, courts, and the state justice department would also still have access to the sealed records, and individuals would be required to disclose their criminal history if asked about it when applying to serve in a public office, among other exceptions. And the law would not apply to sex offenders.
A Private Policing Company in St. Louis Is Staffed With Top Police Department Officers by Jeremy Kohler
September 9, 2022
Introduction:
(ProPublica) he biggest private policing company in St. Louis is a who’s who of city police commanders, supervisors and lower-ranking officers.
Among the roughly 200 St. Louis police officers whose names appeared earlier this year on an internal list of officers who had sought and received approval from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to moonlight for The City’s Finest were four of the six district commanders who hold the rank of captain. The list, obtained by ProPublica through a public records request, also included two of the department’s highest-ranking officers, Maj. Ryan Cousins, who oversees the department’s murder, rape and arson investigations, and Maj. Shawn Dace, who oversees South Patrol, which includes two districts. It’s not clear if all of those officers currently work for The City’s Finest.
Dace and the four captains, through the department, declined to comment.
Many of the city’s wealthier — and predominantly white — neighborhoods hire off-duty city police officers from companies like The City’s Finest to supplement patrols by the department, an arrangement that creates disparities in how the city is protected. That many top officers moonlight for a private company that exists to shore up the department’s crime-fighting shortcomings suggests deep troubles, experts said.
Peter Joy, a professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said there would be less demand for The City’s Finest and other companies if the police department was more effective.
Legal Analyst Indicates Unsealed Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Shows Donald Trump 'Did Play a Role' in Hiding Documents by David Badash
September 13, 2022
Introduction:
(Alternet) A federal magistrate judge responding to a U.S. Dept. of Justice request Tuesday afternoon further unsealed the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago on August 8.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, on MSNBC, says the additional information appears to confirm that Donald Trump likely played a role in instructing his attorney, who ultimately certified there were no classified documents remaining at Mar-a-Lago, before federal agents entered the Trump resort and retrieved more than 100 classified and top secret documents.
“This does in large part make the information that’s been revealed consistent between the D.C. and the Florida investigations,” Vance, a professor of law, told Nicolle Wallace.
Vance suggested that the newly revealed information appears to confirm that Trump was at least involved in the events that led his attorney to tell DOJ there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
“If there’s one takeaway here and Nicole, and it’s not certain, but there’s more of an implication in this newly released information that the former president did play a role in the provision of information about documents to whoever the lawyer who certified this information to the Justice Department,” Vance surmised.
