DoJ Asserts in Court Filing That Trump Has No Idea What He's Tweeting About

[bigtree]

Occupy Wall Street @OccupyWallStNYC 15m15 minutes ago
Yes, the US Justice Department just filed court documents arguing that Trump has no idea what he’s talking about. https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/us-justice-department-just-filed-court-documents-arguing-trump-no-idea-hes-talking/ …

One of the most popular arguments on the right to excuse President Donald Trump from wrongdoing ahead of any findings from the Russia investigation is to claim that the investigation itself is corrupt — and these arguments typically center on the idea, with no evidence whatsoever, that the FBI lied to the judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court when pursuing a warrant to probe Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump himself has made this claim on Twitter, saying that “the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon” for “the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,” and that “the DOJ, FBI and Obama Gang need to be held to account” because they “Misled the Court to provide a pretext to SPY on the Trump Team.” And he even recklessly moved to declassify sensitive documents surrounding the surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, in the attempt to try to prove this misconduct.

But Trump is wrong. And in fact, he is so stunningly wrong that his own lawyers with the Department of Justice had to take the extraordinary step of saying, in a filing to the D.C. District Court for a Freedom of Information Act case, that Trump essentially has no idea what he’s talking about on FISA classification, and that what he says on Twitter cannot be presumed to be evidence of anything:

Brad Heath @bradheath
The Justice Department says in a new court filing that when it comes to FISA declassifciation, President Trump doesn't know what he's tweeting about.



Brad Heath @bradheath
Also DOJ: When President Trump quotes somebody on Twitter accusing his government of wrongdoing, that "cannot be assumed to be his confirmation of the media reporting based on government information, and it is not evidence of government misconduct." pic.twitter.com/mm38j6qtuR
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5:49 PM - Nov 30, 2018



Brad Heath @bradheath
DOJ also says that when President Trump comments on national security matters on Twitter, that doesn't mean his statements are accurate, or that he has any personal knowledge that they are correct.



Brad Heath @bradheath
DOJ's argument that the president shouldn't be presumed to know what he's talking about is a pretty remarkable one, and it's not one I'd seen the government make before 2017. Now there's a fair amount of caselaw on it.
5:56 PM - Nov 30, 2018

[Iliyah]

1. OMG, I hope this does not fly. . .

DOJ protecting shithole 1 and shithole 2 (Putin).

Get these people out of our country!

[Cirque du So-What]

3. I don't see that at all

Sounds more like, 'pay no mind to drivel emanating from this full-of-shit turkey.'

[bigtree]

4. there is a bit of an issue I can see

...of whether his tweets represent his actual views, or more consequential, if they should be considered official statements from the president.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. Seems to delegitimize tweets

as nothing more than musings from a madman. As it should be. Twitter is not a fit platform for official communications - especially in light of fuckstick's refusal to give up unsecure devices.

[bigtree]

8. that it does

...I'd be comfortable with the courts pushing back on those assertions, even though they're properly defending their use of the FISA process of obtaining warrants in the Russia investigation.

Where has there been made room in the past for a president to 'muse' in public without accountability?

Remember, the courts already took his tweets and public statement into account when deciding a couple of immigration cases.

[tymorial]

2. So the DOJ's argument

Is that the President, head of the executive branch and commander in chief of our armed forces, is unaware of the truth of information he states and writes? He may be uninformed on matters of national security and signed law (both of which he has sworn to protect) and instead of investigating the veracity of his information he proceeds on assumption?

Unbelievable.

[Volaris]

6. '...and that what he says on Twitter, cannot be presumed to be evidence of anything.'

'...and is not evidence of governmental misconduct.'

Ahahahahhahaha!

what nonsense. 6 months ago, the WH staff was trying to argue that Twitter is the means by which this president officially communicates with the nation.

That's like arguing that bill Clinton could not possibly have lied about getting a blowjob, on the grounds that he actually had no idea what a blowjob really was.

Lock this fool the fuck up and then disbarr his lawyers just on general principal.

[Iliyah]

7. Tweets . . . and then actual spoken words on tv?

Which emulates each other? This complaint is total bullshit. Our justice systems sucks.