What shocks me is that no one on the transition team knew their emails could be "seized"

[Hamlette]

As an attorney for a state agencies for 40 years, this was a "hot topic", "hot" in sense of the problems created when they did get the emails. 15-20 years ago, CA sued a contractor who obtained over a million emails. It was a nightmare and every attorney who worked for any government agency in any agency knew about it and followed it closely. That was but one such case of many but it has gotten better because we all told every employee "don't say anything in an email you don't want on the front page of the newspaper.".

I can't tell you the number of times I wrote in an email "call me" or I told people "I don't want to put it in an email, let's talk about it". I'm not talking about sketchy stuff but saying things like "she is very difficult to work with" about a client or another employee will come to bite you in the butt if seen. And they can always be seen.

Not one person on the transition team knew that? Whoever the hell told them the emails would be safe would be disbarred. If he were not dead.

[avebury]

1. I know a bank that got sued

and had to pay the plaintiff a 7 figure payment because an employee made a mafia reference in the customer's credit file. You have to be aware of what disclosure reveals.

[BlueJac]

2. But........

Her e-mails

[Motley13]

5. HIS e-mails

I don't think moron uses e-mail, but looks like everyone else on his team did

[underpants]

11. He-mails

[Irish_Dem]

3. Combination of arrogance and ignorance made them oblivious to what

every body else knows.

[Motley13]

4. It is amazing how stupid people are & people that should know better

like cops that try to connect with kids on the internet for sex.

[TheDebbieDee]

7. I don't think the Trump team is STUPID! They just thought they'd never be called

on their illegal activity seeing as how the Russians made sure that several down-ballot republicans were "elected/re-elected" to office as well...

[More_Cowbell]

10. I have to disagree

Trump doesn't hire people because they're the best at what they do. He hires friends, he hires family, he hires sycophants.

I do agree that none of them saw this coming. But that's because they're not smart (most of them never *had* to be smart).

[Wellstone ruled]

13. Take a look at the Trump Crime Family

Legal team. You got your answer.

[underpants]

22. Spot on

The bubble is strong with them

[Motley13]

12. he thinks he is above the law

like Nixon

[SeattleVet]

29. And, like Nixon, he is about to find out that he definitely ISN'T above the law.

Hopefully, in a pretty spectacular way.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I believe that it's more or less established

that whatever you put in a company email belongs to the company. Which is why people who use their work email as their personal email are making a huge mistake. Even if they never say anything critical of the company or a coworker, that personal usage can easily become an excuse to fire you.

I realize this situation is rather different, in that it's an outside entity (Mueller and his investigation) that has obtained the emails, but there's a similar rule in play here, it seems.

[More_Cowbell]

15. No, your concept is correct

There's no difference here. The point is not that an outside entity has obtained the emails. The point is, and has always been, that the owner of the emails can give them to anyone, or use them itself.

It's so interesting to me that after being silent for so long, Mueller let loose with this statement that uses the word "criminal" twice. Either he got frustrated with the Trump team's lies, or he's giving the transition team members one last chance to realize they're screwed.

I can't believe people are letting Trey Gowdy claim that Mueller shouldn't have the transition team's emails, when Gowdy himself was on the transition team. I haven't seen any media members point out how self-serving that is.

[dembotoz]

41. Shit u don't buy ur blow up sex dolls using ur corporate email

Unless u own the place....

[bitterross]

8. I believe the issue is none of them are used to accounability. And they thought they had inside help

I feel pretty certain none of these people are used to actually having to be accountable for their actions. So their way of thinking just doesn't include the defense mechanism for this.

I also read elsewhere that the Trump team was under the impression a Trump appointee at the GSA, Richard Beckler, was covering for them. He, unfortunately for him and them, died before he could do anything.

[dragonlady]

32. Excellent observation!

[underpants]

9. I'd say rank amateurs but they had government pros on the transmission team

At least Pence but he could have been dealing with higher level things.

They had to have lawyers involved.

Yes that is baffling. Of course, there could be nothing there. I've read that they got clued in from questions the DoJ team asked that they shouldn't have known about. Probably no gotcha's but they could have used them to get the interviewee off balance.

As a public sector employee I constantly think "newspaper" and "fish bowl". There are people serving as checks who do the same to me. Nothing sketchy as you said but just a stop.

Jr. Releasing the email stream with the Russians shows that they aren't used to life outside their bubble.

And then...there's this. If you haven't seen it before. 2:30

[bathroommonkey76]

21. In my book this should win best news clip of 2017! n/t

[underpants]

23. Yes. Jared thought he was in a safe space. N/t

[Hoyt]

14. I think they did a lot more talking than we give them credit for.

Until someone actually let's us know what's in the emails, we are just speculating they were stupid enough to write a "Hey did Trump pay Putin what he promised on March 14, 2016 for helping him win" email.

[Hamlette]

16. they why are they acting so scared?

[Hoyt]

24. Who is acting scared? Probably lawyers who didn't read all the emails first

to make sure there wasn't something that needed explaining, while racking up billable hours.

I'll celebrate with everyone if they nail Trump, but not gonna get giddy based upon speculation like lawyers are upset so Mueller must have found evidence to nail Trump or his family.

[Bradical79]

17. Same group using cell phones with hackable HD camereas

as flash lights for an impromptu national security meeting in an occupied restaurant. They're not smart people.

[blogslut]

18. I can't find it right now, but...

a DUer posted where this person on Twitter wrote in a thread about the lawyer BLOTUS had appointed to the GSA. The lawyer was supposed to get those emails and let the White House "go over" them before Mueller could have them. Well, that GSA guy died before he could do that.

Wish I could remember which DU post that was.

[pnwmom]

25. The lawyer's name is Richard Beckler. Trump appointed him Chief Counsel to the GSA

and he was confirmed in May. In August he entered the hospital and while he was in the hospital Mueller asked the GSA for the emails. Beckler soon died, at the age of 77, and Mueller got the emails from career professionals at the GSA.

The deputy to Beckler disputes Trump's claim that Beckler had earlier promised to route all email requests through the attorneys. Trump's lawyer says the deputy was a witness to that promise. The deputy says he wasn't.

The Trump team doesn't have a leg to stand on because all the users of the GSA's equipment signed agreements that say the GSA owns all documents produced with them.

[blogslut]

26. Thanks!

Nice summary!

[Leghorn21]

34. ...and here is that thread that splains stuff, blog:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029995621

[blogslut]

38. Noice!

Cheers!

[pandr32]

19. It seems dotard describes them all

No way could tRump stand to have people smarter than him around. He would be intimidated by them and so he hires down.

[Denzil_DC]

20. Trump knew.

... Trump's distrust of emails doesn't just stem from a fear he could be hacked. It's also a way he's sought to shield himself from lawsuits.

"I go to court and they say produce your emails. I say I don't have any emails. The judges don't even believe it," Trump said at a Tampa, Florida, rally in February at which he explained that he's "not a big believer in emails." "After you win the case, they say, 'Now I know that you're really smart.'"

And in a 2005 interview on Howard Stern's radio show, Trump talked about friends of his "under indictment right now because they sent emails to each other about how they're screwing people."

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/donald-trump-computers-internet-email/index.html

Looks like his team just got cocky or careless.

[benld74]

27. Total ignorance of USGovt abilities and

Rights inherent of the .gov suffixes

[Nitram]

28. Hubris, plain and simple.

[Skittles]

30. thank you for weighing in on this, Hamlette

I actually mentioned that last night when discussing with a coworker, surely it crossed their minds this could happen - especially considering the way they treated Hillary's emails

[L. Coyote]

31. Can't wait ......"don't say anything in an email you don't want on the front page of the newspaper."

[shanny]

33. IKR? "E" is for "evidence."

It is shocking how ignorant these people are. Just a day ago we saw the story about Jared hiring a PR firm to handle his little problem. PR! smdh

And now, after caterwauling for years about H's emails, they are trying to hide their own.

Pathetic. Hilarious. Galling.
Hoping for Schadenfreudelicious.

[rock]

35. Their combined intelligence is about that of

A box of door knobs.

[icymist]

36. They thought the fix was in as 45 appointed a 'clean-up man' to head the GSA

Last edited Sun Dec 17, 2017, 09:50 PM - Edit history (1)

The problem was that the guy died before he could bury all the emails away.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029995621

Now they all are crying foul!

[Hekate]

37. It is the absolute arrogance of power, of owning a business that is answerable to no one...

...outside the family. They always made their own rules and believed they were untouchable. It was always somebody else who paid the price.

Laws about ownership of workplace emails and personal emails written on company computers have been on the books forever.

[Vidal]

39. Speculation

We don't know what's in the emails.

[moondust]

40. Malignant hubris

strikes again!

They'll just hire the most expensive lawyers to take on anyone foolish enough to try to prosecute them, right? Like always, right?

[davsand]

42. My thoughts exactly!

As a former county level office holder I saw--in person--that ANYTHING put in an email produced on a county owned machine was subject to FOIA laws. Our local state's attorney made the observation that what email account you used did not matter if it was drafted on a workplace computer.

In my case it was an email to a friend, on my personal email account. Buried in the body was one line saying something along the lines of "Heard some from (local entity). Call me about that." Actually had nothing to do with anything related to the lawsuit 5 years later, but my personal email account was included in a discovery. I handed over everything from my personal account to the state's attorney, and everybody seemed satisfied, but it was a real wake up call to realize that if I typed anything at work it was 100% subject to inspection given the right legal pressure.

I realize that tRump had no direct personal experience with government regulations, but consider the reality that there were people around him who did. Pence and Ghouliani both knew better--they have been in government service. These guys all acted like they were either arrogant or stupid, and in neither case do you win a dispute when the issue of "privacy" or "privilege" comes up in this context. Idiots all.

Laura