After the release of Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to grant Donald Trump a “special master” to review documents seized during a search of Mar-a-Lago, right-wing media pundits have once again falsely claimed that President Joe Biden ordered the FBI raid on the compound.
This week an excerpt from Cannon’s ruling stating “as requested by the incumbent President” has reignited the disproven narrative that Biden was behind the search of Mar-a-Lago. The request by the president mentioned in the ruling was an official request by the Justice Department for the National Archives to share records with the FBI. The Presidential Records Act requires a request to be made by the current president to turn over the documents to the FBI.
An excerpt from the May 10 National Archives letter to Trump explains that Biden deferred all decisions regarding FBI involvement to acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall.
The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported “protective assertion of executive privilege.”
As Politico’s Kyle Cheney explains, “There was no way a former president's claim could override an [incumbent] administration's need for the review. … Trump allies touted portions of this letter that were revealed by Solomon earlier in...
The author and behavioural scientist, Gad Saad, has just published a book on what he calls “suicidal empathy”. He says that “a society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance a...