Of course it's political. How could it not be? Anything involving
the orange mobster is automatically political. If it wasn't to begin
with he makes damn sure it becomes "political". His main reason for
getting involved in politics in the first place was so he could use this defense--over and over and over............

It's also criminal.

"TRUMP SPENT THE DAY MAKING HIMSELF LOOK INCREDIBLY GUILTY OF MULTIPLE
CRIMES

Donald Trump, who has previously claimed that only criminals plead the
Fifth, pleaded the Fifth. He also baselessly accused the FBI of planting evidence at Mar-a-Lago, which doesn’t seem like something an innocent
person would do.

BY BESS LEVIN

"Is Donald Trump’s one-man crime spree about to come to an end after
seven decades of him getting away with breaking the law in dozens, nay, thousands of different ways? At the moment, we don’t know the answer to
that. One thing do we know? That the former president of the United
States spent Wednesday morning making himself look incredibly, wildly guilty—and that the day’s not over yet!

First up, he suggested that when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Monday,
they might have planted incriminating evidence against him. Taking to
Truth Social, Trump wrote: “The FBI and others from the Federal
Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near
the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be
left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking
or, hopefully not, ‘planting.’ Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out? Obama and Clinton were never
‘raided,’ despite big disputes!”

Setting aside the fact that that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were
never “raided” because there wasn’t credible evidence either of them had committed a federal crime, the idea that the FBI typically allows people
to look over their shoulders while they’re executing search warrants,
and didn’t in this case for nefarious reasons, is total bullshit.
Luckily for Trump, though, his supporters don‘t actually care about
truth, which is why they’re in thrall to a notorious con man who lies to
them all the time. Which brings us to the baseless claim that the feds
planted evidence at his residence. Is this the kind of thing an innocent
person would put out there? If you were confident in your innocence,
wouldn’t you at least wait to see if they ultimately charged you with a
crime to start making such bold accusations? Or rather does it sound
like someone who knows he did something wrong, that was uncovered during
the search, would claim? Incidentally, Trump’s congressional defenders
have fanned out today to also insist the FBI must have planted evidence,
as though Team Trump sent them a series of approved talking points
shortly after the raid occurred."

"But accusing the federal government of trying to frame him wasn‘t the
only curious move the ex-president took today. He also chose to invoke
his Fifth Amendment right rather than answer questions for a previously planned, under-oath deposition by New York attorney general Letitia
James, who is currently investigating the Trump Organization, and said
earlier this year that she’d uncovered “significant evidence“ of fraud. Shortly after the deposition got underway on Wednesday, Trump’s office released a statement in which the ex-president raged against James,
calling her “a failed politician” and claiming she’d “intentionally colluded with others to carry out this phony years-long crusade that has
wasted countless taxpayer dollars, all in an effort to prop up her
political career.” He called the investigation into his business “a disgrace to the legal system, an affront to New York State taxpayers,
and a violation of the solemn rights and protections afforded by the
United State Constitution,” adding: “If there was any question in my
mind, the raid of my home, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday by the FBI, just two
days prior to this deposition, wiped out any uncertainty. I have
absolutely no choice because the current Administration and many
prosecutors in this Country have lost all moral and ethical bounds of decency.”

Which is an incredible turn of events given what Trump has said about
taking the Fifth in the past, like that only “the mob takes the Fifth”
and “if you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth?”"

"While every American is allowed to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights,
and in criminal cases, it can’t be used against them, as The New York
Times notes when it comes to civil ones, which James’s is, “jurors...can draw a negative inference when a defendant invokes his or her Fifth
Amendment privilege.” As in, jurors can deduce Trump has something to
hide. Perhaps on multiple fronts!"

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/donald-trump-pleads-the-5th-fbi-raid

"Expert Explainer: Criminal Statutes that Could Apply to Trump’s
Retention of Government Documents"

"The FBI’s execution of a search warrant on former President Donald
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on August 8 raises the inevitable question: What crime(s) might he have committed? One thing is for sure – unlike the
January 6 investigation, in which it is still unclear whether or not the Justice Department (DOJ) believes that Trump himself committed any
crimes, the Mar-a-Lago search indicates that DOJ does believe that a
crime has been committed or was being committed and that evidence of
that crime was present on the premises. That much is clear, although we
are still at the earliest stages of understanding this development and
do not have the search warrant and attachments, much less the supporting affidavit. While DOJ and judicial approval of the search warrant doesn’t necessarily mean that Trump himself is suspected of a crime, it is
highly likely that he is the focus of the investigation.

To that end, it’s worth reviewing the possible federal criminal
violations for which Trump might be charged. We do so below based on the evidence we have available so far, and recognizing that Trump may not be charged (including because of the possibility that the government is
satisfied merely to recover the classified documents or for other as yet unknown reasons). Our experience is that search warrants often result in charges—but not always. "
[snip]

https://www.justsecurity.org/82619/expert-explainer-criminal-statutes-that-could-apply-to-trumps-retention-of-government-documents/

In the end the "raid" is likely to be a tale told by idiots, full
of sound and fury, and signifying almost nothing. Or, at least, nothing
that we didn't already know. But, hey, it generated headlines and money
for the cult. Best of all, the true believers have new legends to tell
their grandchildren. The youngsters need to be taught that they can't
trust the police early in life. They should always keep a flag pole
handy in case they need something to hit the police with.

"Law and order" is for the people the retrumplicans don't like.
Because everything is "political", the cult is above the law. There is
no other true authority. All hail the cult.

TB

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