In a clear signal that the Justice Department is focusing on disgraced and criminally-corrupt former president Donald J. Trump’s illegal possession and mishandling of classified documents, we have learned that one of the most accomplished terrorism prosecutors in this generation, David Raskin, is now involved in Mar-a-Lago search that discovered more than 100 sensitive and Top Secret items among 11,000 things points to Trump’s serious violations of the federal Espionage Act.
Raskin, the Washington Post reports, has been working with the Justice Department since they began investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot where violent Trump supporters ransacked the seat of power in Washington, threatened to “hang Vice President Mike Pence” after he refused Trump’s order to illegally intervene with the official hunting of electoral ballots” and tried to hunt down and attack members of the House and Senate.
Raskin is considered one of the most accomplished terrorism prosecutors of his generation, having worked on the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was tried in Virginia as a co-conspirator in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Raskin was also part of the team that prosecuted Ahmed Ghailani in federal court in Manhattan in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. Ghailani was acquitted of most counts but found guilty of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property. He is the only Guantánamo Bay detainee to be brought to a U.S. court and tried and convicted. Both Moussaoui and Ghailani received life sentences.
Justice Department officials initially contacted Raskin to consult on the criminal investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. But his role has shifted over time to focus more on the investigation involving the former president’s possession and potential mishandling of classified documents, the people familiar with the matter said.
The addition of Raskin to the team handling the Mar-a-Lago probe is another indication of the seriousness with which Justice Department officials view the case and underscores the high stakes for both Trump and those tasked with investigating him.
“He’s the meanest bulldog in this fight and his focus now is on the many criminal and felonious acts of Trump,” a Jan. 6 committee staff member tells Capitol Hill Blue. “Trump should be getting his affairs in order because if Raskin is on the case, his target will be spending the rest of his life in prison.”
Raskin studied journalism at Ithaca College and was the grandson of respected New York Times labor reporter and editorial writer A.H. Raskin. The younger Raskin spent more than two years as an editorial assistant at the Times, producing more than 30 articles on sports and other topics.
“He would have been a terrific reporter,” Murry Chass, retired baseball writer and columnist for the Times, said of Raskin.
After a period of writing for sports magazines but decided to enter New York Las School. He would later tell students at his alma mater that said criminal charges should be used on those who engage in terrorism, including those in our government.
“But the question of are we safer is so much bigger than me or any individual in our government,” he told the students. “It’s bigger than any policies we have. That’s a question that I think the Islamic community may have to answer themselves…how long they’re going to tolerate elements of their community, you know, killing innocent people.”
Raskin being added to the team is central to the belief that Trump is the central figure involving sedition in a desire to overthrow the government by violent means in a treasonous coup. Is Raskin up to the task?
The Post adds:
Just two weeks ago, Raskin won a guilty plea in a case with parallels to the Trump case — a former FBI analyst in Kansas City who authorities say took more than 300 classified files or documents to her home, including highly sensitive material about al-Qaeda and an associate of Osama bin Laden.
In court papers, federal prosecutors say they have recovered a similar number of documents with a variety of classified markings from Mar-a-Lago, all apparently taken from the White House. The Post has previously reported that some of that classified material was highly sensitive and restricted intelligence that included at least one document about Iran’s missile program and others about intelligence-gathering work aimed at China, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Raskin’s involvement in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, along with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot probe, shows prosecutors will not rest until Trump is behind bars, probably for the rest of his pathetic life.
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