Agent feared leak of Trump tax returns could affect election

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Michael Kunzelman and Jeff Martin, Associated Press

Updated 6:25 pm, Wednesday, May 24, 2017


BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Less than two weeks before Election Day, federal agents descended on a hotel lobby to meet a Louisiana private investigator they believed had illegally tried to obtain Donald Trump's tax returns.

At the time, the agents didn't know if Jordan Hamlett had been successful — and they feared a public release of Trump's tax returns could influence the U.S. presidential election, according to a transcript of testimony obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The agents worried Hamlett could be armed and orchestrated an elaborate operation at the hotel on Oct. 27, with plainclothes officers blending in with guests at the Embassy Suites in Baton Rouge. Other officers took up positions outside.

Authorities now say Hamlett was not able to get Trump's tax returns. He has been charged with misrepresenting his Social Security number, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Agent-feared-leak-of-Trump-tax-returns-could-11171536.php

[elmac]

1. yes, we all know that

the FBI worked very hard to get tRump elected.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. No. You are indulging in binary thinking. . . nt

[Merlot]

5. The FBI went to great lengths to protect trumpty before the election

Yet we all know how they reacted to Hillary not once but twice.

Nothing binary about that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. The binary thinking is to believe the FBI is one monolithic unit that moves in perfect lockstep.

We already know that there were (are) rogue agents in New York City aligned with Giuliani. They feed information to him and for all we know they might do dirty work for him too.

The great majority of FBI agents are striving hard to serve America as best as they can without partisan biases.

[politicaljunkie41910]

3. Too bad no one thought the same thing could happen to Hillary with Comey's disclosure

regarding the emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop. No, those disclosures couldn't possibly hurt Hillary Clinton a week before the election, could they? Maybe we should have a law to prevent these sorts of disclosures from happening. Say what? We already have such a law. That's right! It's called the Hatch Act. And it seems that the law was trying to protect Trump from just such a disclosure, but no one that same law obviously didn't think that Hillary deserved the same protections. Gee whiz!!!!!

[SunSeeker]

4. Mind boggling, isn't it?

:bang head:

[LisaL]

8. Well, exactly.