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Langhofer, the Trump transition team lawyer, wrote in his letter that the GSA’s transfer of materials was discovered on Dec. 12 and 13.

The FBI had requested the materials from GSA staff last Aug. 23, asking for copies of the emails, laptops, cell phones and other materials associated with nine members of the Trump transition team response for national security and policy matters, the letter said.

On Aug. 30, the FBI requested the materials of four additional senior members of the Trump transition team, it said.

Langhofer argued that while such transition teams are involved in executive functions, they are considered private, nonprofit organizations whose records are private and not subject to presidential records laws.

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The national security strategy, to be rolled out in a speech by Trump, should not be seen as an attempt to contain China but rather to offer a clear-eyed look at the challenges China poses, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Quote (Goomshill @ Dec 16 2017 08:26pm)

well this certainly opens up a whole can of 4th amendment worms
the lack of immediate push-back on the story has me inclined to believe that the GSA did indeed unlawfully hand over all the transition emails, which could violate attorney-client privilege, executive privilege, military secrecy, etc
besides there being heads rolling at the GSA, it opens up a weakpoint in muellers counsel

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The letter also makes a specific claim about communication between the government and the campaign — that Richard Beckler, then the general counsel of the GSA, "acknowledged unequivocally to [the Trump campaign's] legal counsel" in a June 15 discussion that the Trump campaign "owned and controlled" emails, and that "any requests for the production of PTT records would therefore be routed to legal counsel for [the Trump campaign]."
...
In a phone interview with BuzzFeed News on Saturday night, Loewentritt — whose LinkedIn represents that he has been at the agency since 1972 — disputed the claims made in the letter sent by the Trump campaign.
"Beckler never made that commitment," he said of the claim that any requests for transition records would be routed to the Trump campaign's counsel.
Specifically, Loewentritt said, "in using our devices," transition team members were informed that materials "would not be held back in any law enforcement" actions.

Quote (Goomshill @ Dec 17 2017 01:09am)

It took a few hours for a counter-argument to show up, I was searching around but buzzfeed has it;
https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/the-trump-campaign-claims-a-federal-office-illegally-turned



That's two conflicting accounts, and still puts a pretty ridiculous position for the GSA, because they'd be maintaining that by using any .gov address that Trump forfeited both executive and attorney-client privilege. I'm no lawyer but I'm sure that such an argument would never hold up in any court in america even if they made a disclaimer, when an average person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in email usage on a secure government account when talking to a lawyer. And for the GSA's position to hold, then any transition team using .gov emails would be nonsensical and insecure, they'd have to be insane to agree to use the standard ttp.gov accounts instead of private email servers, and god knows that's one phrase we don't need to bring back from the dead

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Langhofer argued that while such transition teams are involved in executive functions, they are considered private, nonprofit organizations whose records are private and not subject to presidential records laws.

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After publication of this story, a spokesperson for the Special Counsel's Office, Peter Carr, told BuzzFeed News, “When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process.”

Quote (Goomshill @ Dec 17 2017 01:38am)

Do presidential records laws forfeit attorney-client privilege for the executive? I'm pretty sure they don't anyway, so the argument has a few twists and turns there
Also they updated with a comment from Mueller's office:



Looks like there might be some brouhaha over what's the "appropriate criminal process".
Any time an investigator is trying to justify spying on attorney-client communications, there's going to be one hell of a 4th amendment implication

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In August 2014, BuzzFeed raised $50 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, more than doubling previous rounds of funding.[13] The site was reportedly valued at around $850 million by Andreessen Horowitz.[13] BuzzFeed generates its advertising revenue through native advertising that matches its own editorial content, and does not rely on banner ads.[14] BuzzFeed also uses its familiarity with social media to target conventional advertising through other channels, such as Facebook.[15]

In December 2014, growth equity firm General Atlantic acquired $50M in secondary stock of the company.[16]

In August 2015, NBCUniversal made a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed.[17] Along with plans to hire more journalists to build a more prominent "investigative" unit, BuzzFeed is hiring journalists around the world and plans to open outposts in India, Germany, Mexico, and Japan.[18]

In October 2016, BuzzFeed raised $200 million from Comcast’s TV and movie arm NBCUniversal, at a valuation of roughly $1.7 billion.[19]

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Structure

The firm is structured differently from most other venture capital firms in several ways. Instead of having general partners who specialize in a specific industry, each Andreessen Horowitz partner works on behalf of all its portfolio companies, an approach modeled after the Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency.[52] Andreessen Horowitz helps start-ups it invests in with everything from recruiting to public relations. Margit Wennmachers, a marketing veteran who joined Andreessen Horowitz in 2010, is among the few venture capital marketing executives at the partner level.[53] The firm has developed a database of top designers, coders, and executives and uses it to help fill positions at its start-ups. Andreessen Horowitz has 11 staff members (as of September 2011) dedicated to recruiting, which is unusual for a VC firm.[27]

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers became a special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz in June 2011.[54] Summers works with the firm’s portfolio companies that are seeking existing market restructuring and global expansion.[54] In September 2012, former Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty was appointed Andreessen Horowitz’s second special advisor.[55] Fenty advises the firm’s portfolio companies on working with local, state, and federal governments.[54]

Quote (Goomshill @ Dec 17 2017 02:18am)

no duh, they're buzzfeed