jobs they can’t lose, though. jobs that he provided them. who knows?
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The entire “declassified” argument got tossed out by special master Dearie when he demanded proof of it from Trump’s lawyers and got none. Dearie went on to say that Trump’s legal team is not qualified to handle any of the documents the DOJ had listed as classified.
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No, but, this time, we’ve actually got him. I don’t think John Oliver could unfurl that banner unless, in fact, we had gotten him.
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I also have to point out that it’s also interesting that Trump’s own lawyers may be trying to throw shade at Master Dearie regarding rule 41(g) “return of seized property”. They themselves wrote
The Plaintiff respectfully sees no indication the District Court planned to carve out related litigation for a merits determination by the issuing magistrate for the warrant in question ( regarding Rule 41(g) ). Most importantly, none of the District Court’s Orders have ever indicated that this was even a consideration.
It seems Trump’s own lawyers were trying to HINT but not dare tell Master Dearie… “Judge Cannon never specifically mentioned 41(g), so you may not want to pry too deeply here about who owns what, since she’s obviously not planned to look into that.”
Yet the actual order calling for the special master did mention “evaluate claims for return of property”. It just didn’t explicitly mention 41(g).
I haven’t checked the lawsuit Trump’s lawyer filed with Judge Cannon that called for action on a 41(g) ruling. Any one?
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It’s kinda fun that, of all the illegal crimes Trump has committed (solicited/accepted Russian aid in 2016 election, created $100m inauguration slush fund, bribed Ukraine for Biden dirt, self-dealing by having Secret Service use Trump properties, self-dealing by Jared and Ivanka, chronically misused Trump “charity” funds, set up a fraudulent “Trump University”, intentionally under/overvaluated his real estate holdings, used campaign money to pay off prostitute hush money, attempted to steal the 2020 election, complicit in J6 capitol insurrection, attempted to interfere in Georgia 2020 vote count, etc.) the one he gets nailed for is… impulsively grabbing a bunch of shiny documents at the last minute on the way out. It’s like Capone’s tax evasion conviction.
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FTFY
[not that I’m wishing for anything of the sort]
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I don’t think it was impulsive. As I understand, he had to specifically request paper copies of those documents, and because he has no clue, he would have had people telling him which documents to request.
And while his first reaction would be “Mine! Mine! Mine!”, the slow ramping up of the seriousness of the requests for the documents back, and that he could have quietly given them back without losing any public face…
No, he wanted those documents for reasons, transactional ones.
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If the documents are classified they can not be privileged or personal documents. Trump can’t assert executive privilege, since he’s not the executive. And the only privilege they’d have to check for is attorney client.
If they’re classified, they’re not personal documents and can’t possibly cover communications between Trump and his lawyers.
So “are they classified?” is a pretty good first step. If yes then they basically automatically pass through the process.
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I wonder if Trump has or had any access to intelligence reports, or just dirt on SC Justices. He might know who paid off Kavanaugh’s debts, or the craziest thing Ginny Thomas ever said or did.
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Of course! Trump didn’t clain that some of the documents were the government’s and some were his and this priviledged; he claimed all of them and demanded their return. If some of the documents are demonstratably, irrefutably not Trump’s, that shoots down the whole argument. No need for the SM to even review them and he can send them back to the government to restart their investigation. If he’s really feeling his oats, he could do so directly and bypass Judge Cannon. The priviledge claim was the only thing she ruled on and she’s otherwise not a party (arguably, she never was and should not have ruled on even the priviledge claim).
ETA: what’s also weird is that part of his claim is Executive Priviledge which keeps getting shot downevery damn time he claims it. It’s like his lawyers enjoy hitting themsleves. Only the current president can claim executive priviledge, and Biden keeps saying “hell no!”
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I’m telling y’all… Don’t fuck with archivists… They WILL make your life hell.
And of course, he might have taken stuff to SELL, and that’s a far greater crime than just “taking shiny documents”. People have been executed for selling classified documents, let’s not forget.
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I will point to the latest episode of the What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law podcast, where constitutional scholar Elizabeth Joh runs down the details of the Mar-A-Lago warrant, and why none of the arguments Trump and his motley crew of lawyers make are legitimate.
The Mar-a-Lago Warrant | What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law (learnconlaw.com)
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This is one of the reasons why no one wants to lawyer for Trump.
Lawyer: It’ll all be fine, so long as you don’t say the thing.
Trump: I’m gonna say the thing.
Lawyer: Please don’t say the thing.
Trump: I said the thing.
Lawyer: …
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Trump: I said the thing, but just so the loony left would lose their minds. It’s my constitutional right to say the thing. They made me say the thing. I had to, to fight our Enemies.
Trump: I never said the thing. It’s just a HOAX like the Russian HOAX, and the Ukrainian HOAX…
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THIS.
Draw it out until the person suing him either runs out of money to pay their lawyer, cuts their losses, or just gets tired of it and gives up. Except this time it’s the federal government, and they generally don’t back down, which is why we keep seeing the ridiculous bullshittery that’s been going on.
It also doesn’t help his position that he stiffs his lawyers as well.
I know I sound like a broken record, but this is a person that ran a casino into bankruptcy.
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It also cuts to one of the (many) problems with Cannon’s approach, which was, in the absence of any factual presentation or even argument from the plaintiff, to claim there are “important questions” about whether documents are “classified” despite being marked as such. It is established the judicial branch cannot take it upon itself to question an executive agency’s designation of classified documents. It’s a huge separation of powers violation on her part. Dearie gets all that, which is unsurprising given his FISA experience. Hopefully he lards his recommendations with plenty of legal authority as to the deference owed to executive classifications.
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I think it was two or three casinos, depending how you describe the sales/failures. It is something to say, that in a Trump casino, The House eventually loses.
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