TWIT: Federalist Judge Gets One-Upped by DOJ

Herr Trumpillini had to go an hour away from his resort hotel to get a federal judge sympathetic to his federal records case. His forum shopping paid off at first because extreme federalist judge Aileen Cannon sitting in West Palm Beach agreed with his lawyers that a special master should be appointed to examine the documents that might be privileged.  But her written opinion has been highly criticized by legal pundits because it exposed her willingness to give her appointer relief not granted to anyone else in the same circumstances, and it exposed her ignorance of federal national security law.

The DOJ has already extracted about 500 pages out of 11,000 that could be subject to attorney-client privilege (a former president has only a very limited executive privilege*). It has no real objection to a special master looking at those and the other non-classified documents the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago.  It does strenuously object to turning over 100 pages of highly classified documents that are clearly marked so.  This trove includes, according to the WaPo, information about another country's nuclear capabilities.  Federal attorneys' objections are on very solid grounds: one, these records do not belong to Trump but to the government; two, turning them over to a third party would further compromise the nation's security; and, three there are no attorney communications in these secret records to protect.

Ms, Cannon, in her zeal to further her career in Trumpworld, granted the former guy more relief than he requested.  She enjoined use of the classified material by the DOJ in its criminal investigation. She blithely opined that the national security assessment of the damage done by the unprotected documents could go forward.  What she failed to understand is that the FBI is an integral part of both the criminal investigation into the mishandling of classified material and a national security damage assessment. Both processes have stopped as a result of her order.  Wisely, the government notified Judge Cannon in a filing, that if she does not lift the stay as it applies to the classified material, it will appeal her illogical opinion to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals despite the fact six judges on that court are Trump appointees. In response, Judge Cannon promptly asked Trump's lawyers what their position is on exempting the classified material from her stay order,  They have until Monday to reply. Undoubtably they will argue declassifimundus has occurred, which would be fine with US Person because he has read 18 USC 1001. It is unlikely that DOJ and Trump's lawyers will agree on an appropriate special master, but that is okay with Trump because the entire charade is simply a ruse to run the clock into the 2024 election cycle.

Its time to say the glaringly obvious: the grifter-in-chief and Russian intelligence asset illegally stashed the classified material at Mar-a-Lago because it has monetary value on the market of international espionage. This dangerously unprecedented situation shows just how much the federal judiciary has been corrupted by Trump's MAGAitis

*In Nixon v. GSA the Court wrote," the appellant [a former President] may legitimately assert the Presidential privilege, of course, only as to those materials whose contents fall within the scope of the privilege recognized in United States v. Nixon, supra. In that case the Court held that the privilege is limited to communications 'in performance of (a President's) responsibilities,' 418 U.S., at 711, 94 S.Ct., at 3109, 'of his office,' id., at 713, and made 'in the process of shaping policies and making decisions,' id., at 708, 94 S.Ct., at 3107. " The Court adopted the language of the Solicitor General at that time, quoting, 'This Court held in United States v. Nixon . . . that the privilege is necessary to provide the confidentiality required for the President's conduct of office. Unless he can give his advisers some assurance of confidentiality, a President could not expect to receive the full and frank submissions of facts and opinions upon which effective discharge of his duties depends. The confidentiality necessary to this exchange cannot be measured by the few months or years between the submission of the information and the end of the President's tenure; the privilege is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic. Therefore the privilege survives the individual President's tenure.'  Nether Ford nor Carter endorsed executive privilege over the documents Nixon was seeking to withhold from the National Archives. Similarly President Biden has expressed an unwillingness to exert his executive privilege over the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago..  Seized classified materials clearly do not fall within the 'Presidential Privilege' described by the Supreme Court in Nixon v GSA and United States v., Nixon.