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You are here: Home / Politics / National Security / Speculation on the Special Master

Speculation on the Special Master

by WaterGirl|  September 9, 202211:25 am| 100 Comments

This post is in: Criminal Justice, National Security, Open Threads, Politics

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In a recent Lawfare article, they ruminate on a possible strategy behind the “special master” request.

They suggest that Trump’s attorneys are attempting to use the court’s likely appointment of a special master as a backdoor means of obtaining unrelated, sensitive investigative materials that could potentially be used for intimidation or obstruction.  Is it all about trying to get their hands on an unredacted affidavit?

The Special Master Revisited

Trump’s filings reveal the central strategic importance of obtaining an unredacted affidavit. His team also sees the appointment of a special master, nominally concerned with matters of privilege, as a means for obtaining the unredacted affidavit. The brief in Trump’s initial filing, after discussing the hypothetical possibilities for omissions or lies in the affidavit, pivots to a discussion of the special master, arguing that the “appointment of a Special Master with a fair-minded approach to providing defense counsel with information needed to support any Rule 41(g) filing is an appropriate use of the Court’s authority.” This appears to suggest that the special master should provide Trump’s attorneys with access to the affidavit in order to support their Rule 41(g) motion claiming an unconstitutional search. Yet providing Trump’s attorneys with investigative documents is far beyond the traditional function of a special master, who typically reviews seized documents for privilege and keeps privileged documents separate from those reviewed by authorities.

Trump’s reply brief is even clearer in its attempt to use the special master as a means to obtain the unredacted affidavit. Buried deep in a discussion of the special master’s review procedures, the brief requests that the government provide to the special master and to Trump “a copy of the Search Warrant, and an unredacted copy of the underlying application materials,” which include the affidavit revealing the witnesses and sources of information that supported the warrant. Again, such materials have essentially nothing to do with the special master’s duties of sorting privileged and unprivileged materials. Rather, Trump’s attorneys are attempting to use the court’s likely appointment of a special master as a means of obtaining unrelated, sensitive investigative materials that could potentially be used for intimidation or obstruction.

I am not a lawyer, but that rings true for me.  Your thoughts?

The word speculation in the post title refers to my thoughts with respect to how this fits into the DOJ filing yesterday.

If the goal of the special master request (besides delay, delay, delay) is for the attorneys of the wannabe authoritarian lunatic to get their hands on the unredacted affidavit, does that make them more likely or less likely to double down on the “need” for a special master, even in the face of yesterday’s filing that schools the judge on how things work and accuses her of jeopardizing national security?

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

100Comments

  1. 1.

    cain

    September 9, 2022 at 11:35 am

    I hope DOJ has a good plan in regards to this. But I hope the leftists who shat all over the DOJ about not going after Trump now understand the complexity involved in regards to all this.
    When your judiciary is compromised .. bad shit is going to happen.. and we have to plan for it.

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 11:39 am

    @cain: Did you see or read about or hear about the DOJ filing yesterday?

  3. 3.

    Old School

    September 9, 2022 at 11:43 am

    The Lawfare article concludes that getting access to the unredacted affidavit is unlikely, but admits that Judge Cannon may be willing to do that.

  4. 4.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 11:46 am

    Another reason I haven’t seen discussed much for them trying to get their hands on the search proceeds and on the affidavit is simply to find out what’s there.  There have been various allusions to this in various places (emptywheel is a great source), but even then typically in the context of some other purpose.  I think just figuring out what the FBI seized is an important primary purpose for them because they don’t know exactly — or perhaps even to a good approximation — and they’re sweating bullets about it.

    Look, he jammed all kinds of stuff in those boxes, and according to some accounts while he was packing them he wouldn’t let anyone at the WH look at what was in them.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he forbade his attorneys and staff from looking in them at MAL, and unless they secretly disobeyed him, they don’t know exactly what was in them.  (This could also be why they wouldn’t let the FBI look in them in May or June or whenever it was they were there last.)  Heck, for all they know some of the stuff in those boxes may implicate them personally.

    This may not be part of some crafty and nefarious strategy.  They may just be groping half-blindly.  Remember Trump’s Rule: the stupidest explanation is most likely the correct one.

  5. 5.

    MisterForkbeard

    September 9, 2022 at 11:49 am

    @Old School: Thats really how all of this goes now. “Well, the legal argument is shit and granting it would violate all precedent and be dangerous for the nation… but it’s a Trump judge, so it comes down as to how much of a traitor they want to be this morning”

  6. 6.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 11:53 am

    @MisterForkbeard: hyperbole aside, I strongly suspect that Young Judge Cannon is more interested in her long-term career as a Player in the larger right-wing ecosystem than in her reputation or career on the Federal bench.  Certainly she’s keeping her options open for rapid promotion in the horrible case of a Trump II administration, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her primary interest is in some more lucrative gig at a right-wing legal think tank and/or as a commentator / propagandist for right-wing media.

  7. 7.

    Cameron

    September 9, 2022 at 11:54 am

    Special Master?  Obviously either Sidney Powell or Rudy Giuliani.

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    September 9, 2022 at 11:55 am

    a possible strategy behind the “special master” request.

    Trump screamed that the documents are his and how dare they take the President of the United State’s property, and one of his incompetent lawyers flipping through a book saw the words ‘Special Master’.  If the judge weren’t a complete fucking loon, we would still be laughing at how stupid the request is.  I’m sure he’s been screaming about traitors and throwing ketchup, so that was one of the things that after-the-fact they decided to put into the request.  He did get a new attorney who is supposedly competent, so I suspect there is now a strategy of ‘delay, delay, delay’ because that’s all they’ve got.

    EDIT – And of course, ‘throw shit at the wall and see what sticks, since the judge is a loon.’

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 11:57 am

    @Old School:

    The Lawfare article concludes that getting access to the unredacted affidavit is unlikely, but admits that Judge Cannon may be willing to do that.

    exactly!

    She should never have done half of what she has done.  She is in over her head, is clearly on team Trump.  She has already destroyed any possible good reputation the she could have had. I will be interested to see whether she doubles down and is willing to throw herself completely under the bus for him.

  10. 10.

    catclub

    September 9, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @bbleh: ​
    &nbsp

    ;Look, he jammed all kinds of stuff in those boxes, and according to some accounts while he was packing them he wouldn’t let anyone at the WH look at what was in them.

    MAL is only his home half the year. Why no search of Bedminster?
    Or trump tower? Does he think Florida residency is much more important so all docs went there?

  11. 11.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @Cameron: Because some of the documents are so sensitive that they are eyes-only for Cabinet level or above, AND a Special Master obviously needs a strong background in the law (especially Constitutional law, given that Executive Privilege may obtain), there may be only a few people qualified for the position.

    E.g., off the top of my head:
    — Barack Obama
    — Hillary Clinton
    — Bill Clinton

  12. 12.

    Mimi

    September 9, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    I think I would like to see him perp-walked into jail. Preferably a filthy one.

  13. 13.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 9, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    @bbleh: The Youthful Federalist doesn’t view them as different.  Her promoting Unitary Republican Executive Theory moves her up the Federal Bench towards Appeals Court or Supreme Court.  So being a Player is the same as advancing her on the bench.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    September 9, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    @Old School:

    The Lawfare article concludes that getting access to the unredacted affidavit is unlikely, but admits that Judge Cannon may be willing to do that.

    I assume any move to give Trump the unredacted affidavit would be appealed instantly, and part of the appeal would be a request for a temporary stay.  Any remotely fair minded judge would grant the stay, since letting Trump see the affidavit isn’t something that can be undone.  Of course, granting the petition in the first place would be yet another sign Judge Cannon is not fair minded.

  15. 15.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    @catclub: The answer I’ve seen elsewhere to this question — which on the face of it is like “yeah, duh, he took that stuff with him all over the place like a kid with his favorite toy” — is that to get a warrant you need probable cause to believe that evidence of a particular crime is in a particular place at a particular time, and “he probably has some stashed there too” ain’t enough.  It would need something like information from someone who had actually seen the stuff at that place recently or had some other credible reason to believe it was there (“I saw them take boxes from that closet and put them in the car they took to Bedminster, and when the car came back it was empty”).

  16. 16.

    Timill

    September 9, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    @bbleh: Don’t forget Michelle Obama.

  17. 17.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 9, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Agreed.  The Special Master would have to be acceptable to both Trump and DoJ, and would require very very specific clearance to view the documents and only in secure facilities and whomever it is better believe they will be under surveillance for (inadvertent) disclosures.

    The list of such persons Trump now knows (since he lost his and the ability to grant clearances at will) is very very slim.
    The list of such persons Trump knows AND trusts as a crony might actually be NIL.
    The list of such persons Trump knows AND trusts AND the DOJ likewise trusts is NIL.  The Youthful Federalist will be in a bind, again, to show her political ambitions vs. her fealty to the law in how she handles the impasse.

  18. 18.

    frosty

    September 9, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    @bbleh: commentator / propagandist for right-wing media

    How? In her written answers for confirmation she stated she has never written anything or done a presentation at a conference. Why would anyone in the Wingnut Wurlitzer hire her? Near as I can tell she has no qualifications for any kind of a job.

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    September 9, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    @bbleh: I think that the less famous the special master the better. Someone suggested that a FISA Court judge would be suitable for the position. I believe FISA judges are a subset of D.C. District Judges. Maybe one has retired recently.

    I think one reason trump is going after the unredacted warrant affidavit is that he wants to know who the informants were. He thinks there is a mole in his circle and  I bet it’s driving him crazy.

  20. 20.

    MattF

    September 9, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Agree. Trump’s response to a request to return the documents was “They’re MINE’. Which would be in a neon red blinking font if one was available.  I think that’s 99.9% of what’s going on here. I’d guess that ‘special master’ comes from a dim recollection of an old lawsuit.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    Did anyone else watch Larry O’Donnell last night?  Bradley Moss, Andrew Weissmann and Neil Kaytal were on.

  22. 22.

    Cameron

    September 9, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    @bbleh: True, but I’m considering who Judge Cannon is likely to select.

  23. 23.

    Timill

    September 9, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    @catclub: M-a-L is where he went after he left Washington, so the chances are that all the docs went there initially. Moving them later would be work, which TFG avoids.

    Personally I think all 3 locations should be subject to asset forfeiture as things used in crime…

  24. 24.

    patrick II

    September 9, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    The special master request was not as dumb as many said in the context of a corrupt judge.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    If the judge weren’t a complete fucking loon, we would still be laughing at how stupid the request is.

    Yes, to this part!

  26. 26.

    Timill

    September 9, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: I can think of one, possibly: Judge Cannon.

  27. 27.

    Barbara

    September 9, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: ​ Not to mention that the current president has final authority in the clearance process and can veto clearance for anyone deemed to be unsuitable. At which point, it seems like Judge Cannon would be presented with another decision on whether she is a member of the judicial or the executive branch. Every way you turn, it just gets more complicated.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    September 9, 2022 at 12:14 pm

    @catclub: Prosecutors may need more definite information to have probable cause for a warrant to search Bedminister. They could squeeze it out of one of trump’s minions, or an informant may squeal.

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    September 9, 2022 at 12:14 pm

    @bbleh:

    This sounds right to me.  Another important point is that Trump wasn’t there when the search was performed, but the documents were.  That seems like a reasonable indication Trump doesn’t feel the need to take the documents with him everywhere.  There are good reasons for keeping the documents all in one place.

    Another critical point is the government probably has some idea of what Trump took, at least as far as the highest secrecy documents go.  There are all kinds of controls on those document, so it’s likely the people in charge of keeping them can get a fair idea of what Trump has based on what’s missing from their storage.  If there were still a bunch missing, they’d know.

  30. 30.

    Burnspbesq

    September 9, 2022 at 12:14 pm

    Trump gets a copy of the unredacted affidavit as a matter of course—after he’s indicted. Until then he can fuck right off. Giving it to him before then would guarantee a campaign of witness tampering the likes of which we haven’t seen since the New York Mafia prosecutions.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 12:15 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: They were saying last night on Larry O’Donnell that there HAVE been a few cases where a judge has overruled the DOJ so it is within the realm of possibility that this particular judge could just do it anyway.

    In spite of it being a ridiculous ruling, with no basis, that could cause irreparable harm.

    I’m not sure what would happen then, but thankfully we are not there yet.

  32. 32.

    The Thin Black Duke

    September 9, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    @frosty: This is how Idiocracy happens.

  33. 33.

    narya

    September 9, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @WaterGirl: I saw it, ish. I trust Weissman more than the others, tbh.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    September 9, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @Geminid: ​
     

    I think one reason trump is going after the unredacted warrant affidavit is that he wants to know who the informants were. He thinks there is a mole in his circle and I bet it’s driving him crazy.

    At the very least, he wants to retaliate against whomever the informants are to scare anyone who’s thinking about informing on him in the future. “The government can’t keep your identity secret, and Trump’s flying monkeys will come after you,” is a powerful message to would-be informants.

  35. 35.

    MisterDancer

    September 9, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: They may just be groping half-blindly. Remember Trump’s Rule: the stupidest explanation is most likely the correct one.

    That’s my guess, and that Lawfare is falling into The Pundant Trap. (This desire to fill column inches and minutes on-air is gonna get us killed, y’all.)

    Keep in mind that everything leading up to 1/6 was, per the Hearings, a mad rush of more-and-more whacked out ideas. No deep cunning in most cases, just people high on privilege and power and desperate to not just keep what they had, but for MORE. And that chaotic, knee-jerk approach echoes every serious leak from the hellscape that was the Trump Administration.

    It makes them stupid. That doesn’t mean it makes them anything but the worst kind of unpredictably desperate and dangerous when their plans fall thru! Yet: we do ourselves a disservice conflating all that hottest of messes with “smarts” or deep planning.

    [ETA: It also, sadly, makes it hard to guess what comes next, which is where the Trap comes it — and also where traditional/mainstream journalism is most prone to failing without deep analysis and research.]

    Sadly, it’s never really taken a lot of smarts to ever implement Authoritarianism, here or elsewhere.

    Just being utterly amoral and greedy as fuck.

  36. 36.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    September 9, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    LOL:

    A federal judge in Florida dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, saying there was no basis for the former president to claim that Clinton and her allies harmed him with an orchestrated plan to spread false information that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race.

    Trump “is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum,” Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida wrote in a scathing 65-page ruling released Friday. The judge also wrote about “the audacity of Plaintiff’s legal theories and the manner in which they clearly contravene binding case law.”
    Middlebrooks also wrote there are “glaring structural deficiencies in the plaintiff’s argument” and that, “Such pleadings waste judicial resources and are an unacceptable form of establishing a claim for relief.”

    To quote the philosopher Regina George, Why are you so obsessed with me?!

  37. 37.

    topclimber

    September 9, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: IANAL, but if the two parties cannot come to agreement can’t she impose her own decision?

  38. 38.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 9, 2022 at 12:22 pm

    I assume the actual strategy is to just sabotage the process as much as possible, so that nothing can ultimately come of it or failing that, Trump can run out the clock until he or an ally becomes President and can make it all go away.

    If you try this with an unsympathetic judge, they’ll smack it down. But Trump managed to find a sympathetic judge.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    September 9, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:

    Not all FL judges are in the tank.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    @MisterDancer: What’s different this time, to me, is that they have more competent attorneys.  So “assume it’s stupid” doesn’t cut it for me this time.  :: shrug ::

  41. 41.

    topclimber

    September 9, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Again, IANAL but given that all appeals will likely be expedited, I don’t see how he delays a trial long enough. And if he delays too long, even the institutionalist Garland will drop an indictment on his sorry ass regardless of it being in the  middle of the 2024 campaign (which begins in three or four months).

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    @topclimber: It’s my understanding that the answer is yes.

    Speculation from Weissmann, I think, last night was that she was hoping that the two parties could just agree to what the DOJ proposed so the wouldn’t either have to: 1) make her own ruling admitting her mistake, or 2) have the humiliation of the 11th circuit overturning her ruling.

    I imagine that a lot of last night’s filing by the DOJ was aimed at the 11th circuit – laying out all the reasons why they couldn’t possibly rule any other way.

  43. 43.

    mvr

    September 9, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    @Roger Moore: Wouldn’t granting Trump access to the unredacted affidavit also be to overrule the judge who heard requests to release it just a few weeks previously and would that also not be something this judge has the power to do?

  44. 44.

    cain

    September 9, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    @WaterGirl: I think I read some of it – one article said that they eviscerated the judge in the filing.

  45. 45.

    Montanareddog

    September 9, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    @Geminid:

     

    I think one reason trump is going after the unredacted warrant affidavit is that he wants to know who the informants were. He thinks there is a mole in his circle and I bet it’s driving him crazy.

    I was going to write the same thing too. His obsession with (one-way street) loyalty is well known, and is superseded only by his obsession with revenge, for the merest perceived slight.

  46. 46.

    TriassicSands

    September 9, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    And the corruption continues.

    @WaterGirl:

    1) make her own ruling admitting her mistake, or 2) have the humiliation of the 11th circuit overturning her ruling.

    Admitting a mistake is not likely in the Trump-cult. The 11th Circuit is loaded with Trump appointees. How likely is it that they will overturn Cannon’s incompetence?

  47. 47.

    cain

    September 9, 2022 at 12:45 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: As I understand it, the judge probably while having backchannel conversations with the federalist society hacks help Trump out.

    I’m still not sure what the Federalist Society gets out of the chaos that Trump begins – are they really aligned?

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 9, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    @WaterGirl: They will file a brief with the 11th that has all the details.  The laying everything out in this motion is basically to say “This is what we will say to the appellate court. Do you really want to embarrass yourself this way? Come on, man!”

  49. 49.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    @frosty: Yeah but NOW she is a Fighter for Trump and an Upholder of Justice against the Deep State and the Corrupt Democratic DOJ and FBI and on and on and on.  Plus, presuming she does eventually get overruled by some court with more respect for the actual law, she’ll be a VICTIM.  Courageous Fighter For Justice CANCELLED By Corrupt Deep State Bureaucrats And Unelected Judges.  (Irony notwithstanding; RWNJs don’t do irony.)

    And of course, she’s female and relatively young, which helps with the Fox demographic.

  50. 50.

    patrick II

    September 9, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    But they knew the judge, so it wasn’t dumb at all.

  51. 51.

    cain

    September 9, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    @catclub: That might be interesting because they could find more documents and get a different federal judge who won’t be entertaining shit like this. Although I suppose if that happens – the two cases might collide.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    September 9, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Come on, man!”

    I’ve heard that Garland now requires DOJ lawyers to end all their court filings that way, instead of “Respectfully submitted,”

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 9, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    When one is as guilty as sin as TFG is, delay tactics are the only thing left, and that Federalist Society hack is doing precisely what TFG wants her to do, and furthermore, she knows it.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 9, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    @cain: They’re neo-feudalist reactionaries.  They hate The Enlightenment (and its fruits, such as the Constitution), democracy, and the very idea of equality.

  55. 55.

    mvr

    September 9, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    @WaterGirl: ​

    I imagine that a lot of last night’s filing by the DOJ was aimed at the 11th circuit – laying out all the reasons why they couldn’t possibly rule any other way.

    I think a good bit was aimed at getting her to modify her order. It put her on notice that she might well be overruled and judges tend not to like being overruled, even when they are right. She’s not right about the law and I suspect she knows it by now.

  56. 56.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 12:51 pm

    @Timill: @Geminid: @Cameron: tbh I was joking.  No way on dog’s green earth would any of them be selected, in part because of their political prominence, but also because Trump’s team would have a hissy fit audible in Siberia and because the judge herself would never appoint them.

    But I would LOVE to see DOJ include them on a list of candidates for the reasons I mentioned…

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:  My first thought in reading your comment was “Exactly!” but that, of course, means that this wasn’t just for the 11th circuit.

    I am guessing that the R judges on the 11th circuit, while in the tank for Republicans and Trump, don’t want to be made fools of.

    Sad / scary that Trump has corrupted the judiciary so badly with his appointments that we have to even wonder what the 11th and the SC will do.

  58. 58.

    Jackie

    September 9, 2022 at 12:54 pm

    @Timill: He could have been stealing documents throughout his term – stashing them at Bedminster  or Trump Tower. It’s already been noted he took boxes with classified documents when he traveled overseas.

  59. 59.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    September 9, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    “The only person that has the necessary clearance level is Joseph Biden“

  60. 60.

    Haroldo

    September 9, 2022 at 1:01 pm

    @patrick II:

    But they knew the judge, so it wasn’t dumb at all.

    They installed the judge.

  61. 61.

    FelonyGovt

    September 9, 2022 at 1:09 pm

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: He should be declared a vexatious litigant. (I always loved that term)

  62. 62.

    Cathie from Canada

    September 9, 2022 at 1:14 pm

    Without any proof at all, I believe Trump’s only motivation now is to find out which staff or family ratted him out to the DOJ, and he thought he could get a Special Master to tell him.

  63. 63.

    Ruckus

    September 9, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    @Anonymous At Work:

    I think NIL is doing a lot of work here.

    SFB knows and trust?. I’d go with zero.

    SFB knows and trusts and is acceptable to the DOJ to read everything? That is exactly zero.

    This is the entire reason they asked for a Special Master. They know their is a zero chance that anyone they pick will be acceptable to the DOJ. They just had to go shopping to find a judge dumb enough to agree with them. We are in unprecedented territory here on all sides. Including the federal bench. There is law but I doubt seriously that the law takes this kind of crap into it’s grasp, because we’ve never had a president who has such a high level of stupid and ignorance and I doubt that anyone thought we ever would. But rethuglicans are desperate, it has become reasonably noticeable that they really aren’t the party they thought they were even last week, and it gets worse by the day. They hired an idiot to be their leader and he has made idiot the go to description of everything they believe in and nearly everyone left standing with an R after their name at the federal level into very obvious crap.

  64. 64.

    oatler

    September 9, 2022 at 1:30 pm

    Pacino’s “Devil’s Advocate” rants and boasts about lawyers was a true observation made back in the virginal, free-spirited 1990s.

  65. 65.

    jonas

    September 9, 2022 at 1:34 pm

    @catclub: Why no search of Bedminster? Or trump tower? Does he think Florida residency is much more important so all docs went there?

    I wouldn’t doubt it. But 1. there may yet be as the investigation progresses. 2. It could be, for whatever reason, that the government had no clear evidence that material had been stashed there, whereas there was some *very clear* evidence that classified material remained at MAL and was in immediate danger of being compromised.

  66. 66.

    MisterForkbeard

    September 9, 2022 at 1:36 pm

    @bbleh: Honestly, I think she’s trying to put herself forward in conservative circles as a loyal (and not embarrassing) solider and potentially as a SCOTUS candidate for future corrupt Republicans. So she’ll have a few objectives, in this order:

    1. Deliver as much as she can for Trump
    2. Don’t look so stupid (Harriet Myers) that she can still be regarded as a serious person by the right-media
    3. Do it with some level of ‘non-partisan’ cover
  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 9, 2022 at 1:44 pm

    @oatler: Anything bad you want to say about lawyers had already been said long before the 1990s.

  68. 68.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 9, 2022 at 1:47 pm

    @Timill: Nope.  A federal district court judge that appointed himself/herself Special Master would get the swiftest kick in the ass from the Circuit Court and Supreme Court.  Number #1 complaint by hte judiciary is workload.  #2 complaint is backlog and #3 complaint is how long it takes to get to trials.  All other complaints are basically synonyms.
    Judges can do “in camera” reviews of potentially privileged or classified information to determine whether the other party in litigation or criminal proceedings may view the information, but that’s at the evidentiary stage of TRIAL, not now.

  69. 69.

    StringOnAStick

    September 9, 2022 at 1:50 pm

    Marcy Wheeler put out as an aside that perhaps part of why tRump is going to the mat on these documents is he himself classified the items that implicated him in Russian collusion, to keep them out of any circulation that could hurt him if revealed.  Now that the DOJ is asserting ownership of all classified materials, his plot to deep 6 the Russia “hoax” information by classifying it is going to paint bright flashing lights on it just as the non-corrupt DOJ professionals get their hands on it. It is an interesting idea.

  70. 70.

    patrick II

    September 9, 2022 at 1:50 pm

    @Haroldo:

    So, they knew the judge they installed. O.K.?

  71. 71.

    Barbara

    September 9, 2022 at 1:51 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: But the judge gave the special master no standards to apply with respect to executive privilege.  She refused to rule.

  72. 72.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 9, 2022 at 1:55 pm

    @WaterGirl: Sure, it’s possible.  And the Youthful Federalist would have to write an opinion explaining her reason, possibly subject to appeal, etc.  And each written step takes time and strips away any remaining veneer of “respectable rule-of-law Republican” from the courts.  CJ Roberts knows that this will become a problem, as might Bretty-boy.  A 9 member Supreme Court and only 179 Circuit Court judges depend on the “appearance” of a non-partisan judiciary.

  73. 73.

    FelonyGovt

    September 9, 2022 at 1:56 pm

    @Ruckus: I think you’re exactly right. Processes like this, where a “neutral” party, who has to be acceptable to both sides, is to be chosen, often take months. And they are very susceptible to intentional delay and bad faith. I’ve seen it in the selection of arbitrators.

  74. 74.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 9, 2022 at 2:00 pm

    @Barbara: Which is problematic and the source of more than a small part of the DoJ’s request for a stay.  BUT, something I’ve been raising, is that every reply that the DoJ has been forced to file has included increasingly problematic evidence against Trump.  Since the CIA and NSA and DIA can’t review domestic figures or domestic intelligence, the next round of replies will be about “How do we handle evidence that 57 people (made up example) entered the secure storage room with Top Secret documents when Counterintelligence and Counter-terrorism are barred from a review?” or something similar.

  75. 75.

    Hoodie

    September 9, 2022 at 2:19 pm

    @bbleh: sounds like a job for Darth Cheney

  76. 76.

    Bill Arnold

    September 9, 2022 at 2:20 pm

    @Anonymous At Work:

    The list of such persons Trump now knows (since he lost his and the ability to grant clearances at will) is very very slim.

    Good point. The current POTUS/Executive Branch controls security clearances now, including revocation.

  77. 77.

    cain

    September 9, 2022 at 2:22 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Great – of course, if they lose the upper hand someone else gets all the power, they’ll suddenly be defenders of democracy.

  78. 78.

    Bill Arnold

    September 9, 2022 at 2:29 pm

    @Timill:

    I can think of one, possibly: Judge Cannon.

    Any judgeperson who, for example, ordered the derailment of a major counterintelligence operation involving serious matters of national security as a favor to [hertheir], uhm, [masterbenefactor], would not be granted a security clearance by the current Executive Branch under POTUS Biden. Not that she would risk the background checks that such clearances would involve.

  79. 79.

    Raoul Paste

    September 9, 2022 at 2:31 pm

    Is there a deadline for either side to offer up suggestions for a special master?

  80. 80.

    Gravenstone

    September 9, 2022 at 2:31 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Will have to dig for it again, but saw something at TPM that suggested this wasn’t the first time Trump tried to judge shop his way into Cannon’s court. The suit he filed against Hillary (and many, many others) that just got tossed was another filing that he tried (and failed) to get into her hands.

  81. 81.

    Elie

    September 9, 2022 at 2:37 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    …and let it not be lost how he has corrupted our security and information services. If we can get past this it will take YEARS to rehabilitate international (and our own) trust in our intelligence services.  My God I can barely believe what is happening and how we have not YET put control on this catastrophe.  We are now in an unbelievable place: we cannot trust members of our judiciary to keep us safe and uphold the integrity of our most sensitive intelligence and systems.  These people seem totally willing to have our human resources placed at more risk than they have already been placed…

  82. 82.

    cmorenc

    September 9, 2022 at 2:39 pm

    @Burnspbesq:

    Trump gets a copy of the unredacted affidavit as a matter of course—after he’s indicted. Until then he can fuck right off. Giving it to him before then would guarantee a campaign of witness tampering the likes of which we haven’t seen since the New York Mafia prosecutions.

    Post-indictment, Trump / MAGA world will still try to retaliate between then and any potential trial – witnesses in prosecutions of mob figures aren’t safe from intimidation or physical danger.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    September 9, 2022 at 2:40 pm

    @Raoul Paste: Today I think.

  84. 84.

    New Deal democrat

    September 9, 2022 at 2:48 pm

    @Geminid: Yes, it is today.

  85. 85.

    GibberJack

    September 9, 2022 at 2:50 pm

    @Anonymous At Work: I think the  judge’s condition that both sides must agree on a SM else the judge decides was intended to be unworkable, designed to create an impasse that allows herself to choose the SM and take control the investigation.

    I don’t think she’s smart enough to have come up with this on her own. She’s a fedsoc puppet.

    As such she will not agree to the DoJ’s request for partial stay. I would not be surprised if she doesn’t even read it.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 2:51 pm

    I have been waiting all afternoon for breaking news on this case.  Where is my breaking news?

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    @GibberJack: I believe the judge came out with a response last night, asking if the two parties can agree to what the DOJ proposed yesterday.

    I thought she had given them a deadline of today.

    Someone as ambitious as she is wouldn’t be able to help herself, I think she would read the DOJ filing.

  88. 88.

    West of the Cascades

    September 9, 2022 at 3:10 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    They will file a brief with the 11th that has all the details.  The laying everything out in this motion is basically to say “This is what we will say to the appellate court. Do you really want to embarrass yourself this way? Come on, man!”

    And FRAP 8(a)(1) requires that any motion for stay pending appeal be filed initially with the district court. So DOJ had no choice but to file the motion for partial stay with Judge Cannon.

    (FRAP = Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure)

  89. 89.

    Bill

    September 9, 2022 at 3:13 pm

    @cain: arresting defendants and putting them in jail tends to get cases moving.

  90. 90.

    bbleh

    September 9, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    @Raoul Paste: @Geminid: @New Deal democrat: today midnight to be exact.

    @WaterGirl: @GibberJack: I read elsewhere that she DID issue yesterday an unwritten order for the parties to consider as part of their reply due today the DOJ’s proposal to exempt the documents with classification markings.  Some observers suggest that this may be an attempt to take a step or two back on her part, since her ruling as applied to those documents has roughly no legal basis.

  91. 91.

    Anonymous At Work

    September 9, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    @WaterGirl: Agreed.  She’d need to read the brief to respond to it directly.  And not responding directly to each point it raises would make her look lazy, incompetent, and stupid as well as add responsibility to her personally if the Counter-Intelligence investigation was delayed AND showed any breaches.
    And she is NOT stupid.  She might be a bad lawyer, a bad judge, but she graduated law school, got a clerk’s job, and an assistant federal prosecutor’s job (civil service! not easy!).  The problem with her is ruling on behalf of the person who appointed her in order to ingratiate herself with Leonard Leo, her real “sugar daddy”.  Corrupt at worst, not stupid.  Her opinions seem such because the facts and the law are against her but she insists on arriving at a pre-determined outcome.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    September 9, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    Destroying government does not always look like a fire in the WH or a riot at the capital building.

    Going behind stage and screwing up the scenery, knocking out a few lights, and screwing with the sound system works wonders for fucking over the show. That is effectively what the low rent people that SFB has around him are trying to do. Because their big plan of actually overthrowing the government didn’t work so well, not that they didn’t try. These people are the mob, without the brains and enforcers. Sure they have a few assholes that will do whatever they are convinced will work, right up until the moment it doesn’t. This country is as a fair number of people have stated at a crossroads. Do we want the democracy that we supposedly have or do we want to be overthrown by an idiot who thinks his shit doesn’t stink? Because SFB has little to lose at this point, and really the republican party is sort of falling apart around the edges at least. But the last 50 yrs of them trying to create the country they have always envisioned, which even most of their followers likely wouldn’t want if they knew what was actually going on is coming to a head. Some are trying to move SFB out of the limelight but I think that ship has sailed for those at the bottom of their group who think they would shine in any way if they were successful. But they wouldn’t, the money brokers would still run the place and it would still all be for their benefit.

    We have to get back to actual taxation for everyone with minimal income, income of any type, investments/stocks/bonds/an actual job. We have to tax on a sliding basis, the more income the more tax, and below a minimal point no tax. You don’t like taxation, move someplace else and see how they do it. No income limit for SS tax. This isn’t that hard to understand, unless you really, really don’t want to.

  93. 93.

    Bnad

    September 9, 2022 at 3:53 pm

    How do we know this judge didn’t use some anonymous email backchannel to send Trump’s lawyers the unredacted affadavit 5 minutes after she first laid eyes on it?

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    @Bnad: I don’t believe that this judge has ever seen the unredacted affidavit.  I don’t think she has access to it.

    Can one of the attorneys weigh in?

  95. 95.

    Bill Arnold

    September 9, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    @Bnad:

    How do we know this judge didn’t use some anonymous email backchannel to send Trump’s lawyers the unredacted affadavit 5 minutes after she first laid eyes on it?

    A different judge laid his eyes on it/handled the warrant.

  96. 96.

    GibberJack

    September 9, 2022 at 4:19 pm

    @WaterGirl: So trump-like, this judge. She creates her own problems, then positions herself to be the great negotiator and solver of said self-created problems.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    September 9, 2022 at 4:31 pm

    @GibberJack: I hope this corrupt judge eventually rues the day that she was appointed judge.

  98. 98.

    Bill Arnold

    September 9, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I hope this corrupt judge eventually rues the day that she was appointed judge.

    It’s interesting. She has to realize that e.g. multiple people in the intelligence community have been digging in side projects/spare time into her background. She’s from Colombia, which has never ranked well in the standard corruption index, e.g. https://tradingeconomics.com/colombia/corruption-index (which has history back to 1994), and appears to be from a wealthy family, which increases the odds of corruption (given no additional information) ’cause corruption involves money.
    Maybe she’s clean, but she sure seems so far to twitch to every D.J.Trump demand.

  99. 99.

    Elie

    September 9, 2022 at 4:57 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I would go even further — she is a treasonous judge — one who is willing to risk the security of this country for a price – be it her career or actual monetary reward, a price nonetheless

  100. 100.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    September 9, 2022 at 7:18 pm

    @frosty: “Near as I can tell she has no qualifications for any kind of a job.”

    That sentence proves that she’s qualified. You are thinking like a sane person and that doesn’t work when dealing with crazy conservatives.

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