didn’t he do that already with the new york case? he fabricated a mugshot.
cnn is reporting a transcript of the conversation with the writer that was recorded, regarding miley.
“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript.
CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he’s referencing, according to the transcript.
“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.”“Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example.
He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,”
Trump says, according to the transcript. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.”Trump continues: “All sorts of stuff – pages long, look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this.”
Rumor alert: completely unverified, but MSNBC is reporting that they’re hearing that Loose Cannon is the judge randomly assigned to the Trump case in Miami. Say it ain’t so! She’s completely biased towards CFSG and has a grudge against the DOJ for calling her on her bullshit during the earlier documents fight.
ABC News was provided a case number that was part of the written summons and according to the federal court filing system PACER, that case number matches a docket under “Judge AMC.” Cannon’s full name is Aileen Mercedes Cannon.
Toward the end of the ABC story it mentions that the magistrate judge assigned to the case was also involved in the previous documents case, so assigning both jurists to the followup case because they’d had previous experience with it makes superficial sense.
ETA: Quote from the article:
In addition to Cannon, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart’s name also appeared on the summons sent to Trump on Thursday, the sources said.
Reinhart, who was sworn in as a magistrate judge in 2018, is also familiar with the proceedings against Trump: he signed off on the initial search warrant of Mar-a-Lago last year and later ruled to unseal the search affidavit – decisions that made him the target of antisemitic jabs on the internet.
Judges in most federal cases are assigned at random. But the apparent nods to Cannon and Reinhart on the summons for Trump might actually reflect the fact that both have already played roles in the proceedings, experts said.
Agreed. And I don’t think they’d even have to burn their one-time freebie kick (assuming it works the same at the federal level as at the state court level). I think they have a pretty strong case for cause.
I can explain how it works in California. I’m not sure if it’s the same at the federal level, but hopefully there is a similar process in place.
Each party has the right to peremptorily challenge a judge from hearing a case. The “kick” can be with or without cause. Each side gets one free kick, meaning the party doesn’t have to state a reason why the judge should recuse from the case.
If a party exercises their one free kick, then they will either have to accept the next judge assigned without question or be prepared to challenge the next judge for cause.
If a party moves for cause, they are basically telling the judge that he or she is unduly prejudiced against their client. The obvious down side is that the judge being challenged is also the one hearing the case. They rarely agree with the party that they are unable to set aside their bias.
It can get tricky.
ETA: You also asked how judges are assigned to a case. This varies greatly from venue to venue. Some are drawn at random, some are assigned by the presiding judge in the venue. We’ll just have to see what the Southern District of Florida’s process is.
Former president Donald Trump released a four-minute video after his indictment on federal criminal charges concerning his retention of hundreds of classified documents after he left the White House. Here’s a quick roundup of the factual claims he made in the video, many of which focused on his record as president and what he viewed as unwarranted attacks during his presidency. He did not address the charges he faces in detail.
“The Mueller hoax. No collusion after two years.”
…
“We were energy independent.”
…
“We had the biggest tax cuts in history.”
…
“The biggest regulation cuts in history.”
…
“Got more votes than any sitting president in history by far.”
…
“We are leading in the polls by a lot, against Biden.”
…
“It’s a hoax, the whole thing is a hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia.”
…
“It’s called election interference.”
…
“Our country is in decline, we are a failing nation.”
…
Bold in original text.
I predict someday this will be the basis of a Broadway musical done in rap style-- like Hamilton.
Again, at the state level, it is the judge being challenged who also hears the case. I’m not sure if it’s the same at the federal level. But if it is:
To relate it to this case, if the DOJ receives an adverse ruling, they can appeal. The ruling would be appealed to the Eleventh Circuit. They are already familiar with Cannon’s antics and I would expect the DOJ to prevail in their for-cause challenge.
Technically, this one is actually true. Trump got more votes in 2020 than any previous sitting president (thanks to huge turnout and the always growing population). Unfortunately for him, Biden got more votes.
