She will have blood on her hands over this, mark my word.
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
And will face exactly ZERO consequences.
Just so its clear, this has nothing to do with the classified/Top Secret documents Trump is accused of hiding at Mar-a-lago. None of those have been turned over - it’s not time for that part yet. That process starts in earnest on Monday.
This is pertaining to all the unclassified discovery (TV footage, texts, court transcripts, etc. etc.) documents (some I think were FOIA docs Trump requested/got on his own).
So Big picture: 1st Amendment, open and public courts, democracy dies in darkness…all those laws and ideals mean that criminal court documents are available to the public.
In some cases, some very mundane, some like this one, you make an exception to the high burden that this should all be public and ask the Court for a Protective Order. That happened in this case. It’s an internal Court Order that says everyone involved in the case must share and gets to see the unclassified discovery, but it remains unavailable to the public. This happens on a document by document basis and you need to explain why the normally public document should be sealed.
Trump filed a motion to unseal/unredact some of these unclassified documents and said they were not covered by the Court’s Protective Order. So did the NYT and C-SPAN and many other outlets like that. The Gov’t opposed, and in what appears to only be a 3 page response (ie, not much pushback, certainly not detailed - literally one generalized factual paragraph as to why these should remained sealed - or rather, “trust us”). Out of 70 documents, DOJ agreed a majority of it could be disclosed/already public, and only 6 exhibits should stay sealed entirely; the rest they were fine with partially redacting.
The Judge agreed with the DOJ on some of that. Some will remain sealed entirely (the most sensitive ones). Some will be partially unredacted (e.g., witness name, but no contact info - what the article above is all about). The rest no one cares about.
*I’m certainly open to correction - these cases are hard to follow and it’s possible I missed something.
I also see other shenanigans in play but not germane to the bigger point
Always happy to be corrected, including by myself. The Gov’t just filed a Mtn to Reconsider to not make some of the witness names public. Defendant’s have until Feb 23 to respond.
This means the Gov wants Judge Cannon to take another look and change her mind about her Order that some witness names will be unredacted. Now, she probably won’t change her mind, Judge’s usually don’t because they clearly considered it the first time.
Specifically here, they are asking the Judge to reconsider because she applied the wrong legal standard which is clear error and would result in manifest injustice (the release of the 24 witness names who would be exposed to threats).
The at-home analyst people’s thinking is, they know she’ll deny this motion - statistics bear that out. But Jack will appeal it and of course they will win. But the at-home analysts think the ultimate goal is that Jack would use this as a way to get her removed. Who knows. On the other hand, inexperienced Judges are the exact type of Judges who would reconsider once it’s spelled out.
and Finally…I don’t think my above post is wrong wrong - you’re still balancing this should be public versus explain with detail why it should not. The Motion to Reconsider is very long and says the Gov is willing to provide info about specific witnesses/how they will be harmed/etc. Actual specific facts about why their names should not be made public due to specific threats which was lacking in the original Motion (it was one paragraph long, ie, trust us; in the Mtn to Reconsider it’s methodical and dozens of pages - the kind of brief they always file). Re the original Order, for example, here is another legal analysts opinion about the Order: “The ruling is a mixed bag, and after reviewing her order, although reasonable people can (and I do) disagree with her decision to leave witness identities and confidential FBI information exposed to public view, this isn’t likely the kind of decision, standing alone, that prosecutors would seek to appeal. Cannon granted DOJ’s request to redact the national security information—the most important information in the motion.” Jack thinks differently and is now more aggressively explaining why.
Special counsel Jack Smith in a recent court filing cited case law that Judge Aileen Cannon, the MAGA-appointed federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, previously worked on as a way of reminding her why she should rule against the former president.
As Trump’s legal team’s strategy to delay the trial becomes increasingly apparent, Smith’s filing pointed toward a case from Cannon’s past, recalling how she worked to establish boundaries around such tactics.
Its a win/win for Trump having Cannon preside over his case. She can continue making rulings that fly in the face of precedent, thereby delaying things with appeals of her rulings or giving Trump more time to respond to whatever. If or when the 11th takes the case away, a new judge would need even more time to catch up on things. The 11th needs to step up right now but I’m not holding my breath.
Jack Smith needs to give them a reason to, meaning file a motion for recusal of Cannon. But I think he’s been biding his time, waiting until Cannon made so many and such fatal mistakes that the Eleventh would have difficulty doing anything but to remove her from the case. It’s a very drastic action.
The Eleventh has a lot of latitude on this. So for Smith, it’s a matter of, if you come at the king, you best not miss.
I’m not too worried if the case gets assigned to a new judge. Despite what Trump supporters would have us believe, this case is not that complex or difficult. It could come to trial relatively quickly – even possibly before the election.
I’ve never seen this done in Federal Court. I’m not saying they couldn’t, but I’ve never seen it. As you say, very drastic.
I’m not at all familiar with the procedure, but from what I’ve heard by the tee vee former federal US attorneys like Andrew Weissman and Joyce Vance, it’s possible to do.
Cannon’s bias has become almost impossible to ignore.
The facts and evidence of this case are a slam-dunk and easy to understand. However, much of the evidence is in the form of classified documents, and the procedures to allow those to be used as evidence while not revealing the secrets is a complex and slow process (CIPA).
Yes, I’m aware of that. If I recall correctly, Smith’s team indicated they plan to use a mere 27 (or was it 37?) classified documents in their presentation. More total exhibits, of course, but very few classified.
No trial court on earth should be intimidated by handling such a minuscule number of exhibits – even those subject to CIPA review.
Judge Aileen Cannon isn’t buying Donald Trump’s newest delay tactic in the classified documents case.
On Thursday, Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, shot down the GOP front-runner’s latest effort to postpone pretrial deadlines, instead opting to keep that date set on February 22.
But the ruling comes with an exception—noting that she’ll still consider measures filed at the eleventh hour if the legal teams can prove they’re necessary.
Although small, it’s another recent indication that Cannon—who has reportedly taken a leisurely approach to the case’s pretrial proceedings—is looking to push forward.
Just following up on the above post. Feb 22 is the deadline for Trump to file any motions to dismiss this case (all pre-trial motions basically) - Trump wanted to push that back. These will be motions like dismissing for immunity, dismissing due to selective and vindictive prosecution, etc. etc. The key being, Trump has to now formally make these motions** (instead of just publicly saying all this stuff). Then they will be litigated and ruled on and appealed, if necessary. Put up or shut…well, at least put up.
There is a ton of other weird and confusing stuff going on in this case, and it’s hard to keep it all straight**, but I would expect Trump to file these types of motions in the next two days and expect all the news articles that will talk about them.
**He kinda sorta made an attempt at the selective and vindictive prosecution motion already - on Feb 9 filed it in the form of a reply to a motion to compel discovery - that’s not how it’s done but we’ll see what the Judge does with it. It feels like an attempt to get it out there, but something you can’t “lose” - the Judge would just ignore it and wouldn’t rule on it so to speak; versus filing a Motion and the Judge denying the motion = clear lose.
I think of this as the Lost Cause case. It makes me sad, because the alleged violations – which are substantially unrefuted – are horrendous and deeply damaging to our national security and that of our allies.
AKA, the “You are all a bunch of meany poop-heads” defense.
dismissing for immunity
AKA, the “I can break any laws I want” defense.
Trump filed seven Motions to Dismiss. Politico Article here.
Donald Trump is asking a federal judge in Florida to throw out his criminal case for hoarding classified secrets at his Mar-a-Lago estate, offering a grab bag of arguments that the charges are legally faulty, that prosecutors have targeted him for political reasons and that the special counsel spearheading the case had no legal authority to bring it.
The MTD’s are basically: Immunity; Selective & Vindictive Prosecution; Docs were his personal records; and other such stuff.
In other words, the usual bag of bullhockey.
It’s hard to keep up, but hasn’t he already used those arguments?
If he keeps using them, they will become valid.
THIS time it HAS to work!