Trump Charged With 37 counts of Espionage, Obstruction and related crimes

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Presumably, they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

[N.E. Brigand]

I appreciated Ken White's nod to this classic piece.

I know the following connection is very slight, but reading it again nearly 25 years later, this language from that piece: "Now and for all time, he finally knows that he will never escape the cruel prison of his chair of iron, for God hath willed it so. Praise be to God!" reminds me a little of this: "If you find that the House has proved its case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel and for all of history. But if you find the courage to stand up to him, to speak the awful truth to his rank falsehood your place will be among the Davids who took on Goliath. If only you will say, 'Enough!'"

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

So as V notes, the appeals court (all three judges appointed by Republicans) has said that Judge Cannon's decision to order a special master was ridiculous.

As Josh Marshall notes, it's interesting to look back at Jake Tapper and Elie Honig at CNN complaining in September that other legal commentators should apologize to Honig for having ridiculed his assessment that "if you strip out the politics and look at this thing objectively ... and if you understand how real district courts, trial courts work, to me it seemed like Donald Trump's request was not unreasonable".

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm still shaking my head over that. Elie Honig used to be a real lawyer.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Finally got a chance to read the 11th Circuit decision. What an extraordinary smackdown of Judge Cannon and of Trump's attorneys. I'm not sure I have ever read anything like it.

Speaking of the latter, today the DoJ filed a motion to Cannon asking for a one week extension of all of the deadlines in the case so that no one wastes their time if the mandate issues in six days and the case is dismissed as ordered by the 11th Circuit. At the end of the motion they write: "Yesterday evening, we wrote to Plaintiff’s counsel and asked for Plaintiff’s consent to a motion to stay upcoming deadlines. As of the time of filing of this motion, we have not heard back from Plaintiff’s counsel." That is just an extraordinary breach of the usual professional etiquette.

ETA: Trump's "attorneys" have now filed a brief opposition to the extension motion, claiming that "The Government filed its Motion after unilaterally setting an overnight deadline for counsel to President Trump to provide their position, then filed its Motion before that arbitrarily set deadline for response had run." What incredible nonsense. But Cannon will probably agree with them and deny the motion, and possibly try to cause whatever mischief she can before the case is finally taken away from her.

[RoseMorninStar]

Am I being overly cynical or does it truly seem an unqualified lackey was installed in the Florida court for just such purposes (of aiding powerful/wealthy Republicans of Florida?) It seems so.. overt even for someone such as myself who really has only a passing idea of how our court system works.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Sunsilver]

Colour me (and probably everyone else on this board) Not Surprised! Apparently, they also searched his New York residence, the N.J. golf course, and another unspecified residence.

I firmly believe the government knows EXACTLY what files are still missing. There were a number of empty folders found at Mar-a-Lago, and AFAIK, their contents is still not accounted for. I've worked a lot with files in various jobs, and there is always a system in place for identifying their contents. I am sure the U.S. government is even more anal about cataloguing files and their contents than your average business or public institution.

The Washington Post has previously reported that officials at the National Archives also believe that there may still be more records missing. Previous attempts by Trump’s attorneys to identify and return documents proved unsatisfactory to investigators.

IOW, they need to keep looking...

[N.E. Brigand]

I imagine the stories yesterday about how Donald Trump's team searched various properties looking for more government documents were driven by Trump's lawyers expecting today's news, which is that the Department of Justice has https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/08/trump-contempt-mar-a-lago-records/]asked a judge to issue a contempt order because Trump has failed to attest that all classified documents have been returned.

- - - - - - - - - -
Also Trump has not appealed last week's decision from the 11th Circuit, so the special master process will officially end. What a waste of more than two months.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I was just coming here to post about both those things. Though last I checked the mandate had not yet issued.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And now it has.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

More info from CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics ... index.html

The last sentence of that article is both hilarious and terrifying.

Being held in contempt over subpoenas for documents has become a feature of Trump’s court tangles since he left office.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is also amusing.

Hayes compared being Trump's custodian of records to being a drummer for the legendary parody band Spinal Tap, as whatever musician agreed to play drums for the band was destined to meet a grisly end, often in the form of spontaneous combustion during performances.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 23d17cbc2c

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Most likely, this is coming from the Trump team, but it is probably true.

[N.E. Brigand]

I appreciate this analysis by Harry Litman of why Judge Howell wouldn't have held the Trump legal team or Donald Trump himself in contempt. Basically Trump's lawyers can't be sure Trump isn't lying to them, and the judge can't force one of them to be a custodian of records, and even if she appointed one, that person would only be able to say that they've diligently searched and can't find any more records responsive to the request, not that all records had actually been returned, and Trump himself is protected by the Fifth Amendment, because giving up the records at this point could incriminate him. It's a weird little Catch-22.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I agree, that was a good analysis by Litman. Another good piece is this article by Harvard Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe and former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut.

What the New Trump Contempt Motion Tells Us About the Mar-a-Lago Documents Prosecution

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Trump Lawsuit Seeking the Return of Files Seized from Mar-a-Lago Is Officially Dismissed by Judge Who First Came to Former President’s Aid

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]