Cannon's Latest Stall Of The Classified Docs Case

Tomorrow, Trump-appointed Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon will hear endless, lame arguments as to why the classified documents case against the Malignant Loser should be dropped over the legality of Special Counsel Jack Smith's appointment. It's a case where the Malignant Loser clearly stole classified documents from the White House and took them to his estate Merde O'Lardo, failing to secure them properly. Tomorrow's hearing is one of many defense-friendly hurdles that the Malignant Loser-friendly judge has put up to drag the trial out after the November elections. However, should Cannon rule that Smith's appointment -- and therefore the indictment he brought -- is illegal, the Department of Justice would likely seek Cannon's removal from the case due to her clear bias. From the Daily Beast:

"Last week, a band of conservative activists threw its support behind Trump, arguing that the real problem here is that the AG shouldn’t have plucked Smith from his job as an anti-corruption prosecutor in Europe, and instead should have tapped one of the nation’s active 93 Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys. The Trump-friendly argument conveniently says that 'nearly all the special prosecutors appointed during the past 40 years—aside from Smith and Robert Mueller—have been lawfully appointed.' [snip]

'It’s a trivial question that ought not to have any serious consideration at all. We’ve had numerous cases that have gone forward before, and it’s not a serious argument that’s being made,' he told The Daily Beast. 'The case has been unnecessarily delayed and it should be much farther than it is. Indeed, it probably should have gone to trial.' [snip]

Fast-forward to now, and Smith will be fighting to keep the case alive. If Cannon rules against him, legal scholars say he might have the ammunition he needs to finally request the judge’s recusal from the case.

But no matter what happens on Friday, Judge Cannon has already gotten what she wanted. The case has been pushed back so far that legal experts say it’s unlikely it will go to trial before the election."  (our emphasis)

Cannon needs to be sanctioned at some point for her incompetent and biased handling of this national security case against her patron. Sooner rather than later.

(photo: Felon and follower) 

 

Trump's Judge Further Delaying Docs Case

Every week there's new evidence that Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon is working for her patron, convicted felon Malignant Loser. She's avoided ruling on basic motions in the classified documents case, putting off a trial date indefinitely while she purports to sift through the multiple delaying motions made by the Malignant Loser's team. The latest move on Cannon's part is accepting a ludicrous defense motion to expand a hearing on the legality of Special Counsel Jack Smith's appointment, something that should be expeditiously ruled on in a normal court. From CNN:

"The planned hearing also adds a new, unusual twist in the federal criminal national security case against the former president: Cannon on Tuesday said that a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in the oral arguments on June 21.

It’s an extraordinary elevation of arguments in a criminal case first filed a year ago this week that likely won’t see trial until next year, if at all.

Similar challenges from Trump and other high-level targets of special counsel probes have flopped from coast to coast in recent years: Hunter Biden’s attorney didn’t get anywhere with judges in Los Angeles and Delaware; Paul Manafort’s arguments fell flat when the former Trump campaign chairman challenged special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority; and Andrew Miller, a former associate of Roger Stone, also lost his challenge to Mueller’s authority.

Even with other federal trial-level judges allowing special counsels’ criminal prosecutions, Cannon could rule differently." (our emphasis)

She could very well rule differently, as the Malignant Loser would like. Cannon will hold this bogus hearing on June 21, fully a month after the trial was originally planned to start. Her decision to open oral arguments to every right-wing Trumpist advocate is an outrage and a clear attempt to muddy the waters. The case is an open-and-shut one of theft and mishandling of classified documents by the Malignant Loser.  If she does rule that the Special Counsel's appointment was invalid, expect not only a DOJ appeal, but more attacks on Special Counsel prosecutions of Trumpists from now on (unless and until they get into office, when they'll want to use Special Counsels to go after their enemies). More from the article:

".... it is highly unusual for a federal trial judge to allow a third-party group unaffiliated with a criminal case to argue in court as part of a defendant’s legal challenges to the case itself. That work is essentially reserved for defendants’ teams to bring and argue in courts across the country, opposite Justice Department prosecutors. Allowing third parties to argue in court is even rare in appeals situations.

'The fact these motions are even being entertained with a hearing is itself ridiculous. That third parties are being allowed to opine at the hearing is absurd,' Bradley Moss, a national security law expert based in Washington, DC, told CNN."  (our emphasis)

At this point, with the case being pushed beyond the November election, the Justice Department might as well seek Cannon's removal from the case. Voters will be denied a decision on the Malignant Loser's handling of classified documents, thanks to her thumb on the scale in favor of the Malignant Loser. 

Cannon Footdragging And Third Defamation Suit Coming For Trump?

 

Keep flapping those orange lips, you deranged moron:

After Donald Trump on Monday again denied rape and defamation claims successfully brought against him by E Jean Carroll, a lawyer for the writer said “all options are on the table”.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, has previously suggested that she could file a third defamation lawsuit against the ex-president for comments he has continued making against Carroll.

During the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social a long rant about his various civil and criminal court entanglements, including litigation leveled against him by Carroll. In April, a federal judge upheld a jury’s decision to award Carroll $83.3m and denied Trump a new trial.

“Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country,” he wrote. He referred to Caroll as “a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!)”.

“She didn’t know when the so-called event took place – sometime in the 1990s – never filed a police report, didn’t have to produce the ‘dress’ that she threatened me with (it showed negative!) … The Rape charge was dropped by a jury!”

Carroll has filed and won two defamation lawsuits against Trump, who she said sexually abused her in a New York department store changing room in 1996. In the lawsuits, Carroll said that Trump’s accusations that she is lying about the case had ruined her reputation.

Trump, who is appealing both cases, appears to be undaunted by the fact that Carroll has already had success in court against him and continues to make comments disparaging her credibility.  [snip]

In response to those comments, Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, said that “the statute of limitations for defamation in most jurisdictions is between one and three years”.

“As we said after the last jury verdict, we continue to monitor every statement that Donald Trump makes about our client,” Kaplan said.

On Monday, Kaplan responded to Trump’s Memorial Day comments, appearing to reiterate her statement from earlier in the spring that suggested she could help Carroll pursue yet another defamation lawsuit against the former president.

“We have said several times since the last jury verdict in January that all options were on the table,” Kaplan said. “And that remains true today – all options are on.”

Please, please, please file that lawsuit!  His disordered mind, sense of victimization, and lack of impulse control make his flapping lips a cash register for Ms. Carroll and others he has and will continue to defame.

__________________

Meanwhile, Malignant Loser ass kisser Judge Aileen Cannon continues to drag out proceedings in the classified documents case:

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida on Tuesday denied prosecutors' request to bar the former president from making public statements that could endanger law enforcement agents participating in the prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said in her order that prosecutors didn’t give defense lawyers adequate time to discuss the request before it was filed Friday evening. She denied the request without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could file it again.

The request followed a distorted claim by Trump last week that the FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022 were “authorized to shoot me” and were “locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was referring to the disclosure in a court document that the FBI, during the search, followed a standard use-of-force policy that prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

Yes, what we need is more time for the defense to discuss the gag order request.  "Ten days?  A month?  After the election?  Why, whatever I can do to help."

(Images: Seth Wenig/ AP;  Rebecca Blackwell/ AP)

Gag Order Sought For Trump's "Assassination" Lie

The dangerous lie now swirling around the violent MAGA ecosystem is that in the classified documents search, FBI agents were sent to Merde o' Lardo to use deadly force against the Malignant Loser.  He's spread the lie in a fundraising e-mail and other places to stir up his mouth breathing cult to distract from his looming criminal trials.  The lie has caused Special Counsel Jack Smith to seek a gag order from the court to prevent acts of violence against law enforcement by the cult. Sadly, it has little prospect of approval, since it's directed at foot-dragging Trump acolyte Judge Aileen Cannon, who's working to delay the classified documents trial ad infinitum:

"Special counsel Jack Smith in a Friday filing called on the judge overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case to block Trump from speaking about the case in a way that could endanger law enforcement officials.

In his request, Smith asked the court to impose a condition that would bar Trump from making public statements that could 'pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to the law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case.' [snip]

The move comes after the former president falsely claimed in an email Wednesday that President Biden was 'locked & loaded and ready to take me out' — twisting language from the terms approved for law enforcement as they prepared to search his Mar-a-Lago residence for classified records in 2022.

In reality, the language only allows for deadly force 'when necessary,' such as when someone 'poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.' 

The prosecutors noted in the filing that the FBI’s search of the Palm Beach resort was done intentionally when Trump and his family were away. And, they added, it was coordinated with the Secret Service, without force."  (our emphasis)

A number of the media outlets we've seen cover this story have actually failed to mention that the Malignant Loser and his family weren't even at his resort when the search occurred, choosing to focus on the search warrant's boilerplate "deadly force" procedure. In any event, if this motion by Special Counsel Smith is treated like other prosecution motions, we can expect to see it collecting dust in Cannon's office while the Malignant Loser repeats the lie over and over, sowing the seeds of violence.

 

Cannon Continues Slow-Walking Docs Trial

Trump-appointed Federal District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has one mission above all others: to delay the Merde o' Lardo stolen classified document case beyond the election, if not to kill it altogether. The deliberately slow pace that Cannon has set in ruling on mostly frivolous motions from the Malignant Loser's lawyers have delayed the trial start date indefinitely, something that cheers the Malignant Loser and justifies his appointment of her to the bench. Her favorite delaying move is to hold lengthy hearings on various defense motions and not issue a ruling, as in yesterday's hearing on co-conspirator and Trump butt boy Walt Nauta's motion to dismiss the case against him:

"The heated arguments played out in a morning proceeding in Fort Pierce, Florida, that had been scheduled for Walt Nauta, one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants, to present arguments that special counsel Jack Smith’s team had selectively and vindictively brought charges against him.

But the hearing quickly diverted into a longstanding disagreement over an August 2022 meeting between prosecutor Jay Bratt and Nauta’s defense attorney, Stanley Woodward. Woodward has claimed in court proceedings and filings that Bratt attempted to pressure him into convincing Nauta to cooperate against Trump by threatening to affect a potential judgeship nomination. Cannon did not issue a ruling from the bench on Nauta’s motion that the case be dismissed on those grounds.

Nor did Cannon rule on a motion she heard during an afternoon session Wednesday, brought by all three of the case’s defendants, who claimed that the indictment suffers technical flaws that required the dismissal of the charges.

Cannon seemed skeptical of those arguments, while also expressing concern about a jury’s ability to understand legal nuances in the case at a future trial.

Real people have to decide these issues,' Cannon said." (our emphasis)

Suggesting that the case is too complex for a jury to comprehend may reflect more on her incompetence and her pretense that the clear and simple evidence of her patron's mishandling of classified material and obstruction of their return is complicated. It's worrisome that the Department of Justice under feckless Attorney General Merrick Garland hasn't taken more aggressive action to seek Cannon's removal from the case on the grounds of clear bias, now that there's no hope for a completed trial before the November election.

(photo: Cult leader and acolyte)

 

QOTD: Remove Judge Cannon From Docs Case

 

Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks on MSNBC discussing Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon's continued delay in setting a trial date and not dispensing of the Malignant Loser's frivolous motions to obstruct the trial:

"She has made bad decisions that have no relationship to what the law is in this case. She has refused to make decisions that should have been made months ago. [snip]

She is not dumb, but she is really not doing her job. There is a rule that judges, one of their jobs, is to set a trial date. So her saying this is too complex a case, I'm not going to set a trial date, that seems to be something that could be subject to a mandamus, and that's something that may have to be. And that may mean that getting a new judge would be delaying the case, but I would rather delay it for a new judge and not worry that she will take this and after the jury's impaneled, do something that would deal with double jeopardy so she would dismiss the case and make it impossible to retry him." (our emphasis)

Cannon has to be removed from this case, for obstructing it and for sheer incompetence. The concern, as Wine-Banks noted, is that once the jury is impaneled (if ever), she'll find something in the Government's handling of the case to dismiss it, so the Malignant Loser would never face trial. 

 

Cannon Delays Trial Again, Aiding Trump

 

Trump-appointed Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed the stolen classified documents trial against her benefactor, the Malignant Loser. The Malignant Loser's lawyers, realizing they have an ally in Cannon, have been filing motions left and right challenging the prosecution's procedures and other matters. From Politico:

"Cannon, a Trump appointee who took the bench in late 2020, indicated in the order that, before setting a new trial date, she intends to resolve the backlog of other issues in the case that have piled up on her plate. Smith’s defenders have criticized Cannon for what they see as a plodding pace in resolving pretrial matters, and tensions between the special counsel and the judge have flared in recent months over a series of puzzling rulings that threatened to derail the case. [snip]

That reshuffling further clouds the picture for Smith, who is also awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that could determine whether his other case against Trump — charges in Washington D.C. for attempting to subvert the 2020 election — can move forward this year." (our emphasis)

The trial was supposed to start on May 20. Stalling the start of what should be a very cut-and-dried case against the Malignant Loser is exactly what he wants, so that the election might resolve this and his other Federal criminal trial for the January 6 insurrection in his favor. Cannon's obvious bias has been slammed by respected attorneys, many of whom are urging that the Department of Justice seek a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to replace her on the case. Even if that happens, a new judge would have to get up to speed and sort through the pile of mostly frivolous motions by the Malignant Loser's lawyers, but at least justice might be better served.

BONUS: It seems Judge Cannon's husband has a Mafia connection. Figures. 

Trump's Idiotic Docs Argument Dismissed

Likely feeling intense pressure after Special Counsel Jack Smith challenged her latest attempt to delay and rig the classified documents case in favor of her patron, Federal District Judge and MAGA incompetent Aileen Cannon ruled today that the Presidential Records Act did not permit him to retain highly classified documents. Cannon still has multiple decisions that she's been sitting on that need to be decided before trial. From the Washington Post:

"Trump’s defense team argued the Presidential Records Act took priority over the Espionage Act when it came to highly classified documents that he took to his private residence in Florida after his presidency. On Thursday, Cannon shot down that argument, saying the PRA “does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss” either the mishandling charges or the related obstruction charges against Trump.

The decision comes two days after special counsel Jack Smith made a court filing saying the judge was pursuing a legal premise about the PRA that was 'wrong,' and urged her to rule, adding that if she decided otherwise, he wanted to appeal any such decision quickly." (our emphasis)

"Pre-trial basis to dismiss." It doesn't provide any basis actually, pre-trial or anytime. But she's keeping her options open, apparently.  She also may have read the tea leaves with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed her earlier in this case, and to which Special Counsel Smith was ready to file a writ of mandamus to force her hand on this and other decisions. Whatever her motivation, be assured she'll do everything to delay and undermine the Justice Department's case, one that is the most straight forward of the cases now pending against the Malignant Loser in multiple jurisdictions.

(photos: Lord and master)

Cannon Lays Groundwork For Trump Not Guilty Verdict

 

The Malignant Loser's favorite judge, corrupt hack Aileen Cannon, is daring Special Counsel Jack Smith to go to the 11th Circuit and get her reversed and removed from the Mar-a-Lardo classified documents case.  He needs to do it, based on her most recent egregious order:

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case has given the jury routes to find the former president not guilty in a "perplexing" court order, an attorney has said.

Judge Aileen Cannon is overseeing the Republican nominees' Mar-a-Lago indictment in which Trump was charged with retaining national security information—including U.S. nuclear secrets and plans for military retaliation in the event of an attack—and obstructing efforts to retrieve them in June 2023.

Prosecutors have said Trump took documents that he was no longer authorized to have after leaving the White House in January 2021 and that he resisted repeated requests by federal officials to return them. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On Monday, Cannon issued an order instructing lawyers to file proposed jury instructions by April 2 in which she laid out two different legal scenarios, one which would instruct the jury to decide whether Trump did not have the authorization to keep classified documents found on his property, and the second assuming Trump had authority to keep the records because he was president, as per an understanding of the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

Trump's legal team has filed a motion saying the act allowed him to retain the materials as his own personal property and Cannon is yet to rule on it.

Reacting to the order in her blog, Civil Discourse, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance criticized it, calling it "perplexing" and "crazy."

She wrote: "Although the order is only two pages, it's perplexing.

"It's two page of crazy stemming from the Judge's apparent inability to tell Trump no when it comes to his argument that he turned the nation's secrets into his personal records by designating them as such under the Presidential Records Act."

"I've never had a judge say, 'you know, I have no idea what the law is here, so lets make a couple of different assumptions about it, and even though they're both wrong, give me some ideas,'" she added.

"The assumptions in Judge Cannon's two scenarios virtually direct the jury to find Trump not guilty, by suggesting that a president can hold onto any government property he wants to as long as he designates it as personal before he leaves office. The only questions she leaves open is whether anyone can second guess a former president who pinky promises he decided something was personal before he went back home. For instance, in the first one, she directs the lawyers to assume that juries get to examine each item a former president is charged with retaining and decide whether the government has proven that it is personal or presidential. So, it's up to the jury to decide what's personal and what isn't."...  (our emphasis)

"Crazy" and "perplexing" are the least of it.  Malignant Loser- appointed Cannon has been trying to derail or delay this slam- dunk trial from the moment it was assigned to her.  She's shown her hand over and over again as a tool of the treasonous Malignant Loser.  Haven't we seen enough to get this compromised hack off the case?

Pull the damn trigger before more time, if not the case, is lost.

Court Hears Case For Dismissal Of Docs Case

The Malignant Loser appeared in the Florida District court of his fan girl Judge Aileen Cannon this morning to hear his team's arguments that the criminal classified documents be dismissed on frivolous grounds. He's hoping that his appointed judge will further drag out the proceeding that should have been well on its way to resolution by now. From Forbes.com reporting:

Former President Donald Trump is expected to attend a court hearing in Florida Thursday, as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon considers several of the ex-president’s requests to have most of his criminal charges for allegedly mishandling White House documents thrown out. [snip]

Cannon will hear arguments on two of Trump’s motions to dismiss the charges against him, one alleging they’re invalid under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and another trying to have them thrown out for “unconstitutional vagueness.”

Trump alleges he was allowed to designate White House records as personal under the PRA, a 1978 law passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and thus didn’t illegally willfully retain national security information, as he’s been charged with.

The Justice Department says Trump is wrong and the PRA does not give him that authority, writing the documents Trump possessed at Mar-a-Lago are 'indisputably presidential, not personal.'” 

He's also said the Espionage Act didn't apply to his case, an argument vigorously rejected by the Justice Department. Legal experts agree that the Malignant Loser's case is flimsy at best (although Cannon may not see her patron's arguments that way):

"Some legal experts have been heavily skeptical of Trump’s PRA claims, with Jason R. Baron, the former director of litigation at the National Archives, telling The Washington Post the ex-president’s argument is 'absurd.' 'A president cannot designate records about White House official business — classified or unclassified — as personal,' Baron told the Post, slamming Trump’s claims that 'merely … transferring boxes to Mar-a-Lago converts the legal status of their contents from presidential records to personal.' Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance also criticized Trump’s legal motions Thursday morning, tweeting, 'I've handled a lot of motions in criminal cases. These are barely better than frivolous.'” 

Despite the obvious absurdity of the Malignant Loser's arguments, Cannon will likely drag out a ruling as long as possible helping him run out the clock, or unless and until Special Counsel Jack Smith takes the matter up with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse her.

(photos: Trump and his appointee)

 

Ominous Statement From Trump Docs Judge

In the classified documents case against the Malignant Loser, Trump-appointed Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon has consistently ruled for her patron on pre-trial motions, and has been rebuked by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for doing so. That doesn't seem to affect Cannon, whose efforts to delay the trial until after the November elections are clear. Now, she's in the process of reviewing amicus briefs from organizations and individuals in support of the Malignant Loser's nonsensical claim of total immunity. True to form, she's indicating that those briefs supporting the Malignant Loser will be helpful to her deliberations:

"Cannon filed to the Florida federal court Wednesday a paperless order accepting two amicus briefs, one from the America First Legal Foundation and one from former Reagan era Attorney General Ed Meese, calling on the Florida federal judge to dismiss charges against Trump, court records show.

'The Court has reviewed the motions' Cannon writes, 'and finds that the proposed amicus bring to the Court's attention relevant matter that may be of considerable help to the Court in resolving the cited pretrial motions.'" (our emphasis)

We're surprised to see the zealous old reactionary fossil Ed Meese is still alive, much less authoring an amicus brief. The America First Legal Foundation is run by fascist former Malignant Loser aide Stephen Miller, who crafted his cruel and ineffective immigration policy and is a true believer in the Malignant Loser's warped policies. Nevertheless, Cannon thinks their filings may be of "considerable help to the Court" (in dismissing the case against her patron, she didn't say).

Every week brings yet another reason to try to get this biased judge removed from the case by the 11th Circuit Court, and yet another disappointment that it hasn't been done. 

 

QOTD -- Willing To Be Manipulated

 

"... As the Government argued to the Court yesterday, the trial date in the District of Columbia case should not be a determinative factor in the Court’s decision whether to modify the dates in this matter.  Defendant Trump’s actions in the hours following the hearing in this case illustrate the point and confirm his overriding interest in delaying both trials at any cost.  This Court should [not] allow itself to be manipulated in this fashion."  -- excerpt of a brief filed by Jay Bratt, Counselor to Special Counsel Jack Smith in Malignant Loser Judge Aileen Cannon's court this morning.  Cannon is a willful participant in the Malignant Loser's attempts to evade justice by delaying his trial in the classified documents case until after the 2024 election (presuming he's going to pardon himself should he get back in power).  

We're hoping, after Cannon inevitably sides with the Malignant Loser's attorneys once again, that the Government file a motion seeking to remove her biased ass from the case. 

 

Trump Judge Gets Another Bite At The Apple

Tomorrow's pretrial conference for the Malignant Loser's classified documents case should give a good indication of whether Federal District Judge Aileen "Boom" Cannon has learned her lesson about tilting the scales of justice for the Malignant Loser who appointed her to the bench. The Malignant Loser's legal team is already saying that they want the trial postponed until after the 2024 election, which would potentially allow for its dismissal should the gates of hell open and he be elected. Of course, he announced for President three months after the search warrant was executed on his Merde o'Lardo estate on August 8 of last year, showing clearly that his Presidential bid is primarily to shield himself from legal jeopardy, as was his insurrection attempt in January 2021. The Associated Press lays out the situation in this morning's edition:

"A pretrial conference Tuesday to discuss procedures for handling classified information will represent the first courtroom arguments in the case before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon since Trump was indicted five weeks ago. The arguments could provide insight into how Cannon intends to preside over the case while she also confronts the unresolved question of how to schedule Trump’s trial as he campaigns for president.

Those issues would be closely watched in any trial involving a former president. But Cannon could face additional scrutiny in light of a much-dissected ruling she issued last year that granted the Trump team’s request for a special master to conduct an independent review of the reams of classified records removed by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago estate. A three-judge federal appeals panel reversed her order, rebuking Cannon for a ruling it said she lacked the legal authority to make in the first place."  (our emphasis)

The article quotes several attorneys as being hopeful that Cannon will comport herself fairly, and not in the way she did last year when her designation of a "special master" to review the documents that the Malignant Loser had illegally taken to Florida was struck down in a sharply-worded decision by the 11 Circuit Court of Appeals. Others like Florida state attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg think that if Cannon does go along with the Malignant Loser's request for a postponement, the 11th Circuit will again reverse her and may even remove her from the case.

We'll see if Cannon is more concerned about her reputation and legacy, or appeasing the cult leader of her party.

(photos: the Malignant Loser and his appointee Cannon)

 

Court: No To "Special Master" In Trump Docs Case

In a rebuke to both the Malignant Loser and Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon whom he appointed in the final months of his regime, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has stopped the "special master" review of documents seized during a lawful search of his Merde O'Lardo estate for highly classified documents. With Cannon's collusion, the Malignant Loser had hoped to stall the investigation into his possession of top secret classified documents, which involves violations of the Espionage Act, and his subsequent obstruction of the investigation. From the AP report:

"The decision by the three-judge panel represents a significant win for federal prosecutors, clearing the way for them to use as part of their investigation the entire tranche of documents seized during an Aug. 8 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. It also amounts to a sharp repudiation of arguments by Trump’s lawyers, who for months had said that the former president was entitled to have a so-called 'special master' conduct a neutral review of the thousands of documents taken from the property. [snip]

The decision was a unanimous opinion from the panel of Republican appointees, including two who were selected by Trump. In it, the court rejected each argument by Trump and his attorneys for why a special master was necessary, including his claims that various seized records were protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege."

The investigations into the Malignant Loser's handling of highly classified documents, along with his January 6 attempted coup / insurrection, are now in the hands of Special Counsel Jack Smith.  There are signs that both investigations are moving along under his management, and the Court's ruling against the "special master" stall tactic will help greatly.

In a clear slap at Trump's colluding Judge Cannon, the Appeals Court judges wrote:

“The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.

Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”

Further appeals, if any, by the Malignant Loser's lawyers are expected to be dismissed.  

 

Corrupt Trump Judge Again Rules In His Favor

 

Trump-appointed Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon, who has already been rebuked by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for various inexplicable actions in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, superseded her own special master appointee, Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, and gave the Malignant Loser more time to delay in a ruling yesterday. From the New York Times' account:

"The decision, included in a six-page order issued by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, was among several to ease demands by the special master, Judge Raymond J. Dearie. Under requirements he put in place in recent days, Mr. Trump’s lawyers would have been forced to test excuses they have made in connection with the trove of documents taken from his estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Judge Cannon also rejected a swift timetable Judge Dearie had set to resolve the review of the documents, slowing the matter down."

One of the Malignant Loser's vile accusations is that classified documents were planted by the FBI in their August 8 search warrant execution. Cannon relieved the Malignant Loser's lawyers from having to state that accusation on the record for Judge Dearie. The egregious favoritism of Cannon's rulings drew comments from some legal observers:

1/If Judge Cannon was going to continue calling every ball in Trump’s favor, I’m not at all sure why she felt the need to appoint a special master to review the documents the government seized from Mar-a-Lago. https://t.co/1ARFOlOaCn

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 30, 2022

 

What does Donald Trump have on Judge Cannon or her husband? Something is SO off in her decisions (and the court of appeals said as much) that it is impossible not to ask this question in all seriousness.

— Andrew Weissmann 🌻 (@AWeissmann_) September 30, 2022

 

Judge Cannon is clearly wrong, but she’s a sideshow now that the Court of Appeals has lifted her injunction with respect to the classified documents. On the eve of her stupidly extended deadline, DOJ should indict Trump and render her delays and game playing moot. https://t.co/NpJxjpHYzX

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) September 30, 2022

Cannon's serving the cause of the Malignant Loser, and is unfit for her position. The 11th Circuit Court glossed over that in their rejection of her decisions, but with her lifetime appointment, she's capable of doing more damage to the rule of law in homage to her cult leader.

 

Appeals Court: DOJ Can Continue Reviewing Seized Classified Documents

 

The Malignant Loser and his hand- picked hack suffer a righteous defeat at the hands of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals:

A federal appeals court is allowing the Justice Department to continue looking at documents marked as classified that were seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and resort.

The emergency intervention upends a trial judge's order over those documents that had blocked federal investigators' work on the documents, and is a strong rebuke of the Trump team's attempt to suggest without evidence that materials were somehow declassified. Trump's options to block the criminal investigation are now dimming with one of his only remaining possibilities being an emergency request to the Supreme Court.

 

The ruling was issued by a three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals -- two of whom were nominated by Trump.

 

A special master's review of that subset of about 100 records, which would've allowed Trump's legal team to see them, is now partially stopped. The special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, is able to continue his work reviewing the rest of the material seized from Mar-a-Lago, to make sure records belonging to Trump or that he may be able to claim are confidential aren't used by investigators.

Those records -- which prosecutors have said contain highly sensitive national security information -- are at the heart of the criminal investigation into the mishandling of federal records after the Trump presidency. Concern over them was a major factor that prompted the Justice Department and a court to authorize the unprecedented search of the former President's home.

Altogether, the 29-page opinion was a major boost to the arguments the Justice Department has made throughout the dispute over the Mar-a-Lago documents, while undermining several claims that Trump had made about the materials the FBI seized. (our emphasis)

All part of a very bad day for the Malignant Loser, his crime family, and his mail order lawyers.

BONUS: The rebuke of Trump Judge Cannon by the appellate court was thorough and stinging; they found it "inexplicable" that she ruled as she did.  (Hint: she's a cult member).

 

Trump Judge Issues Another Lawless Order Protecting Him

 

ICYMI, the Trump hack impeding the criminal investigation of the Mar-a-Lago documents caper does him another solid:

Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge recently known for twisting the law in knots in ways that undermine one of the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump, has issued a new order that, well, twists the law into knots.

Last month, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, and seized several boxes of documents. They include 103 documents with classified markings, some of them indicating that the information contained in those papers are classified at the highest levels. According to the Washington Post, these papers include “a document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.”  [snip]

In her recent order, Cannon essentially says that the FBI cannot be trusted when it claims that these documents are classified. “The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions,” Cannon writes, that “all of the approximately 100 documents isolated by the Government (and “papers physically attached to them”) are classified government records.”  [snip]

... Cannon is giving him additional protections that virtually no criminal suspect enjoys, based largely on the fact that he used to be president.  [snip]

How about lifting the order stopping the criminal investigation pending a special master's review of the stolen classified documents?

... Cannon’s original order said that the FBI could continue its national security investigation into how Trump’s possession of these documents may have damaged the nation’s intelligence interests, but that it must pause its criminal investigation. In response to DOJ’s argument that these two investigations are difficult to disentangle, Cannon essentially replies that “difficult” does not mean “impossible.”  [snip]

In practice, however, it is far from clear that the Justice Department can take advantage of this concession by Cannon. Cannon’s new order contains only limited descriptions of what DOJ can and cannot do. And it is possible that the FBI will be unwilling to make its own judgment calls so long as it knows that a seemingly hostile judge may hold them in contempt if she disagrees with the FBI’s judgment. 

And the role of the special master?

One other line in Cannon’s opinion is worth noting. In its motion from last week, the Justice Department argued that “the Court’s order would irreparably harm the government and the public by unnecessarily requiring the government to share highly classified materials with a special master.”

As the Supreme Court held in Department of the Navy v. Egan (1988), “For ‘reasons . . . too obvious to call for enlarged discussion,’” determinations about who should be allowed to see classified documents “must be committed to the broad discretion of the agency responsible, and this must include broad discretion to determine who may have access to it.”

But Cannon’s order effectively brings the special master, who does not have a “need to know” the information in the classified documents that is grounded in national security concerns, inside the community of individuals who are allowed to see specific highly classified documents. That places her order at odds with Egan, and with ordinary practices governing the nation’s most highly guarded secrets.

The DOJ, as it indicated earlier, will appeal to the 11th Circuit Court.  Professor Tribe weighs in:

 

Hard to imagine Cannon really expects to get away with this garbage, but she evidently thinks the Eleventh Circuit is in the tank with her. Only they can prove her wrong. https://t.co/6uTV4FkQDM

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) September 16, 2022

 

 

Justice Department Appealing Trump Judge Order For Mar-a-Lago Special Master

 

They're not letting the bullshit decision by Trump- appointed lackey Aileen Cannon stand without a fight:

The Justice Department said it would appeal a federal judge’s decision to appoint a special master to sift through thousands of documents the FBI seized from Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Aug. 8, according to a Thursday court filing.

The notice of appeal arrived three days after Judge Aileen M. Cannon ruled in favor of Trump and said she would appoint a special master, slowing — at least temporarily — an investigation into the possible mishandling of extremely sensitive classified information, as well as possible hiding, tampering or destruction of government records.

The Justice Department wrote in a brief filing that it would be appealing the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a separate, simultaneous court filing, prosecutors asked Cannon to stay her Sept. 5 decision on two key points: her order to temporarily halt a significant portion of the FBI investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, and to allow a special master to review the classified material that is among the documents seized as part of a court-authorized search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Aug. 8.

Ultimately, the Justice Department said that a special master could be appointed, but argued that the judge should prohibit the special master from reviewing classified documents. The special master would be still able to sort through personal documents and other items the FBI also seized, setting aside materials as necessary, the filing says.

Prosecutors wrote that allowing a special master to review the classified material would “cause the most immediate and serious harms to the government and the public,” noting that those documents have already been moved to a secure facility, separate from the rest of the seized Trump papers.

And they argued that by prohibiting investigators from using the classified materials found in the August until a special master has cleared them, Cannon could harm national security by hampering the Justice Department’s ability to recover any other classified papers that may still be outstanding...

Game on.