Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
... more interestingly, he [Judge Dearie] directed Trump to specify exactly which documents he has allegedly declassified. He's not buying the proposition that Trump just waved his hands over a bunch of cardboard boxes and solemnly intoned "I hereby declassify thee".
I think that it's a safe bet that Trump hasn't the slightest idea exactly what documents were in those boxes, and that he won't be able to explain how they might have been declassified if he can't document that process in a believable manner.
It looks like the appeals court panel sees things that way too.
Great news, @Old_Joe. Yep, the 11th is supposed to be one of the most conservative, they've come through for the rule of law, and both Trump judges were on board with it.
The icing on the cake? The NY AG's filing a civil suit for $250 million against Trump, his kids, and the Trump Foundation, to claw back what they gained from a "staggering" level of fraud. Here's a clip of the first 'grafs of the article describing the gist of the suit:
Attorney General Letitia James of New York filed a sweeping lawsuit on Wednesday that accused Donald J. Trump, his family business and three of his children of lying to lenders and insurers by fraudulently overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars.
Ms. James is seeking to bar the Trumps, including Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, from ever running a business in the state again.
She concluded that Mr. Trump and his business violated state criminal laws and “plausibly” broke federal laws as well. Her office, which lacks authority to file criminal charges in this case, referred the findings to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. They declined to comment on whether they would investigate.
The 220-page lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, lays out in new and startling detail how Mr. Trump’s annual financial statements were a compendium of lies, according to Ms. James. The statements — yearly records that include the company’s estimated value of its holdings and debts — wildly inflated the worth of nearly every one of its marquee properties, according to the lawsuit. They include Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street in Manhattan.
The company also routinely spurned the assessments of outside experts. After a bank ordered an appraisal that found 40 Wall Street was worth $200 million, the Trumps promptly valued it at well over twice that amount. Overall, the lawsuit said that 11 of Mr. Trump’s annual financial statements included more than 200 false and misleading asset valuations.
Good news indeed from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the NY Attorney General! I hope Trump will finally be held accountable for his wanton disregard of the law.
Sometimes I forget that our best comedians are often the best place to turn for a digestible view of current events, e.g., Colbert on Trump's troubles yesterday, first 8 minutes of this clip. (The other few minutes are a good Putin slam.)
The special master appointed to filter out privileged materials from the documents taken by the government from Mar-a-Lago has asked Donald Trump’s lawyers to provide proof of their allegations that the FBI planted evidence.
In a new court filing, Raymond Dearie, the senior federal judge tasked with separating out documents covered under executive or attorney-client privilege from the trove taken by the FBI as part of its investigation into whether Trump unlawfully possessed government secrets, also laid out a series of deadlines in the case.
@AndyJ Hmmmmmmmmmm...........does the snake's head of the T-clan have a connection with the real world??? Only to the aspect of any mafia group, in any country; only to full control. The words remain, as they did in the time prior to the 2016 election.......sociopath or psychopath. The meanings cross paths describing "T". Sadly there remain too many who have wandering and meaningless lives, from lack of proper education, a solid family connection in the young years and thus, have little skill in critical thinking. These are the dangerous ones following a dream they see in someone else. Their own, now vicarious, life.
On a personal note:
How many times can a US citizen visit Canada in one year? Multiple entry visitor visas permit the holder to travel to Canada for six months at a time as many times as they want, as long as the visa remains valid. They can be valid for up to 10 years, but the exact validity period is at the discretion of the visa officer issuing it.
@AndyJ- What a good question. While I doubt that Trump himself has any real idea of the judicial backgrounds of most prominent jurists, surely at least some of his attorneys should.
It was very interesting to my wife and me that Trump's "preferred" list contained one name that was almost sure to be rejected by the Dept. of Justice, and one that was equally almost certain to be accepted. With alacrity.
My wife wonders if maybe, just maybe, one or more of Trump's legal crew might deliberately have slid a knife deep into their client's back, knowing that he wouldn't have a clue as to what was happening until it was too late.
Frankly, I have no idea myself, but that's a very interesting suggestion. Think about the legal guys, and how they were "recruited" in haste at the last moment. Some seem to be just cannon fodder, but surely at least one of those guys likely is no dummy. And if so surely he realizes exactly what kind of a client he has, and how the future is likely to play out. And if he's at all ambitious, he's likely not inclined to poison the legal pond which he needs to swim in for quite a few more years of his life. Just say'in, as the expression goes.
A US judge reviewing records seized from Donald Trump’s Florida home asked the former president’s lawyers on Thursday to provide any evidence casting doubt on the integrity of the documents. Trump has previously made unsubstantiated claims the documents were planted by FBI agents.
Senior federal judge Raymond Dearie, appointed by another judge to vet the documents to assess whether some should be withheld from investigators as privileged, also asked the justice department to certify by Monday a detailed property inventory of materials the FBI seized in the court-approved 8 August search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Dearie asked Trump’s lawyers to submit by 30 September a list of specific items in that inventory “that plaintiff asserts were not seized from the premises”. Dearie also asked them to submit any corrections to the government’s list by that date, including items they believe were seized at Mar-a-Lago but not listed in the inventory.
“This submission shall be [Trump’s] final opportunity to raise any factual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the detailed property inventory,” wrote Dearie, serving as an independent arbiter known as a special master.
(Text emphasis added.)
Translation of Judge Dearie's orders-
No more screwing around: "Justice, I want a certified document list by Monday." "Trump, you have a week to go over that list- this is your last chance- put up or shut up"
My wife wonders if maybe, just maybe, one or more of Trump's legal crew might deliberately have slid a knife deep into their client's back, knowing that he wouldn't have a clue as to what was happening until it was too late.
I like the thought of a counter-saboteur sabotaging the saboteurs.
In a recent interview on FOX Trump suggested the FBI was really searching for Hillary’s emails at Mar-a-Lago. Had Sean Hannity shaking his head. The Cobert clip was awesome. Watched another equally good one by Trevor Noah last night.
@AndyJ- I just noticed this closing section on a Washington Post article- it kind of speaks to your earlier question-
As with Trump’s claims on declassification, Trump’s lawyers are forced to choose between bad options. They can try to echo their client’s claims but could open themselves up to legal problems — and even personal ones — if they can’t back it up. (They could already be in trouble for falsely representing, before the search, that they had turned over all documents responsive to a subpoena.) Or they can continue to not actually back their client up.
If past is precedent, they’ll do the latter. And their client’s credibility would again be significantly undercut by his own legal team — as would the strategic wisdom of a special master post that has now lost its luster.
That "they can continue to not actually back their client up" part isn't too far off the "shiv in the back" that my wife was wondering about.
@Old_Joe: I'd forgotten this, from earlier in this sordid story: "They could already be in trouble for falsely representing, before the search, that they had turned over all documents responsive to a subpoena."
I'm recalling one of them signed an affadvit to that effect. If true, that one is in serious legal jeopardy.
This one is going to be very interesting. In other Trumpian bullshit, he's suing CNN for, among other things, punitive damages because of CNN's use of the term the "Big Lie".
Maybe in his league that particular lie wasn't so big?
Yes, it is going to be interesting and potentially disastrous if the Supreme Court undermines the security of the country in order to push a political agenda that would undermine the rule of law. If so, what the scripter of the majority decision says better be the most deceptive genius to date. This one man has shown how to bring the strongest country to its demise with just manipulation of the very institutions designed to stop a man like him.
The US justice department asked the US supreme court on Tuesday to reject Donald Trump’s attempt to re-include 103 documents with classification markings to the special master for review, since Trump did not show he was being irreparably harmed and that his arguments about jurisdiction lacked merit.
“He does not acknowledge, much less attempt to rebut, the court of appeals’ conclusion that the district court’s order was a serious and unwarranted intrusion on the Executive Branch’s authority to control the use and distribution of extraordinarily sensitive government records,” the DoJ wrote.
“The application should be denied.”
In August, Trump successfully obtained through US district court judge Aileen Cannon the appointment of a special master to examine the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago and exclude from the criminal investigation documents that were protected by attorney-client or executive privilege.
The order from Cannon authorized the special master to look through the entirety of the seized material – including 103 documents marked as classified – until the US court of the appeals for the 11th circuit granted the justice department’s request to exclude those records from the review.
That prompted Trump’s lawyers to appeal last week to the supreme court, arguing in a technical and narrow motion that the 11th circuit’s decision should be reversed on the basis that it lacked the power to curtail the scope of the special master process.
Trump’s argument rested on the doctrine of “pendent appellate jurisdiction” argument, which says courts should not grant appeals on so-called non-final decisions. Cannon’s ruling appointing a special master and the scope was procedural and thus could not be appealed, the motion argued.
The justice department rejected Trump’s motion on several points, contending foremost that the former president had failed to demonstrate he would suffer “irreparable harm” if the appeal was not granted – the key legal standard for the supreme court to even consider the case.
And even if Trump could meet the irreparable harm threshold, the justice department argued, the former president’s motion would likely fail because the jurisdiction argument appeared to be wrong on the law.
“Indeed, this court has acknowledged that appellate courts reviewing interlocutory injunctive orders may properly review issues beyond just the injunction,” the solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, explained in a footnote that struck at the core of Trump’s appeal.
The justice department added that if Trump truly believed the case was about a dispute under the Presidential Records Act, then he [should have?]* filed his original request for a special master in Washington, instead of with a judge he appointed in Florida.
Comments
The icing on the cake? The NY AG's filing a civil suit for $250 million against Trump, his kids, and the Trump Foundation, to claw back what they gained from a "staggering" level of fraud. Here's a clip of the first 'grafs of the article describing the gist of the suit:
OJ
I hope Trump will finally be held accountable for his wanton disregard of the law.
Thanks for posting the Colbert clip!
Can’t wait to watch it. Should go best with a jigger of scotch later!
(Long day here trying to catch various falling knives)
This short article from The Guardian: (Text emphasis added.)
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/liz-cheney-says-a-fellow-house-republican-called-trump-orange-jesus-on-the-day-of-the-jan-6-attack-on-the-u-s-capitol-11663696974
Hmmmmmmmmmm...........does the snake's head of the T-clan have a connection with the real world??? Only to the aspect of any mafia group, in any country; only to full control. The words remain, as they did in the time prior to the 2016 election.......sociopath or psychopath. The meanings cross paths describing "T". Sadly there remain too many who have wandering and meaningless lives, from lack of proper education, a solid family connection in the young years and thus, have little skill in critical thinking. These are the dangerous ones following a dream they see in someone else. Their own, now vicarious, life.
On a personal note:
How many times can a US citizen visit Canada in one year?
Multiple entry visitor visas permit the holder to travel to Canada for six months at a time as many times as they want, as long as the visa remains valid. They can be valid for up to 10 years, but the exact validity period is at the discretion of the visa officer issuing it.
It was very interesting to my wife and me that Trump's "preferred" list contained one name that was almost sure to be rejected by the Dept. of Justice, and one that was equally almost certain to be accepted. With alacrity.
My wife wonders if maybe, just maybe, one or more of Trump's legal crew might deliberately have slid a knife deep into their client's back, knowing that he wouldn't have a clue as to what was happening until it was too late.
Frankly, I have no idea myself, but that's a very interesting suggestion. Think about the legal guys, and how they were "recruited" in haste at the last moment. Some seem to be just cannon fodder, but surely at least one of those guys likely is no dummy. And if so surely he realizes exactly what kind of a client he has, and how the future is likely to play out. And if he's at all ambitious, he's likely not inclined to poison the legal pond which he needs to swim in for quite a few more years of his life. Just say'in, as the expression goes.
Translation of Judge Dearie's orders-
No more screwing around: "Justice, I want a certified document list by Monday." "Trump, you have a week to go over that list- this is your last chance- put up or shut up"
I really like this guy.
Thanks for the update.
I like Judge Dearie's handling of this case - he's not messing around.
I'm recalling one of them signed an affadvit to that effect. If true, that one is in serious legal jeopardy.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3595946-who-is-trump-attorney-christina-bobb-who-met-fbi-at-mar-a-lago/
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/04/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-mar-a-lago-documents-dispute.html
Maybe in his league that particular lie wasn't so big?
US justice department urges supreme court to reject Trump appeal on Mar-a-Lago document
Excerpts from a current article in The Guardian, edited for brevity: Note: * possible omission in original text?