FBI raids Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

[Rick Plant]

DOJ moves to appeal Judge Cannon’s special master in Trump documents case: report

On Friday, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reported that the Justice Department is moving to appeal Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon's order for a special master to review the documents obtained in the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida.

The DOJ already appealed to the Eleventh Circuit for, and won, a narrow carveout of the 100 documents officially marked classified from Cannon's order, exempting those documents from the special master review. However, they argue in a new filing, the broader special master review still hampers a major criminal investigation.

"An expedited appeal would serve the interests of justice," said the filing. "Base on the district court's orders thus far, the government is barred from accessing all of the materials except those with classification markings recovered in August pursuant to a lawful search warrant — and it may continue to be barred from doing so until mid-December or later."

This order, the DOJ argued, means that "the government is ... unable to examine records that were commingled with materials bearing classification markings, including records that may shed light on, for example, how the materials bearing classification markings were transferred to Plaintiff's residence, how they were stored, and who may have accessed them." These documents, the filing added, may also reveal evidence of crimes unrelated to classified information, like obstruction and removal of government records.

According to Cheney, prosecutors discussed this appeal with Trump attorney Christopher M. Kise, who has said the former president opposes the relief sought by the DOJ.

Cannon has come under fire for a series of highly partisan decisions, including one that puts on hold a request by the special master, Senior Judge Raymond Dearie of Brooklyn, for Trump's legal team to certify that the FBI's inventory of property seized pursuant to the search warrant is accurate.

Read More Here: https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1575989700778758150

[Rick Plant]

The door to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from the Trump case is now 'wide open': former prosecutor



In a column for Slate, former federal prosecutor Robert Katzberg made the case that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's continued interference in the work being done by special master Raymond Dearie in the matter of government documents stolen by Donald Trump could lead to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stepping in and taking the case from her.

Earlier in the week, the Trump-appointed Cannon gave Donald Trump's legal team an assist by ruling that they did not need to comply with an order from Dearie and reply in a filing whether they believe the FBI agents lied about documents recovered at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort almost two months ago.

As Katzberg sees it, the Department of Justice could appeal, which they did late Friday, and that they may have a compelling case to ask for Cannon's removal -- although such moves rarely occur.

In his Slate column wrote, "Given the extreme and one-sided rulings Cannon has already made, DOJ need not fear making her more hostile than she has already shown herself to be, so the door to aggressive countermoves is wide open."

He explained, "One such choice would be to file a motion to remove Cannon from the matter entirely, arguing that her opinions have demonstrated a level of bias that cannot be tolerated—and further, that her continued oversight of the matter is a threat to national security."

Adding that the 11th Circuit has already stepped in to curb some of Cannon's excesses, Katzberg claimed it might be open to stepping in in a more forceful way.

"The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already filed a stinging opinion that contains ample criticism of Cannon to quote in support," he wrote. "Appeals courts are hesitant to remove judges from a case, but here, there is a clear record of questionable decisions that have stymied an extremely significant criminal investigation and, per DOJ, undermined national security. Under these unusual circumstances, reassignment might well be an appropriate solution."

Read More Here:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/09/trump-cannon-dearie-special-master-justice-department.html

[Rick Plant]

DOJ's new appeal could mean it will be 'Goodnight, Aileen' for Trump-appointed judge: former deputy AG



Reacting to a Department of Justice appeal to the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday that seeks to overturn yet another ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman claimed a win for the DOJ would be a huge blow to the Donald Trump-appointed jurist.

Pushing back at Cannon's decision to allow Trump's lawyers to ignore demands and deadlines set down by special master Raymond Dearie, the DOJ asked for an expedited ruling.

According to Politico, the DOJ insisted, "The government is … unable to examine records that were commingled with materials bearing classification markings, including records that may shed light on, for example, how the materials bearing classification markings were transferred to Plaintiff’s residence, how they were stored, and who may have accessed them,” in a 15-page filing.

Politico's Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney added, "The filing also hints at prosecutors’ irritation with Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed days after his defeat in the 2020 election. The Justice Department noted that she has repeatedly overruled decisions made by the special master she appointed at Trump’s suggestion, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Dearie."

According to Litman, after the 11th Circuit already rebuked Cannon, an additional notation in the latest filing could be used to undercut her even further.

"DOJ appeals Cannon's order on the merits, and proposes expedited schedule. Also adds new argument - that needs the rest of the 11,000+ docs to ascertain what happened to the classified ones. If they win, it's Goodnight, Aileen...," he tweeted.

Litman's suggestion comes at the same time as former prosecutor Robert Katzberg suggested that the DOJ could petition the 11th Circuit to take the Trump case away from her "... arguing that her opinions have demonstrated a level of bias that cannot be tolerated—and further, that her continued oversight of the matter is a threat to national security."

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trrump-aileen-cannon/