Tomorrow is D-Day in Judge Aileen Cannon’s courtroom in southern Florida. The Trump lawyers have until 10:00 A.M. to give judge Cannon their response to the DOJ’s proposal. But don’t look for an instant resolution from the bench tomorrow.
To be sure, no matter what happens tomorrow, we’re not going to get a definitive decision from the bench. There is a ton of shit going on. For starters, since it’s Trump who wants the Special Master, the DOJ wants Trump to pay for it. Being a cheap ass, Trump wants the DOJ to pick up 50% of the cost. Also, there is next to no chance that Trump’s lawyers and the DOJ lawyers are going to be able to agree on one selection for Special Master, which leaves it up to Judge Cannon to appoint one, even one of her own. And Trump’s lawyers want to allow the Special Master 90 days to do his work, the DOJ wants something less than 30 days.
But forget all of that shit, it’s just window dressing. The real nut of the problem is the DOJ’s incredibly kind offer of an off ramp for our infantile judge Cannon. The DOJ is ready to pretty much forgo all of the rest of that shit, accept the judge’s ruling, so long as the judge gives the DOJ immediate, autonomous control of the 100+ classified documents, and lets them immediately resume their investigation.
None of the rest matters. Trump’s lawyers have already made it clear that they plan to argue that all of the documents are covered by either attorney-client privilege, or executive privilege. The DOJ has already squashed that contention like a bug on a windshield in their filing. But it’s still the golden nugget.
Do yourself a favor, don’t look for any definitive rulings tomorrow. The DOJ has given Cannon until close of business Thursday to rule before they go over her head and appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. And she’s going to want to take advantage of it, after all, this is her judicial career lifeline. I figure she’ll wait until late Wednesday, and try to make a news dump out of it.
And somewhere in that judicial blivet will be the keys to the kingdom. Trump has already shown his loyalty. Cannon ruled against all odds and judicial logic, and when it all fell apart, she literally begged Trump in her letter to accept a compromise. Trump told her to fuck off. Does she choose to die on this hill, or does she choose to redeem herself, give in to the DOJ on the classified documents, and appoint a Special Master for the rest.
In reality it should be a no-brainer. After all, the entire reason that judge Cannon is panic stricken is that her ruling was so totally bereft of legal logic that it’s a dead dog in an appellate court. If Cannon rules in the DOJ’s favor on the classified document document issue, it leaves Trump’s lawyers no choice but to appeal that ruling to the 11th Circuit, and defend her brain dead original ruling. This should be fun. Don’t touch that dial.
This woman has stepped in an ant bed. Regardless of what she does, she is going to have to deal with the ant bites. The DOJ should just arrest the scum as well as all the other Republicans they can find and send them to ‘Get-mo’ under the Patriot Act, because hell, aren’t they all ‘patriots’.
Heh. I’d say she stepped on a fire ant bed. If you think regular ants are bad, they are nothing more than a swarm of gnats compared to fire ants. My younger cousin (she was about 4 or 5 at the time) stepped into a fire ant bed and was covered with the things below her knees in the few seconds before one of the adults was able to get her out of them. Her lower legs had so many stings/bites that they’d nearly doubled in size and it took almost a week before the swelling was completely gone. (She didn’t need to be hospitalized but if she’d gotten any more stings/bites, she would’ve had to go.)
Judge Cannon should have recused herself from a case involving the man who appointed her. This is a blatant conflict of interest and it poisons the court. She either did not realize how compromised she would appear, in which case she is ignorant, or knew that it looked bad but continued anyway for the promise of reward, in which case she is dishonest. Either way, she should be removed, sanctioned, and impeached.
“Trump MAGA servant” and “smart woman” do not belong in the same sentence. Granted, it is the Heritage Society who picked all these judges; Trump is nothing if not incompetent. But this Loose Cannon is clearly a mini-Barr and like the big Barr should be disbarred imho.
For clarification, it has been The Federalist Society that has spent decades grooming these judges and Justices and who made the lists Trump would pick from. The conservative Heritage Foundation has helped them every step of the way, including and especially funding them to get them up and running and after that encouraging ongoing support directly to them.