The DC Circuit is doing something I’ve never seen and doing it under the cover (from the media) of the Manhattan circus. The DC Circuit Court of appeals is taking up something big that almost has to threaten national security. There is responsible speculation that Jack Smith can prove a prima facie (On its face) case of fraud against Trump with respect to the files and – in theory – prove that Trump used his attorneys to further a crime with those files. The timing also indicates that there is almost surely a national security element to this matter. Nothing else explains the speed.

Again, this is occurring in the DC Circuit – which is an appellate court, and “appeals” never move this fast – I’ve never seen any case move this fast – and thus, something big must be at stake:

And:

Only the Justice Department… well, and some massive firms in NYC, DC… has the muscle to request extra wording for a brief to be filed in five and a half hours after Trump’s attorneys made their filing. Obviously, different teams worked on different sections and then put them together at the end.

For an appellate court to move this fast, it almost has to involve a threat to national security. There is no other reason that appellate court judges would stay up all night reading briefs and presumably issuing a ruling today at any time. Morning Joe signed off with a cryptic comment about unverified things they’ve heard about the DC circuit making an earth-shattering ruling.

UPDATE: THE RULING CAME DOWN JUST AS PREDICTED AND IS JUST AS EARTH-SHATTERING. MORE SO BECAUSE THE DC CIRCUIT GAVE CORCORAN 48 HRS TO TESTIFY. SEE NEW STORY HERE:

The early word, watching MSNBC right now, is whether Trump’s lawyer can be required to testify against Trump because Trump misled his own attorneys to further his own crimes. But if Trump’s attorney has to testify, Trump has a big problem. The lawyer almost surely knows what was in the documents and may know what Trump was doing with them.

The story is now picked up by The Hill just minutes ago:

ABC News reported Tuesday that D.C. District Court Judge Beryl Howell found sufficient evidence that Trump may have intentionally concealed the existence of additional classified records held at his Florida home from his attorney Evan Corcoran. 

Howell, in a sealed ruling that served as her final before stepping down as chief judge, ordered Corcoran to testify in the probe, determining that the Justice Department had presented sufficient evidence that his legal advice may have been in furtherance of a crime — igniting the crime-fraud exception that allows the piercing of attorney-client privilege. 

Okay, so we knew that had happened, but now the speed at which the DC Circuit court moved is astonishing:

An appeal now rests before a three-judge panel at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which late Tuesday set a series of rapid-fire deadlines on the matter. The Trump team was required to submit a brief at midnight, with DOJ’s response due by 6 a.m. Wednesday. 

UPDATE: Just ten minutes after publishing I found this, and I believe it rings perfectly true. Trump has an even bigger problem. It’s far more likely than not that Trump’s attorney desperately wants to testify to everything he knows in order to keep himself out of prison:

Trump’s campaign weighed in on this earlier. There was no “leak,” the briefs are part of the public record unless sealed, and it is often easy for people who watch the case (Witness list including a Trump lawyer) to discern the issue:

“Shame on Fake News ABC for broadcasting ILLEGALLY LEAKED false allegations from a Never Trump, now former chief judge, against the Trump legal team,” 

Note that the statement comes from the campaign and not Trump screaming on Truth Social. Perhaps, just perhaps, for once, Trump understands that he’s in real trouble with the files and is at a crucial juncture. He needs to keep his mouth shut about this case in particular because Jack Smith can, apparently, already prove fraud, at least according to a federal judge and, perhaps later today, a ruling from the DC Circuit.

Sorry for the rambling story. Facts are coming in now as I write. I have always believed that this case, “the files case,” has the potential to be bigger than January 6th. If a former president is caught selling state secrets, I believe that’s an even bigger matter than the “protest coup” attack on the Capitol because there is a much tighter link to Trump himself selling out his country. And I challenge anyone to explain why a president would take files on Chinese defense doctrine and another nation’s nuclear capacity (I speculate – speculate – that it’s Israel, the most secretive), without addressing whether Trump did so if he needed to find a buyer, or already had one.

We will see, hopefully soon. Jack Smith is gathering some momentum. The DC Circuit certainly believes that something must be determined now.
****
[email protected], @JasonMiciak

 

 

 

 

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10 COMMENTS

  1. With trump…assume the worst case scenario. He has no loyalty to anyone or anything but himself. He’d sell his mother for the right price.

    14

  2. I agree there’s a serious national security issue at stake. The speed with which this is going down tells me that it’s not just serious but involves and event(s) taking place right now. This minute. This all gets complicated but one result of Trump’s having taken all those highly classified files, then hiding/attempting to keep them is that the national security apparatus had to do to critical things – determine (at least to the extent possible – remember all those empty folders) just what was taken AND do a damage assessment. The damage btw is certain to wind up costing us billions. Not to mention human lives.

    There is much we will never know, but one thing that will happen when there’s a breach and critical national security information has been made available to adversaries (or even “friends” – looking at you Israel) is to initiate measures like disinformation. That all gets more complex than I’ve got time or inclination to get into. Again, we’ll never know the whole story. Hell the whole story might be unknowable because we probably won’t ever know for sure just what got taken and shared, or even when. I for one don’t think for one fucking second that Jared wasn’t grabbing the Presidential Daily Brief (which Trump couldn’t be bothered with most of the time) from Trump’s desk and using the info. to enrich himself. He was DESPERATE to get out of that disastrous deal for that property in NYC. The thing is, once he shared info. with middle eastern govts./people to get them to bail him out he lost control of it. Who knows what THEY did with it/who they in turn shared it with?

    I’m struck by the timing of this. Trump took info that included China and also I’m sure Russia. And what have we seen in the news the past week? Talks of Xi headed to Russia for a summit with Putih. Xi left today. With the war going on between Russia and Ukraine one has to wonder if our own national security folks doing damage assessment, combined with sources in Russia that somehow survived but went “dark” while Trump was in the WH but have started talking again raised an alarm.

    Trump isn’t going to say shit, unless it’s lies. However, that lawyer who it looks like wants to cooperate likely knows something that President Biden and the entire national security apparatus need to know – NOW! And they made a strong enough case to the court to get them to move at what for legal stuff is light-speed.

    This is huge. However, while I don’t want to burst everyone’s bubble it’s unlikely we’ll learn much, if anything about just what information made all this happen now and with such urgency. The most we’ll hear about is Team Trump screaming over forcing a lawyer to testify, and that lawyer admitting that yeah, Trump is actually guilty of national security related crimes but he won’t be allowed to specify what. So there will be an explosion but not as huge as folks think.

    10

  3. Once they get Corcoran cooperating to save his skin, they need to ask him, “For the sake of our national security, do you know who Trump has let see or have any of the classified files?”

    7

  4. Given the justice system has handed out serious jail time to individuals who’ve done much less with classified secrets, they need to prosecute to the fullest extent. Especially given the years he falsely accused Hillary for political capital. The federal system, I believe, has no parole. This should be the millstone around his neck. Throw his traitor ass into the sea Jack. Plus he’s already caught red handed. Here’s the law’s chance to solidify its motto of equality, despite all the deference given to him to date.

    9

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