No, the headline isn’t a joke. No, I’m not repackaging snark from The Onion. John Irving, the Trump paid for lawyer for Carlos De Oliveira tried pulling a stunt that was pure Trump. In a desperate claim in a legal filing to judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon in Florida Team Trump claimed a number of “failings” on Jack Smith’s part to provide discovery. But it seems buried in it were some real doozies, one of which isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
The lawyer for Trump co-defendant De Oliveira claims he by golly couldn’t examine discovery (video surveillance of Mar A Lago, which I should note TRUMP could have given him access to!) because he didn’t have a laptop or desktop computer! I’m serious. THAT is an excuse included in Team Trump’s request for delay, and not so subtly requesting sanctions against Jack Smith and his team. What’s next? “Sorry judge Cannon, the dog ate my legal briefs before I came to court!” perhaps? Hey, this is judge Cannon we’re talking about and SHE might accept that.
Well, last Friday Smith filed a response to Team Trump and in a blistering rebuttal to their claims of prosecutorial misconduct some pundits say is more like an opening argument Smith took them apart piece by piece. The entire filing is almost 60 pages in length and I took the time earlier to read it all. (I’m weird like that. I enjoy reading legal stuff) Over and over Smith cites actual law and precedent that can be looked up rather than the made up sh*t Trump and his lawyers come up with. As this article from MSNBC’s Deadline: Legal Blog suggest Smith (who seems pretty fed up with Trumpian bullshit) decided it was time to “clear the air” on some misinformation that’s been out there for too long.
The linked article explains the context for the Justice Department’s Friday filing. It was a response to a “motion to compel discovery” from Trump and his co-defendants. Smith doesn’t pull punches, calling Trump’s motion “legally and factually flawed.” More importantly, Smith goes into considerable detail explaining why given the length of his response but what’s really significant is that he wanted to “set the record straight on the underlying facts that led to this prosecution,” adding that the defendants’ “misstatements, if unanswered, leave a highly misleading impression on a number of matters.” Again, Smith gets blunt responding to allegations Trump and his lawyers have made publicly:
Where the defendants perceive “bias,” “weaponize[d]” use of authorities, and a “sham referral,” all attributed to an undifferentiated “Biden Administration,” … the record shows only different government agencies, with specific portfolios and responsibilities, at work to solve an increasingly vexing and concerning problem.
There are several points about Smith’s filings I’ll address later but let’s get to what prompted me to write this in the first place. I heard a pundit briefly mention the part about one of the lawyers claiming he didn’t have a laptop or desktop, or access to one. Nobody had a computer they’d loan him, or at least let him use? My reaction was “give me a f**king break!” That’s beyond lame. Now, I realize Trump is a cheap s.o.b. and Irving might not have been smart enough to get a decent upfront retainer but still! To suggest in a legal filing regarding charges that his client conspired with a former President to commit national security crimes to claim the prosecution was being mean to him by giving him computer files he’d requested, AND that he didn’t have a computer isn’t a bridge too far. It’s a freaking ocean too far. Oh, let me remind you the computer files in question are video surveillance feeds. What was Smith supposed to do. Create a written transcript of someone narrating what was on each camera’s feed?
I honestly had trouble accepting what I heard the pundit say was true. That’s why I looked up Smith’s filing which if you want to read the whole thing you can find here. If you want to skip to the good part then scroll down to page 55 for the description of Irving’s bullshit and the government’s response. I’d suggest you keep going because co-defendant Walt Nauta’s attorney tried a less form of this bullshit, which Smith also addresses. But I’ll make things extra easy and include how the government went way the hell above and beyond the call in their hand-holding of Irving:
In an email on October 24, 2023, months after the materials were made available to the
defense, counsel for De Oliveira for the first time mentioned problems that he had encountered when attempting to access specific CCTV files that the Government had obtained from the Trump Organization and produced in discovery. The Government immediately arranged a call with counsel and technical personnel from the FBI to help resolve the reported issues. Exhibit E at 2-3. During the call, counsel for De Oliveira explained that he did not own or have access to a laptop or desktop computer and was instead attempting to review the entirety of the Government’s discovery on a handheld tablet. Id.The Government then offered to lend him a laptop computer to facilitate his review. Id. Counsel for De Oliveira accepted the offer, and on November 1, 2023, the Government hand-delivered a computer to him. Since then, whenever De Oliveira’s counsel has raised technical issues with viewing specific Trump Organization CCTV files, the Government
has promptly assisted with resolving these inquiries, providing tips and examples, and offering to set up calls as needed. See ECF No. 252 at 2 n.1.
Keep in mind all Irving or the other lawyers had to do was have IT at Mar A Lago provide them a copy of the video surveillance they were asking the government for. In any case Smith had a computer hand delivered. I find myself wondering if Irving asked the person delivering to unzip his fly and hold his dick while he took a leak!
THIS is the level of f*ckery Trump is going to and freaking judge Cannon knows it. That brings me to what U said earlier about some larger points with Smith’s filing. First of all it was a formal court filing and judge Cannon had no choice but to allow it to be made public which gets me to the second point. There is much in Smith’s filing that is aimed towards the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The same folks (a truly conservative circuit I might add) who twice wasted no time slapping Cannon down and hard. Not only are their meticulous legal citations repeated numerous times in full to each claim of Trump’s instead of being referenced “see earlier” or some such way, but multiple references to actual 11th Circuit rulings!
That’s a not at all subtle way for Smith to tell Cannon “Hey, remember THOSE guys? The ones who took you and your bullshit Trump fluffing to the woodshed?” I’m pretty sure that will give even Cannon a bit of pause. Because there’s a more subtle hint I haven’t seen mentioned but I think is now very much in play.
Smith is setting things up to appeal a Cannon ruling to the 11th Circuit. An appeal which will at least hint at, if not outright say she’s out of her depth and should be removed from the case. Look, it’s clear Cannon has all but put the finishing touches on doing what Trump wanted – delaying a straightforward case that could have and should have already been tried past the November election. I’m sure she’ll be heartbroken if her hero loses. Again, but if she’s still the judge handling the case there are all manner of ways she can stack the odds in Trump’s favor. It only takes one juror to hang the verdict. If she goes too far to ensure that what can actually be done? Theoretically she could be impeached, tried and removed from the bench but it’s never happened. Nor would it happen this time.
She knows it. That’s why she’s been obvious in her Trump bias. It’s also a move fraught with danger for Smith to have tried to have her removed. All he can do is when he can give her rope to tied herself up and then hang herself with forcing either the Chief District judge or the 11tth Circuit to remove her from the case. From where I sit Smith is telegraphing he’s not just hoping Cannon will do just that, he’s setting her up to do so.
In the meantime, I sure wish this story of a Trump paid for lawyer claiming he didn’t own a computer. Social media could and should be having all manner of fun at his expense this very second. The hashtag possibilities are endless. #BrokeTrumpLawers or something far more creative. I’m not a twitter guy and much as I’d like to be a lot less funny than I’d like. But this guy needs to be MOCKED, Relentlessly. And jabs at Trump about how cheap he is that lawyers he hires can’t even afford computers should make for some fun explosions from Trump himself. Start making fun of HIM not being able to afford lawyers who can in turn afford a freaking laptop is sure to set him off!
In the meantime, IF De Oliveira gets word of all this perhaps he’ll realize that “his” lawyer is actually Trump’s lawyer. That he’d better bite the bullet and find his own lawyer who will put HIS interests first, and throw Trump under the bus before Trump does it to him
I’m on the west coast. Lawrence O’Donnell just finished the “Dumb Lawyer Without a Computer” in his lead segment. Astonishing stuff.
Additionally important to the points you’ve made is that Smith noted many, many times that the defense (i.e., trump) cannot use “Meany prosecution and prosecutors, Biden weaponizing” not only as their defense but can’t use that “defense” in front of a jury. A jury can hear the facts. They cannot be confronted with an “unfair prosecution” argument AS their defense.
Why? Because it is THE LAW. Smith includes tons of reference links to where the law says just that, including 11th circuit rulings. The concept is nothing new.
So what Smith so masterfully has done is to give Loose Cannon a lesson in “How to be a Judge 101” – a free lesson!!!
He also used the phrase “fishing expedition” regarding some of trump’s filings and requests for discovery, and was juicy in his disdain for their temerity. Scathing rebukes.
It was a great read. I dropped my coffee on my keyboard when I read the laptop BS. Utterly unbelievable.
I spent a good while working on the article. It took longer than I thought it would but I live on the east coast (where O’Donnell now does) and was startled that within a few minutes of my hitting the “publish” button there he was leading off tonight’s broadcast with this! I’m sure as hell no Lawrence O’Donnell and my articles almost never go viral, even by PZ standards so I’m glad someone with a bigger voice made a BFD out of this. I hope it will catch on. And maybe if people do internet searches our Little Engine That Could will be seen as being one of the first out of the gate to talk about this.
The Three Stooges rides again!
Maybe they could have burned them to a DVD for him.
But he would probably just get it jammed in his VHS player.
Trump lawyers were in one of the mandatory weekly meetings on delay tactics and, with a snicker, someone suggested “how about one of us claims we don’t have a computer so we can’t get the surveillance vids?” Lots of laughs until it is recognized one of them is gonna look mind-bloggingly stupid. “Okay, we’ll draw straws, but don’t tell the prosecution for a few months!!” This is really gonna own Jack Smith!! Our seven-level chess games confuse the hell out of him!!
I almost hit the floor,because I was laughing so hard. Do these morons not have offices with at least one secretary? How do they write their briefs,,with a quill pen? I mean,,we all.know they’re not the cream of the crop or they wouldn’t be working for Donnie Donuts, who is notorious for not paying his lawyers. Even allowing for that, this may be the dumbest excuse I have ever head.
I am a paralegal, did my coursework in 1988. I wrote my memos by hand because it lacked some of the necessary symbols.When I interviewed for jobs,,my computer literacy helped. I I have had a,desktop with internet in 1998.
This is,BS.
I typed this on my Kindle Fire. I watch YouTube videos on it,,along with movie trailers.
He was of course lying his ass off. It’s one thing to do so in an email or phone call to prosecutors. Quite another if he included his “no laptop/computer or even ACCESS to one” in the motion to compel discovery. Lying in a court filing might not get him slapped with a perjury charge but should this case wind up reassigned to someone other than Cannon IF he made the claim in a formal filing it will come back to haunt him. Or more accurately bite him in the ass.