The Special Master appointed for Donald Trump has just taught him a very valuable lesson: “Be Careful What You Ask For Because You Just Might Get It!”
Politics :
After stealing hundreds of highly classified documents from The White House, storing them in the basement of his Florida Mar-a-Lago mansion, then having them confiscated during an FBI raid, Donald Trump did what he does best and looked for a way out of his own self-made mess. He hired a team of C-level attorneys and demanded that a Special Master be appointed in order to halt the US Justice Dept. investigation and muck up their case. Â
The Trump team secured US District Judge Aileen Cannon (an avowed ReTrumplican who was appointed to the bench by Trump himself and has been criticized for being completely unqualified), with Trump believing that his judge would cheat on his behalf and ultimately rule in his favor. In honor of Trump’s demand, Judge Cannon appointed longtime federal Judge Raymond Dearie (whom Trump initially believed to be deeply skeptical of the FBI) as the Special Master in charge of reviewing the nearly 11,000 documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Both Trump and the Justice Department approved the selection of Judge Dearie as the Special Master — and that’s when things went downhill for Trump from there.
Among his first order of business, Special Master Dearie ordered Trump’s lawyers to submit proof of their client’s repeated claim that he “declassified” the documents before taking them home. However, since everyone involved already knows Trump never declassified the stolen documents and can’t prove he did, the lawyers immediately balked at the order and cried foul.
Next, Judge Dearie ordered that the Trump team submit their claims related to the search of Mar-a-Lago to Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart. Once again, Trump and his lawyers cried foul — solely because Trump doesn’t like Judge Reinhart and had maliciously mocked him in the past.
Finally, Judge Dearie announced that he would complete his task no later than October 7th and would not need a 2 month review process as initially provided by Trump’s favorite, Judge Cannon. Naturally, Trump and his team cried foul.
“We respectfully suggest that all of the deadlines can be extended to allow for a more realistic and complete assessment of the areas of disagreement,” Trump’s attorneys begged while clearly hoping a longer process could somehow be slanted in Trump’s favor.
Now, the legal world is shaking their heads and almost laughing at the mockery Donald Trump is making of the courts and of his extremely weak case.
“When push comes to shove, I find it hard to believe that [Trump] will maintain his short-term victory with a long-term win,” former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said.
“Trump’s team is resisting,” said Ryan Goodman, a professor at NYU School of Law. “Smells like they want to avoid lying to court.”
Trump’s lawyers likely “don’t want to lie and be disbarred and subject their client to a criminal false statement charge,” said former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. “Trump team ruing the day it proposed Judge Dearie,” he added.
“The special master is calling Trump’s bluff and already they’re objecting” tweeted national security attorney Bradley Moss. “Part of the reason Judge Dearie is doing this is I’m sure he saw what order he was given from Judge Cannon. I’m sure he looked at the filing and said ‘enough is enough, I’m not dancing around this,'” Moss added. “It’s really simple. Either you’ve got the evidence or you don’t.”
The Special Master is calling Trump’s bluff and already they’re objecting. https://t.co/ds4O2lVFa4
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 19, 2022
“I’ve seen enough,” wrote former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. “Trump’s team miscalculated by asking for Judge Dearie to serve as special master.”
Now that he has the Special Master he stomped his feet to get, Donald Trump is finding every reason in the book to object to the process. Additionally, his lawyers are discovering that they are backed into a corner. If they attempt to prove that Trump miraculously declassified the documents in his own mind, they could be disbarred for lying in court. If they admit that Trump didn’t declassify any documents, that information could subject ‘The Donald’ to legal action for stealing highly classified information.
Judge Dearie has acted honorably and only wants to know why Trump believes he has any plausible claim of privilege to classified documents — especially when they are highly classified nuclear secrets of a foreign nation — and how Trump possibly plans to prove it.
So, Donald Trump asked for a Special Master and he got one. He just didn’t get the one that he wanted who would cheat everything in his favor.
Oh, Donald, be careful what you ask for!
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Trump’s Special Master angers Trump.
I am happy to read this. Trump is getting everything he deserves and the whole thing is backfiring on him. He thought Cannon would take care of everything but looks like Judge Dearie is handling business.