Trump wants “my” classified documents back.
On Tuesday, Rolling Stone reported that former President Donald Trump is privately demanding that his lawyers help him get “my” classified documents back from the Justice Department, after they were seized in an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“Trump wasn’t merely referring to the alleged trove of attorney-client material that he insists was scooped up by the feds, two people familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone,” reported Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley. “The ex-president has been demanding that his team find a way to recover ‘all’ of the official documents that Trump has long referred to as ‘mine’ — including the highly sensitive and top secret ones.”
“Sources close to Trump agree with outside legal experts that such a sweeping legal maneuver would be a long-shot, at best. ‘I hate to break it to the [former] president, but I do not think he is going to get all [the] top-secret documents back,’ says one Trump adviser. ‘That ship has probably sailed,'” said the report. “Further, several longtime Trump advisers say they want absolutely nothing to do with the now-infamous boxes of documents, fearing that any knowledge of them could invite an unwanted knock on the door from the feds. ‘Who would want any of that back? … If it is what they say it is, keep them the hell away,’ a second adviser says.”
According to previous reports, some of the documents are classified at the highest level, and may involve nuclear weapons secrets.
Another recent report indicated that Trump had over 300 classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago — and that he personally sorted through all the documents to determine which ones he wanted to hold back from the National Archives, a potential sign he was aware of the risk to national security but went through with it anyway.
“The former president’s office claimed recently that Trump had issued a so-called ‘standing order’ to automatically declassify any materials taken from the West Wing in order to facilitate a flexible work schedule for the then-president,” said the report. “Thus far, no Trump administration veterans have come forward to attest to the existence of the legally questionable order. But it has prompted, as Rolling Stone reported last week, FBI agents to begin questioning former members of the Trump National Security Council about whether they have any recollection of such an order.” So far, no one has ever heard of such an order.
Trump=appointed judge laughs at Trump’s attempt to stop DOJ investigation
Last week, after Fox News host Laura Ingraham beat up his new attorney, Donald Trump teased that a “major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment will soon be filed concerning the illegal Break-In of my home.” On Monday his lawyers filed a lawsuit against the federal government that was deemed “incompetent” by well-respected attorneys, with one calling it “shitty on every level.”
Late Tuesday afternoon the judge assigned to the case appeared to agree.
“In a brief order on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon signaled some confusion about the motion Trump’s attorneys filed on Monday asking for an outsider to sift through materials the FBI seized from Trump’s home and resort in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this month pursuant to a search warrant,” Politico reports.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney on social media adds, “Judge Aileen Cannon responds to Trump lawsuit re: FBI search with a list of more questions for Trump’s team about what, precisely, they’re asking for.”
He attached a screenshot of the judge’s order, which reads in part, “on or before August 26, 2022, Plaintiff shall file a supplement to the Motion further elaborating on the following: (1) the asserted basis for the exercise of this Court’s jurisdiction, whether legal, equitable/anomalous, or both; (2) the framework applicable to the exercise of such jurisdiction; (3) the precise relief sought, including any request for injunctive relief pending resolution of the Motion; (4) the effect, if any, of the proceeding before Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart; and (5) the status of Plaintiff’s efforts to perfect service on Defendant.”
Apparently mocking the former president, attorney, legal analyst, and MSNBC anchor Katie Phang “translated” the legal-speak into this: “Judge asking Trump: ‘How can you be here? Why are you here? What is this filing? Why aren’t you before the other judge? Have you bothered to comply with the service of process rules?’”
Judge Cannon is a Trump-appointee who is a member of the right wing Federalist Society.