1/ BOOM – Former GOP officials file friend of the court brief with the 11th Circuit saying Judge Cannon got it wrong. The TOC reflects the core arguments, including that an ex-President is entitled to no greater protection under the law than any other citizen.
2/ A friend of the court brief is an ‘amicus’ brief. It’s filed by people who are not a party to the case – not the DOJ, not Trump – who believe they have an interest in the court’s decision. So they ask a court – here the 11th Circuit – to also consider their legal arguments.
3/ The ‘friends of the court’ or ‘Amici’ here are: Ex-federal & state officials Donald Ayer, John Bellinger III, Gregory Brower, John Farmer Jr., Stuart Gerson,Peter Keisler, Alan Charles Raul, Olivia Troye, William F. Weld, and Christine Todd Whitman. Short bios below.
4/ The filing says: ‘Amici all served in Republican administrations and collectively have decades of experience prosecuting cases involving sensitive or classified materials or advising on matters regarding the proper scope of executive power and executive
privilege…
5/ …They have substantial experience with the structure and process of law enforcement investigations, including investigations involving public officials. Given their decades of public service, familiarity with the law enforcement and constitutional matters at issue here…
6/ ….and commitment to the rule of law, Amici maintain an active interest in the proper resolution of the important questions raised by the Government’s motion.’
7/ Below is the ‘proposed’ brief. It is ‘proposed’ because they 11th Circuit must accept the filing. A friend of the court (amicus) brief was also filed w/ Judge Cannon but she rejected it – meaning she did not consider it. Here’s the link…
Proposed Amicus Brief to 11th Circuit Appealing Judge Cannon’s Special Master Order.pdf
USCA11 Case: 22-13005. Date Filed: 09/16/2022. Page: 1 of 32. IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT DONALD J. TRUMP, Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 22-13005 v. UNITED STATES OF AMERI…
https://docdro.id/xaR0rDa
8/ The brief also eviscerates Cannon for ignoring the law about the classified documents and instead injecting the notion that there is a dispute over whether the documents are classified. Excerpts….
9/ And in the footnote that gets cut off in the last screenshot, the amicus brief calls Trump out for not saying in his court filings that he declassified any documents but rather playing games and just suggesting he could have.
10/ And in a strong closing the brief says a former president should be treated no different than a ‘school teacher, police officer or veteran’ who’d taken classified info to their home and that an ex-president’s reputation is not more important than national security.
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