Quinta Jurecic, Natalie K. Orpett and Benjamin Wittes write at Lawfare blog, Everything Wrong With Judge Cannon’s Ruling (excerpt): Judge Cannon’s opinion actually defies defense. It is an epic mess, one that manages to do violence to a remarkable number of distinct areas of law in an admirable economy of only 24 pages. The opinion is … Read more
Donald Trump’s incompetent lawyers made a critical mistake: they asked a judge to make the Department of Justice explain why they executed a search warrant at the failed Coup leader’s home in exile at Mar-a-Lago. The Trump-friendly judge whom they went forum shopping for agreed to the request (Judge Aileen Cannon is not the magistrate … Read more
The relevant statute here is 18 U.S. Code § 1924 – Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material: (a) Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, … Read more
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, drafted a statement which Trump’s Lawyer Christina Bobb (formerly an OANN TV host who promoted Trump’s stolen election lie and the Arizona “Fraudit”), who is said to be the custodian of the documents, signed. It asserted that, to the best of her knowledge, all classified material that was there had been returned, … Read more
Media organizations brought this lawsuit for the affidavit in support of the search warrant for the former guy’s home in exile in Mar-a-Lago. The federal magistrate must weigh the competing interests of transparency under the First Amendment, and the need for secrecy in Department of Justice criminal investigations to protect sources and methods in ongoing … Read more