Last
night,
US
District
Judge
Aileen
Cannon
did
Donald
Trump
a
solid
—
again!
astonishing!
—
and
cut
the
legs
out
from
under
the
Case
Management
Plan
put
forth
by
special
master
Judge
Raymond
Dearie
in
the
Mar-a-Lago
records
case. Yeah,
don’t
faint.
In
her
own
order
appointing
the
special
master,
Judge
Cannon
tasked
him
with
“verifying
that
the
property
identified
in
the
‘Detailed
Property
Inventory’
[ECF
No.
39-1]
represents
the
full
and
accurate
extent
of
the
property
seized
from
the
premises
on
August
8,
2022,
including,
if
deemed
appropriate,
by
obtaining
sworn
affidavits
from
Department
of
Justice
personnel.”
But
Judge
Dearie
imposed
a
reciprocal
obligation
on
Trump
to
verify
that
the
inventory
was
“full
and
accurate,”
which
would
have
deprived
him
of
the
ability
to
go
on
television
and
claim
that
the
FBI
planted
evidence
when
it
executed
the
warrant.
So
that
provision
got
nixed,
thanks
to
a
jurist
confirmed
to
the
bench
after
Trump
had
already
lost
the
election.
LOL!
And
speaking
of
unpleasant
disclosures,
Judge
Dearie’s
proposed
case
management
plan
instructed
Trump
to
distinguish
between
documents
subject
to
“executive
privilege
that
prohibits
review
of
the
document
within
the
executive
branch”
and
those
covered
by
“executive
privilege
that
prohibits
dissemination
of
the
document
to
persons
or
entities
outside
the
executive
branch.”
Clearly
Trump’s
lawyers
would
prefer not
to
have
to
publicly
drop
anything
into
that
second
bucket,
since
that
is
a
bucket
which
does
not
exist.
The
Presidential
Records
Act
(PRA)
instructs
the
Archivist
to
make
presidential
documents
available
“pursuant
to
subpoena
or
other
judicial
process
issued
by
a
court
of
competent
jurisdiction
for
the
purposes
of
any
civil
or
criminal
investigation
or
proceeding,”
meaning
that
no
invocation
of
executive
privilege
by
an
ex-president
could
ever
be
used
to
thwart
a
criminal
investigation.
The
PRA
also
specifies
that
the
incumbent
president
gets
access
to
his
predecessor’s
records
“if
such
records
contain
information
that
is
needed
for
the
conduct
of
current
business
of
the
incumbent
President’s
office
and
that
is
not
otherwise
available.”
So
Trump’s
effort
to
assert
executive
privilege
as
against
the
executive
branch,
of
which
the
Justice
Department
is
a
part,
is
destined
to
fail.
And
not
for
nothing,
but
the
Supreme
Court
already
held
in
United
States
v.
Nixon,
418
U.S.
683,
(1974)
that
an
invocation
of
privilege
cannot
be
used
to
thwart
a
criminal
investigation
and
must
give
way
to
the
government’s
‘demonstrated,
specific
need’
for
presidential
records.
Judge
Dearie’s
order
would
have
required
Trump
to
make
this
ridiculous
claim
of
privilege
now.
So
Judge
Cannon
simply
took
her
red
Sharpie
to
it
and
made
that
part
disappear,
too.
But
perhaps
most
importantly,
the
court
nixed
the
obligation
for
Trump
to
engage
in
a
rolling
production
of
documents,
so
as
to
“avoid
confusion
and
enhance
organization
and
clear
deadlines.”
So,
even
though
she
only
extended
Judge
Dearie’s
deadline
to
issue
a
report
to
the
court
by
a
couple
of
weeks
to
December
16,
Judge
Cannon
has
now
ensured
that
the
government
won’t
be
able
to
use
any
evidence
collected
other
than
the
classified
documents
until
2023.
In
fact,
the
government
has
virtually
nothing
to
do
(besides
briefing
its
appeal
to
the
Eleventh
Circuit)
until
November
4,
at
which
time
Trump
will
dump
the
entire
load
of
documents
on
them,
along
with
his
privilege
assertions
and
claims
that
he
transubstantiated
it
all
into
personal
property
by
means
of
mental
telepathy
or
astral
projection.
Then
prosecutors
will
have
just
ten
days
to
brief
their
replies
—
thanks,
Judge
Cannon!
And
in
case
it
wasn’t
clear
that
the
fix
was
in,
Judge
Cannon
put
the
kibosh
on
Judge
Dearie’s
instruction
that
the
parties
should
brief
the
court
as
to
why
any
Rule
41
motion
for
return
of
property
should
not
be
returned
to
US
Magistrate
Judge
Bruce
Reinhart,
who
authorized
the
original
warrant.
“As
explained
in
the
Court’s
previous
Order,
Plaintiff
properly
brought
this
action
in
the
district
where
Plaintiff’s
property
was
seized,”
the
judge
observes
in
a
footnote.
The
judge
omits
to
observe
that
a
panel
from
the
Eleventh
Circuit,
including
two
Trump
appointees,
just
shredded
the
trial
judge’s
justification
for
her
own
equitable
jurisdiction
in
this
case.
And
thanks
to
the
latest
order,
the
parties
won’t
be
mentioning
it
either
when
they
docket
that
preposterous
motion
pretending
that
it’s
somehow
abnormal
for
the
government
to
seize
and
hang
on
to
personal
property
pending
a
criminal
investigation.
TL;DR?
Judge
Cannon
is
keeping
this
whole
thing
in
her
pocket,
and
she’s
going
to
give
Trump
whatever
he
wants
and
dare
the
Eleventh
Circuit
to
stop
her.
Trump
v.
United
States
[Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye
lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
writes
about
law
and
politics.