Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
(CNN)A Brooklyn-based federal judge was selected on Thursday to serve as an independent arbiter to review the materials seized in the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Florida home.
The special master will be Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who was put forward as a possible candidate for the special master role by Trump, who had sued in court to obtain the review. The Justice Department also endorsed Dearie's appointment.
Ok, both sides agree that Dearie is fit to be Special Master. Good.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon also rejected the Justice Department's bid to resume its criminal investigation into classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month. The denial sets the stage for the department's dispute with Trump over the search to move quickly to an appeals court and potentially the US Supreme Court.
An intelligence community review of the documents has been paused since last week when Cannon ordered the criminal investigation to stop for the moment. DOJ says the two reviews cannot be separated and plans to appeal.
Two thoughts. One, I'm not sure that a judge should be able to order the DOJ to stop investigating anything, even temporarily. I know, I know, this "investigation" is just another sham fishing expedition. But think about that in the context of all judges and all investigations and consider separation of powers. Can a county judge order the sheriff's department to stop investigating a murder while a special master looks at evidence gathered so far? What if a court ordered congress to stop investigating a federal agency? I'm not saying that it's wrong, I'm asking the questions.
Second, I don't believe for a moment that the DOJ really will stop investigating. Even in the process of deciding what to show the Special Master and what not to show (a cheeseburger knows they aren't going to show Dearie everything, so spare me), they will be reading the documents and looking for something incriminating. I doubt they will even stop interviewing witnesses, if they ever did that in the first place before the raid.
Cannon gave the special master a deadline of November 30 to finish his review of potentially privileged documents.
The schedule delays the review's ending until after the midterm congressional elections -- essentially guaranteeing the Mar-a-Lago investigation will move slowly for the next two months, unless a higher court steps in.
This seems to be the Judge's attempt to enforce the DOJ's own unwritten "60 day rule," about not releasing information that could affect an election later than sixty days before the election. I think they would have followed the letter of that rule - if an unwritten rule can be said to have a letter - but not the spirit. I believe that they would have not made public announcement, which they don't like anyway, but would have continued the "leak everything we can think of to damage Trump, real or not doesn't matter, because we can't be held accountable" strategy.
Now it will be harder to leak new "revelations" since they are not supposed to be finding new revelations until the Special Master is finished. Eh . . . who am I kidding? They don't care about what they are "supposed" to do, so they will continue to leak.
The appeals process could mean the fight over the documents goes on into the 2024 presidential election cycle.
If the DNC/DOJ/FBI is smart they do not want this to happen. They do not want to go into 2024 and start reminding people of what they did at Mar-a-Lago.
The special master will be Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who was put forward as a possible candidate for the special master role by Trump, who had sued in court to obtain the review. The Justice Department also endorsed Dearie's appointment.
Ok, both sides agree that Dearie is fit to be Special Master. Good.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon also rejected the Justice Department's bid to resume its criminal investigation into classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month. The denial sets the stage for the department's dispute with Trump over the search to move quickly to an appeals court and potentially the US Supreme Court.
An intelligence community review of the documents has been paused since last week when Cannon ordered the criminal investigation to stop for the moment. DOJ says the two reviews cannot be separated and plans to appeal.
Two thoughts. One, I'm not sure that a judge should be able to order the DOJ to stop investigating anything, even temporarily. I know, I know, this "investigation" is just another sham fishing expedition. But think about that in the context of all judges and all investigations and consider separation of powers. Can a county judge order the sheriff's department to stop investigating a murder while a special master looks at evidence gathered so far? What if a court ordered congress to stop investigating a federal agency? I'm not saying that it's wrong, I'm asking the questions.
Second, I don't believe for a moment that the DOJ really will stop investigating. Even in the process of deciding what to show the Special Master and what not to show (a cheeseburger knows they aren't going to show Dearie everything, so spare me), they will be reading the documents and looking for something incriminating. I doubt they will even stop interviewing witnesses, if they ever did that in the first place before the raid.
Cannon gave the special master a deadline of November 30 to finish his review of potentially privileged documents.
The schedule delays the review's ending until after the midterm congressional elections -- essentially guaranteeing the Mar-a-Lago investigation will move slowly for the next two months, unless a higher court steps in.
This seems to be the Judge's attempt to enforce the DOJ's own unwritten "60 day rule," about not releasing information that could affect an election later than sixty days before the election. I think they would have followed the letter of that rule - if an unwritten rule can be said to have a letter - but not the spirit. I believe that they would have not made public announcement, which they don't like anyway, but would have continued the "leak everything we can think of to damage Trump, real or not doesn't matter, because we can't be held accountable" strategy.
Now it will be harder to leak new "revelations" since they are not supposed to be finding new revelations until the Special Master is finished. Eh . . . who am I kidding? They don't care about what they are "supposed" to do, so they will continue to leak.
The appeals process could mean the fight over the documents goes on into the 2024 presidential election cycle.
If the DNC/DOJ/FBI is smart they do not want this to happen. They do not want to go into 2024 and start reminding people of what they did at Mar-a-Lago.
