Posted on 09/21/2022 9:31:12 PM PDT by fluorescence
A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a request from the Justice Department to allow its investigators to regain access to the roughly 100 documents bearing classification markings that were seized by the FBI during its search at former President Donald Trump's Florida residence.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed to put on hold a lower court's order that kept the subset of sensitive records off-limits for the Justice Department to use for investigative purposes, pending the review of the materials by an independent arbiter known as a special master.
In its 29-page opinion, the panel said it agreed with the Justice Department that the federal district court in South Florida likely erred in blocking investigators' use of the classified records and then requiring them to submit the sensitive documents to the outside arbiter for review.
"For our part, we cannot discern why[Trump] would have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings," Judges Robin Rosenbaum, Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher said. "Classified documents are marked to show they are classified, for instance, with their classification level."
The former president, the judges continued, "has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents." The judges also said there is no evidence in the record before them that the roughly 100 documents at issue were declassified.
"In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal," the three-judge panel wrote. "So even if we assumed that [Trump] did declassify some or all of the documents, that would not explain why he has a personal interest in them."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I think it means that there will be no Special Master and the FBI/DOJ can have all the docs and that the injunction against using any said docs can be used against Trump to indict him on any crime they may wish. This is bad. Horrible ruling.
They are not going to discuss these documents when there is current litigation, or ever.
Yes, I believe he can. Not sure if he has to or if it is optional. Then he can appeal to the USSC, another crapshoot.
“It seems pretty clear according the constitution, the laws, supreme court rulings, precedent, etc, that the president is the ultimate decider of what is classified and declassified. The courts have ruled, there is no formal process. “
Indeed. Idiot liberals have been ignorantly telling me, among others, that Trump did not go through the “formal process” in declassifying documents. What this “formal process” is supposed to entail, they never say. I keep on correcting them there is no such process. But it’s like talking to a brick wall, as per usual.
CBS sure does love to report on this story whenever things aren’t going Trump’s way. And they sure are silent when it does go Trump’s way.
OBAMA removed millions of documents & stored them in an old Sears furniture warehouse.
WHERE IS THE SECURITY IN THAT????
“Given that they both voted to overturn the lower court order, what would that accomplish?”
It’s a question of Due Process.
A third Trump appointment on the panel would have likely been able to convince one of the other judges to rule against the DOJ.
They all went to the National Archives first and some were released to Obama for his library. The classified ones are stored at a different, secured facility.
The entire justice system is starting to look like an eyeball in a lava lamp.
Option two: A magic 8 ball shake it until you get the answer you want.
The former president, the judges continued, "has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents." The judges also said there is no evidence in the record before them that the roughly 100 documents at issue were declassified."
That's a hell of a mistake (and a Ratchet-sized word salad) by the Appeals mandarins. That is simply "unclean hands" inverted, the failed key thrust the DOJ attempted on Trump at District level:
- Page 12, note 1: "At the hearing, the Government argued that the equitable concept of “unclean hands” bars Plaintiff from moving under Rule 41(g), citing United States v. Howell, 425 F.3d 971, 974 (11th Cir. 2005) (“[I]n order for a district court to grant a Rule 41(g) motion, the owner of the property must have clean hands.”). Howell involved a defendant who pled guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine and then sought the return of $140,000 in government-issued funds that were seized from him following a drug sale to a confidential source. Id. at 972–73. That case is not factually analogous to the circumstances presented and does not provide a basis to decline to exercise equitable jurisdiction here. Plaintiff has not pled guilty to any crimes; the Government has not clearly explained how Plaintiff’s hands are unclean with respect to the personal materials seized; and in any event, this is not a situation in which there is no room to doubt the immediately apparent incriminating nature of the seized material, as in the case of the sale of cocaine." -- Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon
SCOTUS is going to surprise these 11th hour scumbags, and either enforce Cannon's Order expressly or remand for modification, while tacictly approving the Special Master to continue his work.
What makes you so sure of that?
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