Posted on 12/01/2022 3:01:01 PM PST by semimojo
In a major defeat for former President Donald Trump, a federal appeals court on Thursday halted a third-party review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The ruling removes a major obstacle to the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of government records from Trump’s time in the White House.
In a ruling on Thursday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s order appointing a so-called special master to sort through thousands of documents found at Trump’s home to determine what should be off limits to investigators.
“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Richey v. Smith (1975) is the case most referenced in the ruling.
Actually, that’s not what the judges said. In fact the judges quote the warrant.
And they do address the issue of items taken during the execution of the warrant. DOJ may have gotten things that are not part of their investigation, but those things were stored together and hence were covered by the warrant.
“Any physical documents with classification markings, along with any containers/boxes (including other contents) in which such documents are located, as well as any other containers/boxes that are collectively stored or found together with the aforementioned documents and containers/boxes.” (page 6 of the ruling)
So, any box/container (and its contents) stored with any documents with a classification marking is part of the warrant. Which is quite broad, really. Could conceivably mean anything found in the same room.
Trump screwed that up just like the screwed up the last two USSC justices.
The 11th circuit was involved in Bush/Gore. The left set out to infiltrate and destroy everything that kept the democrats from stealing that election. The 11th circuit is now trash in all that they do.
Story I read said they had the option to go public, though they may choose not to. I’ll see if I can find it.
Needs to wind up in the Supreme Court.
Why not? The Democrats re-wrote the rules for voting in the last few years without any legislative process.
I don't think this case is a good candidate.
The three judges, two appointed by Trump, delivered quite a legal beat-down to the judge who appointed the special master.
There was really no precedent to do so and if allowed it would cripple law enforcement.
SCOTUS won't intervene.
Without disagreeing w/ you, I have two comments:
1) This argument will never fly in any court of law until the National Archives verifies it to be true. I doubt they will do that considering they have already issued public statements saying that it’s not true.
2) This argument will never fly in any court of law because no one was ever acquitted of a crime on the basis that another defendant got away with the same crime (not that I’m aware of, anyway).
So while I completely understand your frustration, the point you make wouldn’t get PDJT anywhere.
Even during the Trump presidency the DOJ was working against him. It's not a question of whether the DOJ is politically left. It's a question of the degree, and I can't imagine that changing much. And when they indict in DC the courts will convict a ham sandwich. "All your base are belong to us."
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