'Unfit for the Bench': Trump-Appointed Judge Orders Halt to DOJ Review of Seized Materials

[jalan48]

Political observers on Monday said U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon "engaged herself in obstruction of justice" by ruling that the U.S. Department of Justice must halt its review of materials seized at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Political scientist Norman Ornstein noted that lawyers for Trump hand-picked Cannon to oversee the case.

Cannon "has violated her oath and is unfit for the bench," he tweeted, adding that her ruling is "a clear-cut impeachable offense."

Slate journalist Mark Joseph Stern said he had been assured that "no judge would take Trump's absurd filing seriously" after the former president sued the DOJ over the FBI raid which was sparked by the department's finding that Trump had taken classified documents from the White House when his term ended in January 2021.

"The problem, of course, is that Cannon is not a real judge, but a Trump judge, and one of the most corrupt of the bunch," said Stern.

The Justice Department now has until September 9 to propose a list of special master candidates. It was unclear Monday whether the Biden administration would appeal Cannon's ruling.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/05/unfit-bench-trump-appointed-judge-orders-halt-doj-review-seized-materials

[dalton99a]

1. They knew she would give him a happy ending. Heck, she advertized it in flashing neon

[SWBTATTReg]

2. I suspect that in the name of National Security, that this would be overridden. A judge shouldn't

halt efforts to preserve our national security because of this stupid ruling.

[Rebl2]

38. Exactly!

[ForgedCrank]

3. Well, some bad news

for this trumpy judge is that the DOJ has already gone through it all. They've had it for almost 4 weeks now.
Try putting that toothpaste back in the tube.

[jcgoldie]

6. Sure they have but now they cant do anything with it

Its all about delay.

[ForgedCrank]

12. That would actually

make sense though. The guidelines allow for only a very narrow view of what the warrant it for.
Forget Trump for a minute for the sake of argument.
Authorities can't just clean out someones house in order to look for any and all potential crimes that may or may not have been committed. It's the exact opposite for pretty good reason. A crime has to be identified first, then they can search for evidence of that specifically identified crime, and only evidence collected that falls under that umbrella can be used. Private citizens could potentially be under constant attack by authorities based on nothing more than the word of a pissed of EX or something similar if that weren't the rule.
Unfortunately in this case, it may also shield the ass from anyone finding out about all his other questionable activities.

[brush]

14. Won't the DOJ appeal this, and how long will that take?

I mean it's been reported that names of covert operatives and nuke secrets may have been in the stolen docs.

How much more of a delay would the appeal add to the trump cabal's obvious move to delay, delay, delay?

[ForgedCrank]

16. I hav eno

idea if that is even possible, remember, I'm just a normal idiot and I don't know law very well. I just repeat what I can verify.
I am told that both sides have to agree to WHO the special master will be, sort of like jury selection, so we have that protection built-in.
I'm not sure if the DOJ can outright appeal the ruling to use the SM though. That would be an interesting development for sure.
Forcing the DOJ to stop their analysis does make sense as part of that decision though, it is the foundation of the entire argument for even using a special master.
One thing is for sure, I will learn a lot about this odd process before it's all over.

[kelly1mm]

18. Probably minimum 9-15 months if it gets to the USSC. 1st it will go to the 11th Circuit

and then the loser there has the right to file for an appeal to the USSC. If 3 justices agree to hear the appeal then it will be set in for arguments.

[NullTuples]

47. And if he announces he's running for President, will they even continue or wait til after Nov 2024?

[kelly1mm]

51. Well i believe the appeals process to determine if a SM will review the documents

would continue and assuming the SM is approved on appeal the review process would continue. But the DOJ has not indicted DJT and may never decide to press charges. Him running for President again would certainly complicate matters

[NH Ethylene]

37. They were looking for White House doucments that were missing from the archives.

And they found them. How could they predict the details of the documents in advance?

[ForgedCrank]

43. Using your example,

the warrant would state "White House doucments that were missing from the archives" or anything directly related.
That means they wouldn't be able to confiscate Trumps family portraits or his great-grandmas squirrel gravy recipe, or an ounce of hash that was found in his sock drawer. They would not be able to charge him with possession of the hash because that would be outside the scope of the warrant, and be illegally obtained evidence.
I know, I'm trying t be funny, but thats the basics of it and how a warrant works. It doesnt have to be item specific, but they have to stay inside the ballpark. Anything unrelated to what is listed is inadmissible and unusable. If they try to write the warrant TOO broadly, judges will generally reject them and kick them back asking them to narrow it up so as to avoid general 4th amendment conflicts.

edit: also, take this all with skepticism too, I'm only repeating what it is as I understand it. There could be exceptions etc, but I'm certainly not a criminal defense lawyer, or any lawyer at all.

[Solomon]

55. Your legal knowledge is so piss poor you should stop making legal pronouncements.

I'm telling you this as a lawyer who has been practicing for 42 years. You are giving out bad information that is just wrong and you should stop. I think somewhere above you admitted you know nothing about law and it clearly shows in your pronouncements.

[jcgoldie]

52. I do not believe that is true

If law enforcement find evidence of other crimes while pursuing a search warrant then they can pursue them. If they come into my house with probable cause searching for stolen goods and I have cocaine spread out on the table they are within their jurisdiction to collect the evidence and charge me with that crime.

[ForgedCrank]

53. I have to

concede because I'm not 100% positive on that point.
It's just what I've been told in the past so sorry if this is incorrect. That's just the way I understood it

[kelly1mm]

10. They are currently barred from using it in and court proceedings until the SM is appointed

and reviews the documents and determines which if any are privileged. So while they may know what is in the documents, they cannot use them (yet)

[ForgedCrank]

13. It won't matter

in the end.
Look at it this way, if there are relevant documents showing he committed the crime he is accused of, all he would be doing is delaying his trial and conviction by a few weeks or a few months at best. It sucks that we would have to wait longer, but it won't change the evidence in any way.
If they have documents to prove he did something wrong, he is still in trouble.
I see this is a potential GOOD thing. Now there is a good reason no charges have been filed yet, and it gives DOJ more time to analyze and research, and it completely strips away any defense argument regarding proper evidence since they have to agree to the SM arbitrator (so I am told anyway). that would make loophole #1 officially closed.
Maybe I'm just too optimistic, who knows.

[kelly1mm]

17. Delay is the point. The appeals process for this could take years, MANY months at least even

if fast tracked. DJT is trying to buy time until the 2024 elections and (in my opinion) endorse probably DeSantis in exchange for a Presidential pardon. That is what I am thinking his end goal is.

[PortTack]

24. Thing is should deathsatan should win, (which IMO he won't) regardless of delays he would

Pardon him anyway whether they case moves forward now, or later. He isn’t going to have a pardon for his state level cases.

[kelly1mm]

28. I agree the President can only pardon Federal crimes and the states can continue with their

prosecutions. True DeSantis would probably pardon him even if already convicted but I think DJT wants to get one of those 'Ford pardoning Nixon' deals ...... 'for the good of the country' ...... so then he can say he was never convicted in his fundraising pitches.

Another possibility is he is just trying to run out the clock and pass on before any convictions ..... so then he can 'live on in MAGA glory!'

[NullTuples]

48. DeSantis may see Trump as a rival or a threat and may not pardon him.

[Katinfl]

32. Isn't the intelligence dept. doing a damage assessment?

If they determine that damage has been done and intel got into the wrong hands couldn’t they make a case for action? This is a national security situation like none other and I cannot believe that one stupid judge could hold the process and the investigation up. Just my opinion.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

42. WTH ... he clearly was NOT 'authorized to have' a great deal of what was recovered

The shit wasn't his to take, esp. not Secret and Top Secret docs.

[gab13by13]

4. The FBI must stop the forensic examination of the documents.

There is a Russian oligarch's yacht that is being searched by the FBI. It very well may be a coincidence to the stolen documents, but what if the FBI finds our documents on his yacht, the Russian's lawyer will claim the FBI must stand down and stop its investigation.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. Propose a list? And who gets to decide who's acceptable?

Judge Qannon herself?

Talk about a fucking banana republic ... the cronyism bullshit is off the charts on this one. More blatant stalling tactics, this time with a 'judges' approval.

On a positive note, I'm pretty confident the FBI's taint team did everything by the book, so ... in the end this 'decision' won't really matter.

[in2herbs]

22. It will matter a heck of a lot if Ds lose either the House or Senate or both in the mid-terms. nt

[Justice matters.]

34. Once again, the current DOJ will remain in place until at the very least

January 2025.

The results of the midterms will in no way change the current DOJ affairs.

They can (and will) impeach Joe Biden IF they have a House majority, but they will not have 67 votes in the Senate to remove him based on made-up BS.

Even if they would have a valid case (which they don't), Kamala would be second in line.

[UCmeNdc]

7. Corruption!

[Irish_Dem]

8. What about national security interests?

He didn't steal the WH silver and stemware.

[gab13by13]

19. Are you sure of that?

[Irish_Dem]

57. Yes he most likely did.

But I meant this particular charge in front of a judge is about national security crimes.

[Hekate]

25. Probably did that too

[ScratchCat]

9. Keep in mind the docs are copies

The data contained within belongs to a specific agency like CIA, NSA or DOD. In theory. Doj still has access to the actual data through those agencies. The judge only has jurisdiction over those actual documents, regardless of what she thinks

[erronis]

27. Yup. Everything that was given to trumpf was a copy of some document stored securely(?)

elsewhere.

Unless the documents are handwritten notes and sketches of pictures of scary things, these all originated in some machine-readable format - and machine copyable and sharable and watermarked for origins.

Even some of the printed documents may still retain internal stenography which could reveal source, date/time, etc.

[NCjack]

11. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon paid her debt to Trump and his sponsors.

[bluestarone]

15. Maybe the appeals court could choose SM?

I DO NOT want THIS judge to decide ANYTHING further!

[gab13by13]

20. The 11th circuit also has Trump judges.

[bluestarone]

21. oops, then

Not a good idea.

[malaise]

23. And that's the truth

She gas to go

[Half-step]

26. Fine

Then arrest the former guy. That should get things rolling again.

[oldsoftie]

29. Hasn't the DOJ already gone thru everything they seized from dipshit?

[Evolve Dammit]

30. ONE MAGAT Judge has this country in another tailspin and the world is wondering WTF is wrong.

Well, we know what is wrong. It was a fluke that got the orange anus "elected" by Electoral College, despite being soundly beaten by the popular vote, and the rest is a trainwreck culminating in the theft of national security intel which is now MISSING.
This is F'in unbelievable that this man-child is not in cuffs and compelled to explain where that intel went.

[Lonestarblue]

31. The level of corruption in our judicial system perpetrated by Trump and his Republican enablers,

along with the Federalist Society, will take years to undo. We have a 5th Circuit with 6 Trump appointees, all rabid right-wing radicals who are anti-democracy. The 11th Circuit has a majority of Republican judges from Trump’s six appointees. I think Trump was able to flip the majorities on several other circuit courts to Republicans. Many of these were the 200+ vacancies McConnell refused to allow Obama to fill.

The only way out of this judicial corruption I can see is to remake both the circuit courts and the Supreme Court through expansion.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

44. "The 11th Circuit has a majority of Republican judges from Trump's six appointees"

and hence ... probably why he decided to live in FL.

[Ford_Prefect]

33. It sounds like judicial over-reach. No basis in the filing and none to support the principle alleged

If the ruling defies judicial procedure and logic how can it be argued? or meaningfully appealed?

[SledDriver]

35. "...whether the Biden administration would appeal Cannon's ruling"

They meant the DOJ right? Whether the DOJ would appeal Cannon's ruling.

Nice way to subtly insert Biden into this to make it seem political.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

45. Ordinarily I'd be annoyed by that phrasing and I know the problem you speak of

But with CommonDreams, not so much.

They are annoying in some ways, and fairly often incorrect on the facts, but I'd not ascribe ulterior motives like that to them. They're hard-core lefties over there.

[SledDriver]

54. Wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the clarification

[Mr. Sparkle]

39. All these dodgy judges seem to come from the Federalist Society

Anyone associated with the Federalist Society should be banned from government for life.

[orangecrush]

40. KICK

[onenote]

41. To the extent Trump "hand-picked" Cannon, it was a product of the court rules

It doesn't matter that Cannon is assigned to the Fort Pierce division of the Southern District. Assignment of judges in cases filed with the Southern District are assigned to a district judge by a blind, random methodology without regard to division. There is one possible exception: magistrate judges are assigned exclusively to a particular division and each district court judge is "paired" with the magistrate judge (or judges) for each division. Thus, the judges from the Miami Division each are paired with one or more magistrate judges for each of the five divisions. Same for the judges assigned to the Ft. Lauderdale, Key West, West Palm, and Ft. Pierce divisions. Reinhart is one of three magistrate judges for the West Palm Beach Division. for each division and each judge, regardless of division, is "paired" with that magistrate judge. There are eight judges paired with Reinhart -- three from the Miami Division, two from Key West, two from West Palm, and one from Ft. Pierce.

If this was treated as a "paired" case, there are two possibilities: Cannon was selected at random from among the eight judges (which included Cannon and one other Trump appointee along with some Bush and Obama appointees) or Trump was able to get Cannon because she is paired with Reinhart. Either way it was consistent with the court rules, which is why the DOJ didn't object to the case being assigned to her.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

46. Maybe they didn't 'object' because they thought the whole 'filing' was a fucking joke

that not even a IQ45-nut-swinging toady like Judge Qannon would possibly rule in his favor and put her career on the line for such nonsense.

[onenote]

50. Pretty sure Garland's DOJ doesn't take anything as a joke.

[housecat]

49. Maybe tfg will do us all a favor and die.

[DBoon]

58. should say "Republican confirmed judge"

If only 2 or 3 Republican Senators had voted "no" on this unqualified nominee, we would not have this judge on the bench.

The entire republican Senate is responsible for this judicial atrocity