Question about this Special Master

[EarlG]

Is it really even going to take that long for a Special Master to review these documents? A Special Master was appointed in the Michael Cohen case back in April 2018 and finished her work in August 2018, four months later. In that case four million documents and files were seized and needed to be reviewed, according to the New York Times.

A court-appointed special master who since April has been poring over a trove of documents and electronic files seized this spring from Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, said on Thursday that she had finished her review.

In her sixth and final report to the Manhattan federal judge who is overseeing Mr. Cohen’s case, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, echoed what she said in her previous reports: Only a tiny fraction of the nearly four million files federal agents seized when they raided Mr. Cohen’s office, apartment and hotel room were protected by attorney-client privilege.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/nyregion/cohen-trump-files-review.html

Is there anywhere near that amount of information that the Special Master needs to go through in this case? How much delay is this going to realistically add to the proceedings?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good questions, all of them, my dear EarlG. I have no idea, but thank you for bringing them up. n/t

[elleng]

2. as much as 'they' want.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. And what if a SM Says "this document with a list of our spies is his" or somehow exec privilege

is applied?

Madness.

[HighFired49]

4. Shouldn't take but a day or two

Any file or paper marked as any type of "Secret" shouldn't need to be reviewed. They are automatically considered res ipsa loquitur evidence of a crime committed by Dump, and he never had a right to take or keep them in his possession. There is absolutely no reason that a Special Master should view these marked documents, as none of them are protected by attorney-client privilege.

[GreenWave]

5. I hope IQ45 gets 2-5 years per purloined document.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. +1000!

[H2O Man]

7. Recommended.

I think that a lot of being expressed on DU about the ruling is simply people going to the worst case scenario. This is a fairly common reaction to "vad news" in our society. More, since Trump has indeed been the worst case scenario from the November, 2016 election, that reaction has been reinforced. It's a bad decision by the judge. But I would rather the DOJ deal with it now, rather than it veing one of the post-conviction grounds on appeal.

[JI7]

8. The problem is that the point of it is to delay and protect Trump

It's not really about an honest review to check for certain things and then move on .

[BootinUp]

9. The concern from some legal pundits

is that there is no established law to direct a special master for the types of documents and claims being made here. So it will be tied up in the courts due to that factor. In other words no one knows how the special master is going to know what to look for. There also seems to be a lot of mistrust now with this judge and Trump judges on the 11th circuit where it will have to be appealed. I posted a podcast video where you can hear these concerns in Video and Multimedia forum. Or you can look for Harry Litman on Twitter who has been sharing some of those concerns.

[Nevilledog]

10. Here's the HUGE problem with that.

Since trump does not have executive privilege and the judge is just cosplaying at being a Fed judge:

1. Cannon is just making up this whole executive privilege bullshit, she now has to make up what a former president's executive privilege entails. She did not do this in the order.

2. Once Cannon decides what former executive privilege looks like, Trump's lawyers are gonna say they need to see every page because how will they know whether it's covered by the pretend former executive privilege. Then, they're gonna object to EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. DOCUMENT.

3. No matter what the rules are, or what the judge says, Trump's lawyers are gonna say the review is wrong and they'll file motions and then appeal any losses.

This whole thing is a fucking nightmare.


None of this takes into consideration how they're gonna pick a special master. Trump will object to EVERY single DOJ recommendation.