Katyal tweets about the appeal

[BootinUp]

Link to tweet

[Ocelot II]

1. DoJ kicked Cannon's ass in this brief.

[BootinUp]

5. I'm curious about her reaction

when reading it. Maybe she thinks its funny.

[Ocelot II]

7. I am baffled by her. She has a decent academic resume

even though she doesn't have the sort of work experience a federal judge should have. But her decisions have been so bad, so downright perverse, that her lack of judicial experience can't be an excuse. Any law student would have understood the issues; I can't help wondering whether there was something else going on - some ex parte communication, some other extrajudicial influence. But her reasoning is so spectacularly wrong that it tends to make people think something improper is going on even if it isn't.

[Chicago1980]

11. Resumes don't matter when it comes to a corrupt morality.

[Ocelot II]

14. That's my point, or at least my question. She can't be that stupid, so

what else is she up to?

[BootinUp]

15. I can't remember rt now who suggested it,

maybe I heard it on MSNBC this morning, but the suggestion was that she didn't want to shoulder the blame (in the eyes of MAGA) for making the decision, I think it was Andrew Weismann talking to this last night.

[GoCubsGo]

25. That would make sense, although

I can't help but wonder if she had the help of Trump's lawyers in writing this. It all sounds just like the kind of stupidity they would produce. But, I can see her being so terrified of the cult that she'd trash her own reputation in order to escape their craziness. Tough shit, lady. Lie with dogs, get fleas.

[Deminpenn]

34. She could have easily side-stepped everything by ruling

Trump has no standing. At least, IIRC, that's what I heard the MSNBC legal talking heads say initially.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. Perhaps the ex parte influence is a higher court.

[H2O Man]

17. You mention some ex parte .....

I've wondered if she had been informed that the stolen documents were about the 2016 campaign investigation. That's the only thing I could think of to possibly explain her seeming to think Trump has a right to them.

I think that she is intelligent, but that regarding national security issues, she is in way over her head.

[hlthe2b]

22. I think she may have considered (with or without any overt ex parte discussions)..

an ultimate nod to her elevation to an appeals court or even SCOTUS position if Trump were to be returned to the Presidency (as his true believers refuse to discount) in 2024. She is closely aligned with the Federalist Society (as I seem to recall being mentioned, is her father-in-law or father).

I think she is "intelligent" from the standpoint of being self-driven--like Trump-- for her own benefit. Malign or narcissistically-driven focus often comes across as "intelligent" only because it is so directed and frequently successful. Like Trump's revenge-driven strategic moves. Is that intelligence? We often think so when it is effective and difficult to counter.

[msfiddlestix]

23. Interesting points/perspective

Also, direct connections to the Federalists Society is a factoid I hadn't been aware of. Just that she was somehow recommended by them. I wonder if Scott Perry is directly connected as well, as I recall mentioned he was the one who influenced the appointment to Trump. Good points and questions regarding what we tend to view as intelligence associated with narcissists.

[H2O Man]

26. I would think

indirect is much more likely. She has affection for Trump. In the two weeks between the FBI executing the warrant and the Trump team filing, she was unlikely to have avoided watching/ reading the news, thinking the case could land in her lap. Thus, she likely knew that Kash Patel was saying that the documents had been declassified. Despite there being zero proof of this, Cannon seems to hint at this in her two rulings.

Speculation on my part, of course. But she appears to be reaching her decisions on something other than the law.

I agree with you on the "intelligent" part. I suspect that she is more "book smart" than "real life" intelligent. And I doubt that she has had experience in the real life world of national intelligence.

[Ocelot II]

30. The problem, though, is that her decisions and the reasoning behind them

(if you want to call those legal word salads "reasoning" ) are so self-evidently stupid that they invite reversal even from the conservative 11th Circuit. It's like one of those law school exams where you have to identify the issues and explain how and why the decision was in error, except that the errors are so obvious that all the students, even the dumb ones, would have finished the exam in a half-hour and gone off for a beer. Why would she set herself up for the almost universal trashing she's getting, even from the likes of Barr and Christie? She's just made herself famous for opining that classified documents might not be classified even though they were clearly marked classified even though TFG's lawyers didn't actually claim they were ever declassified, for suggesting that these documents are protected by executive privilege even though that privilege belongs to the current executive, and that ex-presidents are entitled to more legal rights than anyone else. That's not the sort of fame a judge wants if she wants to be promoted to a higher court - there's a lot of competition from much smarter judges, even Federalist Society judges.

[hlthe2b]

31. Why would she write such a uniformly ridiculous crap opiinion? Because she's playing to an audience

of ONE--just like every other damned person Trump corrupted. They always think they will be the ONE who slides through sufficiently unscathed to reep the benefit that only their cult leader can provide. She knows deep down that she was unqualified for the position but her benefactor put her there and she's betting the farm on him doing it again. That is the only path for someone with her middling resume, experience, and competence.

[Ocelot II]

36. Then she's even dumber than her ridiculous crap opinion would suggest.

[msfiddlestix]

24. Interesting speculation. Wonder if we'll ever find out. probably not, unless it was leaked somehow.

[H2O Man]

27. Even before the FBI

executed the search warrant, Kash Petal was telling anyone who would listen that Trump had declassified documents regarding the investigation of ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian military intelligence. Though it is speculation on my part, the documents Trump stole that date from before he took office are likely from that. Patel had boasted that he was going to post them on the internet to prove that the deep state had it out for Trump. Shortly after this, the FBI took acction.

The chances that Cannon had not watched/ read the news between the FBI action and Trump's legal team filing in her court seems rather slim. Just my opinion, but both of her decisions indicate that she has something other than the law on her mind.

[msfiddlestix]

29. Wow! I missed this sequence of events.

I remember reading Patel's bragging about this, but I didn't know the FBI took action in response.

Fascinating and very intriguing. And yeah, quite a reasonable inference, I would say.

Wonder if any sort of conformation will be revealed eventually. Guess we''ll just have to patiently wait for it.

[LiberalFighter]

32. She is part of the Federalist Society.

Likely has access to their site with ways to present opinions on different matters.

[Ocelot II]

33. That's true, but a lot of FS judges appointed by TFG ruled against him

in the election cases. That's not enough to explain such a manifestly dumb decision.

[Deminpenn]

35. Except her opinion directly contradicts the FS theory of the

unitary executive where the president has pretty much unlimited power.

[Ocelot II]

37. Yup. If she says an ex-president retains the right to claim executive privilege,

that's a clear conflict with the right of the incumbent president to so so. So that punches a big hole in that unitary executive theory. If she's not toeing the Federalist Society line, I guess she must be just blatantly sucking up to TFG. Wonder if there's been or promised an actual quid pro quo, and not just her hope for a promotion to the next echelon of the federal judiciary?

[Deminpenn]

39. Don't think her rulings are more complicated than

she's in over her head. Maybe she recognizes it, but is too stubborn or prideful to admit as much by reversing herself.

Her rulings seem to contradict themselves even within the same opinion. Like the FBI can continue to assess national security risks yet the can't use the documents they need to do it. It's like she's a lay person trying to make everyone happy by giving them each something.

[Mr.Bill]

38. Ann old man wiser than me once told me

if you take someone with an IQ of 90 and put them through college you will have a college graduate with an IQ of 90.

[rubbersole]

2. Blatant corruption isn't embarrassing for repubs anymore.

[Probatim]

13. It wasn't 40 years ago either.

They've never cared - there's more cameras and a 24/7 news cycle to show us.

[rubbersole]

16. Goldwater did tell Nixon to go.

There is that. Citizens United was the nail in the coffin.

[Grins]

21. Goldwater was ready to go to the nat for Nixon.

If there was to be an impeachment the Republicans in the Senate were in lock-step to block it, just like the R’s in 2020 and 2021.

“What did he know, and when did he know it?” Baker said that. And people thought he wanted to get to the truth; but read it again.

If Nixon didn’t know about it from the start, but found out later, well then - it’s not his fault! It was those people! Waaaaaay over there…. The fix was in. That was to be the ‘out’ for Republicans!

And then Alexander Butterfield said "Everything was taped... as long as the President was in attendance.”

And Goldwater had NO CHOICE. His was political courage after the fact.

[Probatim]

28. So Pence was the Goldwater of his generation. So brave (sarcasm).

[H2O Man]

3. Recommended!

Wow! Thank you for this!

[Cha]

4. Rt TY!

[brer cat]

6. Thanks for posting this. K&R

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Twitter replies:

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[BigmanPigman]

9. Earlier today he said that

the appeal wrote itself. He would know.

[UTUSN]

10. K&R

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. I read the filing

It is well done

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. Some good analysis from Joyce Vance

Going for a limited stay on the key documents is a good move

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. Justice Dept. asks appeals court to restore access to Trump raid documents

This is a well done brief. I like the concept of limiting to an emergency stay on the key issue of the 100 records marked classified.

Link to tweet

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/16/justice-dept-asks-appeals-court-to-restore-access-to-trump-raid-documents-00057329

The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to lift a judge’s order blocking criminal investigators from accessing about 100 documents with national security classification markings recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound last month.

In a filing with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta Friday night, prosecutors said the government is facing irreparable harm as a result of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling putting the potentially classified records off-limits to the investigative team until an outside expert conducts a review of them and considers Trump’s objections to their seizure.

“The court’s order hamstrings that investigation and places the FBI and Department of Justice … under a Damoclean threat of contempt,” DOJ lawyers said in their 29-page filing, adding, “It also irreparably harms the government by enjoining critical steps of an ongoing criminal investigation and needlessly compelling disclosure of highly sensitive records, including to [Trump’s] counsel.”

The Justice Department’s widely expected escalation of the legal fight came one day after the Trump-appointed judge rebuffed prosecutors’ request for a stay that would essentially carve out the national security-related records — some bearing markings such as “Top Secret/SCI” — from the outside oversight Trump’s legal team requested.

The filing was an unsparing rejection of Cannon’s handling of the entire matter, saying it has jeopardized national security, is based on flimsy or baseless interpretations of executive privilege and could enable further obstruction of efforts to recover additional missing documents.