Judge declines DOJ request to hold Trump team in contempt over classified documents: Sources

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

A federal judge in Washington declined to hold Trump or his legal team in contempt of court following a court hearing Friday as the Justice Department had requested, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The judge instead urged the Justice Department and Trump's legal team to resolve the dispute themselves, the sources said.

DOJ had urged the judge to hold Trump's team in contempt over failure to fully comply with a May subpoena for documents with classified markings that was directed to Trump's custodian of records -- a person the Trump legal team has not identified.

The proceedings were under seal and not public. The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to request for comment. DOJ declined to comment.

DOJ's urging was part of court proceedings in Washington in which DOJ and Trump lawyers have battled for weeks over compliance with grand jury subpoenas, sources have told ABC News. The Trump team has also not wanted to identify an official custodian of records to attest that all records have been handed over.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-declines-doj-request-hold-trump-team-contempt/story?id=94809481

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ETA - apparently the "judge" was the Chief Judge - Beryl Howell per CNBC (also just mentioned on MSNBC and Nicole's show).

[smb]

1. Dispute??

What "dispute"? Trump was served with a lawful order to hand over the documents. He did not comply.

[TheRealNorth]

2. So the judge is going to allow TFG to get away with not having someone be accountable....

If they don't hand over everything?

What type of BS is this?

[ananda]

3. It's just our national security at risk.. no big deal.

Sarcasm

[MOMFUDSKI]

14. It is not so much national security as it is

keeping secrets secret. I have always felt the orange menace's MO was to gather dirt on any and all and hold it over their heads. It seems to be working quite well. Call me crazy. There may never be any comeuppance for the menace.

[PSPS]

11. Well, you see, trump is "special."

When you "win" a presidential election via kremlin trickery, you get treated with kid gloves. We have our own "Day X" brewing in the US but nothing is being done except the slow walk and running out the clock.

[agingdem]

12. what's the orange cretin getting away with?..

his lawyers don't trust their client to tell the truth except they're taking their instruction from a pathological liar and they know it..the lawyers aren't protecting Trump, they're in self-preservation mode..a custodian of record swears all documents are accounted for, and when that proves to be bullshit who gets screwed?...the lawyer...the DOJ knows exactly what's missing and they're forcing the lawyers to confront their client...Jack Smith is going to do whatever he has to do to get those government files back..

[stopdiggin]

23. kinda' the way I see it too

nobody in their right mind wants to 'attest' to anything having to do with Trump.

Not only is Trump a chronic and compulsive liar (which they are all fully aware of) - but he himself really has no idea what he is in possession of - or where - or when.

What everyone (grand jury, court, DOJ, etc.) needs to press for - is to have Donald attest and affix signature that all records have been properly vetted and returned if/as required.

[ancianita]

4. Wonder what Marc Elias and Jack Smith have to say about this ruling.

[Cha]

19. Exactly.. and Glenn Kirshner &

Ben Meiselas?

[RobertDevereaux]

24. Glenn says this.

[Cha]

26. Thank You! nt

[pfitz59]

29. No one is above the law!

Especially Donald Trump!

[sinkingfeeling]

5. She was appointed by Obama in 2010.

[Cha]

20. Good Grief! nt

[bluestarone]

6. TFG Gets more fucking chances than anybody iv'e ever seen!

Seems like The courts just do there FN Jobs!! WTF?

[sarcasmo]

25. Above the law.

[agingdem]

7. I don't care about this one..

I want the damn documents back...this does not prevent the DOJ from searching Trump's other properties...as for the clown car lawyers, it's obvious they don't trust their client to tell the truth..the fact that no one wants to to be the custodian of record tells the DOJ they know more documents are still missing..

[choie]

8. Just a dispute.

So if one of us were possibly hiding classified material, I guess our lawyer could negotiate with the DOJ to clear up the "dispute"

[moniss]

9. It would be a safe

assumption that as the legal matters really heat up for the Orange Ruski and the higher ups we will see a big increase in money being spread around and enormous pressure behind the scenes being brought to bear on the "decision makers". When I say money you have to understand how things happen at very high levels in order to "give plausible deniability". Some examples would be like a judge being notified on the QT that a future position will open up at a prestigious organization/university/investment firm etc. and of course will be "well funded", or perhaps a spouse etc. will fill such a position at an "appropriate" time. Perhaps a future land deal or other investment consideration can be made. You get the idea. It's how the big boys play it. That way they put enough space between the ask and the pay-off that they can deny linkage.

The pressure they bring to bear is by doing things like having private investigators comb through every aspect of the lives of the judges, their families, business dealings, school days etc. Then the behind the scenes attorneys figure out if they can put some things together, real or concocted, that could be used on the QT to pressure for favorable rulings etc. All a dirty game. This piece of scum has many millions of dollars at his disposal to use for legal fees. But we will likely never know how much dark money and dark apparatus are working behind the scenes to try to get what they want.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. Just read an interest perspective on this ruling re: new search warrant

Howell not ruling on contempt could be an assist to DOJ to show probable cause to seek a new, broader search warrant for Trump’s properties.

[Cha]

21. TY for that. nt

[agingdem]

27. I think so too..

I have questions no one seems to be asking...how was Trump able to hoard thousands of pages of documents prior to leaving the White House?..how did he get them out of the White House with no questions asked?..why were they not stored in a secure location?...we saw pics of dozens of stacked file boxes wrapped in duck tape, sitting on pallets outside waiting to be loaded onto trucks..why did no one question the contents of those boxes before they were transported to MAL?

as for the judge..she left the door open..if the DOJ and Trump's team cannot reach an understanding, and that "understanding" more than likely would include an FBI search of all of Trump properties, not an outside search team hired by Trump and his lawyers...then the DOJ is welcome back to court...

[Fiendish Thingy]

31. We got a partial answer to those questions yesterday

Trump’s aide in charge of document security was subpoenaed to the grand jury.

I forget his name, but he resigned on December 18, 2020, and was never replaced.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

32. He probably had them taken on 1/19/2020 while still POTUS

Nobody would have the authority to tell him no, even if he's a lame duck w/one day left in his term.

[Captain Zero]

35. At the time it was a relief he would even LEAVE

They basically gave no transition to the Biden Admin. They may have got to a place where THEY didn't know what was signed out themselves. Chaos. What he is best at.

[MayReasonRule]

36. Indeed, you're dead on point.

It's Judge Beryl Howell who's a pretty stellar Obama appointee.

My guess is Trump's team were wasting time and not wanting to be personally liable as the document person, and thus DOJ requested a contempt proceeding to force action. The judge likely made an order for them to go and sort it out, I doubt the purpose was actually to find them in contempt.

It's too bad we can't see her reasoning.

My guess is the same as yours, that it's new broader search warrants are the appropriate course of action.

[Orrex]

13. DoJ was right to pursue this even though it was almost certain to fail

Subpoenas are really more like gentle suggestions when you're rich and powerful in this nation where the law totally applies to everyone the same.

[republianmushroom]

15. Remember our motto.

"no person is above the law".

[spudspud]

16. You gotta add an asterisk to that saying now. /nt

[Evolve Dammit]

17. you're killing me

[NullTuples]

18. How does, "resolve the dispute themselves" even work?

[JohnSJ]

22. It has been over a year the DOJ was trying to resolve it. WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS JUDGE

[tavernier]

28. Nothing is wrong with the judge.

The judge is telling the DOJ to do its job. It’s past time to indict the criminal.

[bluestarone]

30. After thinking more about this, i agree

DOJ needs to decide to do what needs to be done! It's fully in their hands.

[twodogsbarking]

33. Your job is to judge. That's why they call you Judge.

You ain't doin' ya job.

[cilla4progress]

34. Confused...

Thought they were held in contempt?

[SouthernDem4ever]

37. So did the judge nullify the system of subpeonas?

Isn't that what he is doing? This needs to go up the chain for another ruling.

[BumRushDaShow]

38. No

and I expect some of the reasoning goes back to "the attempts to retrieve" by hiring a firm to do it and that firm managing to "find" 2 more documents (so far). That then shows some kind of (partial) compliance and is gaming the system.

It's similar to how you had many of the criminals refusing to testify to the J6 Committee and then eventually relenting to avoid a "Contempt of Congress" citation by appearing but repeating "The Fifth", "the Fifth", the "Fifth" over and over to every question, basically providing no information. System gamed and they get to play another day.

In fact I found CNN's version of this story pretty much said that is what happened -

Federal judge declines to hold Trump in contempt of court

By Katelyn Polantz, Casey Gannon, Hannah Rabinowitz, Lauren Koenig and Kristen Holmes, CNN
Updated 7:46 PM EST, Fri December 9, 2022

(snip)

According to sources, the judge questioned prosecutors on how she could hold Trump’s team in contempt given the steps Trump’s lawyers have taken to alleviate the Justice Department’s concerns that there may still be records in Trump’s possession.

She also questioned why prosecutors were quibbling over the necessity for a custodian of records to attest that all documents had been returned when Trump’s lawyers had already informed the Justice Department that they had searched four locations, found two documents with classified markings and returned those documents to investigators, according to two sources.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

(snip)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/politics/trump-contempt-hearing-classified-documents-subpoena/index.html

DOJ would somehow need to show there is active obstruction going on and with this crew of criminals and that can be difficult with so many players out on the field. And this was because no one has previously and successfully litigated to establish a pattern of impeding and obstructing investigations because no LE authority bothered to go this far prosecuting his crimes the past 50 years - whether municipal in NYC, in NY state or even FL state (e.g., that illegal reclassification of Mar-a-lago as a "residence" ), or federally (e.g., IRS tax fraud/evasion) until now.