FBI reportedly found nuclear info at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

In case you hadn't noticed, one of Trump's judges just made a ruling that will essentially halt and delay their investigation for months.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/politics/bill-barr-special-master-doj-trump/index.html

Classical Trump tactics whenever he gets in legal trouble - delay delay, delay.

The man knows how to defend himself that’s for sure.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

8 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

Come clean Fitty.  You were smart enough not to take the documents you stole to your Palm Beach estate.  Tell us about that secret mini storage unit you have rented in Pell City.

i never stole any docs but i did smoke pot in a fifth floor fan and airduct room. and with a hawt young lady that was a hippie. good times...........

[jj3jordan 2,171]

On 9/7/2022 at 9:38 AM, aubiefifty said:

so they wanted to lock hill up. i call firing squad or prison for trump.

As long as they both go to prison I’m good.

[jj3jordan 2,171]

On 9/7/2022 at 3:30 PM, homersapien said:

JJ ?     Is that you?

Worse. It’s disingenuichy. But I think ICHY is getting it.

[homersapien 12,238]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/07/special-master-ruling-trump-classified-documents/

A rare legal consensus: The special master ruling is a mess

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s ruling to allow a special master to review top-secret materials that former president Donald J. Trump purloined and left unsecured at his golf club has provoked a near-uniform consensus rarely seen in the current political environment: Her opinion is a mess and potentially dangerous.

The sheer volume of criticism on the opinion is remarkable, as is the ideological range of voices expressing it, from Harvard constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe to former attorney general William P. Barr.

And that was before the most recent revelations about how explosive the contents of the snatched documents may be. The Post reports: “A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month.” These are so sensitive that “many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them.”

Yet Cannon proposes that a special master should paw through these documents to determine if a former president who improperly retained them can keep the executive branch from seeing its own documents. If the master should reach such a conclusion, does the judge propose we return the top-secret information to Trump?

Cannon, in her ruling, fretted over the “reputational harm” that would result from seizing documents from a former president because he is a former president. What could personify the unequal treatment that erodes the rule of law more than that?

Her speculation about a viable executive privilege claim also had legal gurus scratching their heads. As former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann wrote for the Atlantic:

She does not explain how the former president has the power to assert executive privilege; how executive privilege could restrict documents from being shared with the executive branch (which DOJ is part of); how it could apply to any documents at Mar-a-Lago that emanated from agencies like the CIA, NSA, or FBI; or why it would not be outweighed by the fact that the documents are needed in a criminal investigation (an interest that the Supreme Court found would overcome a privilege assertion by former president Richard M. Nixon). And even if some of the documents are covered by executive privilege, the documents would, by law, still have to go to the National Archives and not be returned to the person who absconded with them.

Moreover, Cannon’s attempt to divide the executive branch in two — allowing the intelligence community to proceed with the urgent national security review but preventing the Justice Department from investigating an explosive national security breach — is as untenable as it is unprecedented. And perhaps most egregiously, she takes the step of enjoining the executive branch from conducting its investigation, a shocking overreach that violates the separation of powers.

Although Cannon owes her seat to Trump, one might entertain the possibility that the inexperienced (read: unqualified) judge simply was confused. But there is reason not to give her the benefit of the doubt: She took the extraordinary step of rejecting, not simply ignoring, a persuasive amicus brief filed by a group of former Republican Justice Department officials that dismantled the notion that Trump has any legitimate executive privilege claim. Perhaps the brief hit its target too effectively, so the judge effectively put her fingers in her ears and waved it off, as if to warn other interested parties not to appear in her courtroom and try to expose her faulty reasoning. How could any person conclude that this judge is dispensing justice fairly or in good faith?

In an alternate reality — in which conservative jurists are concerned about national security, skeptical of the unitary executive theory and wary of judicial activism — it would be a no-brainer for the Justice Department to appeal Cannon’s decision to the notoriously conservative 11th Circuit. But we now have a federal judiciary laced with Trump appointees who cannot be relied upon to render a fair reading of the law. That’s an unpleasant fact and dangerous legacy of the Trump era that we will face for decades to come.

The Justice Department must therefore weigh the risks of drawing an intellectually corrupt appeals panel that will affirm the blatantly wrong lower court opinion, or suffering through Cannon’s order, hoping that a reputable special master can make quick work of the review. No one should envy the Justice Department decision-makers.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

13 minutes ago, homersapien said:

But we now have a federal judiciary laced with Trump appointees who cannot be relied upon to render a fair reading of the law. That’s an unpleasant fact and dangerous legacy of the Trump era that we will face for decades to come.

I believe the Federalist Society is actually the source, not Trump.

[homersapien 12,238]

31 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

I believe the Federalist Society is actually the source, not Trump.

Agreed. They generated the list to choose from.  But Trump appointed them.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

49 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Agreed. They generated the list to choose from.  But Trump appointed them.

Yes.  Still, the Republican Party sought and achieved the goal of a right wing judicial institution that would effectively politicize all of their judicial appointments and, render the idea of their independence meaningless.

IMHO, the most dangerous institutions in this country that can possibly be politicized are the military and, the judiciary.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

On 9/7/2022 at 10:49 AM, icanthearyou said:

Come clean Fitty.  You were smart enough not to take the documents you stole to your Palm Beach estate.  Tell us about that secret mini storage unit you have rented in Pell City.

ichy i found out top secret docs made great rolling papers back in the day. trump ate or flushed his but we smoked me  lol