OVERRULED: Desperate Trump lawyer’s dubious arguments mocked by court
Donald Trump certainly had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day on Tuesday.
In addition to the Supreme Court OK’ing the sending of Trump’s tax returns to Congress, Lindsey Graham testified before a Georgia grand jury about the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election in that state in 2020.
And a mere half-mile away, Trump’s attorney, Jim Trusty, proved not very trusty at all when it comes to making sensible legal arguments.
Trusty was appearing before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that special master Raymond Dearie, assigned by District Judge Aileen Cannon to review approximately 11,000 documents, constituting some 22,000 pages, seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago, should be able to continue in his role.
The Justice Department has argued that the use of a special master is hindering the investigation, and that there is neither cause nor precedent for it.
Many legal experts have been critical of Cannon’s decision, arguing that the judge granted Trump unwarranted leeway that other citizens would not have.
The three-judge panel is entirely Republican-appointed, with the chief judge, William Prior, having been nominated by George W. Bush in 2005, and the other two justices, Britt Grant and Andrew Basher, appointed by Trump.
Yet that’s hardly worked in Trump’s favor thus far.
Grant and Basher both signed onto a previous ruling that went against Trump, dismissing an argument by Trump lawyers that the Justice Department should not be allowed to review the documents because they were classified (Trump was simultaneously trying to say that he could have the documents, because he’d declassified them, but that the FBI couldn’t, because they were classified).
During Tuesday’s hearing, Grant, for one, seemed annoyed at the terminology Trusty employed.
The attorney kept referring to the FBI’s action as a “raid.”
“Do you think a raid is the right term for the execution of a warrant?” the judge questioned.
HAHA! Just as Jim Trusty gets his ass handed to him in the 11th circuit, SCOTUS hands donald a loss and says congress can get his tax returns. LOLOL SO MUCH WINNING! https://t.co/MiZehcjnkF
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 22, 2022
Yet Pryor appeared to be the most incredulous.
He pointed out that Trump’s attorneys had failed to establish any reasonable grounds for disputing the seizure, since it appears to have been conducted completely by the book.
“If you can’t establish that,” Pryor asked Trusty, “then what are we doing here?”
In oral argument at Eleventh Circuit, Trump's attorney (Jim Trusty) had several opportunities to address this question👇on need to show search was unlawful for Cannon to have jurisdiction.
He has failed.
Looking like this will be a 3-0 ruling for Government and rule of law. https://t.co/ofrtGcgSeT
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) November 22, 2022
He also scoffed at the idea that a special master was required because the seizure may have included some of Dirty Donald’s personal effects mixed in with some of the documents.
“The problem is…the search warrant was for classified documents…” Pryor said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily the fault of the government if someone has intermingled classified documents and all kinds of other personal property.”
This would seem obvious, of course – it’s why criminals can’t prevent seizures simply by mixing in some personal items.
But Trump’s team has been going with the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to slowing the investigation.
Trusty has also tried to claim that Trump deserves special consideration since he was president.
So far, the judges don’t seem to be buying that either.
Unable to cite a legitimate example outside of the present case of a court intervening to appoint a special master at the time of questioning, Trusty sent a letter to the court Wednesday stating that this occurred after documents were seized from the “Honorable” (his word, not mine) Rudolph W. Giuliani.
This assertion was quickly countered by the newly appointed special counsel for the Justice Department, Jack Smith, who wrote to the court to remind the justices of what they almost certainly already knew – that the court in the Giuliani case did not “enjoin the government” from proceeding, but that the DOJ had volunteered to do so.
New special counsel & US attorney (SDFL) hard at work on this Thanksgiving, rebutting arguments from Trump lawyers in Mar-a-Lago docs case. (May look like 1st public special counsel stationery but we had stmt last week. Letterhead looked improvised) https://t.co/opMi0gUVoh
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) November 24, 2022
Dear Merrick Garland,
It should be real easy for you to find Donald Trump.
He made his 2024 Presidential announcement from the exact same location he kept the top secret stolen documents.
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) November 16, 2022
Research contributed by Ty Ross.
Dirty Donald certainly doesn’t like Ross, but you can show him some love by following him on Twitter as he goes after all the low-down liars. @RossRosenfeld