Donnie Dumptruck says Mar-A-Lago's been searched by the FBI

post reply Forum Index » Political Discussion

◄ 1 2 3 ... 277 278 279 ... 304 305 306 ► Go

Go to page...

09/30/2022 13:01

Subject: Re:Donnie Dumptruck says Mar-A-Lago's been searched by the FBI

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More generally, I think it’s important to remember what this proceeding is about. It’s not a criminal proceeding, it’s about seeking the return of his own property that was seized, and asserting any appropriate privileges. Let’s say among the 88 news articles found in one part of his office, Trump knows there is an article about the Yankees signed by Aaron Judge. He really wants that back. But without seeing what’s there, how can he know that it includes his Aaron Judge article? If he doesn’t assert now that it’s missing and it turns out it’s not there because an agent stole it to sell on eBay, will Trump have waived the right to claim it is missing if he doesn’t assert that argument now, before his team sees the documents?

Again, not saying this happened. I have no reason to believe it did. But these are legitimate reasons why Dearie’s process seems problematic.

Exactly. This is not a criminal proceeding - the government first asked nicely for the return of their property and then, when that didn't work, went and got it. When they realized exactly what Trump had kept, it started to get closer to a criminal proceeding - but it didn't start out that way. And btw, Trump's lousy lawyers never properly served the government or even properly filed a complaint? motion? or whatever for this, they just made something up and Judge Cannon indulged them.

DP. You are conflating Cannon's conduct with Dearie's conduct. Cannon's handling of the matter is highly problematic; I won't deny that. But Cannon has delegated specific responsibilities to Dearie and he has to carry them out appropriately or there will be easy grounds for Cannon to ignore his recommendations later. Given the responsibilities delegated and framework set out by Cannon for the special master review, there is zero reason Dearie needs to have Trump's verification before his team can review the documents (because remember, the classified documents are not out of the process). Moreover, nothing in Cannon's appointing order gave Dearie authority to declare that this preliminary verification would be Trump's "final opportunity to raise any factual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the Detailed Property Inventory."

Going back to the hypotheticals set forth above, let's say Trump knows he had X number of government documents in a particular drawer, and that is the same number of documents listed in the inventory. He would have no basis to dispute the accuracy and completeness of the inventory, right? But then what happens if, during the review, Trump's team discovers a document that they do not believe was in that drawer, and then also contends that a different document was in the drawer but is not in that set of the produced documents? Can Trump dispute the accuracy of the inventory at that point, or has that ship sailed because he didn't dispute something he did could not have known was up for dispute at the time of his "final opportunity" to raise the issue?

I know someone's first impulse will be to respond that Trump having any government documents is problematic, and I will not dispute that. But for purposes of any future proceedings, including criminal proceedings, which specific documents Trump had may be critically important. So let's set that argument aside for right now.

Moreover, Dearie has not articulated a reason why he needs to proceed in this order and make the verification now rather than after the parties have reviewed the documents. No matter what Dearie might determine now on verification, he still has to allow Trump's team access to all of the seized materials (other than the classified documents) for the privilege review. It does make sense for Dearie to give Trump's team an opportunity to raise any obvious issues with the inventory now because there may be efficiencies to resolving those upfront (particularly if Trump can tell now that something is missing from the inventory), but there is no reason for Dearie to make this Trump's last opportunity to raise those kinds of issues.

The whole process is clearly bullshit, but that makes it all the more important for Dearie to carry out his responsibilities appropriately so that he does not give easy grounds for Cannon to rejects his recommendations and then make it hard for the 11th Circuit to find she abused her discretion in doing so.

You assert: "there is zero reason Dearie needs to have Trump's verification before his team can review the documents" -- Dearie doesn't ask for anything Trump could say today. The back and forth verifications (first DOJ said this is an accurate list, then Trump disputes the accuracy of the list, then DOJ responds to the disputed allegations) is only about DOJ's list. After DOJ affirms that the detailed list of docs they seized is accurate, Trump is supposed to say three things about that list:

- list specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Trump asserts were not seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022. He can do this without reviewing the boxes -- "Hey they said a copy of a pee pee tape was seized.. I dispute that I had a copy of it." If he claims items on the list were "planted," he doesn't need to see them to allege it.

-- list specific items set forth in the Detailed Property Inventory that Trump asserts were seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022, but as to which Plaintiff asserts that the Detailed Property Inventory’s description of contents or location within the Premises where the item was found is incorrect. Again, the list is detailed and Trump doesn't need to see the docs themselves to assert that they were in a different location than the government claims (seeing them now wouldn't help with that anyway) or that they are incorrectly identified.

-- list and describe any item that Trump asserts was seized from the Premises on August 8, 2022, but is not listed in the Detailed Property Inventory. Again, only he/his team can know this and seeing the docs they list as opposed to the list, doesn't change that. Remember, this is only a certification about the list itself.

Finally, any verification can and usually does contain qualifiers about late discovered evidence. This is pro forma discovery matter.

Designations and disputes about various individual documents was all to be AFTER the docs were bates stamped and reviewed by all parties. Trump stalled that part, making the rest of the process impossible under the deadline. As to this being the final opportunity -- that is literally the whole point of a discovery order like this -- otherwise, why is Trump asking for it all? Waste all this time and then later claim it was a ruse and ask to start over? No. It doesn't work that way.