EL JEFE DEL MERDE A LOCO RESPONDS TO THE DOJ

Yesterday, in answer to Special Master Judge Dearie’s order that they explain why El Jefe del Merde-A-Loco can possess classified documents, El Jefe’s attorneys refused to answer on grounds such an answer would deprive them a potential defense should the Master of Merde-A-Loco find himself perp-walked following an indictment under the national security laws. “[T]he Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the District Court’s order...”

As former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissman noted in a tweet: “Why won’t Trump lawyers tell Judge Dearie whether Trump declassified the docs? It’s because the lawyers don’t want to lie and be disbarred and subject their client to a criminal false statement charge. 18 USC 1001.”

Over the weekend, following the DOJ appeal of part of “judge” Lucy Cannon’s ruling about the classified documents, the three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit who will hear the appeal put things on fast track, ordering El Jefe’s lawyers to respond by today. They have now done so.

According to his lawyers, El Jefe in his role as a former President still gets to say which government records belong to him and which do not.

“My hand is NOT in that cookie jar!”

The response is a rehash of claims made throughout El Jefe’s attempt to slow down the DOJ investigation of his theft of federal records, some highly classified.

Much of the argument focuses on the question of classification.

Proving Weissmann right, the attorneys have conspicuously declined to state that their client declassified the records that he took with him to Mar-a-Lago, and potentially elsewhere, after his term in office expired in January 2021.

However, the response to the Eleventh Circuit misses the point: the DOJ obtained a grand jury subpoena, and then a search warrant, for records that BORE classification markings.

That is separate from the question of whether or not the records themselves are classified.

“And if it is, it’s my cookie jar anyway!!”

In today’s response, El Jefe asserts that even if the documents he took bear classification markings, they may still belong to him. “The Government also argues incorrectly that President Trump cannot have a possessory interest in documents with classification markings, and therefore, the Government is likely to succeed on appeal.”

The lawyers added that he is entitled to still possess the records “irrespective of alleged classification markings.”

Trump’s response also reasserted a line of argument that would put the ball in the DOJ’s court to prove that the records are classified, stating that the DOJ has yet to “prov[e] this critical fact.”

Judges traditionally give the executive branch broad deference to say whether information held by the government is classified, and at what level.

Surprise, surprise, a group of Republican state attorneys general led by indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed notice on Tuesday that they would submit an amicus brief in support of Trump.

The brief asserts that El Jefe has the utmost care for matters of national security, just that the records, even if marked classified, belong to him, with a footnote stating ,“As noted previously, President Trump does not oppose any action advancing the legitimate national security interests of the United States.”

Pass the popcorn.

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